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came up time and time again in my interviews: the conundrum of how powerful, ambitious, confident women are portrayed in a negative light as threatening or unlikable. As Lean In author and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg observed in our interview, "As a woman gets more successful, she is less liked by people of both genders, and as a man gets more successful, he does not take a likability hit." Not only are powerful women often portrayed as unlikable, but also as anti-man. The perilous position of the minuscule man on her heel implies that if she takes one more step forward, that little helpless man would almost certainly be crushed. What a tired and harmful stereotype that is; that somehow, women achieving leadership positions are anti-man, or that men somehow suffer when women are successful. This could not be further from the truth.
I spoke to a diversity of women and men for my book who emphasized the growing trend of supportive, vocal men who also would like to see more women in leadership positions, saying that this should not be perceived as bad for men, but rather quite the opposite. Author and sociologist Michael Kimmel put it to me this way: "The argument that I make consistently to men is that gender equality is not a zero-sum game -- it is a win-win." Journalist Nicholas Kristof told me:
I think that if we don't have gender diversity at the top of American politics and in corporate boards, then we're just going to get weaker decisions, and I think that's what we've been stuck with.... This is not something that is going to benefit the women of America; it's something that's going to benefit all of America.
In my interviews, this came up frequently as one of the overriding themes: Having more women in leadership positions should not be framed as a "women's issue," but as a matter of diversity and the need to have a more reflective and effective democracy. As Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi puts it:
It's about equality, but it's not just about equality. And the reason it's necessary to have more voices is because that strengthens the debate and it strengthens the decisions. It isn't that women coming in are better than men; they're different from men. And I always say the beauty is in the mix. To have diversity of opinion in the debate strengthens the outcome and you get a better result.
Gavin Newsom, who is the Lieutenant Governor of California, pointed out men's rightful place in the movement for greater equality:
Why is it that men can't be recognized for being outstanding advocates for women? You don't need to be gay to be a great advocate for the LGBT community. In every aspect of life, you can maintain your empathy and your advocacy... I think people are realizing that we're not two separate tribes, we're all in this together, and that men have a responsibility to be advocates for women, women advocates for men and boys.
In my interview with Gloria Steinem, she harked back to the roots of sexism and patriarchy when reflecting on the coverage of Hillary during her historical 2008 presidential run:
The deeper problem is that as children we are still raised mainly by women, so we associate female authority with childhood... And I think we saw it in the response to Hillary in 2008 when big, grown-up, otherwise adult television commentators were saying things like, 'I cross my legs when I see her. She reminds me of my first wife, standing outside alimony court.' People who would not ever say such things, normally, were saying them about Hillary, because, I would guess, deep down, they felt regressed by a powerful woman. The last time they saw one they were six years old.
Many people I spoke to for the book pointed to how harmful and destructive gender stereotypes are -- not just for women and girls, but for boys and men as well. As Gloria Steinem observed, "One of the most helpful things we can do long-term is to make sure that kids have loving and nurturing male figures as well as female figures, and authoritative and expert female figures as well as male figures."
If Hillary does run in 2016, I expect she'll again encounter a fair amount of sexism in the media -- this TIME cover is probably only the beginning. Because the media is so important in shaping our culture and consciousness, there is a growing imperative to closely monitor media coverage and generate public awareness. Gloria Steinem, Robin Morgan and Jane Fonda are co-founders of the Women's Media Center, which has a program Name It. Change It. that holds media outlets accountable for sexist commentary, including coverage of women candidates and political leaders (regardless of their politics). As Jane Fonda told me, "If the media was less misogynistic, less sexist, I think more women would run." Pat Mitchell, President and CEO of the Paley Center for Media and the first female president of PBS reminded us of our power as consumers:
We can do one big thing: we can insist that the press cover a woman's campaign in the same way as a man's. And when they don't... we can insist, 'I'm not reading that paper anymore, I'm not going to that website, I'm not going to listen to that newscast until you give that woman candidate the same kind of fair and accurate coverage.'9-11 and Political Correctness
Trigger Warning: Don’t read this if you are easily offended or don’t understand dark humor.
I’m a pretty progressive person, but there is one thing that I think many of my fellow liberals get wrong. Maybe it is because I am a former radio talk show person, but I never liked political correctness. I see it as the enemy of free speech and free expression. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that words have power and there are consequences for saying certain things, but I also think that humor – dark humor in particular – can have a healing quality to it. The down side is that dark humor sometimes is politically incorrect and taken out of context might offend the very people it seeks to heal.
Context matters. Two people can tell the exact same joke, but because of who those people are and what their intentions might be, the joke can either be funny or insulting. What politically correct liberals and hateful conservative bigots both get wrong is that they both think that context doesn’t matter and that the intention behind the words is irrelevant.
Are rape jokes funny? It depends on who is telling the joke and why. If the person telling the joke is a rape apologist and is telling the joke to insult or belittle rape victims then no it is definitely not funny. However, if the person telling the joke is doing so to show how horrible rape is and to make a rape victim laugh, then yes such a joke might actually be funny. I disagree with the belief that all rape jokes are unfunny and immoral purely because they are about rape. Context matters.
Now on to 9-11. What happened on September 11, 2001 was probably the most tragic thing that has happened in America within my lifetime. Almost 3000 people died directly because of those attacks and countless more have suffered and died indirectly from our reaction to those attacks. It is no laughing matter… except when it is.
Like everyone else in the country, I remember exactly where I was on that day. I was at work when the story broke and my boss pulled out a radio and we listened to what was going on. For me, it was very personal. I grew up right outside New York City and I have many friends and family who lived and worked in that area.
My brother was actually living a few blocks from the Twin Towers in the Village at the time. My main concern on that morning was for his safety. I called and I called to try to find out if he was okay. Phone communication into the city on that morning was difficult and social media wasn’t what it is today. It took me hours before I could get through and when I did, the first thing my brother did was tell me a joke.
Remembering that it September 11th was my birthday, he told me that he wanted to do something special for my birthday this year so he lit a couple of candles – jokingly referring to the Twin Towers. This joke was horribly offensive and makes light of the obvious tragedy that had just happened, but I laughed anyway. For me, it was a healing moment. I knew that my brother was safe and that life would go on. People will still laugh and that humor – particularly dark humor – can be a powerful tool for healing.
I will never forget that joke nor will I ever forget that day – it is after all my birthday and despite the fact that 9-11 has gone down in infamy as one of the worst tragedies in America next to Pearl Harbor, I still celebrate on this day. Fuck tragedy, it’s my birthday damn-it!
That reminds me, I just started a Patreon page so if you would like to send me a birthday present, please consider supporting my efforts by being a Patreon or by donating to Dangerous Talk with the PayPal link in the sidebar.
Thanks!
Related articlesCLEVELAND – A pretrial hearing has been set for the 20-year-old Northfield man accused of streaking at a Browns home game.
Anthony Saveriano plead not guilty to charges of criminal trespassing and public indecency after allegedly running naked in front of thousands of people during a Browns preseason home game.
During today’s hearing in Cleveland Municipal Court a pretrial was scheduled for September 25.
*Click here for video …
Saveriano’s attorney asked the judge for leniency during his last time in court.
“My client has never been in trouble. I asked the judge to put him in the Selective Intervention Program. It’s a first offenders program. The judge will decide if he qualifies in September,” said Fred Crosby, Saveriano’s attorney.
Saveriano is expected to accept the terms of an intervention program.
“If Saveriano qualifies, he would have to complete several programs and stay out of trouble. If he does for a period of time, charges are generally dismissed against the defendant,” added Crosby, “He’s a good kid. He got caught up. We are all Browns fans. I was at the game myself. We haven’t had that much excitement at Cleveland Browns stadium in years. He spent the night in jail. It was eye-opening for him. He realized his juvenile brain wasn’t working that day,” added Crosby.
*Click here for extended coverage on this story …The bees' nest, inside the attic of a 90-year-old Douglas, Ariz., homeowner, measured 3 feet by 8 feet and filled a 55-gallon drum. (Photo11: Lt. Joseph Alvarez, Douglas Fire Department)
A swarm of Africanized bees killed one yardworker and critically injured another Wednesday during an attack in southern Arizona, the Douglas Fire Department reported.
The aggressive bees came from a colony of an estimated 800,000 bees in a 3-by-8-foot nest in an attic.
The dead man and his injured co-worker were with the Douglas ARC, which finds jobs for people with developmental disabilities, said Fire Chief Mario Novoa. They were part of a four-man crew cutting grass and weeding for the 90-year-old homeowner, who was not stung.
Two other workers who were stung refused treatment, and a neighbor drove herself to Cochise Regional Hospital for treatment of her stings.
Novoa said he could not identify any of the victims, the homeowner or the exterminator.
It's not clear what caused the attack or how many bees were actually involved, Novoa said.
He also said it wasn't clear whether the homeowner knew about the massive hive, which may have been accumulating for 10 years.
A four-block area was cordoned off after the 10:30 a.m. report of the bee attack. Firefighters in protective bee suits, which are standard equipment in Douglas, first removed part of the eaves and roof before pulling down the ceiling.
The heavy nest filled a 55-gallon drum after extermination, Novoa said.
"There are not many European honey bees left around here, so we treat them all as Africanized bees," he said.
His said his department receives one or two calls a week about bee swarms or hives, but nothing on the scale of Wednesday's attack.
Douglas is on the border with Mexico, about 120 miles southeast of Tucson.
Africanized honey bees continue to spread northward from South America to Mexico. (Photo11: Janet Loehrke, USA TODAY; Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1xqVGJsHuawei has grown to be a bigger brand year after year and now the company has set its feet firmly into the international smartphone market by churning out hit smartphones one after another. May it be the low-end Huawei Union 4G or the high-end Huawei Mate S, the company has released a smartphone for every need and has gathered a really huge amount of fan base for itself. And judging by the latest news, it looks like Huawei wants to grab the most global market share as well.
Global Jun, a Weibo news account, posted that at a press conference today in Beijing, Huawei’s Senior Vice President, Technology, Consumer BG CEO Yu Chengdong announced that the Honor brand will beat the Xiaomi brand by the next year in terms of global market share. Mr. Chengdong also stated that the Huawei brand is currently ranking third, in terms of global market share, after Apple and Samsung, and the company is confident to top the position by the year after next, which means 2017.
This statement by Huawei is surprising as well as thought-provoking, because the company is aiming to beat Apple and Samsung, the two giants of the global smartphone industry, and this aim is definitely not easy to achieve. However, the confidence is clearly reflected in Mr. Chengdong’s statements, and this might be a hint towards the possibility of Huawei launching a lot of earth-shattering products in the coming months. Nothing more can be deduced from this news as of now, so the best thing would be to wait for more announcements from Huawei.Bresch...and the MBA program of her fantasies.
Earlier this week, we were introduced to Mylan CEO Heather Bresch, by way of her decision to increase the price of the life-saving EpiPen from approximately $100 in 2009 to $600 today (while increasing her compensation from $2,453,456 to $18,931,068 between 2007 and 2015). As you can imagine, people are pretty outraged, and those people probably include her father, Joe Manchin, a Democratic senator not named Rockefeller from West Virginia. Amazingly, or perhaps totally predictably, this is not the first time Bresch has been involved in a controversy in which she comes off as a total a$$hole.
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In 2007, the press release announcing Bresch's ascension to CEO noted she "earned an MBA and an undergraduate degree in international studies and political science from West Virginia University." By December, however, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that West Virginia University awarded Bresch the MBA only after rewriting documents that originally showed she completed approximately half the credits necessary for the degree. Initially, WVU told the Post-Gazette that Bresch did not have an MBA but several days later, insisted she earned one in 1998 and blamed the discrepancy on poor record-keeping and later, an unpaid fee. Throughout the Post-Gazette's inquiry, the university and Bresch maintained she earned her MBA at the university, while professors, classmates, and even friends of Bresch, cast doubt. Some feared for their jobs after speaking out...Soon after the accusations, the university commissioned a special panel to look into Bresch's degree. The panel's report, released in 2008, found that "Ms. Bresch did not earn an MBA at West Virginia University." While the panel called the decision "seriously flawed" and "reflect[ing] poor judgment," the members did not think it revealed flaws in WVU's record-keeping, as the university initially claimed. The panel also found the university knew these excuses were false. Lastly, the panel revealed the primary reason the university gave Bresch the MBA: a conversation she had with Craig Walker, the president's chief of staff, after the registrar provided a statement to the Post-Gazette that Bresch hadn't, in fact, earned her degree. After word spread that WVU administrators had erroneously awarded a degree to the governor's daughter that she hadn't earned, Garrison, provost Gerald Lang, and business school dean R. Stephen Sears all resigned.
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For those of you keeping up:
Bresch lied about earning an MBA from West Virginia University
When a fact-checker from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called WVU about biographical detail, the university was all "Um, no, she doesn't have an MBA"
After Bresch leaned on the president's chief of staff, suddenly she did have an MBA
WVU called the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette back to maintain as much, claiming "record-keeping" errors
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called BS and tried to get to the bottom of the BS
WVU kept being all "No, really, she's got an MBA"
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was like, "You sure about that?"
WVU, for the price of what could probably buy a handful of EpiPens, launched "a special panel" (!!) to see if Bresch really did have an MBA
Was like, "Just kidding, she doesn't have one"
Three people involved in the scandal resigned
And while there are a ton of great moments in this saga making it difficult to pick a favorite, we're going to have to go with the fact that as of 2015, Bresch was still telling reporters, on the record, "I certainly to this day believe I did everything I needed to do to get my degree."
(Reminder, this is all over a Masters of Business Administration from West Virginia University.)
The CEO of EpiPen maker Mylan once claimed she had an MBA that she never earned [BI]How inherently sexist is the superhero genre? It's so inherently sexist that pictures of superheroines fully clothed - ie, dressed like many male superheroes are dressed, in outfits that don't reveal 80% of their flesh - feel newsworthy.
Artist Michael Lee Lunsford took on a redesign project, putting female heroes in costumes that weren't simply painted on. His statement:
An exercise in character design, attempting to clothe the heroines nearly all the way and not making them painted-on, while still keeping the look of their original costumes in some way. Hopefully keeping them looking as iconic as the originally were. Just showing what can be done with a costume breaking outside the barrier of the norm.
NOT the point of this: some moral code I’m trying to push on you
But it's hard to miss an obvious moral point here: these characters still work when clothed. Power Girl is still Power Girl without the boob window. Zatanna still works without the burlesque outfit. I think Lundsford errs on the side of baggy pants in some of his designs, but that's about the only critique I would have.
And for those invariably about to weigh in with 'Male superhero outfits are tight too!,' think on this: how many male superheroes are showing skin? Hawkman, Namor... those are the two biggies I can think of. They're usually covered head to toe, and it's not unusual for male heroes these days to have pants and coats, not just spandex. Female superheroes are, almost always, showing a ton of skin in addition to having ultra-tight outfits.
Some of Lunsford's designs are below. Click here to see more. Thanks to Amanda for tweeting this!Three enforcers hired by Mexico’s biggest drug cartel flew from Los Angeles to Minnesota last month, kidnapped two local teenagers, and then tortured them for hours at a house in St. Paul in an effort to recover stolen drugs, according to court documents reviewed by the Star Tribune.
Acting under orders from the Sinaloa cartel, the three kidnappers were trying to determine who had stolen 30 pounds of methamphetamine and $200,000 from a stash house on Palace Avenue in St. Paul. Before the episode was over, they had issued death threats against the Minnesota pair and their families, demanding that they find the missing drugs or come up with $300,000 to compensate the cartel.
Two of the three enforcers are now in custody and federal indictments are expected as soon as this week. The case is the latest illustration of the stunning escalation of drug trafficking in Minnesota, which has seen a surge in narcotics dealing, heroin overdoses and drug busts, including a series of raids last month that produced 65 arrests.
Federal authorities who cracked the case say they are not surprised by the no-tolerance approach of the Sinaloa cartel, which has built a multimillion-dollar Midwest drug trade with brutal efficiency. What made this mission startling, they say, is that rather than using its own muscle, the cartel hired members of one of the most feared transnational gangs in the United States and Latin America — the MS-13 organization.
The incident is unprecedented in Minnesota, according to federal investigators, and signals the extreme measures cartels will use to make sure their local operations are not compromised.
An FBI spokesman declined to comment on the MS-13’s connections to the case, but said, “The outcome of this incident could have been much worse” if agents hadn’t moved in instantly.
Authorities posted a sign on the door of a stash house in St. Paul after two teens were kidnapped and then tortured there last month.
One of the three men, Jonatan Alvarez Delgado, 22, confessed shortly after being arrested, according to court documents, and is in custody in the Ramsey County jail. A second, Jesus Ramirez, 31, was captured in California after fleeing Minnesota and leading FBI agents on a chase through downtown Los Angeles. The third — a man identified simply as “Chapo” — is still being sought by federal agents.
In the basement
Within hours of landing in Minneapolis on April 14, the three enforcers arrived at the small white house at 914 Palace Av. in St. Paul, according to a criminal complaint. Once there, they shook down Antonio Navarro, a 19-year-old from Glendale, Ariz., who had been hired by the cartel to guard the house. They told Navarro they knew how to find his family, documents show, and demanded to know who else had been in the house. Navarro singled out a 19-year-old who, he said, had once smoked marijuana with him there.
By midafternoon, Navarro had lured the 19-year-old to an alley behind the 3200 block of 19th Avenue in south Minneapolis — just blocks from South High School. Ramirez ordered the young man into a car at gunpoint, according to court documents, while the other men forced his companion — a 16-year-old boy — into another car.
They all headed back to the house on Palace Avenue.
Once inside, the abducted pair were taken into the basement, where Ramirez offered them a choice: Return the drugs or come up with $300,000 to repay the cartel.
“The kidnappers told [the 19-year-old] that if he didn’t return the drugs or come up with the money, he and his entire family would be killed,” according to court documents.
Next, the three called the man’s family and made the same threats — phone calls that by then were being monitored by the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force after family members had notified authorities about the missing pair. Over the next several hours, both victims were tied to chairs and beaten. Ramirez held a gun to the heads of both victims. If they couldn’t come up with the money, he said, they needed to provide the names of others who might have stolen the drugs.
Then the torture began. Navarro, Delgado and Ramirez held the 16-year-old down while the man known as Chapo began to cut off his little finger. The boy passed out.
El Salvador links
The MS-13 gang, formerly known as the Mara Salvatrucha, was founded by former El Salvadoran military officers who fled to Los Angeles following their country’s civil war in the 1980s. Today it claims more than 70,000 members across the United States, many distinguished by heavy tattoos covering their faces and bodies and a sign language known only to themselves.
By 2004, the MS-13 had become so powerful that the FBI started a special task force to track it. In 2012, the Obama administration formally designated the gang an international criminal group and ordered the Treasury Department to target its finances, which are fueled in part by cartel assignments such as the St. Paul kidnappings.
By the wee hours of April 15, the kidnappers were hitting a roadblock. Torture, beatings and death threats had failed to produce any leads on the missing drugs and money. Eventually, the victims overheard the kidnappers speculating that someone inside the cartel might be guilty of the theft, according to court documents, and their suspicions turned to others with knowledge of the stash house.
By morning, the two terrified men were told they would be released. “The kidnappers told the victims not to say anything,” according to a transcript. “They were willing to go to jail … and their being in jail wouldn’t save the victims or their families.”
The two were driven back to south Minneapolis and released early that afternoon and soon contacted agents with the FBI task force. Within hours, agents and local police were debriefing them.
Late that night, the St. Paul Police SWAT unit stormed the house on Palace Avenue, making several arrests and scouring the rooms for evidence. Delgado was arrested, but Ramirez and Chapo managed to escape. Ramirez took a flight back to Los Angeles, and by the following morning, the FBI was on his trail, while Chapo managed to disappear.
What became of the missing drugs and money remains unclear, but when the FBI and police searched the house, they found a pair of scissors used to torture the boy, a gold-colored Desert Eagle 9mm handgun and a pound of meth in a chest freezer — all potential evidence if the case goes to trial.
More important, authorities say, the episode exposed family and business connections that open new channels for ongoing investigations into the Midwest heroin and meth trade.
The stash house itself, they say, offered important insights into cartel economics. Drug merchants in Mexico and the United States have been able to slash the cost of meth in order to expand their customer base — a pound today is worth $8,500 to $12,000, down from more than $20,000 18 months ago. Small-time dealers who once sold ounces are now selling pounds because the price has dropped so quickly.
With that kind of volume moving through the Twin Cities, authorities say, they understand why the stash house was pivotal, and why the cartel was so intent on sending a message that rip-offs would not be tolerated.There are few ideas more specious than the notion that the election of President Obama marked the transition to a “post-racial” era in American history. So, of course, wrong-way Bill Kristol believed that, as he told radio host Hugh Hewitt Monday night. But, of course, that’s not all Kristol got wrong.
Kristol says that, instead, Obama worsened race relations – and deliberately, for political gain. Here’s what he told an admiring Hewitt, who shares his point of view.
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President Obama and Eric Holder have done damage to race relations. I mean, I really am personally distressed about this. It’s one of the things I didn’t like President Obama when we elected him, and I was unhappy when he was reelected, and don’t like his policies at all. But the one thing I did think honestly is that maybe he would sort of... you know, improve race relations.
Wait: Let’s stop there for a moment. Kristol didn’t like Obama in 2008, and he was unhappy when he was reelected in 2012 – but he did expect Obama to improve race relations? But that wasn’t a good enough reason to vote for him.
Then, the Obama Kristol didn’t like and didn’t vote for either time turned out to be worse than he expected on issues of race -- which didn’t matter enough to him to drive his voting, but now drive him mad:
President Obama must know better. That’s not, that’s really is what’s so distressing. It’s just hard to believe that he and Eric Holder have decided to sort of play this card. It was clear during the election year. And this was reported by the front page of the New York Times. They wanted him to get African-American turnout in the election up, and that required mobilization and organizing, and getting people, African-Americans more upset about conservatives and Republicans, and yes, cops. I mean, let’s be honest.
Yes, let’s be honest: Kristol is accusing President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder of deliberately inflaming racial tension in order to win black votes in 2014. The anger and agitation over police violence has nothing to do with genuine community outrage over a seeming epidemic of cops killing unarmed black men. It’s a result of Obama and Holder rustling up votes for Democrats.
This is offensive on many levels, but before we unpack it, let’s acknowledge, since it’s so rare, that Kristol is right about one thing: Recent polls do say Americans believe race relations have gotten worse since Obama’s election. A Bloomberg poll earlier this month found that 53 percent said tensions between blacks and whites have worsened since the election of 2008 – 45 percent of African-Americans, and 56 percent of whites. Only 15 percent of blacks, and 7 percent of whites, thought they’d gotten better.
A recent Gallup poll found that when asked about the country’s top problem, “racism” ranks just behind “the economy” – and the share of people saying that has jumped to 1 percent in November to 13 percent last week. That’s a higher share than at any time since the violent upheaval in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict in 1992.
Here’s how Gallup explains it: “With the news in recent weeks filled with protestors angry about high-profile grand jury decisions involving race, Americans have turned their attention to the issue of racial discord in this country.”
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Of course, Kristol would say that’s a bad thing. But I think it’s progress that “Americans have turned their attention to the issue of racial discord.” You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know you have a problem. And America has a race problem.
The Bloomberg poll also found, predictably, that blacks and whites differed in their opinions about whether grand juries had done the right thing in not bringing charges against police in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York, after the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. In both cases, African-Americans overwhelmingly disapproved of the decisions; interestingly, whites overwhelmingly supported the Ferguson judgment, but a slight majority disagreed on the videotaped killing of Garner in Staten Island.
Note that the jump in people calling racism a problem in the Gallup poll didn’t occur in September or October, when Kristol accuses the president of ginning up racial tension for votes – but in the aftermath of the verdicts in Ferguson and New York, and the protests they engendered.
Electing our first black president didn’t end racism, or racial tension in America. In fact, it focused a lot of African-Americans on how many barriers to equality remain. That in turn has made some white people uncomfortable, because they hoped putting a black man in the Oval Office would mean the struggle was over – even if they didn’t vote for him, like Kristol.
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It’s the height of white entitlement to blame Obama for worsening race relations. But I’d expect no less from Kristol, the very face of nepotism and privilege.There is a thread on the forum that is discussing foraging vs farming. When we apply history to prepping, we see that modern society is based on agriculture. Without a reliable food source, modern society can not function, much less exist.
It was only after agriculture was developed that people were able to live in one place for an extended period of time. Before agriculture, foraging and hunting would deplete food resources within a given range. Once the food sources in an area were depleted, our ancestors would pack up and move, or they would follow the herds.
Why is this important?
In the Prepping community there is this idea of bugging out to the wilderness and living on the land.
Foraging vs Farming
Foraging is surviving.
Farming is thriving.
When humanity is faced with an extinction level event, (nuclear war or viral plague), do you want to survive, or do you want to thrive?
It is not a matter of if, but when humanity faces an extinction level event. People will be foraging, fishing, trapping, and hunting. Wild food resources will be depleted.
During the Great Depression, deer and wild turkey were hunted to extinction in various parts of the nation. When Hernando de Soto traveled through Texas in 1541, he noted there were flocks of wild Turkeys a mile long. By the 1930s, the east Texas wild turkey was extinct. Populations had to be reestablished by importing wild turkeys from other parts of the nation
During the Great Mortality (Black Death) of 1348-1350, starving people ate cats, dogs, and sometimes each other* (The Black Death, by Johannes Nohl, page 165).
Yet, preppers think they will be able to sustain themselves in a wilderness?
Food After a Collapse
After a collapse of society, foraging will play an important role. However, to rely entirely on foraging and hunting would be foolhardy.
Society can not be built on foraging.
When setters arrived in the United States, what did they bring with them? A book on foraging? Or, did they bring seeds, fruit trees, chickens, cows, goats, horses, and pigs?
Settlers brought what they needed to establish a functioning society. We should follow their lead.What's scarier than Dead Space 2? A dog that knocks over your Xbox 360 while finally getting to play Dead Space 2. A bad dog did just that to Dead Space fan Ashley. And much like any of us would do, she headed to Twitter to express her sadness. She says that she was so excited for the release of this sequel, but her bad doggy ruined that for her.
The folks at EA saw Ashley's tweet and asked for her address. She sent it along not knowing what to expect. And then yesterday a package showed up at Ashley's door with the above pictured contents inside. Visceral replaced her dog-damaged copy with a fancy new one, signed by the staff. Also included was an adorable sketch, scolding that damned dog.
Nice one, EA dudes. Way to take care of your fans. You can read Ashley's full blog on how this all went down here.
[Thanks, longtongninja]
You are logged out. Login | Sign upA fist-bump is a healthier greeting than a handshake, according to new research conducted by British scientists.
Researchers at Aberystwyth University analysed which hand greetings passed on the most germs. They found that using a fist-bump instead of a handshake can reduce the spread of bacteria and viruses by up to 90 per cent.
The scientists dipped a rubber glove into a bacterial-broth so the exterior was coated in E. coli. They then performed a range of hand greetings including fist-bumps, high-fives and handshakes.
The findings showed that a handshake transferred ten times as many bacteria as a fist-bump, with a high-five falling somewhere in between. Researchers said that fist-bumps transferred less bacteria because they are shorter in duration and involve a smaller area of contact than alternative greetings. As for handshakes, the briefer they are the fewer bacteria are likely to be transferred.
David Cameron was seen engaging in an awkward high-five with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker earlier this month. However, Barack Obama is known to be a fan of the fist-bump.
One of the researchers, Dr Dave Whitworth, tells the BBC: "There is definitely a serious side to this story, superficially it is very whimsical, but there is a serious message underneath. If there's a flu pandemic then handshaking might be something you want to think about or in a hospital with the spread of superbugs."
However, an official from Public Health England suggested a return to an old English tradition would reduce the risk yet further. "The ultimate approach to avoiding germs would be if we went back to the Victorian age when on meeting someone you would bow or curtsy from a respectful distance – no germs there"."Why Speculate?"
A talk
by Michael Crichton
International Leadership Forum
La Jolla, CA
April 26, 2002
My topic for today is the prevalence of speculation in media. What does it mean? Why has it become so ubiquitous? Should we do something about it? If so, what? And why? Should we care at all? Isn’t speculation valuable? Isn’t it natural? And so on.
I will join this speculative trend and speculate about why there is so much speculation. In keeping with the trend, I will try express my views without any factual support, simply providing you with a series of bald assertions.
This is not my natural style, and it's going to be a challenge for me, but I will do my best. Some of you may see that I have written out my talk, which is already a contradiction of principle. To keep within the spirit of our time, it should really be off the top of my head.
Before we begin, I'd like to clarify a definition. By the media I mean movies television internet books newspapers and magazines. Again, in keeping with the general trend of speculation, let's not make too many fine distinctions.
First we might begin by asking, to what degree has the media turned to pure speculation? Someone could do a study of this and present facts, but nobody has. I certainly won't. There's no reason to bother. The requirement that you demonstrate a factual basis for your claim vanished long ago. It went out with the universal praise for Susan Faludi's book Backlash, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction in 1991, and which presented hundreds of pages of quasi-statistical assertions based on a premise that was never demonstrated and that was almost certainly false.
But that's old news. I merely refer to it now to set standards.
Today, of course everybody knows that “Hardball,” “Rivera Live” and similar shows are nothing but a steady stream of guesses about the future. The Sunday morning talk shows are pure speculation. They have to be. Everybody knows there's no news on Sunday.
But television is entertainment. Let's look at the so-called serious media. |
and 1990s. By the mid-1990s, rural prison projects constituted almost two-thirds of new prison development.”
Since America disproportionately jails minorities, judges sent black men from New York City, Chicago, and other cities to areas like upstate New York, where the Census counted them as part of prison towns. Since only two states allow felons to vote, the result is reminiscent of the Three-Fifths Compromise: the bodies of non-voting blacks inflate the political clout of voters in mostly white districts.
Prisons can distort redistricting without anyone making a pernicious plan. As the below video from the Prison Policy Initiative demonstrates, New York State Assembly District 114 only meets New York’s minimum population requirement of 126,000 thanks to 9,000 prisoners. If the state did not include prisoners as residents, all of New York’s district lines would have to be redrawn, which could turn blue districts red, or vice-versa.
But when state legislators redraw district lines—which usually happens every 10 years, after the latest Census—prison populations offer a new tool for gerrymandering. In at least 33 states, the lack of a bipartisan or independent commission allows the stronger party to influence or decide how to redraw the lines. In those states, as noted in The Wilson Quarterly, politicians can “put prisons in electorally safe districts, freeing up some of [their] party’s supporters in those districts to be drawn into competitive areas where their votes could help tip the balance.”
Jason Kelly of Virginia Tech has looked for signs of legislators gerrymandering districts after the 2000 census. When he investigated states where control of the state senate switched between Republicans and Democrats, he concluded, “On average, we can expect a party that has recently taken control of the redistricting process to draw more than 5,000 prisoners from districts controlled by the other party or marginal districts into their safest districts.”
Peter Wagner of the Prison Policy Initiative is skeptical that politicians so widely and consciously used prison gerrymandering in the early 2000s. In the past, he notes, the census didn’t note the presence of prisoners, which hid the distorting influence of prison populations. When activists in Maryland won a Voting Rights Act lawsuit in the 1980s, for example, the state had to create a district with a majority of black voters. The intent was to allow black voters to elect a black representative. But since disenfranchised black prisoners made up part of the supposed majority, the district kept electing white politicians—a surprising result for those involved that led them to discover the distorting influence of the prison.
Thanks to the efforts of researchers and activists like Wagner, the Census now releases a count of the prisoner population in time for redistricting. After the 2020 Census, this will allow states to exclude prison populations from being falsely included as constituents—if they chose to do so. “It’s geeky,” Wagner says, “but a huge deal.” Prison gerrymandering also now receives more attention, including from high-profile figures like Al Sharpton and state senators.
But politicians also recognize the potential of prison gerrymandering. In 2012, when redistricting in Wyoming threatened to place two sitting state senators in the same district, one offered a solution: move the district’s border to include the 500 prisoners of Torrington Prison and exclude his house. The legislature passed his plan, which saved his seat.
Graphic by Bob Machuga for the Policy Prison Initiative
But the most powerful distortion of prison gerrymandering isn’t political parties flipping a district or politicians protecting their seat. It’s the bipartisan incentives it provides to keep America the prison capital of the world.
The Long Life of the Rockefeller Laws
In 1972, Nelson Rockefeller was governor of New York. He embodied what would become known as a “Rockefeller Republican”: a progressive Republican. During his tenure, the governor made efforts to protect the environment, expanded the State University of New York, and championed drug rehabilitation programs for addicted convicts in place of prison time. Yet decisions he made as governor pushed America down the path to mass incarceration and helped create a situation in which prisons could distort voting.
Like any politician, Rockefeller faced pressure to respond to the surging crime rates of the 1970s. The public was talking about a “heroin epidemic” in cities like New York. The report “The Negro Family,” written by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, an adviser to President Nixon, had officials talking about the “tangle of pathology” among African-American men that led to unemployment, poverty, and crime. Politicians ignored Moynihan’s analysis, which was not publicly released, that the cause of the pathology was racism and oppression and focused on its description of crime and broken families.
Rockefeller eventually decided to abandon rehabilitation and go “tough on crime.” An aide recalls a meeting where “Finally [the governor] turned and said, 'For drug pushing, life sentence, no parole, no probation." Soon Rockefeller announced policies like mandatory minimums: penalties of 15 years in prison to life for people caught dealing or consuming drugs even in small quantities.
Analysts and historians disagree on whether Rockefeller promoted the policies out of concern for victims (as he professed) or to appeal to the national electorate. Rockefeller had sought the Republican nomination 3 times in the 1960s, and Gerald Ford appointed him vice president in 1974.
Either way, mandatory minimums went viral. “The Rockefeller drug laws sailed through New York's Legislature,” Brian Mann reported for NPR. “Other states started adopting mandatory minimum and three-strikes laws — and so did the federal government.” Tough on crime was a decades-long, bipartisan effort. Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton’s championing of Bill Clinton’s Violent Crime Control Act of 1994 still haunts their careers.
These laws set America down the path to mass incarceration. They are responsible for the famous statistic that Americans represent only 5% of the world’s population but 25% of its inmates. Even though whites and blacks use drugs at roughly equal rates, they also packed new prisons mostly with people of color.
Today an increasing number of politicians recognize that tough on crime laws were a mistake—or claim that they are no longer necessary as crime rates have plummeted nationwide. This past summer, Republicans and Democrats in Congress collaborated on criminal-justice reform bills that reduce mandatory minimums and give judges more discretion in sentencing. The rare bipartisan effort, combined with Republican candidates calling for reform during presidential debates, has led to a sense that the tide is turning against mass incarceration.
POTUS outlined framework for criminal justice reform. The need is clear. Bipartisan support exists. Congress has to pass a bill this session — Eric Holder (@EricHolder) July 14, 2015
Even if Congress does pass a reform bill, however, mass incarceration will barely budge. The bill would only impact federal sentences, and federal inmates represent around 10% of incarcerated Americans.
To end America’s distinction as the world’s top jailer, states will need to repeal or amend their Rockefeller Laws. And at the state level, prison gerrymandering can get in the way.
Prolonging Mass Incarceration
“All politics is local”
- Tip O’Neill, former Speaker of the House
For over a decade, political opposition to Rockefeller Laws did nothing to curb their influence. “New York State's Rockefeller drug laws... have persisted since 1973,” a New York Times reporter wrote in 2001, “despite an overwhelming consensus that they are inhumane and expensive, clogging the prison system with people who should be in drug treatment.”
When the New York State Senate considered amending the Rockefeller Laws in the 2000s, they did so with support from both parties and often at the urging of the governor. But they faced opposition from two influential senators: Dale Volker, head of the Senate’s Codes Committee, which decides where to build new prisons, and Michael Nozzolio, head of the Crime Committee.
Volker and Nozzolio both represented districts in upstate New York. “The prisons in their two current districts,” Peter Wagner wrote in 2002, “account for more than 23% of the state’s prisoners.” The New York Timesreported, “While senators and their aides deny that fear of losing prison population affects their support for the mandatory sentences, it is appropriate to wonder whether economics plays an indirect role.”
During the prison construction boom, legislators from poor, rural areas competed to get a prison. They saw prisons—and the economy that pops up to support families who visit inmates and spend the night—as an economic boon. “We don’t have to sell [prison development] to a community. The community is knocking on our door,” a VP of the Corrections Corporation of America has said. “It used to be ‘not in my back yard.’ Now, they want it in the front yard.”
Academics, politicians, and journalists have pointed to the economic power of prisons—and the lobbying efforts of the for-profit prison industry—as obstacles to ending mass incarceration. But the political consequences of prison gerrymandering, especially when combined with economic incentives, may be even more problematic.
It can be hard to isolate the influence of prison gerrymandering. State senators from prison districts may oppose ending mandatory minimums because they want to appear tough on crime, and legislatures tend only to vote on bills once they are likely to pass. But when Rebecca Thorpe, an assistant professor of political science, attempted to isolate the influence of prisons on voting patterns in New York, California, and Washington, she found that it correlates with legislators’ opposition to reforms that would reduce mass incarceration.
Estimated Influence of the Prison Economy on Opposition to Drug Reform Laws in California
Chart from "Perverse Politics: The Persistence of Mass Imprisonment in the Twenty-First Century" by Rebecca U. Thorpe
It’s also not difficult to find instances of politicians who benefit from prison populations voting to protect mass incarceration or prison gerrymandering. Dale Volker has said that prisoners incarcerated in his constituency send him letters, but he focuses his attention on the correctional workers with whom he has strong relationships. State Senator Darrel Aubertine of New York, who can be seen leading a rally against the closure of one of several prisons in his district in the below video, expressed opposition to a measure that would have counted prisoners at their original residence (not prison) for redistricting purposes.
The New York state legislature did amend its Rockefeller drug laws in 2004, 2005, and 2009. Despite the opposition from representatives of rural areas with large prisons, policy changes like giving judges more control over sentence lengths, rather than imposing mandatory minimums, have ended the laws’ most draconian mandates.
The result is that New York’s incarceration rate declined by 20% from 2001 to 2011. Yet the state incarcerated some 60,000 prisoners in 2010, compared to around 35,000 in 1985. This points to how far America is from ending the era of mass incarceration—despite consensus that we should do so.
When it comes to mitigating the distorting effect of prisons in rural areas, the key is simply for people to talk and know about it. Four states—New York, California, Delaware, and Maryland—have ended prison gerrymandering by instructing redistricting commissions to remove prisoners from population counts or count them toward their original address. At the local level, Anamosa is one of many areas that has passed legislation or changed its policies to lessen or eliminate the distorting effects of local prisons.
The danger of prison gerrymandering is that it can impact politics in small, important, and unnoticed ways. The chief example is the amendment of New York’s Rockefeller Laws, which was likely delayed by a decade due to upstate prisons keeping prison-loving, tough on crime Republicans in power in Albany. Prison gerrymandering can cause similar delays in criminal justice reform around the country.
But when people learn about the distorting influence of prisons, prison gerrymandering loses its power. Prisons create powerful champions of mass incarceration who can delay or prevent criminal justice reform. The group of people who benefit from prisoners counting toward the vote count, however, is small: people in prison towns and their representatives. The majority of people hate that other voters get more of a say thanks to the prisons.
As a result, prison gerrymandering rarely survives a direct challenge. Peter Wagner says he knows of only one example of a redistricting commission ignoring the complaints of voters who learn that the Census counts prisoners as part of prison towns’ populations.
Once people people see how the political sausage gets made, they want to change it. Exposing the perverse political influence of America’s prisons will be an important step in closing them.
Our next post is a data-driven analysis of which colleges are best for low-income students. To get notified when we post it → join our email list.
This post was written by Alex Mayyasi. You can follow him on Twitter at @amayyasi.A TEENAGE Toowoomba checkout operator has posted a video on the internet pleading with a mystery shopper to help him keep his job.
Grant Manych, 17, was operating a checkout at Big W at Clifford Gardens on Monday when he says he accidentally put a bag containing about $500 into a female customer’s shopping bag.
The cash was in a bag ready to be picked up by another staff member and taken to a secure part of the store.
However, because no CCTV footage is available of Mr Manych’s checkout from the time of the incident, store management has come to the conclusion that Mr Manych took the money.
Mr Manych said his manager informed him yesterday police would be investigating the incident.
So, desperate to keep his job, the 17-year-old has posted a video on YouTube pleading for the shopper who has the cash to return it to the store.
“It was a mistake,” Mr Manych said.
“It was a busy day and I was trying to serve the lady and put the money in the bag at the same time and I accidentally put the cash bag in the customer’s shopping bag.”
Mr Manych said the shopper was a woman in her 50s who was quite tall and had dark hair.
She bought two blouses and lipstick and was at the checkout about 2pm.
“I’m just hoping the lady can realise what this is doing to me.
“This could affect future jobs for the rest of my life if I’m prosecuted,” he said.
Mr Manych said he had worked for Big W in Toowoomba casually for about a year and said he planned to study at TAFE next year.
Mr Manych’s message for the shopper was simple.
“Please just think how this could affect the rest of my life.”
Big W Toowoomba was unable to comment when contacted yesterday.
If you know anything about the money call Grant on 0429 324 668.Sleeping baby becomes web hit after artist mother sketches him in hilarious poses using her iPhone
Peacefully sleeping this baby has no idea that his mother is using him as her muse.
Vincent Enersen has yet to learn to talk and walk but his mother Adele, from Helsinki in Finland, has already made him an internet star by interpreting his dreams using photos of him asleep taken on an iPhone coupled with quirky sketches.
After taking a photo of Vincent asleep Adele then draws a sketch around the image of the dozing youngster of the scene she thinks he is dreaming about.
Hey Mr DJ: In this sketch photo artist Adele Enersen suggests that baby son vincent is dreaming about being a DJ, working the decks wearing a pair of headphones
The adorable photo sketches have proved to be a big hit after Ms Enersen began posting them on her blog.
Among the dreams she has depicted is a scene showing Vincent wearing a big pair of headphones behind a set of decks.
Another shows Vincent walking down a catwalk while a third shows the tiny tot playing a violin. While a picture of Vincent seemingly peering over a fence is one of the most popular.
The copywriter and advertising concept designer came up with the idea following the popularity of her photo book My Baby Dreams in which she used real objects to create scenes around her baby daughter Mila.
On her blog site Adele refers to to the discipline as her'maternity leave hobby'.
Tiny tinker: Vincent has yet to learn to talk and walk but his mother Adele, from Helsinki in Iceland, has already made him an internet star, here seen peering over a fence and playing a violin
Photo fantastic: The newborn baby is seen here posing on a catwalk, left, and doing a rain dance, right, Adele creates the sketches after her son goes to sleep, using her iPhone to take a picture of the youngster
On her Facebook page Adele says: 'As a little girl I was always telling stories (mostly to myself). I drew pictures and made up fairy tales about princesses and pixies.
'I also wrote comics about my fat and lazy cat, but then I discovered Garfield and felt betrayed (though my cat was black instead of orange, and instead of lasagna he ate all the dog food he could find).'
Although she is not formally trained photographer, Adele did go to art school but adds: 'I consider myself more of a storyteller, so the camera is just one of the tools I use. I really love writing and creating ideas.
'Writing has always been a big part of my life, but it took a little while before I realised that I could support myself with it.
Her previous project with Mila saw her create scenes such as a little forest made of pillows and blankets.Louisville got a double-double from Ray Spalding and 25 points from Donovan Mitchell as they beat Syracuse for the second time in 13 days. The Cards didn’t need overtime this go-round, rolling to an 88-68 romp over the Orange.
If Rick Pitino was trying to send some messages with his changes to the team’s starting lineup, it worked.
The starting frontcourt duo of Anas Mahmoud and Ray Spalding was tremendous, with Spalding going nuts on the boards for 18 points and 11 rebounds. Mahmoud, meanwhile, helped pick apart Syracuse’s vaunted 2-3 zone, finishing with eight points, nine rebounds, four steals, two assists and one block.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the lineup changes was freshman V.J. King getting the nod at small forward over Deng Adel. Adel responded by coming off the bench to score 17 points, the bulk of which came in the second half when he was able to get out in front of the Syracuse press.
Other quick notes:
—This was the best ball movement we’ve seen from Louisville since maybe the rout at Pitt. The movement was great outside the three-point line, and the Cardinals’ interior passing was as good as its been at any point this season. U of L finished with 18 assists on 33 made shots.
—When Don plays Syracuse, Don dunks.
Should count for 1 point imo pic.twitter.com/RSXdOS2OIp — Mike Rutherford (@CardChronicle) February 26, 2017
This one counted. The Donovan Mitchell vs. Syracuse highlight reel continues to expand. pic.twitter.com/9ASSCEwhTN — Mike Rutherford (@CardChronicle) February 26, 2017
—Free-throws are no less of an issue today than they were at the beginning of the week. The Cards were just 13-of-23 from the charity stripe. Syracuse was 20-of-22.
—Four of Louisville’s five starters shot better than 50 percent from the field. The lone exception was King, who was 0-for-2. Deng Adel was 5-for-9 off the bench.
—Rick Pitino said earlier this week that the plan was to rest Tony Hicks this game and then have him ready to go against the up-tempo attack of Wake Forest on Wednesday. Hicks did see the court, but it was for less than a minute at the end of the first half.
—I’ve been swearing since the summer that I saw Jaylen Johnson absolutely light it up from the outside. Perhaps we’ve just been saving that weapon for March.
—This was Syracuse’s worst loss in a conference game since joining the ACC in 2013-14.
—To go 13-5 in the ACC this season would be a fantastic achievement, and one which would almost certainly lock down a No. 2 seed before the team even leaves for Brooklyn. Let’s get it.“Somebody told me at the beginning of the campaign that this isn't a sprint, it's a marathon,” he said. “I'm not sure if you're aware, but this is the body and mind of a marathon runner.”
“Thought I'd throw that in so everybody would have a chance to chuckle.”
He then thanked his wife, Lori, his family and supporters, before hitting on some of his platform. While the campaign was sometimes bruising, Bigger said he's ready to move on and focus on governing.
“I'm positive, I'm optimistic, and I have a clear vision for the future of Greater Sudbury,” he said. “This is the time for openness, accountability and transparency.
“This has been one of the most intense campaigns in our city's history. Let's keep this positive momentum going beyond today.”
Bigger said he had already talked to some of the new city councillors, and at least one – Lynne Reynolds, who beat incumbent Terry Kett in Ward 11 – was at the victory party.
Outgoing Mayor Marianne Matichuk gave Bigger a big hug as he made his official entrance Monday, and said she has already set aside space for him in the mayor's office so they can begin working on the transition.
“I want to make sure it's a smooth transition, because mine wasn't,” Matichuk said. “I'm going to help with that, because I think it's important that you get off to the right foot.”
Matichuk said she was pleased Bigger will have new faces at the council table, in contrast to the mostly incumbent council that consistently opposed her agenda over the last four years.
“I think he's actually talking to some councillors right now, which is a very good thing to do,” she said. “And with the new team, I'm hoping they're all here for the betterment of the city.”
When asked why she thought he won so handily, Matichuk said residents are still demanding change at city hall.
“Brian had the right planks in his platform – transparency and accountability,” she said. “I worked with him a lot on that” when he was auditor general.
“He's very focused. If it's the right thing to do, he goes there. I think that resonated in the campaign.”
Bigger said the first month of his administration will be crucial, so help from Matichuk will be a huge benefit.
“That's very nice of her, and it will really give us an opportunity to hit the ground running,” he said. “There will be a lot of work to do in the first month or so, building relationships with the ward councillors, understanding their plans and they fell is important in all of their wards and how we are going to move forward.
“People want to be able to trust and respect their council, and that's what I plan to bring with a brand new council.”
After a campaign in which he was consistently attacked after poll after poll showed him in the lead, Bigger said he's ready for a new narrative at city hall. He wants to lead a council and administration that has the respect of citizens, he said, and leave the negativity behind on the campaign trail.
“If you are the frontrunner, you do expect people are going to challenge you,” he said. “But I think it will be a very positive tone. I'm focused on the future.”
Original story
Having taken 46 per cent of the vote, it appears Brian Bigger is Greater Sudbury's mayor elect, according to the unofficial results. There are still about 15 polls to come in.
After a grueling campaign that saw debates — sponsored by the Greater Sudbury Taxpayers Association — held in all 12 wards, as well as five mayoral debates, it all came down to tonight.
Long lines at polling stations frustrated voters, who turned out in droves to cast a ballot in what was the most hotly contested election in the city of Greater Sudbury's short history. With 60 candidates for council and 10 people running for mayor, voters had their work cut out for them.
Stick with NorthernLife.ca for more election night coverage, including reaction from the candidates, a breakdown of the new city council, the list of school board trustees and the results of the referendum on store hours deregulation and holiday shopping.
More to come.Sharjah: The hero at the centre of the seven-hour Sharjah baby snatch drama has spoken of the dramatic events that saw him rescue the one-month-old child.
Speaking to Gulf News, courageous Ebrahim Ahmad Al Shamsi described the moment he found the crying infant alone in a car that had been snatched by a thief.
Al Shamsi sprung into action last Saturday, after Sharjah Police posted alerts on Twitter and Facebook, pleading with the public to help track down the lost girl.
Now Al Shamsi’s little boy believes his dad is a real-life superhero after he led police straight to little Lailas Mohammad Ehssan, safely reuniting the child with her parents.
Father of three Al Shamsi, 34, told Gulf News: “I did not think about the baby’s nationality, I just wanted to return her to her family.”
Around 1,730 Twitter users answered Sharjah police’s pleas for help.
The drama unfolded after Lailas was snatched when her parents’ car was stolen from a petrol station in Industrial Area 6 in Sharjah, just after 10pm on Saturday.
They left her in the back seat of their white four wheel drive vehicle with the engine still running in the unlocked car, as they went inside the station.
Within minutes a thief got behind the wheel and sped off, taking Syrian Mohammad Ehssan’s baby daughter with the car.
By 1am, Sharjah Police posted pleas on their Twitter and Facebook pages, asking for help to find the child, releasing the make, model and registration of the car.
Al Shamisi, a 34-year-old retired military man and father of two boys aged seven and five and a daughter aged two, learned the baby was missing after reading Twitter reports on his Blackberry.
He said: “At first I prayed to God to return the baby to her parents but after time passed I became worried about the baby and could not sleep because I was thinking about her.
“I was thinking about the sense of grief a father who lost his baby would feel.”
He jumped into his car and went looking for the baby. He took the registration plate of the stolen car, posted online by Sharjah Police, put it in his mobile and headed out just after 3am.
Al Shamsi said: “I was travelling from one place to another, starting in industrial areas, looking for a glimmer of hope to guide me to the missing baby.”
At the same time, a huge number of police patrols were out on Sharjah’s roads looking for the stolen car and baby.
Describing how he was beginning to lose hope, he said: “At 4.30am I lost any hope of finding the missing girl.
“I decided to go back home to be ready for Eid prayer but before reaching home, I decided to enter University Road after National Paints Roundabout.
“I spotted a car, its engine was on but all the lights were off. I reached the car, I saw it matched the police description and my heart was beating quickly. I ran quickly to the car and saw the little baby was inside, crying. I alerted the police operation room and they told me to stay near the car. Within minutes, police patrols and an ambulance reached the scene.
“The baby was taken to Al Qassimi hospital where her parents were reunited with her. It was an emotional and tearful meeting between Lailas and her parents.”
Sharjah Police want to give Al Shamsi a reward for his daring actions.
He told Gulf News: “It was just a regular reaction that I would have done for anybody.”
“My children asked me, ‘Dad what happened?’ “I told them and my mother, wife and children were so happy.
“My children consider me a Superman now and my mother spent the three Eid days receiving well wishers because of what I did.
“It was the most beautiful Eid in all my life.”McLaren have confirmed their title sponsorship arrangement with Vodafone will conclude at the end of this year.
The team said Vodafone “has decided to focus on business priorities away from Formula One sponsorship”.
McLaren added it would not confirm the identity of its new title sponsor but “will make an exciting announcement on 2nd December 2013, following the last Grand Prix of the season”.
“We’re immensely proud that, having been set a number of ambitious challenges by Vodafone back in 2007, together we’ve met or exceeded each and every one,” said team principal Martin Whitmarsh.
“Our focus is on continuing to drive results for all our partners throughout the 2013 season and we look forward to making a major title partnership announcement towards the end of the year.”
Vodafone has been McLaren’s title sponsor since 2007 (pictured). Prior to that it was a sponsor of Ferrari.
2013 F1 season
Image?�?� McLarenAt a conference in the US, IBM has demonstrated what it claims to be the first fully integrated wavelength multiplexed silicon photonics chip. This is a big step towards commercial computer chips that support both electrical and optical circuits on the same chip package, and ultimately the same die. Optical interconnects and networks can offer much higher bandwidth than their copper counterparts, while consuming less energy—two factors that are rather beneficial as the Internet grows and centralised computing resources continue to swell.
Engineers have long known that fibre-optic links are more desirable than copper wires for shuttling data around—the available bandwidth is higher, the distances that signals can be squirted over are longer, and energy consumption is lower. On the other hand, when it comes to actually doing stuff with that data, electronics are where it's at. This dichotomy has resulted in a very pronounced split between optical and electrical technologies: optics are used for networking between computers, but inside the chassis it's electronics all the way.
This approach has worked well so far, but as bandwidth and energy requirements continue to soar, research labs around the world have been looking at ways of bringing the optics ever closer to the electronics. The first step is to bring optical channels onto the motherboard, then onto the chip package, and ultimately onto the die so that electrical and optical pathways run side-by-side at a nanometer scale.
IBM's latest nanophotonic chip belongs to the second category: it can be placed on the same package as an electronic chip, bringing the electro-optical conversion a lot closer to the logic. It's important to note that the lasers themselves are still being produced off-chip, and brought into the nanophotonic chip through the "laser input ports" that you can see in the diagram above. Once the chip has been fed some lasers, there are four receive and transmit ports, each capable of transporting data at 25 gigabits per second, which are bundled up into 100Gbps channels via wavelength multiplexing.
That's just this chip, though; IBM says that, in theory, its technology could allow for chips with up to eight channels. 800Gbps from a single optical transceiver would be pretty impressive.
For now, IBM is targeting its silicon photonics technology at data centre and HPC settings, where bandwidth can be a bottleneck. IBM says it has successfully demoed its new photonic chips in a "datacenter interconnect" setup that could push 100Gbps over a range of up to 2 kilometres (1.24 miles). If IBM can produce nanophotonic transceivers capable of 800Gbps—and confirm there actually is a significant reduction in power consumption from moving the photonics closer to the electronics—then the company's technology could compare very favourably against standards such as 40Gbps and 100Gbps Ethernet, and the being-discussed 400Gbps/1Tbps Ethernet standard.
The next step, according to IBM, is to get the lasers on-package using III-V semiconductors. From there, next step (which won't happen quickly) will be to get the lasers, waveguides, photodiodes, and other optical gubbins right onto the processor die itself, alongside the copper wires and transistors.
One the most impressive facets of IBM's new chip is that it's fabricated on a fairly standard 90nm CMOS process. One of the larger barriers to the adoption of electro-optical computing, or indeed any novel method of computing, is whether it slots tidily into existing manufacturing processes: when you're a company like Intel with billions of dollars sunk into capital equipment, you ideally want to stick to tools, materials, and processes that you already know a lot about. If IBM's nanophotonic technology wasn't built on a monolithic CMOS process, the odds of it being commercialised would be much lower.A Sandwich Loaf today with pumpkin and Cinnamon. Pumpkin puree adds moisture, softness and flavor to the bread and the cinnamon swirls make make it irresistible. Super soft Easy and simple Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Bread.
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Slice, toast, slather some vegan butter, a generous sprinkle of powdered sugar or maple and serve. Or make french toasts or french toast bake. The dough can also be converted into Pumpkin Cinnamon rolls. Dress with a vegan cream cheese frosting or pumpkin spice caramel.
Last day to enter my holiday giveaway, where I am giving away 120 things including my book, food processor, spice tiffins, copper serving vessels, coupons and more.
More Breads and Pumpkin things
Steps:
Make the sponge and let it sit for an hour.
Add the rest of the dry ingredients and knead into a smooth dough.
Roll the dough out. sprinkle sugar and cinnamon.
Roll and seal the edge.
Plac ein parchment lined bread pan.
Bake until golden.
Cool completely and slice with a serrated knife.A Burgeo fisherman survived a scary experience Saturday when a group of orca whales surrounded his 18-foot boat.
Norman Strickland was with his daughter and dog Saturday morning when he saw the animals. He said they left the shore at around 10:30 a.m., and after travelling about half a nautical mile, saw a dorsal fin moving slowly in the water about 150 feet away.
Strickland estimates there were 5 or 6 killer whales around his 18-foot boat. (Norman Strickland)
At first he thought the fin belonged to a blue shark, but when the fin disappeared a school of five or six orcas came out of the water.
When he saw the white on their bodies, he knew they were killer whales.
"I figured we were the next victims of those orcas." - Norman Strickland
"They aren't playful creatures I can tell you that, they are very, very frightening," Strickland told CBC Radio's On the Go.
"I was really, really scared."
Norman Strickland's daughter had her phone on hand to catch images of the killer whales. (Submitted by Norman Strickland)
Jack Lawson, a whale researcher for the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), said an encounter like Strickland's is very rare.
In an interview on Monday, Lawson said he has gone through more than 1,000 reports of killer whales off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador - and only four detail a person being struck or chased by an orca.
"Generally these animals are seen approaching people in the water, even kayakers and swimmers, but there has never been a case of one eating anybody."
A real fright
The orcas surrounded Strickland's boat, preventing him from changing direction.
"We were among those bloody things for probably 30 minutes and we probably travelled a mile and a half with them all around us," he said.
Strickland thinks the orcas thought his white boat was an iceberg — and that he, his daughter and his dog were seals.
Lawson said orcas are extremely interested in boats and often act like dolphins, bobbing around the fronts and sides.
They are "pretty smart predators" with good vision, so Lawson doesn't suspect the orcas thought Stirkland and his family were seals.
"I don't think they would've mistaken them for a meal, but they certainly could've been very interested in them," Lawson said.
This is 67-year-old Strickland's first experience with killer whales, after many years spent on the water. (Norman Strickland)
The fisherman had life jackets on board but was hesitant to put them on, despite the whales bumping the boat with enough force to make them stagger.
"Because if you were thrown into the water, those things were going to eat you anyway," he said.
"From what I've seen on Google, those things just tear other things apart...I figured we were the next victims of those orcas."
Strickland says the closest the orcas got to his boat is about two feet. (Norman Stirckland)
Strickland said he doesn't believe they were being friendly, as they were bumping his boat so aggressively.
He warns those who go fishing or kayaking to be careful when they're out on the water.
"For those people that go out kayaking, I think those people are in very serious trouble if those [orcas] come around...those things are very huge, I would judge probably 14 [or] 15 feet long, perhaps longer," he said.
"I was too scared to really know what the lengths were. But I don't want to ever go out and see them again."
Stirckland, his daughter and their dog made it to shore safely after being surrounded by killer whales east of Burgeo. (Norman Strickland)
Strickland said he's seen sharks, blue whales and dolphins while on the water, but has never experienced anything like this before.
Eventually the boat got close enough to land, Strickland estimates about 50 feet away, that the orcas left. Strickland, his daughter and the dog all made it safely to shore.
"If there's anybody going out fishing, be very, very cautious. Always keep your eyes open," he said.
While Lawson said killer whales are more prevalent in some areas of the province than others, they can travel hundreds of kilometres over the course of the summer.
With his interest in whales, Lawson said he has been trying to have an encounter like Strickland's, but admits that in a small boat, such an extraordinary experience would be scary.
"I'd be quite excited if these killer whales were to come around my vessel, but I understand why people in a boat that's probably the same size as these whales would be nervous to have a group of animals around them," he said.
"And I think Mr. Strickland took the right strategy in this case where he was worried about them and he moved towards |
of 14 pounds plus, but such fish are rare. Even with their relatively short growing seasons, these lakes often produce better fishing for large bass than should normally be expected for such geographical regions.
Growth rates vary in direct proportion to the fertility of the water, the length of the growing season each year, and the numbers of other fish competing for the food supply.
It is always the female bass which attains the greater weight. Male or "buck" bass rarely grow to any size larger than three or four pounds.
In northern lakes the anticipated length of a female largemouth bass is as follows:
At the end of the - First Year 4" Second Year 7 1/2" Third Year 9" Fourth Year 11" Fifth Year 13" Sixth Year 15" Seventh Year 17" Eighth Year 19" Ninth Year 21" Tenth Year 23" Eleventh Year 25"
To determine the weight of a largemouth bass in the absence of a scale, the following formula based upon linear measurements of the fish is a reliably accurate method of calculating its weight:
L x G x G W = ----------- 800
L = Length [in inches] from nose to fork in tail
G = Girth [in inches] around fleshiest portion of body
W = Weight of fish in pounds
SPAWNING ACTIVITIES
Ordinarily they spawn only once each year, in the spring when the water temperature reaches the preferred condition. Generally, the largemouth bass can be expected to commence spawning activities almost anytime after the water temperature has risen past the 60-degree mark.
The most active spawning, however, occurs when the water for the first time reaches the 65-degree mark. In the northern regions the spawning doesn't begin until late April or May. Yet the entire reproduction process there may not begin until June.
Bass are typically school fish for the greater part of the year but they disperse or scatter when the mating season approaches and they become very territorial about their bedding locations. A largemouth's spawning bed will take on a circular shape from twelve to twenty-five inches in diameter by about six inches deep.
Largemouth bass normally spawn at water depths averaging between three and five feet, but the extremes run from a few inches to ten or twelve feet. Spawning sites ideally are where the bottom is of hard-packed sand, pea-gravel, clay, or marl with a very thin layer of mud covering the hard material. Largemouth bass prefer to deposit eggs on rootlets of submerged grass or aquatic vegetation. An average bass nest will be in water three or four feet deep. Bass bedding locations will predominantly be found in coves and bays adjacent to the main body of water. These are the shallow areas where sunshine first increases the water temperature to a desirable spawning level. Such areas are located predominantly on the north shores of the lake where the seasonal low-angle un-shaded sun has a more prolonged warming effect.
There will probably be ten beds back in protected embayments for every one located along the banks of the main body of water. Selected sites will be where they are not buffeted by prevailing winds. Mud shallows won't do unless nothing else is available. Lily pads ordinarily will be over muck bottoms and bass will avoid these for spawning unless better areas do not exist. Normally, nests are seldom closer than twenty to twenty five apart in order to escape from potential predator "cousins".
The male bass serves the most important and active role in the spawning behavior of the species. The male "buck" selects a suitable bedding site and then fans out the nest. When the water temperature has remained at spawning level or above for several days, the females begin to appear. The female bass linger in "holding-areas" near deeper water, awaiting preparation of the spawning beds. The male searches out a "ripe" female and herds her to the bedding location. Once on the bed he may swim continual circles around her to discourage her from leaving and may even repeatedly bump her ventral region with his nose to trigger her into dropping her eggs.
If shallow-water fishing efforts during the potential spawning period seem to be resulting only in small bass, the season is probably still in its earliest stages and the majority of fish in the shallows are the smaller males concerned with nest-bed preparation. Fishing efforts may be shifted to the drop-offs, the edges of stream channels, and similar (adjacent to deeper water) holding-station locations of the larger females awaiting the males to lead them to the spawning area. During this time the bass normally have no feeding urge, not unlike oceanic salmon during their spawning runs up coastal rivers. However, these bass can be provoked into striking a lure which they perceive as a threat to their spawning process.
In most cases the female will drop only a portion of her eggs on a nest at any one time. The male then spreads his fertilizing milt over the bed and eggs. Days later, with another male, the female may drop more eggs on some other bed not far away. Several female bass frequently deposit more eggs in the same nest as well as in others. Multiple attempts at egg laying are probably nature's insurance policy, since a certain percentage of beds or eggs each year are sure to be accidentally destroyed due to radical fluctuation in water levels or abrupt changes in water temperatures.
Eggs may hatch anytime from two to five days after they have been fertilized by the buck and are cared for by the male parent - until his appetite gets the better of him. The male largemouth will remain near the bed to protect the young fry from predators for a short while, usually not more than a week. He eventually succumbs to his increasingly ravenous hunger and becomes a leading predator himself, gobbling up as many of his own fry as possible.
The hatched fry initially feed upon plankton and other minute aquatic organisms, later switching to the smallest of crustaceans and terrestrials, including various insect forms which commonly flit about most shallow-water areas during the spring and summer. Young bass that survive feed on tiny water animals called Cyclops or Daphnia. As they grow older they add larger and larger insects to the menu.
A bass' life is one of eating and being eaten. It is an aquatic rat race to survive. Insects and amphibians compete to eat the eggs as soon as they are dropped. After they hatch, larger fish are always seeking the fry. Even their own parents and other bass feed upon them. And it's only fair to add that anglers are the least serious threat in the entire life cycle. When bass are about five inches in length they may also feed heavily upon small minnow species.
The well-planned scheme on the part of Mother-Nature causes them for the very first time to begin fending for themselves. This instinct of self-preservation is usually accomplished by remaining in or around heavy shoreline cover, hiding from those who would make a meal of them in short order.
The young fry up to an inch or more in length linger in a family school. This schooling instinct remains with the fish throughout his life. With many predators now feeding upon the small fry, it is early on that a young bass becomes adept at hiding and soon accepts the philosophy of "eat or be eaten". This activity is exhibited throughout the life-span of the bass and is a major consideration for a bass angler in locating and catching the species.
Heavy rains and floods can take a toll. Conceivably they can wipe out an entire year's quot;hatch" overnight in one lake or in one region. Similarly, any draw-down of the lake water during spawning season can wipe out the entire hatch of the year. Turbidity (the presence of silt or earth in suspension) can also interfere with spawning because it filters rays of sunlight necessary to hatch eggs by slowly heating the water.
WHERE BASS ARE FOUND
Importantly, after the spawning cycle is complete, the larger adult bass are now occupying the deeper waters and at this time are more active than ever. They are feeding heavily during those certain times of day when their biological clocks tell them to replenish fuel supplies. They have now moved away from inhabiting the shorelines and won't return again until the following spring.
However, it should not be assumed that by simply moving away from the shoreline means that bass will be easily found and caught, because it is established that 90 percent of any given body of water, at any given time, is as barren of good-sized fish as your living room.
Only 10 percent of the water at any given time possesses the combination of ideal characteristics (temperature, oxygen content, PH factor, turbidity, structure, cover, food, etc.) that bass will be seeking under the prevailing water and weather conditions. The overwhelming majority of bass will be found in that 10 percent of water.
Once bass have grown beyond the yearling size, they have an instinctive desire to school with like members of their species. They will group together with others of their own approximate size. The larger the size of individual fish comprising the school, however, the smaller the school in numbers and the more tightly it will group together. The very largest bass in any given body of water may sometimes group together in twos and threes, but just as often they are loners. The larger the bass become, the more likely they are to prefer deeper water and the harder it is for fishermen to find them.
All bass beyond the smaller sizes (nine to thirteen inches in length and averaging a pound in weight) are basically deep-water fish. That is where, in their respective schools, they will spend most of their time. Schools of bass occasionally travel or "migrate" from their deeper water haunts to shallower areas, making them easier to catch. But the larger the individual fish comprising the schools, the less willing they are to leave the deep water. When they do migrate they are likely to move as far into the shallows as some other school comprised of smaller fish.
Why are bass deep-water fish? The larger any bass becomes, the more shy and retiring he is in his behavior. His survival instincts have become highly refined. Anything which even hints that his survival may be in jeopardy causes him to retreat hastily. The larger bass have grown and aged because their survival instincts were superior to those who had not endured such life-span. From the very moment they are hatched from their eggs, all bass' precautionary instincts have told them to flee from activity and noise or risk being eaten. As they grew older and larger they soon discovered that they were faced with little choice but to retreat to deeper waters. That is the only place large enough for a group to hide from disturbance.
Bright light, in addition to promoting still more anxieties over safety and well-being, is very uncomfortable to a bass' eyes which are adapted primarily for low light conditions. To find relief from bright light the bass must head for the depths and remain at some level where sunlight cannot penetrate or retreat into the shaded comfort of "colored" water or places where there are expanses of very heavily matted bottom weed-beds, lily pads, submerged brush, or felled trees.
But how deep is "deep"?? Depth is always relative. "Deep water" may be where an old stream channel winding along the floor of the lake drops off to ten feet. Ten feet is certainly deep water if 95 percent of the lake area averages only five or six feet in depth, which is a common situation throughout much of the South, especially in Florida, but also occasionally in northern lakes. The bass in such waters will probably be spending most of their time in an under water old stream channel. They will restrict their "homes" to certain portions of the stream channel where there is an undercut bank, such as an S-turn in the channel or a sharp bend in the former stream bed.
Reduced light penetration, such as during low-light periods of early morning or late evening or even after dark, might see the bass move to shallower water upon occasion. Cold front weather conditions might see them move considerably deeper! As a general rule, bass will go as deep as need be to feel safe and avoid bright light.
Largemouth Bass primarily remain within their "Home Ranges" in any body of water. They will periodically shift from one locality to another, as follows:
Seasonal movements- related to winter, spring, summer or fall which see the fish sometimes travel substantial distances, though less than a quarter-mile on the average.
movements- related to winter, spring, summer or fall which see the fish sometimes travel substantial distances, though less than a quarter-mile on the average. Temporary movements- from their "sanctuary" [home] on almost a daily basis which are predominantly of lesser distances (sometimes as little as twenty yards).
LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBASS
Bass live on or very near to the bottom. The actual depth bass will go to will vary from time to time due to weather and water conditions, but they will nearly always be on the bottom! Two exceptions to this rule are when the water is less than about six feet deep and when the bass suspend at arbitrary depths, chasing after surface-swimming schools of bait-fish. Bass live on or near to what is referred to as structure, which is the presence of any bottom condition which presents a noticeable difference from surrounding bottom conditions. Bass prefer bottom materials consisting of coarse sand, gravel, shell, rocks, clay or marl and they are usually averse to heavy concentrations of mud or silt.
Structure may be an underwater hump or island which juts up from the bottom, a long underwater bar or point of land jutting out from the shoreline, the edge of a weed-line where the bottom rapidly drops off into deeper water, a place where bottom composition changes from sand to clay or to rocks, a felled tree or brush-pile, a former stream channel winding along the lake bottom, an isolated tree stump or rock, a spring-hole or other depression in the bottom, and possibly some "man-made" composition. The reason for locating structure is that bass throughout the year are highly "object-oriented". The renowned bass authority, Buck Perry, gives a classical observation, "You may find structure which at the moment is not holding bass but you will NEVER find bass without structure."
The place where a school of bass rests in deep water between feeding cycles is called the sanctuary, but only in rare circumstances can bass be caught when in this resting area. While in the various sanctuaries, when resting, they are schooling very tightly, usually in a small area. Because the sanctuary is normally in deeper water, pinpointing its exact location is nearly impossible. When in the sanctuary, the school of bass is in a rather inactive state and can seldom be tempted into biting or provoked into striking. Bass do not feed continuously but usually restrict their active foraging to certain times of day.
The school of bass will occasionally, most frequently on a schedule, migrate or travel from the sanctuary to some other area a short distance away, usually into somewhat shallower water, and they are now in a highly active feeding state.
EFFECTS of TEMPERATURE and OXYGEN
Bass are cold-blooded creatures with their body temperatures governed by those of the surrounding water. The largemouth seems most comfortable when the water is between 650 and 750 F. As the water chills, their metabolism starts to slow down and in cold water bass are very sluggish. They require much more oxygen, less food, and their digestive rate is very slow. This reduced feeding need is observed when the water temperature drops after a weather cold front has moved into an area - and the catching of fish slows down appreciably. The opposite is observed when fishing action picks up after a weather warm front moves in.
Bass become uncomfortable when the water temperatures rise above 800. At those times the oxygen content of the water drops as the oxygen also becomes heated, expands, and releases itself from the water. The bass require much more oxygen than is present in such warm water and will usually move to seek this oxygen above all other considerations. That's when the bass will be found along shaded or windy shorelines where wave action pumps oxygen into the water, where an oxygenated spring enters a lake, or among aquatic plants which produce oxygen.
Without oxygen, fish don't survive. Fish extract dissolved oxygen in the water through their gills. There is so little dissolved oxygen in water that it is expressed in parts per million. A change of only one part per million can spell the difference between survival and death.
Oxygen in a lake comes primarily from photosynthesis, whereby aquatic plants produce oxygen. Lakes with good vegetation are often rich in oxygen. Lakes without good vegetation are devoid of a favorable habitat for bass and therefore exhibit a decline or ending of fish-life.
Oxygen is also a vital ingredient required in the decomposition process of dead plants, phyloplankton, and zooplankton. When there is too much decomposition of organic material in a lake, the water becomes depleted of oxygen. Reduction of oxygen content is a primary cause of reduction in fish population.
Water temperature plays THE major, critical role in governing the life of largemouth bass. A cold-blooded bass's temperature is the same temperature as the water in which it swims, and until it rises above sixty (60) degrees the fish are not really active. Cold temperature slows down their metabolism, their digestion, their nervous system, and their need for much food consumption.
When winter comes, largemouths become very inactive but do not hibernate. They concentrate in deep water and will continue to feed, although not vigorously. They will catch an available minnow, small bluegill or perch (also rendered relatively inactive by cold), and then take days, if not weeks, to digest it.
The metabolism of a largemouth bass increases steadily in the springtime as the lake or pond warms up until the bass's preferred ambient water temperature is attained. A largemouth bass feeds most frequently, consumes the most food, and grows most rapidly when water temperatures at the depth where he lives are between seventy and seventy-five degrees F.
A bass's life expectancy is also affected by water temperature. The higher the average year-round temperature of a lake, the shorter the average life. A northern largemouth bass might normally reach an age of ten or eleven years if never hooked, while a deep-south bass would only average (if never caught) seven to eight years.
The age of a fish can be "read" in almost the same way as the annual rings on a tree stump. Each ring around a bass scale designates one year of growth. Since scales are never shed, each one remains a history of growth; the wider the space between rings, the faster the growth.
SIGHT AND SOUND
Anglers are always puzzled how a bass can clobber a black lure on a pitch-black night. The answer centers around the acute sensitivity of the "lateral line" on a bass. This vibration detection organ is as accurate as radar in pinpointing the presence of an object, without the need for vision. Anything moving through the water must displace water molecules. It is precisely this displacement which is picked up by the lateral line, and the bass can strike the source of that "sound" as effectively as if it were seen with the eyes. This sensitivity works only with near-by sounds - those which are within a few feet of the bass - but it is a deadly system. That's how a bass can hit a black plastic worm in deep water on a dark night.
The bass also have ears inside their heads. Their bodies act as a sounding board and they can "hear" and react to sounds from a long distance away. The gentle plop of a lure on the water will get their attention, but too loud a disturbance could have the reverse effect, and warning sounds such as a scraping tackle box in a boat can send a bass scurrying for cover. Simply being aware of what sound can do is half the battle.
SCIENTIFIC STUDIES
Their studies conclude, among other particulars, that after the spawning period only 1.2 percent of the bass were back by the shoreline at any given time.
After spawning has been completed, 98 percent of the fish spend the majority of their time away from the shallows and are in deeper water. Also, 96 percent of the bass which at some time or other left the depths and migrated toward the shallows were recaptured within 300 feet from where they had originally been tagged! This illustrates their "home range" tendencies.
The term migration refers to short-term and short-distance movements within the home range of the bass. When bass migrate, or temporarily move, from their sanctuaries they do not simply fan out and disperse. Rather, they travel in orderly fashion as a group along types of underwater highways following "signposts" or structural variations which show them the way to their destinations. This is similar to the deer trails with which hunters are familiar.
During the warm-water months (late spring, summer and fall) these migrations within the home range may take place two or three times a day, most frequently during the early morning hours, sometime around noon, and again during the evening!
A migration may last as long as two hours or be as brief as only twenty minutes. During cold-water months of late fall and early spring, migrations may often take place only once per day or once every other day, usually around noon, and frequently of only thirty minutes duration or less. Also, the distance of the migration is somewhat shorter.
During the warm-water months the bass tend to migrate more on a horizontal plane as they move from the "depths" toward the shallower shorelines. Best catches during the colder months predominantly come from sloping shorelines.
Migrations of bass schools are not always related to hunger or search for food. It is not scientifically known just why bass do migrate several times and that these times are predictable. But, it is an accepted fact that some biological clock triggers an instinct to migrate, and that nearly all of the various schools of bass in any given lake or body of water will simultaneously begin climbing out of their sanctuaries and traveling to their destinations. It is during these movement periods that bass are most frequently caught by anglers! Keeping a log book of fish caught on a given body of water will provide an insight of local bass habits and timetables.
ANGLING HINTS
One of the basic rules of fishing is "never leave fish in order to find more fish".
Bass don't feed constantly. All of the factors that influence their feeding habits aren't known, and probably never will be, but we do know most of them!
Extensive scientific studies have formulated definitive conclusions. The feeding behavior of bass has been observed in aquariums time and again. For hours, the largemouth will lounge contentedly in his niche in the glass "bowl", paying no attention to the small bluegills and food minnows within easy reach. Then, as if on signal, the bass will devour the nearest unsuspecting fish. A quick charge - and there is one less bluegill in the aquarium. He will repeat the process several times and then, apparently satisfied, return to his docile role.
Bass feed usually at dawn and at dusk. They frequently go on a feeding bender just before the approach of a storm front. In some situations, with schooling bass, a feeding spree is triggered by the presence of schools of bait-fish near the surface of the lake.
All other factors being normal, bass feed at the same time each day, usually twice, in accordance with the moon phase.
Bass need not to be feeding for you to catch them; instincts other than hunger will cause them to strike. Mere curiosity, an instinctive attack reaction to any sudden movement, forcible eviction of presumed predators near a spawning nest, a belligerent act in response to sudden fear (being startled), or simply inborn aggressive pugnacious action can trigger a slashing strike.
Hot spots for finding and catching bass are usually a sharp drop-off, such as a submerged stream channel that curves for any distance from a few yards to perhaps a hundred feet. Finding such drop-offs is like finding paydirt.
Weather has far more effect on fishermen than on fish anywhere. If you can find bass at all, it is possible to catch them whether it is raining and windy or calm with bright sunshine.
The importance of fishing a lure close to the bottom cannot be overemphasized.
Bass, except those in overall shallow marsh ponds, are only present in shallow waters during spawning seasons in springtime and for very brief morning, night and evening periods after spawning activity is completed. Top water fishing in bodies of deep water is practical for only a fraction of each fishing season, or at those limited times of the day.
The more quietly an angler behaves, the better his chances. Banging a tackle box against the bottom of a boat, having creaky or loose oarlocks, rowing or paddling with splashing action, and other noise producing activities are to be avoided because they frighten the bass. When frightened, the bass become uneasy and on-guard and either quickly leave the area or cease feeding.
Largemouths particularly like "edge" - or in a sense, cover. Fishermen refer to this as "structure", which may be a sunken log or stump, a sunken former stream channel, an opening in a weed-bed, a point of land or a shoal, an old car body, a flooded hedgerow or fencerow, a drop-off, the edge of the lake itself, or even an artificial sunken item of "structure". The rule of "edge" is a valuable one to remember.
A cast parallel to the edge of a weed-bed or drop-off will be better than a cast at right angles to such area or into the heart of it. The best bass fishermen will retrieve their lures slowly and deliberately in a lifelike manner designed to cause fish to strike at it.
A black bass's vision is similar to that of a human's, but as if through a strong yellow filter. Therefore bass have the poorest vision at the blue end of the color spectrum. This explains why the blue and purple lures seem attractive to bass today.
Bass most frequently feed at dawn and dusk. They frequently go on a feeding bender just before the approach of a storm front. In some situations, with schooling bass, a feeding spree is triggered by the presence of schools of forage fish near the surface of the lake. Quite frequently, bass increase their feeding activity in accordance with moon phase.
The search for their preferred temperature (about 70 degrees F.) tends to explain several of the actions of largemouth bass, particularly when we realize that it is not only the temperature of the water itself which affects the bass.
The penetrating rays of the sun, for instance, can cause a fish to be uncomfortably hot even when the water temperature is acceptable. This is similar to a person riding in a car at a pleasing temperature when the direct rays of the sun shine directly onto his arm or shoulder, heating that part beyond comfort. To escape these direct rays of the sun a bass finds cover. He will lie in the shadow of a log, stump, boat dock, lily pad or anything else which casts a shadow, or buries himself in shallow water weeds at the lake bottom, or he goes deeper. How deep he goes depends upon the clarity of the water, the strength of the sun's rays and their angle to the surface, and the temperature of the water itself.
A fish learns to measure the amount of energy it expends in relation to the rewards received. That's why lunker bass often seem extremely lazy. Many anglers counter this trait by working a lure for only a short distance around structure. They fish the structure carefully and then retrieve rapidly for the next cast.
Bass ordinarily isolate a specific victim and then attack it, and is more prone to select a prey that appears disabled or that looks different from the others.
Bill Stembridge of "Fliptail" fame portrays the life-style of a young bass to that of our own teenagers. He points out that they take a lot of chances, have a few close calls, profit by the mistakes of others, and get wiser with age. Bill reasons that when there are a lot of small bass in a lake, more of them will be caught, but those which survive become more warier. As a bass gets bigger, it gets tougher to fool.
By and large, the nemesis of the largemouth bass in a lake or pond is the bluegill (sunfish). The largemouth by itself is totally incapable of controlling the bluegill population - and the bluegills decimate the bass population by feeding heavily on its eggs and fry.
To maintain a good bass population, anglers should keep all bluegills caught - they are most tasty, also. By releasing bluegills, the angler is really harming the largemouth population.
The largemouth bass is quite capable of re-populating quickly if the bluegill numbers can be kept in check.
Knowledge of such factors greatly assists a bass fisherman in "finding the fish".
BASS HABITS
Largemouth bass of medium size school up and concentrate in "packs" (at least for certain periods of the year) far more than most anglers believe.
However, some older largemouths are sedentary and establish "territories" which they defend against trespass by all other fishes. This trait has been most evident among bass in captivity.
Normally, bass are not often "cruising" fish. They commute from deep water to shallower water, but this is not a continual or seething movement. At least half of a bass's life will be spent relatively motionless near the bottom - no matter whether the bottom is only inches deep or a hundred feet straight down.
Bass usually will be on or close to the bottom no matter whether the water is shallow or deep. They seldom stay suspended long in mid-depth.
PASSAGE OF TIME CHANGES A MAN-MADE LAKE
The bass now are challenged to search for acceptable "homes" and feeding territory. To be successful the angler must also recognize such factors, seek out those remaining areas most conducive to the needs of the bass, and alter his fishing methods accordingly.
The major consequence is that the most productive areas of bass habitat become progressively fewer in number. More and more widespread weed growth occurs as the silted mud becomes thicker and mud-loving watershield, pond lilies, submerged and emergent weed beds, and algae becomes profuse. The bass population declines as desirable spawning areas and forage fish are depleted. Anglers become challenged to locate their quarry.
FINALLY
The recognized law of natural selection, improvement of the species, and enhanced genetic characteristics is based upon the survival of the fittest. When the fittest are not destroyed but are permitted to survive they will spawn, pass on their robust genetics to reproduce the best of their species and enhance the quality of future angling.
Importantly, the quantity and size of bass caught in any given body of water is unquestionably affected in a positive manner when the process of careful "catch and release" is properly employed.
The great popularity and enjoyment of fishing derives from success in catching the quarry, not from the killing of the fish. The careful release of the larger and stronger bass will benefit the quality and quantity of future angling for them.
It is impossible to catch bass until you find them! Therefore, the procedures for locating where they live, feed, relax and rest up between feeding activities are basic to successful catching.
Fortunately, it is possible to predict fairly well where bass are located at any given time or place if an angler is prepared with an full understanding of the habits and behavior of this fish.
The old admonition to "think like the fish" is merely an incentive to learn the whys and reasons of a fish's normal behavior in order to be more successful in catching them.
* * * HAPPY FISHING * * *
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Advanced Bass Fishing by John Weiss, Stoeger Publishing Co., 1976
Bass Catching Secrets by Roland Martin, Winchester Press, 1988
Bass Master Magazine, Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, Monthly
Catch More Bass by Stan Fagerstrom, Caxton Printers Ltd., 1973
Complete Book of Bass Fishing by Grits Gresham, Harper & Row, 1966
Fishing For Bass by A.D. Livingston, J.B. Lippincott Co., 1974
In Pursuit of Giant Bass by Bill Murphy, Giant Bass Publishing, 1992
Largemouth Bass by Dan Oster, Cy DeCrosse Inc., 1983
Largemouth Bass Bibliography by Dr. R.C. Heidinger, Bass Research
Largemouth Bass in the 1990's by Al Lindner, In Fisherman Co., 1993
Modern Book of Black Bass by Byron Dalrymple, Winchester Press, 1972
"Pennsylvania Angler", By Charles Cooper, (Periodical), 1989
Practical Black Bass Fishing by Bill Dance, Crown Publishers, 1974The Nashville Predators selected defenseman Dante Fabbro with the 17th overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft on Friday.
Dante Fabbro
Position: Defense
Height: 6-foot-1
Weight: 185 pounds
Age: 18
Club: Penticton Vees (BCHL)
Nationality: Canadian
GP G A P 45 14 53 67
Fabbro is a consistent, three-zone defender who excels in a spatial capacity. He's not the biggest defenseman, nor is he considered the best skater in his class, but he's cool under pressure and able to make the other nine skaters perform at his pace.
He has an above-average shot and can orchestrate the man-advantage, but his greatest puck skills are sharp outlet passes and the ability to send his teammates away with accurate transition feeds.
His skills translated well to international competition last summer. He racked up eight assists in seven games, and was named one of Canada's top three players on its way to gold at the 2015 IIHF U18 World Championship.
Fabbro shared both a locker room and billet home in Penticton, B.C. with fellow first-round selection Tyson Jost.
In Fabbro, the Predators add another star talent in their deep crop of defenseman which includes, but is not limited to Shea Weber, Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, and Mattias Ekholm.
He's committed to Boston University for next season.UC DAVIS (CBS13) — During finals week, it’s hardly the happiest place on Earth, but how did a fire hydrant from a Disney theme park end up at UC Davis?
As you walk in front of King Hall, you’ll find the fire hydrant that’s clearly marked “Walt Disney World.”
It’s become quite the topic on social media and more than a few people want to know how it ended up there.
Utilities director David Phillips says out of 700 fire hydrants on the entire campus, the one by King Hall is the only Disney one.
The hydrant is the exact type specially designed for Disney theme parks. The Clow-made low silhouette hydrant is preferred for places where there’s lots of foot traffic.
Sometimes, the manufacturer says, the Disney World-type hydrant is sent to places other than Disney theme parks with the words “Disney World” still on it.
It works just like a regular hydrant, and water flows from it—not little Tinkerbells.
In case you were wondering, we checked, and Disney World doesn’t have a fire hydrant labeled “UC Davis.”Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean Deep Black
Omega combines the Dark Side of the Moon GMT with a diving watch to create the new Planet Ocean Deep Black Collection. The stand alone collection features 4 ceramic state of the art models for deep sea exploration including the Deep Black Ceramic.
The Co-Axial Master Chronometer GMT diving watch features a solid single block of black ceramic to form the case body. Available in glossy or matt finish. 18k Sedna gold or 18k white gold hands and indexes with white Super-Luminva coating emits green and blue colors.
Water Resistant to 600m
The Seamaster Deep Black features a GMT dial to keep you properly oriented no matter your diving location and is water resistant to 600m. Expanding helium can potentially damage the crystal face or caseback. The HE Escape Valve allows professional divers to exhaust any helium molecules that may form when inside a diving bell.
The new rubber strap is made of ceramised titanium while the clasp itself is made of ceramic and is available in two types of finishing. As a result the clasp is elegant, looks great but most importantly secures the Deep Black to your wrist with confidence.
Planet Ocean Deep Black Collection
The Planet Ocean Deep Black watches feature the Omega Master Chronometer calibre 8906 for reliable and accurate precision timekeeping. The Omega Seamaster Deep Black is able to withstand exposure of up to 15,000 gauss magnetic fields. Each timepiece is individually certified by METAS the Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology. The new standard of certification elevates testing for precision, replicates real-life wear, conditions and demonstrate water and magnetic field resistance. The Omega Master Chronometer watch comes with certified test results of the 8 measurements. You can see specific information of your actual timepiece’s performance under the new METAS testing standard.
Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean Deep Black
www.omegawatches.comBirth control control implants are, hands down, the most effective, non-permanent contraceptive.
The 4-centimeter device, inserted by a doctor into the arm, is far more effective than birth control pills and condoms at preventing pregnancy — and even slightly better than other long-term contraceptives, such as IUDs. Federal data shows that 0.05% of implant users become pregnant in a given year, compared to 0.2% of hormonal IUD users and 9% percent of women on birth control pills.
Birth control implants are also, hands down, the least popular contraceptive. Fewer women rely on the device than any other method. There are ten times as many women using IUDs as there are with the implant.
These two facts, taken together, are a bit odd. Birth control implants both work the best — but are used the least, and don't get talked about too much as a contraceptive option. The devices are a relatively new form of birth control and insertion requires special training on the part of a gynecologist.
"IUDs have been around a whole lot longer than implants, that's a huge factor," says Jill Rabin, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. "They're what doctors are used to, and recommend. Then there's also the fact that ob-gyns aren't trained to operate on arms, even though it's not difficult to do. It's an easy insertion, but also different from our typical work."
Rabin inserts both IUDs and implants regularly at her practice in Long Island. And I got to talk to her this week about birth control implants: how they work, what kind of side effects they have, and why so few women use them.
1) Birth control implants prevent pregnancy by delivering hormones to the blood stream
Gynecologists typically use a birth control implant called Nexplanon, which is manufactured by pharmaceutical company Merck. Some also will use an older version of the implant called Implanon, the main difference between the two is that Nexplanon ( |
position, it may not portray information off-center properly.
500Hz to 2kHz
Submitted by mrspeakers on September 15, 2017 - 12:22pm
One thing I note is that the curve appears to create a notch/discontinuity around 1K. I suspect it very unlikely almost all these headphones have a midrange discontinuity like that, it's a pretty critical area, and so it looks to me like there's an issue there that might create concerns about midrange linearity.
Yes, as mentioned above I see a problem with any target with significant inflection in this area. In fact, I tend to think the Harman Target is probably right on 600Hz to 3.5kHz. For reference, both the Diffuse Field and Independant of Direction curves have deflections in this area as well.
I think we'll have to see how this shakes out over time as people get to use the graph tool. I encourage folks to listen carefully in this area and comment as time goes on.
Height of peak at 3.5kHz
Submitted by Tonmeister on September 14, 2017 - 11:00pm
3. The other source of controversy could be the trade-off between bass boost and 3kHz bump. Many open-back headphones cannot produce the preferred 4-6 dB bass bump that are easily achieved with closed back headphones. So manufacturers trade-off the the bass bump for a reduction of energy at 3 kHz. If you read the paper by Gaetan Lorho ( see http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=14966) he took a headphone equalized to the diffuse field response (ie. flat bass) and had listeners adjust the level of the 12-15 dB peak at 3 kHz (measured in an ear simulator) according to taste. He found listeners on average preferred the 12-15 dB peak at 3 kHz adjusted down to about 3 dB if I recall. So listeners were essentially trading off bass for less upper midrange Several studies have shown that Lorho's target is less preferred to a target response like the Harman target that has more bass (4-6 dB below 125 Hz) with an otherwise DF-like response above 200 Hz.
Hm....interesting. Thanks, Sean. Personally I do tend to like this peak at about +12dB rather than +15dB...maybe you've identified why. At the moment I'm going to stick with the data gathered, but this is certainly something to think about moving forward. Eventually we might be able to have more than one target curve developed that covers the case of boosted bass or not.
3.5kHz to 8kHz
Submitted by brkitup on September 14, 2017 - 8:17pm
Thank you so much for your work on this. The graphs have traditionally not represented very well what the end user hears, and the new graphs are much more representative of how these headphones sound, especially in the treble. The one thing that still bothers me slightly, though, is the dip around 4-5kHz that seems common to all headphones when measured and compensated. I'm not sure how accurate that part of the compensation is.
Submitted by Argyris on September 14, 2017 - 8:55pm
Same here. It's smaller in width and depth in the IF compensation than on the DF or ID compensations, but it's still there. I wanted to see what this sounded like filled in, so I tried it on my HD 600 with a parametric EQ. I dialed in a simple peak centered around 5 kHz, with 0.3 octave width and 5 dB boost--it doesn't perfectly fill the hole, but it's a quick and dirty test of concept. It didn't sound horrible, like filling in the much larger and deeper trough left by the other compensations does, but it did add an uncomfortable edge and glare to everything.
Submitted by kais on September 15, 2017 - 3:00am
Currently the 5K range looks suspicious.
I quite agree, this area is tricky. It seems some headphone makers try to dial down this area to rid the cans of the piercing sound that can occur here, while others seem to keep the level up in order to improve speech intelligibility. I tend to see a lot of variation here. Fortunately, the way the numbers shook out kind of splits the difference and I do feel pretty good about it. Again, time will tell.
8kHz - 13kHz
The proposed curve does have a little detail in this area. This is likely some ear canal resonances. I was tempted to just erase them as they may create some artifacts, but as I looked at a lot of headphone plots I do see some seemingly common features in this area. Fortunately in the process of averaging all the speaker measurement curves these features are relatively small in the compensation plot so they shouldn't cause too much trouble and will likely reduce some of the noise in this region.
Finding Flat
Submitted by mrspeakers on September 15, 2017 - 12:22pm
In the absence of a standard "flat" compensation curve what about publishing a difference curve relative to your target? Musing out loud, people would be able to easily see where the response is on target or off and thus even if they're not able to intuitively process what the 4K dip really sounds would a differential plot would make it more intuitive?
Maybe I haven't been clear, but this is what I'm doing. The proposed curve will be subtracted from the averaged raw measurements to portray the difference between the two. The assumption is that if a headphone is tuned like speakers it will sound flat. Problem is, headphones aren't speakers, and there may be psychoacoustic reasons for headphones to have a somewhat different response at the eardrum than speakers.
Submitted by zobel on September 15, 2017 - 8:39pm
Nope. You cant measure what we see by putting a camera in an eyeball, any more than you can measure what we hear by putting a microphone in an ear.
Subjectivity rears its beautiful head here. The brain subjectively interprets the SPL data at the eardrum, and trough the entire inner ear as it is converted into a representation of SPL in nerve impulses. It wouldn't help to measure those impulses on the way to the brain either since the processor (brain) actually synthesizes our picture of the sound, with it's own correction curve, which is as individual as our set of ears are.
We will just have to make tests like Harmon did to find averages among listeners in comparing cans to a reference system.
Submitted by zobel on September 15, 2017 - 8:27pm
Mr Speakers asks the same old question that we all have been for many years, "Why not portray flat as a flat line, using raw data to provide the difference curve between measurements, and the perception of flat. It of course is not possible to do this scientifically or subjectively, but that attempt needs to be made to provide a more meaningful and representative curve. It would be an averaged curve, like Harmon's, based on listener's trials with a reference speaker system in a room, followed by headphone listening to determine the closest match to the room sound.
Yep. That sure would be nice. Unfortunately that task would be way out of my job description. I can only defend my methods here by saying I am unaware of any standardized curve for my head other than diffuse field, free field, and independant of direction, and those curves are simply wrong for headphones. Measuring my head in front of speakers, right or wrong, seems to me the best I can do. As Sean says:
Submitted by Tonmeister on September 14, 2017 - 11:00pm
In conclusion, I think the main reason for this bass bump controversy is elated to these 3 issues (no target will satisfy all tastes and all programs) and there is lack of published scientific evidence to support any one target. Hopefully, this will change soon.
Amen.
Odds and Ends
Submitted by kais on September 15, 2017 - 3:00am
I would like to see more headphone's curves compensated with this target, specially those models that are considered close to neutral like the STAX SR009. If you average a lot of those the result should be something close to a straight line.
I'm not sure I'll be able to average a big wad of headphones, but next week I will publish a couple dozen or so compensated plots so people can have a larger survey of headphones.
Submitted by markus on September 16, 2017 - 12:59am
I wonder how the frequency response would change if the dummy had arms and an upper body.
This is a good point. If you look at the proposed curve at the top of the page you can see the transition from flat to the upward rising portion at about 450Hz is rather abrupt. If my head had arms and a torso this might not be the case.
The dashed line labeled #2 in the plots above show the contribution of the torso to the ear drum response. You can see it does elevate response from below 200Hz. In the long run it may be that the IF compensation curve needs some messaging from 100-500Hz...but I don't want to be any more arbitrary than I have to beI've already ruffled enough feathers.
Submitted by Argyris on September 14, 2017 - 6:38pm
The HD 600 and HP50 graphs match up pretty well with what I heard (and still hear with the HD 600) from both headphones, much better than the previous compensation curve.
Submitted by kais on September 16, 2017 - 3:28am
If the goal is that a perfect headphone shows a straight line in the measurement this new correction curve approach comes closer than the one we had before. Still some way to go.
Thanks. Seems to me it tends to warm things up a bit too much when applied, which means the proposed curve is a bit too cool. It might be interesting to play with tilting the curve some, but I'll wait 'til there's far more evidence to make that move.
Submitted by Pokemonn on September 14, 2017 - 6:24pm
Is web graph tool underdeveloping? Hallelujah!
Submitted by lerrens on September 14, 2017 - 11:52pm
Innerfidelity has the best headphone measurement database right now and the Graph Tool will make it super awesome! I'm so excited I have to create an account just to tell you this: Thanks for all your work! Really looking forward to this :)
Submitted by castleofargh on September 15, 2017 - 4:59am
...and congrats for the graph tool being made. that's really good news.
Hallelujah indeed. I'm stoked!
Please feel free to add more comments below, I will be watching carefully.Named for the Roman god of passages, famous for having two faces, JanusVR re-draws websites as multi-dimensional spaces which can be explored and shared.
JanusVR’s aim to immerse users in the web. The user first enters the experiences in a private homepage dashboard called a ‘pocketspace’, from there, users can travel anywhere. Typical internet links are re-imagined as portals which allows the user to fly or walk to new areas of the internet.
The experience also has a social aspect. Other JanusVR users who are on the same webpage, or occupying the same web ‘space’ can interact with one another, able to see other users’ avatars and chat to them and share things they might have found. It is even possible to broadcast their movement through cyberspace to share discoveries with whoever might be watching.
JanusVR is compatible with HTC Vive and Oculus Rift and works with tracked motion controllers as well as standard gamepads and keyboard and mouse. The JanusVR browser is free to download from Steam.
Further details and updates can be found on the official Steam page.
VRFocus will continue to keep you updated on new VR experiences.Microsoft SQL Server 2017 is now available for the first time on Windows, Linux, and Docker. In this Ask the Admin, I’ll look at what this means for DevOps and database admins.
When Microsoft announced that it was releasing SQL Server for Linux last year, it caused something of a stir. Microsoft hasn’t always embraced Linux. But times are different, and SQL isn’t the only Microsoft service or product that works on Linux. Notably, Microsoft Azure offers Linux-friendly services and is a member of the Linux Foundation.
At its Ignite conference in Orlando last week, Microsoft announced that SQL Server 2017 is now available for Linux as a certified Docker image based on Ubuntu 16.04. SQL Server for Linux is supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12, Ubuntu, and Docker on devices with 3.25GB of RAM.
Microsoft claims that performance is the same on both Windows and Linux, although the Linux version of SQL Server doesn’t have Reporting Services, Analysis Services, or Machine Learning Services. Replication is also missing but SQL Server on Linux has what it needs for high availability. And there’s no Stretch DB for hybrid local or Azure storage. File Table is also unsupported on Linux. Command-line management tools work on Linux but Microsoft expects you to use the Windows-based GUI management tools.
What’s most interesting about the announcement is that the Docker image is SQL Server 2017 on Linux. There is an official SQL Server 2017 image for Windows Containers but it runs SQL Server 2017 Express. It is not the full version of the product. In the Docker store, you can find an image from Microsoft of SQL Server 2017 for Windows but it is a preview that’s not supported in a production environment. The existence of this image suggests that Microsoft is working on an official Windows image for the full version of SQL Server.
The ability to deploy SQL Server 2017 using Docker makes the database server much faster to install. If you have ever manually set up SQL Server, you will know that it can be a time-consuming process. Plus, Docker allows developers to install multiple instances of the database on one host, allowing more flexibility, easier configuration, and the ability to manage the resources that each SQL Server image consumes.
You can find the Docker image for SQL Server 2017 on Linux here.
Follow Russell on Twitter @smithrussell.Google-backed 23andMe's £125 genetic screening test arrives in the UK – but with a health warning BelfastTelegraph.co.uk A Google-backed company that offers a personal genetic screening to test for diseases such as cancer and Parkinson’s will be available in the UK from today despite deep public health concerns in the US. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/health/googlebacked-23andmes-125-genetic-screening-test-arrives-in-the-uk-but-with-a-health-warning-30790165.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article30790164.ece/75c44/AUTOCROP/h342/spitkit.jpg
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A Google-backed company that offers a personal genetic screening to test for diseases such as cancer and Parkinson’s will be available in the UK from today despite deep public health concerns in the US.
The Department of Health is warning people that they should “think carefully” before using the £125 genomic assessment as “no test is 100 per cent reliable”.
America’s public health authority, the Food and Drug Administration, banned the company, 23andMe, from predicting people’s future health after failing to prove the tests were accurate.
Now, the California-based company, set up by Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin, is launching in the UK amid questions over whether the science is sound and could drive people to seek out unnecessary treatments.
23andMe – named after the 23 pairs of chromosomes in a human cell – offers its customers reports on more than 100 health and personal traits based on genetic tests carried out on saliva samples. It claims that its Personal Genome Service (PGS) can also unveil genetic secrets about an individual’s ancestry – even telling customers what percentage of their DNA comes from Neanderthals.
Globally, 800,000 people have taken the tests, which are already available in the US and Canada. However, customers in the US do not currently receive information on their health after the FDA temporarily banned 23andMe from marketing the test last year.
“Without strong public oversight, we’re back to the era of snake oil,” Marcy Darnovsky, chief executive of the Centre for Genetics and Society, said at the time.
The company says it had addressed the concerns raised by the FDA, and the UK test offers health reports on fewer conditions.
In the UK the service is not being marketed as diagnostic and therefore does not require approval from the Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. The products used comply with European safety regulations.
23andMe is one of the biggest and best-known of a growing number of private genetic testing companies. It is part-funded by Google, which was an early investor when the company was founded in 2006. In a statement greeting the service’s arrival in the UK, Ms Wojcicki said that the company’s “mission” was “to ensure that individuals can personally access, understand and benefit from the human genome”.
The tests work by extracting DNA from a saliva sample, submitted by customers to 23andMe’s lab. Data from the DNA is extracted and placed on a “genotyping chip” that can be analysed by a computer. The information is then uploaded to a secure online account that the customer can view.
The UK is already considered a world leader for genetic research. Growing understanding of the genetic basis of a broad range of health conditions is revolutionising health, and experts said that personalised testing of the kind offered by 23andMe would become more common.
“You could argue with ethicists till the cows come home about whether people should be able to have their genomes sequenced,” said Mark Thomas, professor of evolutionary genetics at University College London.
“The bottom line is, technology is taking over. It is here, they are doing it, and it’s not going away.The question is: are these companies responsible? Is the information they are giving you scientifically sound and is it handled in a responsible way?
“Genetics is messy and complicated. If people are expecting their test to say, ‘you’ve got this variant, therefore you’re going to get this disease’, they need to know that this is rarely the way it is.
“23andMe are one of the better companies out there. They’ve got vast resources and Google behind them, and have set up a very professional outfit with some leading scientists on their advisory board.”
However, the company is still unable to offer its health reports to consumers in America, where test results are currently limited to information on ancestry and raw genetic data, after a warning from the FDA a year ago.
The regulator said at the time that 23andMe should “immediately discontinue marketing the tests”, saying it was “concerned about the public health consequences of inaccurate results from the PGS device”. Regulators warned they were not convinced that the firm had “analytically or clinically validated” its test for the intended use of informing customers about their health.
A spokesperson for 23andMe said that the company was working closely with the FDA and that the UK version of the test had been “reformulated” taking US regulators’ concerns into account.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “This Government is developing the use of genomics for patient care within the NHS. We welcome initiatives that help to raise awareness of genomics and those which enable people to take more interest in their personal health but we urge people to think carefully before using private genomic services as no test is 100 per cent reliable.”
Health checks: what does 23andme claim it can do?
For £125, 23andMe promises to use genotyping technology to analyse DNA in your saliva and reveal a variety of characteristics. While it cannot diagnose disease, it can reveal whether someone possesses a recessive genetic variant of 43 hereditary conditions, including cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anaemia, and any of 11 genetic risk factors for diseases, such as hereditary breast cancer and Parkinson’s disease.
It can also expose 38 physical traits common to a person’s family, such as ear wax type, hair curl and even pain sensitivity. The likeliness of someone having a bad reaction to drugs that treat conditions such hepatitis C and epilepsy can be measured as well.
The data can also be used in genealogical research to establish facts about a client’s ancestry. It can determine facts such as what percentage of their DNA comes from different populations and how closely related they are to Neanderthals. They are also able to match clients to their relatives and are currently working with MyHeritage to create a family-tree tool.
If you are a frequent smoker, the company says the results of tests will help people to learn how their body would respond to diet and exercise, and whether they are predisposed to be a sprinter or endurance athlete.
The Personal Genome Service, it claims, will also look for genes that may be factors for conditions such as blood clotting.
Harry Davies
Belfast Telegraph DigitalKelly McDonald is raising funds to help other small towns launch their own factories.
Don’t tell Kelly McDonald you can’t go home again.
McDonald was raised in Wabasha, Minn., a city of 2,500 people located on the banks of the Mississippi River. She pursued her professional career in law and insurance in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul before returning to Wabasha to care for her elderly parents.
Wabasha is known as the film location for the popular films Grumpy Old Men and the sequel Grumpier Old Men, starring legendary actors Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. It is also home to the National Eagle Center, which attracts about 10,000 visitors per month.
But it’s a far cry from big city life.
“When I moved back, I thought, ‘What am I going to do?” said McDonald.
It didn’t take her long to figure out what Wabasha and many other small cities across America needed – small-town manufacturing.
McDonald started a company called KIS Fashions in 2009. Originally, she offshored her manufacturing to China, India and Mexico, but she quickly realized doing so was more trouble than it was worth. She also didn’t feel comfortable with offshore labor when she could put Americans to work in the manufacturing field, even in a city as small as Wabasha.
“I was doing everything overseas and I just didn’t feel good about it,” said McDonald. “We are a cut and sew factory and I have nine employees in house and another nine ladies that work from home cutting and sewing our products.”
KIS Fashions originally made handbags and some ladies apparel. When McDonald decided the company should bring its manufacturing home, it morphed into the moniker America USA (AMUSA). McDonald found an old museum to house her small manufacturing facility, and it wasn’t long before the KIS line of products was put on hold.
That’s because McDonald ended up doing a large volume of work for inventors who wanted their products Made in America.
“Now we’re doing all kinds of things,” McDonald said. “We make leather handbags, men’s totes and weekender bags. We make men’s hunting apparel and pet products that are sold to veterinary clinics. We make furniture handles for an American-made furniture company. We just do a number of things that can profitably be done in small cities across America.”
And that’s where AMUSA comes into play.
“AMUSA has been up and running for two years now and other small towns have contacted us saying ‘Hey, can you help us?’ Offshoring is heartbreaking, so to be on this end of this we are really excited to reach out to other small towns and help them,” McDonald said.
And now that is the goal of AMUSA. The company launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding effort on Sunday to help other small cities get funding to start small American-made manufacturing businesses. The goal is to raise $75,000.
“Made in America seems to be a real movement these days,” McDonald said. “U.S. materials are better, the quality is better, the delivery time is better. China is just going to ruin the entire design. There is an honesty level that goes into it and so it’s wonderful to be able to work with these American companies.”
McDonald regularly attends a Minnesota factory focus group, where they gather information on a plethora of different factories, including steel fabricators, printing companies and tool and die makers.
“One of the interesting things during the focus group is one of the questions that was posed, with the presidential election coming up, is anybody going to benefit from any one candidate? I had to say yes, I think we are benefitting from [Donald] Trump being ridiculed for having his products made overseas,” she said. “It’s bringing more attention to American-made products.
“I love that there is a dialogue about American-made products coming out of this election campaign.”
McDonald has tried the overseas manufacturing option and has discovered that small-town American manufacturing is a blessing to workers who have difficult commutes and other restrictions. Her business model also helps employ workers that have lost their jobs to offshoring.
“I can see this growing pretty quickly once word gets out there and we get funding from this campaign we are doing,” she said. “I know a lot of people need the funds and we’re here to help them. We want to see things spring up everywhere.”
Click here to learn more about AMUSA's crowdfunding effort.Lights Out is an independent film series based on the popular book by the same title. Executive producer Travis Fox and author David Crawford attempted to utilize popular crowd funding websites to help make their creative collaborative a reality, but faced obstacles at every step because gun companies and tactical gear manufacturers were among their sponsors. Using Internet venues designed to allow the public to donate funds to the arts and worthy projects has become commonplace, making it a great option for independent filmmaker’s in need of extra cash for development and pre-production costs.
The extremely well-written book has an important preparedness message to share with America, and will ultimately make it onto the big screen, despite the funding hurdles – the dedicated men behind the production simply do not consider failure an option. Lights Out takes place in the modern day United States. The audience is introduced to the main characters just a few minutes before the power grid goes down. Unfortunately for the main character Mark Turner and his family, friends, and MZBs [A.K.A. Mutant Zombie Bikers, the nickname for the bad guys and evil ladies in the saga] modern society is ill-equipped to deal with an existence sans microwaves, iPhones and the Internet. It does not take long after “The Burst” for society to collapse, civil unrest to take hold, and for millions of people to begin roaming city streets with bellies aching from hunger.
Many independent films and documentaries offer “producer” credit for fans who donate funds to the project, but the Lights Out team is taking a more interactive approach. One contribution package includes the “become a produce” option. Individuals who purchase the package can actually be involved with specific aspects of the development of Lights Out. For folks who love the book but may be on a tighter budget, they can purchase the “become an actor” option. The price to play a bit part varies depending upon what stage of production the film is in, but remains reasonable and offers an exciting and rare opportunity for fans.
The Inquisitr recently sat down with Lights Out Saga executive producer Travis Fox to discuss the book, the movie series, and preparedness. Long before he could add executive producer to his resume, Travis Fox had a distinguished career as a disaster planning specialist, security consultant and firearms instructor. David Crawford is most definitely the outdoorsy type, and is also a fourth level black belt who shares his knowledge of self-defense by teaching both adult and children’s courses. Lights Out Saga recently took runner up for “Best Action Sequence on a Feature Length Film” at the Action On Film International Film Festival. The award was won based on the first draft of the script, which has since progressed a great deal.
IQ: What problems did you face when dealing with crowd funding websites due to the guns and weapons sponsors who had signed onto Lights Out?
Travis: As far as the anti-gun crowd funding thing – yes, Indiegogo ‘reinterpreted’ their ‘no firearms policy’ to include any tactical item that could be used in conjunction with a firearm. This eliminated every one of our sponsors, which included flashlights [SureFire], plastic parts [Magpul], knives [Cold Steel], airsoft weapons [Airsoft Extreme], Vortex Optics [scopes and binoculars], Brownells [gunsmithing gear], etc. The only reason we were able to keep 5.11 gear on our site is because they didn’t realize their backpacks and chest rigs were created for firearms gear. To add insult to injury, Indiegogo charged us 12 percent of our gross proceeds because we couldn’t hit our fundraising targets, even though they changed the rules within a few weeks of our launch. Needless to say, it was an experience I never want to go through again.
After contacting other crowd-funding sites it became clear we were at risk of the same PC behavior from all of them, because they would only deny items after we kicked off our campaign. I created a secure storefront that mimicked the behavior of a true ‘crowd funding’ site, and we’re doing it on our own. Again, not ideal, but this industry is going to fight me every step of the way. So be it. It just steels my resolve to push on.
IQ: How did you make the leap from being a security and disaster professional into the filmmaking business?
Travis: I run a consulting practice helping companies and government agencies implement effective security programs that also plan for and react to disasters, incidents and other significant events. I suppose that makes me a ‘professional prepper.’ Although there are many things a large organization can do to react to the impact of adverse events, ultimately – the most effective way to minimize impact on a broad scale is to change the mindset of people at an individual level. Awareness and self-sufficiency remain our number one asset at the corporate, national and individual level, and is something we should all encourage. Unfortunately, that’s really difficult to do on a broad scale.
I first got involved in the movie industry by volunteering as a technical advisor – as an attempt to more realistically portray what post-disaster life would be like. It quickly became obvious, though, that the entertainment world isn’t interested in accuracy, because it’s not very ‘entertaining.’ During those days on movie sets, though, I quickly gained experience in the film industry itself. I’m not a creative person. I have multiple engineering degrees and run multiple technical businesses. What quickly became apparent, though, is that the things that draw people to work in the entertainment industry are rarely what I consider practical. The industry in general seems to be missing the logistics, planning and leadership needed to effectively accomplish something as large as a movie. While I couldn’t tell you how to hold a camera – organization and logistics are my specialties. As a result, I found myself being asked to take on increasingly senior roles in the movies I was involved in, until I eventually found myself working as a producer. It’s worked out to be a great fit.
IQ: The Lights Out book is a huge hit on Amazon. How did you and David meet and decide to collaborate on the film?
Travis: I was actually an early follower of the story, and kept in touch with David occasionally as it was posted online. I got involved in a much smaller film project a few years ago which had some similar themes. In fact, on the surface the storylines sounded so similar that some Lights Out fans tossed out accusations of theft. That prompted David and I to get back in touch, which prompted us to talk about how great it would be to see Lights Out hit the big screen. Unfortunately, someone else had an option on the book, so we could do no more than dream about it. I talked to David occasionally in 2012 about writing another story that we could use for a screenplay, but it just didn’t feel right. Ultimately, I just happened to call David on New Year’s Eve of 2012 to wish him a Happy New Year, at which time he informed me that the other company’s option expired at midnight that night. As you can imagine, I had my legal team writing up an option offer on New Year’s Day, and we moved very quickly from there!
IQ: When will Lights Out Saga production being?
Travis: We’ve worked hard throughout 2013 to complete what’s known as pre-production. This includes writing the scripts, location scouting, hiring crew, completing casting, acquiring funding and several other key steps. We’re in a position to shoot some scenes now, although full-time production won’t begin until 2014. Our goal is to film all three films at the same time, so we’re looking for all the resources and a good 50-day window next year to shoot. As an independent film series, we’re obviously guided a great deal by funding as well, so a great deal of our dates are still unknown.
IQ: I understand that filming will take place in Georgia, not too far from The Walking Dead shooting locations. The South has become a popular location for both television and movie location shoots. Why are so many television and movie producers opting out of the traditional Hollywood, California, or New York locations for their productions?
Travis: Taxes, unions and a bloated industry on the West Coast have simply driven business elsewhere. The movie industry started in California because of the number of sunny days there, prior to the availability of lighting. Since then the machine on the West Coast has become more important than the product it produces. While many States have seen the value film production brings, few have pursued that business as aggressively as Georgia. While an industry hardly grows overnight, Georgia has implemented a state rebate program and invested heavily in production studios and other facilities needed for ‘top shelf’ movie production. Georgia is tax-friendly, a ‘right to work’ State – no mandatory unions, and has attracted a base of cast and crew that is amongst the best you can find anywhere. Our plan is to shoot the Lights Out Saga exclusively in Georgia, which certainly hasn’t made all the Lights Out fans in Texas very happy!
IQ: How do you and David feel about the depiction of the preparedness community and Americans focused on self-reliance?
Travis: When’s the last time you saw a movie or TV show depict someone who was prepared in a positive light? I had to go back to the 1980s before I found one. Let’s face it – there is a concerted effort within the entertainment industry to portray the self-sufficient as hoarders who are mentally unbalanced and only think of themselves. We could spend a lot of time talking about why our government and entertainment industry push this message, which would probably lead to some uncomfortable conversation. Ultimately, encouraging people to be dependent on others for their well-being has had catastrophic effects. People literally die from this mindset every day, because they fail to take the most basic precautions for their own survival.
Unfortunately, the industry is effectively propagating this mindset, because people in general tend to believe and act like what they see in movies and TV shows. We can list hundreds of examples of things people believe or do because of something they saw in a movie. My favorite example is the opening scene in the 1993 film Menace II Society which depicted a gangster shooting his handgun sideways. Decades later, popular culture still mimics this incredibly ineffective way of firing a weapon – all because it was in a movie. So while we may share insights with our friends, family and acquaintances, we’re no match for the non-stop barrage of negativity put out by Hollywood. People spend more time with their TVs and computers than they do with real people, and this media interaction has replaced much of their personal interaction and critical thinking. To be blunt – we’re outgunned.
So what can we do? The only way I know to change public opinion on a broad level is to use the same tools used against us to send a positive message. Millions of people have read Lights Out, and it’s had an impact on their lives. A movie series with recognizable actors and fantastic production values could change millions of people’s views all around the globe. Imagine that story packaged in a DVD case with recognizable actors on the cover at your local Redbox, and how this message will get inside the homes of everyday people. It may sound funny, but I believe we can save lives by making entertaining movies that hit the mainstream – but deliver a positive message about being self-sufficient.
IQ: Why have so many weapons companies decided to become involved in the Lights Out Saga?
Travis: Similar to the portrayal of self-sufficient people in the entertainment industry – lawful firearms owners are maligned at incredible levels in modern entertainment. The opportunity to present their products in a positive light is unfortunately something those in the firearm and tactical industries had never encountered before. As you can imagine having someone who shares your values making a movie series such as Lights Out is a pretty attractive situation for them.
Ultimately, we have landed over 20 sponsorships at this time. We literally have the top company in every single niche, which has actually been a bit overwhelming. While we have a number of sponsors who would like to remain ‘behind the scenes,’ some of the ones we can talk about include 5.11 Tactical, Benelli, Brownells, Cold Steel, Mystery Ranch, Noveske Rifleworks, Surefire and Vortex Optics. We’ve also gotten a lot of support from online forums such as ar15.com. While the movies are not about firearms and tactical gear, the opportunity to see products presented in an accurate and positive light is something unprecedented. To help with this, we’ve engaged the Noveske Shooting Team to train each of our actors and extras before they appear on set. We’re also leveraging ‘real’ weapons, from our sponsors, with blanks where possible. This will lead to accurate recoil, reloading and other functions, which I think will make for a fantastic movie experience. I admire a lot of the work done by the team in Act of Valor, and we certainly intend to produce something comparable on that front.
IQ: Is the focus of the Lights Out Saga purely entertainment, or is the series of movies designed to warn and educate as well?
Travis: Although original stories are rare these days – Hollywood produces plenty of content every year that many may consider ‘entertaining.’ Unfortunately, most of it is completely meaningless. While we want to make an entertaining movie series, our real goal is to change public opinion about preparedness by telling a great story. Lights Out [the book] is absolutely a story that entertains and educates at the same time, and the movie series will retain that character. We want Lights Out to be a movie series that people watch with their families, loan to their friends, and sparks a conversation about how they can be better prepared for their future. Awareness and |
that this meant taking on more risk. They swapped from fixed rate to variable rate, from high interest to low interest. Some counter-party would always take the other side of the bet. If Casino wanted a lower interest rate with concomitant higher risk, there was always some one or some institution that wanted lower risk and was willing to pay a higher interest rate. All went well for a while until the interest rate Casino’s swap was pegged to started to go up. They paid hundreds of thousands more in interest than they bargained for. Casino ended up paying Bear Stearns (now owned by JP Morgan Chase) over a million dollars in interest. They sued and recovered half a million but they are still in the red More than a thousand municipalities and institutions in Europe bought some type of derivative from Wall Street. Potential losses are estimated to be in the billions. Scores of lawsuits have been filed.
Europe’s financial troubles largely originated with the machinations of Wall Street. When countries were trying to join the euro club, they let Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase devise policies of regulatory arbitrage. Regulatory arbitrage refers to using derivatives to fashion ways of getting around the spirit of the law which are still legal. Derivative solutions were a magic formula that made European countries’ shaky finances still qualify for entry to the euro zone. The French cooked their books by reclassifying pension obligations. Germany played some tricks with gold. Now the chickens are coming home to roost with the collapse of the euro zone. The problem was letting Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase use regulatory arbitrage to get them into the euro zone in the first place and set them on a debt based course where, no matter what they do, they will still be little more than serfs and vassals indebted to Wall Street in perpetuity.
And it wasn’t just in Europe. Birmingham, Alabama, county seat of Jefferson County, had squandered $2 billion on a sewer system in 1996. Many constituents ended up with a sewer system to nowhere and huge monthly bills. County officials were looking to refinance their loan and borrow more money to complete the system without raising rates. In 2002 a former TV personality turned politician, Larry Langford, took charge of Birmingham’s finances They wanted to refinance their sewer debt by borrowing another $3 billion.This was no problem for derivatives trader, Charles LeCroy, leading producer at JP Morgan, who devised a “solution” consisting of a series of interest rate swaps. Langford consulted a friend, Birmingham financial adviser Bill Blunt, who said it was a good deal. However, far from solving Jefferson County’s financial problems, the intervention of JP Morgan Chase only added to them.
In 2008 there was a big change in the markets. The county suddenly owed hundreds of millions of dollars in fees and penalties to its debt holders including JP Morgan. And there was another complication. LeCroy had paid Bill Blunt $3 million in bribes according to Federal prosecutors, and Blunt had given money to Larry Langford. In 2010 Langford went to jail for fifteen years on charges of bribery and fraud. JP Morgan was fined $25 million by the SEC and was ordered to forgive Jefferson County $697 million. Blunt cooperated with Federal prosecutors and got a 4 1/2 year sentence. LeCroy got 3 months. In 2011 Jefferson County filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history. Over 100 schools and hospitals as well as state and municipal governments bought swaps. In the last 5 years interest rate swaps have cost American taxpayers $20 billion.
Alexis Goldstein recounted how they talk about “FU money” on Wall St. That was when you had so much money that you could say “Fuck You” to anybody and not have there be any consequences. You are above everything and are immune from the world:
At one point in my career, I was being recruited by a hedge fund. During the recruitment process, one of my interviewers frankly described the fund’s founder—his boss’s boss—as a “spoiled brat billionaire.” My interviewer related a story about a meeting between the hedge fund and an executive at a company the fund wanted to work with. At one point, the visiting executive made statements the fund founder didn’t like. The founder turned to the visitor and said, “So, you came here just to try and fuck me over?” The visitor quickly stormed out in a rage. But the founder wasn’t satisfied just yet. He followed the man out of the room, into the elevator, shouted the entire ride down, and then yelled at him in the lobby until he finally left the building. When the founder came back upstairs to greet his shaken employees, he said, invigorated and beaming, “Wasn’t that fun?!” This is Wall Street’s equivalent of the American Dream: to earn enough money so that you can behave in a way that makes the very existence of other people irrelevant.
She talks about a culture of admiring cheaters. If you do something against regulations and you only get caught once and pay a small fine, it’s worth it because the end goal is to make money no matter how. Wall Street exemplifies an ethic of profits at any cost. Finally, Goldstein said to herself, “I dont know if I can stay here and still be an ethical person.” So the ones who end up remaining on Wall Street are the ones who have the least ethical scruples, the ones like the Enron traders of a decade ago who don’t mind screwing Grandma out of her pension.
Many young Wall Street quants and traders who can’t take the ridiculous long hours and have moral qualms about ripping their clients’ faces off and legally gouging pension funds leave Wall Street after a short sojourn there. Alexis Goldstein now has her own consulting company. She started out teaching Occupy Wall Street about the Glass-Steagall Act, the depression era act that separated commercial from investment banking. That act was dismantled by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 signed by President Bill Clinton. This made it possible for the combination of investment banks with insurance companies and commercial banks paving the way for collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps and other sophisticated financial products which have turned out to be less than benign precipitating the 2008 subprime mortgage crash among other things.
I’ll give Alexis the final words:
“It is hard to contrast the joy of community I feel at Occupy Wall Street with the isolation I felt on Wall Street. It’s hard because I cannot think of two more disparate cultures. Wall Street believes in, and practices, a culture of scarcity. This breeds hoarding, distrust, and competition. As near as I can tell, Occupy Wall Street believes in plenty. This breeds sharing, trust, and cooperation. On Wall Street, everyone was my competitor. They’d help me only if it helped them. At Occupy Wall Street, I am offered food, warmth, and support, because it’s the right thing to do, and because joy breeds joy. I was privileged enough to make it in the door on Wall Street, and to get bonuses during my time there. But I never felt as fortunate, or joyful, as I did the night after the eviction of Occupy Wall Street from Liberty Square, when we had our first post-raid General Assembly. When the thousands of supporters who filled the park necessitated three waves of the people’s mic. When our voices together echoed not just down the park, but up into the sky as the buildings caused the sound to ricochet off their glass walls. And so I say to my friends who still dwell behind the Wall: come join us. The spoils of money can never match the joys of community. When you’re ready, we’ll be here.”
Like this: Like Loading...Looking for information on healthy eating so you can have good health and weight loss?
There comes a time in most peoples lives when we decide that we need to manage our weight, and so many of us are now technically classed as obese, but how can you actually stay ahead of the curve and look after your weight loss.
We spoke with True Health Diary who regularly reviews weight loss solutions including a number of diet pills. One of their most recent shares an article on Golo Diet reviews (https://truehealthdiary.com/the-golo-diet) to point out the pitfalls.
We spoke to them to get their opinion on what healthy weight loss looks like in 2019.
Here is what True Health Diary recommends
It is important to take care of health by taking good sort of food in the correct quantity and correct time. Healthy eating is essential to keep yourself fit as well as feel good. It involves consuming diverse foods rich in nutrients such as protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins water and minerals.
Nutrition plays a significant role in keeping an individual healthy. When it is consumed in the right form and quantity, combined with physical activity, it will help to make your weight loss plan accomplished.
Why managing weight?
There are multiple health risks of being obese or overweight. These conditions worsen the risk of health issues such as heart disease, diabetes, and retain caners. In women, overweight could result in health issues in short as well as long run.
How to take care such that you don’t gain weight?
Your diet plays a primal role not only keep you healthy but helps in managing weight gain as well. Good nutrition is an integral part of a healthy lifestyle. Your diet can help reach the optimal weight and cut down the risk of chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, etc.
How your diet influences your health
Studies across the globe show that unhealthy eating patterns have led to obesity and overweight like an epidemic.
Even if you have a normal healthy weight, consuming, poor die to may increase the risk of illnesses. This is because an unhealthy diet may lead to malfunction in the system of the body.
As of today, the risk factors for chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension are increasingly becoming common in young age thanks to unhealthy dietary habits. It’s therefore, important to consider eating healthy.
What is healthy eating?
Healthy eating involves making each meal a healthy one, which could enable you to get all the essential nutrients. The sources include vegetables, fruits, whole grains, dairy and protein-rich foods. It is also important to include small amounts of sugars, sodium, and saturated fat.
Here are a few tips to make your every meal healthy:
Include vegetables and fruits – Vegetables and fruits are rich sources of all essential nutrients. You can choose fruits such as red oranges, grapes, bananas, lemons, blueberries, apples and the like. Choose vegetables such as tomatoes, broccoli, sweet potatoes and many more.
Dairy products – It is important to have a cup of nil fat or low-fat milk. If you don’t like to drink milk, try soymilk. Or, you could try low-fat yoghurt.
Protein – When it comes to choosing a protein, code only lean protein such as lean beef, chicken, eggs, turkey beans, nuts. Make sure to choose seafood protein at least once a week.
Whole grains – Whole grains a good source of fibre. Whole grains include oats, barley, brown rice, popcorn, whole wheat bread, crackers or pasta.
Avoid too much fat – Consuming heavy gravies or sauces will only add fat and calories. Instead, try steamed broccoli with low-fat cheese.
Eat sensibly – As far as possible, consume home cooked food instead of eating ut. When you eat out, be aware of the nutrient information on the food you consume. Go for foods that add lower calories, less amount of sodium and saturated fat.
For weight loss plan
And, if you’re on a weight loss plan, it is important to note that different foods can create different effects on your appetite, homes and the calories you burn. Here are a few foods that help in your weight loss plan
Whole eggs – Eggs lead neither to cholesterol or heart attack. They’re rich in proteins and therefore should be a good part of weight loss diet.
Leafy vegetables – Rich in fibre and low in calories, spinach, kale, collards, and so on are good for losing weight.
Boiled potatoes – Rich in potassium, boiled potatoes make you feel and you will less crave for food. Cooled boiled potatoes have high-quality fibre like substances that are good for weight loss.
Legumes and beans – Legumes and beans are rich in fibre and protein and therefore, are good for weight loss. Include in your diet black beans, lentils, kidney beans and the like.
To conclude, your diet plays a great role in keeping your physique and mind healthy. Healthy eating helps in keeping your weight at the optimal level. Further, if you are obese or overweight, healthy, you need to follow a diet that could help your weight loss plan.A Smile On Her Five-Thousand Faces on NRDB
Foreward:
At some point, all of us were drawn in by the theme of this great game. Somewhere along the way, amidst all of the money, fame and popularity in competitive netrunner, we lost our way.
How could we not? With so much money on the tables at even lowly game night kit events, a good netrunner player could pay the rent if their play was tight enough. It just made sense to start breaking everything down scientifically, mathematically, and set aside all of the meaningless flavor and fluff.
I think that is what made the deck of the week so special this week, it was a return to flavor, a return to form, it took us all back to the place where we began, before Netrunner became the corrupt money-sport that it is today.
I think this proves that the time is right – I want to unveil something personal that I have been working on for a while.
***
NBN: Making News Agenda (12)
2x Breaking News
3x Character Assassination
3x Project Beale
3x Quantum Predictive Model
1x Restructured Datapool Asset (7)
3x Adonis Campaign ••••• •
3x Reality Threedee
1x Victoria Jenkins Upgrade (3)
1x Ash 2X3ZB9CY ••
1x Bernice Mai
1x ChiLo City Grid Operation (8)
3x Hedge Fund
2x Midseason Replacements
3x Sweeps Week Barrier (6)
3x Markus 1.0 •••
3x Pachinko Code Gate (6)
3x Enigma
3x Tollbooth Sentry (7)
3x News Hound
3x Pup •••
1x Swordsman • 15 influence spent (max 15)
20 agenda points (between 20 and 21)
49 cards (min 45)
Cards up to Data and Destiny
It was midnight when the news broke.
A double tap on Chill’s apartment door, then a manilla envelope slipped underneath, containing a new list. A new torment. That was how it was supposed to happen anyhow. This week was different however; the stakes were higher and Chill was ready when the knock came.
Chill flung open the door to catch the messenger, one fist extended in a mid-knock, the other clutching the envelope. White hair and a blue track suit. A Tenma. The color drained from the messenger’s face, he looked like he had just seen his own clone.
‘Y-your d-delivery s-sir…’ he offered the envelope weakly, Chill pushed it back.
‘Tell your people I’m done doing their dirty work.’ His voice was cool and batmanly, he shouldn’t have expected to catch anyone in the know delivering the lists, but it pissed him off all the same. How many weeks had he been taking these lists without coming any closer to their source?
‘I-I Just d-deliver packages s-sir.’ The messenger, seeming to get his wits back, dealt with the situation the only way he knew how – he dropped the envelope and ran like he was getting paid. Chill stood motionless in the doorway, a delivery manifest spiraled to the ground in his wake and settled gently upon the infernal envelope.
The sender address read simply: The Internet
Cute.
***
Chill shambled into work the next day a broken man. There was no meaning, no grand design, no misguided intent in any of it. He spent the entire evening studying the decklist, and it was simply the worst decklist he had ever seen.
‘This is simply the worst decklist I have ever seen’ Chill complained to anyone who would listen. At present, this was his trusted teammate Arkidents, a scholarly Asian man who had been silently reading the crumpled list while Chill ranted.
‘There are a few problems with this list as I see it’ Arkidents understated understatingly.
‘What makes you say that? Is it the lack of Astros, the Newshounds without currents, or the sub-optimal tag punishment with only 2 midseasons?’ He paced around the office while he spoke, throwing his hands up for emphasis. What infuriated him most, was that the deck was beating him.
‘No’ Arkidents spinned in his chair thoughtfully. ‘There is something here, as if it’s been built to counter a deck that does not exist yet…’ The room suddenly felt colder. Chill stopped the chair mid-spin and lowered himself to Arkidents.
‘Are you saying… this deck is from the future?’
‘Precisely.’ Arkidents pushed up his glasses. ‘A future metagame where Astroscript has been banned.’
Chill sat in silence for a while after Arkidents had left, holding the sleeved deck cupped in his hands away from him like a smelly hamster. Chill didn’t want to live in a world without Astroscripts, was he holding the twisted herald of a dark future, or simply the mad ravings of a lunatic podcaster?
Chill stuffed the deck into a drawer and shook his head. Whatever the truth was, he still had a job to do, and thankfully he wouldn’t be disturbed until the next asterisk.
***
‘I’ve read your articles’ she began with measured distaste. Introductions weren’t Bernice Mai’s style. She helped herself to his guest chair, crossing her legs, and smoothing her skirt. ‘They’re a bit shit.’
Chill didn’t have to ask what she was doing in his office, the NBN name badge and knock-off Walter Steiger heels told him her whole life story. She was a manipulative Ice-queen who was married to her job, the kind of girl who answered the phone in bed – but god-damn could she wear a skirt suit. Chill finished shuffling some paperwork unfazed by the bold sysop.
‘Listen sweetheart, I’ve got better things to do than play fetch with one of NBN’s data hounds, so unless you are here for an autograph you’re going to have to make an appointment.’
Bernice blinked, surprised by the rebuke. He was every bit as arrogant as his dossier had said. This assignment was turning out to be more interesting than she expected, she smiled conspiratorially in spite of herself. Bernice loved a challenge.
‘As much as I love making personal visits to 2-cred bloggers, I’m here with a special, limited-time offer just for you.’ She pulled a white envelope from somewhere and pushed it across his desk without breaking her gaze. Chill cocked an eyebrow, half surprised she was still here, and half curious, he opened it. A blank check made out to him and signed in ink by Victoria Jenks herself.
‘Miss -‘ Chill scanned her nametag.
‘Mai.’
‘Miss Mai.’ Chill pinched his brow, he didn’t have time for this. ‘I write the truth, my integrity isn’t for sale’ he flipped the envelope onto his desk and leaned forward for emphasis ‘One deck per week, one week at a time, just the truth. Those are my rules. Now take your credits and get out of my office.’
‘This isn’t about your stupid blog -‘ Bernice put her hands on his desk and rose to meet him. His brazen stupidity was wearing her patience thin. ‘You could post pictures of cats in banana suits for all we care.’
‘Then why are you still here?’
‘Your sponsorship.’ Bernice pointed her gaze down to the envelope between them. Chill pulled the check aside to reveal two plane tickets to Minnesota. He looked back at her, understanding finally coming over his dumb face.
‘All you have to do, is what you were going to do anyway…’
‘You want me to play Making News at Worlds.’
Bernice leaned back and turned her palms up as if awarding him an imaginary prize for finally getting a clue. Chill thought she’d almost be cute – if she wasn’t such a smart-ass.
‘If I do this for you’ He couldn’t believe he was actually going to agree with this. He folded his arms and leaned back, this might be the only shot he had – if it meant getting into bed with NBN, so be it. ‘I need you to find someone for me.’
‘An all expenses paid trip to Minnesota and a blank check from the world’s most powerful media conglomeration aren’t good enough for you?’ Bernice drummed her nails on the desk in exaggerated annoyance, she had him now, everything else was just for show. ‘Fine’ she relented ‘What’s her name?’
Chill cuffed a shirt sleeve, ‘His name is Alsciende’ he rolled it back to his elbow in a practiced gesture. ‘Think you’re good enough to find him?’
Bastard. ‘I can find anyone.’ Bernice stepped closer to him, wondering why she was letting this arrogant jerk get under her skin. ‘Think you’re good enough to win a children’s card game?’ she shot back.
‘If I wasn’t, you wouldn’t be here.’ Chill flashed her a sly grin, honed over a lifetime of irrational cockiness.
Bernice smiled back sarcastically. It was going to be a long flight to Minnesota.
***
Chill and Bernice got out of a shabby brown Buick in Roseville about an hour before registration. He leaned over to the passenger side and thanked them for the ride before slinging his messenger bag over a shoulder and stepping back to watch the car drive off. The trunk was festooned with bumper stickers, Chill tried to read them all. ‘COEXIST’, ‘Cat Momma’, ‘Republicans for Voldemort’.
The sleeves of his blazer were ripped in several places, and dirt stains peaked out on his cuffs. He waved politely before turning and walking after Mai. Bernice’s hair and clothes were similarly disarrayed, she was holding her cell phone up and meandering down the road as gracefully as she could manage in her shoes, she had snapped the heels off at some point.
They had both been on a bizarre American odyssey, the kind of adventures that make you grow as a person, the scope of which would have to be covered in a spin-off. Things hadn’t gone exactly as planned.
‘I’ve got a signal!’ Bernice punched his shoulder triumphantly ‘Let’s roll!’
‘Who says ‘let’s roll’?’
The event center was a few miles away, but things were starting to go their way – Chill nearly allowed himself to be infected by her foolish optimism.
***
Chill reclined on a bench outside of the FFG event center. Netrunner was an endurance sport, he’d already been pushing his limits for the last three days and the swiss hadn’t even started. Bernice had been making calls and chatting nonstop to get their trip back on track. She was off doing Damon knows what, and Chill was just grateful for the silence.
‘Eat this’ Bernice appeared from nowhere, one hand gluing her cell phone to the side of her head, the other pushing a wrapped breakfast burrito in his face. Chill sat up and took the delicious omelette-wrap. ‘Whoever gets the best breakfast gets the best score, right?’ Bernice’s voice had a sort of half-mocking tone by default.
‘That’s what I always say’ Chill’s mouth was already full.
‘I know, it’s in your file with all of the other dumb shit you say’ She was totally into him. Chill didn’t know much about women, but he knew when one buys you a burrito – it’s on.
‘Hi! The flight was greaaaaaaat, thank you so much for the…’ Bernice turned to take her call, based on her customer-service tone of voice she could only be talking to a superior. When did she fix her hair?
Office politics was the one game he never cared to play, he didn’t have the stomach for it. All he had the stomach for was this delicious breakfast burrito. He savored it like it was his last. Knowing that he was about to play a midseasons-pachinko deck for the next 12 hours, this burrito would probably be the last good thing about his day.
***
‘Name?’ asked the registrar without looking up.
‘Chill’
‘Last name?’
‘…84’
‘Chill84’ he looked up from his clipboard ‘Hey, you write those articles don’t you?’
‘That’s me’ Chill admitted.
‘They’re a bit shit.’
‘Always great to meet a fan.’
‘Haha, here’s a decklist form, make sure you are compliant with the new bans.’
‘New bans?’ Chill halted. Years ago, Fantasy Flight Games had instituted a formal ban list: the NAPD MMWL. Standard procedure for a card game company, although recently they had made a habit of adding to the list within a few days of major tournaments.
‘You haven’t heard? Oh man, they only banned the two most broken cards in the game.’ Chill gestured for him to get on with it. In his heart, he already knew.
‘Astroscript Pilot Program and Armitage Codebusting of course.’
Arkidents’ prophecy was coming to pass. Chill looked out to the other players in the lobby. All around him, Near-Earth Hub players were weeping and unsleeving. What in Lukas’s name was happening here? His mouth was dry.
‘Here… I’m already compliant’ Chill needed a drink.
***
In the early years of Netrunner, the Fantasy Flight Games event center had been enough to house the few players who could make the pilgrimage to Minnesota. Before the 10,000 credit cash prizes and corporate sponsorships, it was just a few loyal try-hards who simply loved the game. Netrunner had come a ways since then, and now the Fantasy Flight event center was a full convention center within a massive stadium.
Chill and Bernice met up again between swiss rounds outside of hall J near the bronze statue of Damon Stone. His pairs had been favorable and he’d swept his first three swiss rounds. People didn’t know what to expect from NBN post Astro, his runner game was tight and some lucky pachinkos kept the new paparazzi Kate tag-me deck from running over him before he could score out.
Bernice was more interested in the audience than the games. Typical tracer.
‘All of the big names are here tonight’ Bernice pointed them out as she spoke ‘There is Director Haas in the private box, that’s Marcus Chatty, The entire Watanabe Family…’
‘Akitaro Watanabe runs Jinteki’s data forts and still has time to take his kids out to the game, how does he do it?’
‘Don’t ask.’
‘Mai, I’m holding up my end of the bargain here’ Chill was suddenly serious. ‘When are you going to come through with Alsciende’s whereabouts?’ The swiss rounds had been taking their toll on his sanity, surrounded by celebrities and power executives, Chill hadn’t lost sight of his objective.
‘Don’t worry about it, we’re working on it’ She touched his shoulder reassuringly. ‘Just focus on splitting your next 3 rounds so you make the cut.’ Bernice was at her sweetest when she telling lies. Chill had to play along for now.
***
After splitting the last round of swiss, Chill found a quiet spot and thumbed through his corp deck when it was slapped out of his hands and onto the convention center floor.
‘Nice deck nerd.’
A man in a sleeveless leather jacket and aviators with an obvious 80’s fetish stood before him. He was flanked by a posse of similarly dressed goons, and one squirrely guy who just wanted to be included. He took a pull from his vape pen and exhaled a cloud into Chill’s face. It was Don Dongenio, the reigning World Champion of Netrunner.
‘See you in the finals Chill 80-dork.’ smiled Don.
‘Yeah!’ mocked the squirrel-boy, before hurrying to catch up with the rest of the gang.
Netrunner players were total assholes. Someday, someone would show them that there was more to Netrunner than click-efficient plays. That someday was today, that someone was Chill.
***
The road through the top brackets had be grueling. Scoring naked Restructured Data Pools. Killing Darwin with Swordsman. Trashing loaded Kati’s with Character Assassination. Chill had done it all. The finals were now set. Chill versus Dongenio.
‘You sure are lucky, nerd’ Don sneered from behind his trademark Top Gun aviators with matching Iceman tank top underneath the red leather Jacket from Michael Jackon’s ‘Thriller’.
‘What is this? The 80s?’ Chill retorted, but not with his trademark level of sarcasm and wit used in the making of shitty internet memes about children’s card games.
Don laughed haughtily, ‘Let’s see how well you last in the finals against my [insert degenerate deck strategy here], dork’
Chill was exhausted. Arkidents had warned him about the grinding fatigue of playing with decks of future metas, but somehow the whole 5 hours spent play testing the deck along with the spiritually rewarding American journey to Roseville hadn’t prepared him for the physical struggle of competitive card gaming. Also, the breakfast burrito had given him mild heartburn.
‘Ladies and Nerdbears, we are about to start the final round of this year’s World’s Android Netrunner Championship.’ The voice of LLDS, the Fantasy Flight Games developed tournament running AI, came over the stadium speaker system. ‘This year, we have a special treat to really up the excitement of this year’s Final. Fantasy Flight Games is proud to present, Android: Netrunner RealityThreeDee Edition!’
The floor of the area proceeded to open up revealing below a giant hologram field where the servers would be projected as cards were played. Don had already taken his position on one end of the field.
‘It’s time for a Netrunner smackdown sandwich, dweeb’
Chill sauntered up to the little table at the end of the RealityThreeDee.
‘Time to Duel..I mean Netrun!,’ Don exclaimed.
‘What?’ The ends of the stage were so far apart, Chill could barely hear him.
‘I’ll Run?’ Don yelled
‘Sounds good.’
Everything was settled. The time for click-efficent plays had arrived.
***
It all came down to this. 6-6. 8 cards left in his deck. If he could pull this off, he would have it all. The money, the fame, the prestige. With NBN’s money, he may never have to review a deck of the week again. Chill fanned his cards in hand. A Quantum Predictive Model, in remote, his single copy of Bernice Mai.
He wiped a dirty-cuff across his forehead and squinted through the stadium lights, bloodthirsty fans cheered in slow motion. Bernice was seated in the NBN company box, her eyes locked onto him while Jackson Howard ran a hand down her thigh menacingly.
This wasn’t the game that Chill wanted to play.
‘Install, advance, gain a credit, pass turn’
A Shkreli-esque smile grew across Don’s face.
‘Click one, Blackmail on this server’
‘No rez’ Chill stated defiantly.
‘Um…ok. I’ll access the the bottom card first.’
Chill flipped the QPM over. The RealityThreeDee was filled with the image of a giant Quantum Banana Cat.
‘DON DONGENIO IS ONCE AGAIN YOUR HEAVY WEIGHT NETRUNNER CHAMPION OF THE WORLD!!’ LLDS blared in all caps.
‘You never had a chance Chill!’ called Don ‘I’m the Champ for life!’ Don’s cheering posse rushed the stage to hoist him.
Chill tucked his deck, and turned to exit the stadium as the klaxon fanfare began. He knew who the real champion was. Mai was going to be pissed – at least one good thing would come of this.
***
Chill was boarding the megabus back to Chilo when Bernice caught up to him, her eyes burning the question into him.
Maybe he just didn’t want to end up like the rest of them. Maybe he did it because he was at heart, still a rebellious punk lashing out at the world. Whatever the reason, at least he hadn’t sold out. Chill was his own man.
‘Hey, aren’t you the guy who writes those articles?’ a passenger asked. ‘They’re a bit shit.’
‘I know.’ Chill said as the doors closed. He had eluded her trace.
***
Epilogue:
Scoot pogs was a twisted, wiry creature, a famed Netrunner bookee who ran the underground gambling scene. He was wearing a Union Jack t-shirt and sipping from a teacup looking mildly distressed when a pair of hulking goons with one brain cell between the two of them approached.
‘Yous saids tah bet on dah Brits dis year.’ The one who hadn’t spoke, and was probably the Teller to goon number 1’s Pen, mashed his meaty fists together in agreement.
‘Easy fellas, there’s no such thing as a sure gamble, even in Netrunner…’ Scoot put a hand up plaintively while stepping backwards. Were there really no fire escapes nearby? That’s just unsafe. These thoughts and several fists were among the last things to go through Scoot’s mind as he was hauled off by Tri-Maf enforcers.
Everything was going to plan, just as Alsciende had predicted.
AdvertisementsRussian interference in the U.S. presidential elections is at the heart of a secretive treason case against a former FSB official and three of his alleged accomplices arrested last year, a Russian news startup reports.
Sergei Mikhailov, the FSB’s former head of cyber investigations, was detained on Dec. 5, 2016, together with three alleged accomplices — his colleague Dmitry Dokuchayev, former Kaspersky Lab employee Ruslan Stoyanov, and internet entrepreneur Georgy Fomchenkov.
The four men have been held in Moscow’s high-security Lefortovo Prison on charges of committing treason. The mysterious case has been hidden from public view after being labeled a “state secret.”
“The four men have been hidden away from everyone, to make sure they don’t give away any sensitive information,” the Bell outlet cited Ivan Pavlov, a lawyer for one of the defendants, as saying.
In an extensive investigation published on the one-year anniversary of the group's arrest, the Bell outlet cited two unidentified sources who said the move to arrest the men was ordered by the Russian military intelligence, the General Staff of the Armed Forces (GRU), in an internal power struggle over state funding.
An earlier report by Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity firm hired by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to look into alleged Russian election meddling, said Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC had been targeted by Russian hackers on two separate occasions.
The first attack, allegedly carried out by the FSB, went unnoticed until a second was carried out by the GRU — with the two agencies seemingly working independently of each other.In Redeeming "The Prince," one of the world's leading Machiavelli scholars puts forth a startling new interpretation of arguably the most influential but widely misunderstood book in the Western political tradition. Overturning popular misconceptions and challenging scholarly consensus, Maurizio Viroli also provides a fresh introduction to the work. Seen from this original perspective, five centuries after its composition, The Prince offers new insights into the nature and possibilities of political liberation.
Rather than a bible of unscrupulous politics, The Prince, Viroli argues, is actually about political redemption--a book motivated by Machiavelli's patriotic desire to see a new founding for Italy. Written in the form of an oration, following the rules of classical rhetoric, the book condenses its main message in the final section, "Exhortation to liberate Italy from the Barbarians." There Machiavelli creates the myth of a redeemer, an ideal ruler who ushers in an era of peace, freedom, and unity. Contrary to scholars who maintain that the exhortation was added later, Viroli proves that Machiavelli composed it along with the rest of the text, completing the whole by December 1513 or early 1514.
Only if we read The Prince as a theory of political redemption, Viroli contends, can we at last understand, and properly evaluate, the book's most controversial pages on political morality, as well as put to rest the cliché of Machiavelli as a "Machiavellian."
Bold, clear, and provocative, Redeeming "The Prince" should permanently change how Machiavelli and his masterpiece are understood.
Maurizio Viroli is professor emeritus of politics at Princeton University and professor of political communication at the University of Italian Switzerland in Lugano. His many books include Niccolò's Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli (Hill & Wang), Machiavelli's God (Princeton), and The Liberty of Servants: Berlusconi's Italy (Princeton).Former IPS officer KPS Gill. Former IPS officer KPS Gill.
Giving clean chit to the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, former IPS officer KPS Gill on Friday said that Modi cannot be blamed for Gujarat riots.Gill who was the security adviser to Narendra Modi in 20012 said in law and order cases police must respond."From my first-hand experience of Gujarat situation, I can say with conviction that Gujarat riots were not the failure of Mr Narendra Modi; instead it was the failure of Gujarat cops as well as the intentions of the neighbouring states which had then denied forces to Gujarat when the riots started," the book quotes Gill as saying.Gill was speaking at the launch of his biography - 'KPS Gill: The Paramount Cop' where the gathering included eminent personalities like Punjab Kesari Group Editor-in-Chief Vijay Kumar Chopra, Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta, former CBI Director P C Sharma and others.In the book, Gill has lavished praise on Modi saying he had "sincere" intentions to end the violence and accused other parties of trying to defame him."I realised that people of all political parties who were anti-Modi and anti-BJP were taking advantage of this mayhem and making all efforts to |
the next adventure," Straley said. "How are you going to get through the next day? And we're doing it in a beautiful fashion. The abandonment and nature reclaimed. The juxtaposition, the contrast between that in Joel and Ellie. Joel is an older man. He's born before the epidemic and Ellie's born after. So they both have a widely different viewpoint of the world."
"There's an interesting contrast there in what we're bringing. Nature reclaimed the earth. The familiar and the unfamiliar. The beauty and the abandonment part and the natural lighting. That also gives you something refreshing and beautiful to look at, but at the same time there's a creepiness and some sort of contrast there that your coffee shop that you go to every day, you imagine people being in there. But now it's demolished from a riot that happened when the infected came through. So we're all about contrast in here. That's pretty much what the game is about is contrast."Michael Moore, the gadfly documentarian who has made a career out of fighting against conservative issues, has called for US citizens to stand up to President Barack Obama and back a court case he says is fighting a dangerous erosion of civil liberties.
The case has been brought against a little known piece of legislation called the National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA), which critics say has been changed to grant Obama the power to indefinitely detain American citizens without charge.
A group of activists, including Daniel Ellsberg – the official who leaked the Pentagon papers about the Vietnam war – and former New York Times journalist Chris Hedges have gone to court to get the language of the NDAA changed. On Wednesday an appeals court in New York heard arguments in the case and is set to render a judgment in the coming months.
Now Moore has come out swinging against the NDAA, too, saying that the White House is embarking on a plan to scrap vital civil rights that should concern every American citizen – despite a relative lack of publicity about the case. "At the moment a lot of people think the NDAA does not look scary. But this sort of thing never looks scary at the start. But the American people will rue the day if they do not stop this," he told the Guardian in an interview.
Moore was speaking after a court in New York heard an appeal in the case against the NDAA. Lawyers seeking to overturn the NDAA argued that it erodes American rights and free speech, and grants huge and unconstitutional powers to the government to suppress dissent and indefinitely detain people without going through proper legal channels. Lawyers for the Obama administration insist that the NDAA represents nothing new and has never been used in the ways that its critics suggest.
Moore said he would be seeking to explain the case to his fans. "If the American people understood this, I do believe they would be very, very concerned about it," he said. The force behind such hard-hitting documentaries as Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine – which took on rightwing issues like President George W Bush's security policy and gun laws – said that liberals were giving Obama a free pass due to his popularity with Democrats. "[Obama] puts this face on it that makes it difficult. It was much easier when the face was Bush," Moore said "We have to work and speak out against the Obama administration and everything they are doing to destroy civil liberties."
Such strong language from a liberal icon is likely to shock many of Moore's usual audience. But the case brought against the NDAA is rapidly becoming a rallying cry for many civil liberties advocates, who see Obama as pursuing much of the same national security policy as his predecessor. "The major assault by the Bush administration has been embraced by the Obama administration," said Hedges.
The NDAA case hinges on language that critics say is too vague. It grants the power of detention and the right to use force against anyone deemed to have "substantially supported" al-Qaida or the Taliban, or "associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners". Critics say those terms are so broad that it, for example, include journalists or academics who interview Islamic militants or clerics. Or that the definition of terrorism might extend to those involved in projects like WikiLeaks or cyber-hacking groups like Anonymous or the Occupy protests.
Lawyer Bruce Afran, who is arguing the case in court, said that the NDAA laid a basis for massive future abuses, even if it currently was not being used in that way. "I know that the government is not setting up internment camps for journalists and activists," he said. "But the very fact that this power exists is what diminishes free speech."
Last September Judge Katherine Forrest surprised many observers by agreeing with the claimants and striking down the NDAA language as unconstitutional to free speech rights. However, the Obama administration immediately made an emergency appeal of the ruling and said Forrest's ruling did "irreparable harm to national security". An appeals court then stayed the decision and ordered the new hearings to be held on Wednesday. Eventually the case could go all the way to the supreme court.
Government lawyer Robert Loeb argued in the appeal that critics had fundamentally misread the NDAA and that journalists, activists and others had no reason to fear the law as it was not aimed at them. The Department of Justice also brought in testimony from three conservative Republican senators - Kelly Ayotte, Lindsey Graham and John McCain – to bolster their position. However, the lining up of such famously hawkish political figures on the same side as the Obama administration is enough to make people like Moore even more implacable in their opposition.
"By and large politicians are not tuned in. Perhaps Obama needs to just be educated about this issue," he said.Earlier, we reported that we might get a Kingdom Hearts 3 “Conversation with Creators” Interview with Tetsuya Nomura for official playstationjp YouTube channel. Now it seems like this interview will contain new footage for Kingdom Hearts 3, which is supposed to be shown at D23 Expo this month in Japan.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is the long awaited conclusion to the Kingdom Hearts trilogy. Kingdom Hearts is a extremely popular action RPG, which has spawned numerous spin-offs on handhelds/consoles and about 2 mainline games. The conclusion to Kingdom Hearts series is long awaited and will finally arrive on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
KH13 got their hands on a tweet by Play Community in which Nomura said:
I still don’t have much information on KHIII that I can release to the public, but I spoke to the extent I was able. Please enjoy the interview, along with part of the new clip that will be released at the event this month.
So seems like there might be new footage that will be shown at D23 expo and it will be also contained in the Tetsuya Nomura’s Interview for “Conversation with Creators” series. We hope it is longer than a few seconds and gives us a glimpse of some of the characters and worlds of Kingdom Hearts 3.
What do you think of this news? Let us know in the comments below.
Stay tuned to GearNuke for latest news and info on Kingdom Hearts 3.As Major League Soccer’s expansion derby continues, the league’s top officials have made the rounds in recent days, from Los Angeles to St. Louis to Miami. And the leadership team behind Sacramento’s expansion efforts wants everyone to know the city is still ready to leap into the nation’s premiere pro soccer circuit.
A group led by Mayor Kevin Johnson and the owners of Sacramento Republic FC have begun studying the regional market appetite for MLS, the economic impact of a new stadium and the feasibility of building a stadium in the downtown railyard. The mayor has said no public subsidies will be available for what could be a $150 million stadium project.
Dubbed “Operation Turnkey,” the group has also begun assembling a team that will put together stadium designs, construction documents and the site’s environmental review. All of Republic FC’s key owners are involved, including lead investor Kevin Nagle, the owners of the San Francisco 49ers and Sacramento Kings, local developer Mark Friedman and Larry Kelley, another developer who is purchasing the 240-acre railyard site.
“We are focused like a laser on bringing MLS to Sacramento and prepared to move forward at a moment’s notice,” the mayor said in an emailed statement.
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The local group is promoting the success of Republic FC, which is ranked first in the lower-division USL in ticket revenue, season tickets and attendance. The club has sold out 20 of its last 21 league matches. “Sacramento is proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are ready for MLS,” Nagle said.
MLS plans to expand from its current 20 teams to 24, likely by 2018. League Commissioner Don Garber, speaking in St. Louis last week, said the league will finalize another round of expansion within the next year. He said St. Louis could be part of that round, but added “you’d also like to see Sacramento as part of that round and a handful of other cities.”
St. Louis is trying to build a new stadium for the NFL’s Rams that could also house an MLS franchise.
Meanwhile, in Miami, plans for an MLS stadium could finally be gaining some traction after Garber met Friday with former international soccer star David Beckham and political leaders. Beckham and Miami have been granted an expansion club, contingent upon their ability to construct a stadium.
Media reports out of Miami said Beckham and the University of Miami are in talks about building a stadium that the soccer club and the university’s football team would share. The location is near the site of the former Orange Bowl and next to Marlins Park, home of major-league baseball’s Marlins, but outside of Miami’s urban core.
Also last week, on May 18, the expansion Los Angeles Football Club announced its plans for a $250 million stadium near Memorial Coliseum. It would be the most expensive privately financed soccer stadium in the country, the Los Angeles Times reported.
MLS recently awarded an expansion slot to Minneapolis. Negotiations on some form of tax relief for a stadium in that city are underway.If you click the edit button today on OpenStreetMap, you will find a new, easier to use in-browser editor.
With OpenStreetMap rapidly becoming the go-to map for thousands of mobile apps and websites, more and more users are seeking an easy way to add their local knowledge to the map – without the technical background of OpenStreetMap’s early adopters. The new all open source web editor, named iD, was launched last May as an additional option to make the editing experience much easier for first-time mappers.
Since then, the iD developers have worked hard to close feature gaps and improve performance such that it can now take its place as the default editor for OpenStreetMap.org. iD offers a walk-through tutorial for first-time users, inline documentation for tags, and a more comprehensive help system than previous in-browser editors.
Potlatch, the existing online editor, continues to be developed for intermediate-level users and will remain as an option in the edit dropdown. For a full list of available editors, take a look at our wiki. You can configure your personal default in your user settings.
Head over to OpenStreetMap.org and give the new editor a spin.
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the creation of an application that would allow it to better mine social media content, in an attempt to more accurately identify, target and fight “emerging threats” in real-time. The application could also be used to predict potential threats before they even happen.
According to a Request for Information (RFI) posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website, the FBI says it hopes to “determine the capability of industry to provide an Open Source and social media alert, mapping, and analysis application solution.” This tool would allow the FBI to “quickly vet, identify, and geo-locate breaking events, incidents and emerging threats” using “publicly available” information posted to social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, as well as local and national news publications.
Big Brother 2.0
Of course, monitoring social media is nothing new for the law enforcement community. At present, however, it’s simply too ineffectual and inefficient for the FBI’s needs.
“Social media is a valued source of information to the [FBI’s Strategic Information and Operations Center (SIOC)] intelligence analyst in routinely monitoring events,” says the RFI. “Analysts have standing intelligence issues that they monitor as a matter of daily course around the globe. It is also seminal in their effort to provide initial information about single events of significance to law enforcement. Social media has become a primary source of intelligence because it has become the premier first response to key events and the primal alert to possible developing situations.”
The application the FBI hopes to have built would simply make this process easier and more thorough.
Here’s how the FBI envisions the app working: The information gathered from news and social media outlets would be overlaid onto a digital map, pinpointing the location of the “breaking events,” along with all other relevant contextual data. Additional information, including US domestic terror data, worldwide terror data, the location of all US embassies, consulates and military installations, weather conditions and forecasts, and traffic video feeds, would also be overlaid on the map.
A robust search feature would also be incorporated into the app, which would allow the ability to “instantly search and monitor key words and strings in ‘publicly available’ tweets across the Twitter Site and any other ‘publicly available social networking sites/forums,” according to the RFI. The FBI wants the search function to allow for simultaneous key word searches “that can look at 10 or 20 separate incidents/threats at the same time within the same ‘window.'” The ability to monitor tweets and other social media data in a minimum of 12 foreign languages, and to “immediately translate” those posts into English, is also outlined as a required feature of the application.
The future is now
All of that seems fairly straight forward. In fact, we are surprised the FBI doesn’t already have such an application at their disposal, since all of the features it outlines are well within the capabilities of a skilled software development team. Not to mention the fact that much of what the FBI hopes to use already exists in different parts. Websites like OpenStatusSearch.com, YourOpenBook.org, TweetScan.com and Tweepz.com make it possible to quickly and easily search for key words being posted publicly to Twitter and Facebook. All the FBI’s dreamed-up app would do is combine these features into a single product, and expand them with additional governmental and law enforcement data, and mapping tools.
However, the FBI doesn’t just want to know about what’s happening now; it also wants to predict events that are about to happen — to predict the future. If that sounds suspiciously like Minority Report, you’re not alone.
“Social media will be critical to meeting the intelligence objectives stated above because it provides unique access to communications about the special event [i.e. political conventions, national holidays, or sporting events] in advance of its occurrence,” reads the RFI.
As with the ability to search tweets and updates, using social media to predict the future is nothing new. In March 2011, the Journal of Computational Science showed that tweets could be used to predict upcoming fluctuations of the Dow Jones Industrial Average to an accuracy of 86.7 percent. And just this month, the Rand Corporation analyzed tweets from 2009 that used the hashtag #IranElection, and found that an increase in swear words in tweets could be used to predict where and when protests and other forms of public discontent would occur.
Using predictive technology isn’t limited to academics, governments, or corporations, either. The website RecordTheFuture.com allows anyone with an account to access troves of information about potential upcoming events, including product releases, stock fluctuations, and even upcoming vacation plans of private individuals.
Is everyone a target?
In other words, the worlds of Aldous Huxley and George Orwell have already arrived. The FBI simply wants to create a custom application that combines already-available technology, and streamlines it, in an attempt to do their job better. That’s all good and well when if it’s used to stop truly “bad guys,” like terrorists who want to blow up a football stadium. The problem is, who do they consider “bad guys” nowadays? Hackers like Anonymous? Wikileaks supporters? Occupy Wall Street protesters? Everyone?
The most cautious (and possibly wisest) among us would say all of the above. And it’s increasingly hard to refute their warnings. Late last year, President Obama signed the latest iteration of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a law that comes up for annual renewal. The problem with this year’s version, say critics, is that it includes provisions that would allow the US military to detain anyone — including US citizens — anywhere in the world, without trial or due process, if they are suspected of terrorist activities. Moreover, NDAA provides such an ambiguous definition of “terrorist activity” that groups like Occupy Wall Street or Anonymous could fall under this perilous category.
It must be pointed out that President Obama included a signing statement with NDAA that guaranteed that his administration would not use the law to indefinitely detain US citizens. Needless to say, that has done little to quell the cognizant public’s outrage.
So, what to make of all this? Most obviously, it is now painfully clear that everything we post online is being watched. And if the FBI gets its new application — which seems to us an inevitability — the eyes with which it sees our tweets and updates will have bionic vision, and even the ability to peer into the future. What is less obvious is how the government’s quest to protect the public good will be abused to trample legitimate free speech and lawful public dissent.
In short: Big Brother is real. He is watching. So be careful what you say online today — it could be used against you tomorrow.Super Mutants, Killer Robots And Ghouls: Take A Tour Of Fallout 4's Massachusetts
The biggest entertainment release so far in 2015 wasn't Jurassic World or Adele's 25... it was a video game. Fallout 4, released earlier this month, made $750 million in 24 hours. JJ Sutherland and Chris Suellentrop of the podcast Shall We Play A Game have this review.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
In just about three weeks, the new "Star Wars" movie will dwarf everything you know and love. But before that happens, try to guess the biggest entertainment release so far this year. Adele's latest album sold over three million copies in the U.S. in barely a week - best first week sales of any album, ever. "Jurassic World" - that plucky little movie could only manage $652 million at the box office.
So the answer? The biggest entertainment release this year is a video game, "Fallout 4." Set in post-apocalyptic Massachusetts, it made $750 million in just 24 hours. If you haven't played it, Chris Suellentrop and JJ Sutherland of the podcast Shall We Play a Game? can tell you about it.
JJ SUTHERLAND: So the worst thing about Jamaica Plain is the ghouls. Sure, Faneuil Hall is full of super mutants...
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO GAME, "FALLOUT 4")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (As character) Let's play.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (As character) Nah, they never just want to talk.
SUTHERLAND:...There are killer robots hunting through the ruins of Cambridge...
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO GAME, "FALLOUT 4")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (As character) Now I understand. You are hiding because you fear death.
SUTHERLAND:...And there is something unspeakable in Salem. But the Jamaica Plain ghouls are the ones that freaked me out - corpses animated by the radiation from the day the bombs fell in 2077. "Fallout 4" is set in the year 2287. It's the latest.
CHRIS SUELLENTROP: The fifth game, actually - because video game sequels have trouble with counting - in a series about America in a blasted, post-nuclear wasteland.
SUTHERLAND: There is a tightly scripted narrative, but for most "Fallout" players, the game is less a story to witness than a place to visit, like the real Boston. But there are conflicts and love and betrayal...
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO GAME, "FALLOUT 4")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: (As character) The brotherhood is here to prevent a war by starting one of our own.
SUTHERLAND:...Or, you could ignore all that and spend most of your time building houses and planting crops. You begin the game after being frozen for 200 years. Your wife has been killed and your infant son kidnapped.
SUELLENTROP: Or maybe your husband has been killed. I played as the woman and felt like Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill," tracking down the people who had stolen my child.
SUTHERLAND: So how long did it take you, Chris?
SUELLENTROP: About 35 hours. The first seven or eight hours can be overwhelming. The game doesn't do much to explain itself. Games don't come with instruction manuals anymore so instead you do a lot of Googling when you get confused or stuck. But once I reached Fenway Park, I was hooked.
SUTHERLAND: What I love about this game - and I'm about 60 hours in at this point - is that even though your personal quest does end, the world moves on. This is a game you can play for hundreds of hours. It costs 60 bucks, but it's like getting all six seasons of "The Sopranos" at once, and that allows for many Boston stories to be told - hunting down a Whitey Bulger type who has remained alive and in hiding for 200 years.
SUELLENTROP: Following the Freedom Trail...
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO GAME, "FALLOUT 4")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #4: (As character) Welcome, patriot, to Boston Common, the start of the Freedom Trail.
SUTHERLAND:...Fighting with laser muskets on Lexington Green...
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO GAME, "FALLOUT 4")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #5: (As character) Mr. Navigator, light the engines. Dreaded savings and loan, thee shall be more no longer. We are away.
SUTHERLAND:...Or helping a crew of mad robots take the USS Constitution on its final journey towards the sea.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO GAME, "FALLOUT 4")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #5: (As character) Two points to starboard.
SUELLENTROP: Or just visiting Bunker Hill, or trying to romance a singer in a bar or finding out whether anything lurks at the bottom of Boston Harbor.
SUTHERLAND: You should play this game. It's a hard game. You'll die a lot. But you'll spend the next few weeks or month of your life in the Commonwealth.
SHAPIRO: JJ Sutherland and Chris Suellentrop are the co-hosts of the podcast Shall We Play a Game?
Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.In 2016, FDA Ruled E-Cigarettes ‘Tobacco Products,’ Restricting Their Sale and Distribution despite Conclusive Studies Showing Their Substantial Success in Ending Tobacco Addiction
(Washington, DC) — Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeking records from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG) regarding the cancer-causing effects of electronic cigarettes as compared to traditional cigarettes. Judicial Watch brought the action in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Judicial Watch vs. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services et al. (No. 1:17-cv-00831)).
The lawsuit was filed after the agencies failed to respond to FOIA requests sent in March 2017 seeking:
All internal [FDA, CDC, or OSG] emails discussing the relative carcinogenicity of inhalation from Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems compared to inhalation from traditional combustible cigarettes.
In May 2016, the Federal Drug Administration issued a “Final Rule” deeming e-cigarettes “tobacco products” and restricting their sale and distribution in the United States. While saying that it was “taking this action to reduce the death and disease from tobacco products,” the FDA admitted: “We do not have sufficient data to determine what effects e-cigarettes have on public health at the population level. We also noted that some individuals report using e-cigarettes to successfully quit smoking….”
The FDA issued its restrictions despite scientific studies strongly indicating that the use of e-cigarettes in Europe had substantially reduced tobacco cigarette addiction. An April 2016 study by the London’s Royal College of Physicians found e-cigarettes to be 95 percent less harmful than cigarettes. The study concluded, “The emergence and consumer success of e-cigarettes, as a partial or complete substitute for smoking, reflects significant potential to reduce the harm caused by smoking to society by encouraging as many smokers as possible to use e-cigarettes, or indeed other non-tobacco nicotine products, rather than tobacco cigarettes.”
A November 2016 study conducted by the US-government-funded National Center for Biotechnology Information in 28 European countries found similar positive results for e-cigarettes in substantially reducing tobacco addiction. According to the study, “More than one-third of current e-cigarette users polled reported smoking cessation and reduction.” The study surveyed a total of 27,460 European Union citizens.
An extensive June 2016 article in Observer.com raised serious questions as to the role of the major pharmaceutical companies, and even the tobacco industry, in influencing the FDA’s promulgation of its May 2016 “Final Rule” regulating e-cigarettes. According to the article:
Drug companies favoring the FDA rules—usually big backers of Democrats—have huge sums invested in prescription smoking-cessation drugs, covered in many cases under the Democrat-passed Affordable Care Act, which they helped shape. They now face stiff competition from readily available e-cigarettes. Similarly, tobacco companies, left flat-footed by the growth of the upstart vaping market, also support the FDA rules as they look to shore up market positions in both tobacco and e-cigarettes.
“The emails sought by Judicial Watch could shed light on how the Obama FDA arrived at the decision to strictly regulate e-cigarettes, despite its own admission that it had done inadequate research – and, in fact, that the devices helped smokers quit tobacco,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The American people deserve to know if a corrupt government power grab put the public health at risk.”
###ECJ is a research EC system written in Java. It was designed to be highly flexible, with nearly all classes (and all of their settings) dynamically determined at runtime by a user-provided parameter file. All structures in the system are arranged to be easily modifiable. Even so, the system was designed with an eye toward efficiency.
ECJ is developed at George Mason University's ECLab Evolutionary Computation Laboratory. The software has nothing to do with its initials' namesake, Evolutionary Computation Journal. ECJ's sister project is MASON, a multi-agent simulation system which dovetails with ECJ nicely.
New Paper!
NSF Grant!
Features
General Features GUI with charting
Platform-independent checkpointing and logging
Hierarchical parameter files
Multithreading
Mersenne Twister Random Number Generators
Abstractions for implementing a variety of EC forms.
A really, really big manual
Optional builds with Apache Maven EC Features Asynchronous island models over TCP/IP
Master/Slave evaluation over multiple processors, with support for generational, asynchronous steady-state, and coevolutionary distribution
Genetic Algorithms/Programming style Steady State and Generational evolution, with or without Elitism
Evolutionary-Strategies style (mu,lambda) and (mu+lambda) evolution
Dedicated package for efficient single-state (hill-climbing, simulated annealing, etc.) methods
CMA-ES, AMaLGaM IDEA, PBIL, DOvs EDAs
Very flexible breeding architecture
Many selection operators
Multiple subpopulations and species
Inter-subpopulation exchanges
Reading populations from files
Single- and Multi-population coevolution
NSGA-II, NSGA-III, and SPEA2 multiobjective optimization
Particle Swarm Optimization
Differential Evolution
Spatially embedded evolutionary algorithms
Hooks for other multiobjective optimization methods
Meta-Evolution
Packages for parsimony pressure GP Tree Representations Set-based Strongly-Typed Genetic Programming
Ephemeral Random Constants
Automatically-Defined Functions and Automatically Defined Macros
Multiple tree forests
Six tree-creation algorithms
Extensive set of GP breeding operators
Grammatical Encoding
Push
Many pre-done GP application problem domains, including ant, regression, multiplexer, lawnmower, parity, two-box, edge Vector (GA/ES) Representations Fixed-Length and Variable-Length Genomes
Arbitrary representations
Variety of mutation and crossover operators
Many pre-done vector application problem domains (rastrigin, sum, rosenbrock, sphere, step, noisy-quartic, booth, griewangk, nk, hiff, median)
23 Black-Box Optimization competition benchmark problems, plus noisy versions. Other Representations NEAT
Multiset-based genomes in the rule package, for evolving Pitt-approach rulesets or other set-based representations.
Download ECJ
Reviews
Mailing Lists
subscribe ECJ-INTEREST-L
unsubscribe ECJ-INTEREST-L
ecj-help @ cs.gmu.eduA new study suggests a class of drugs already being tested in clinical trials for the treatment of cancer may also hold the key to complete eradication of HIV.
Researchers used a class of drugs called Smac mimetics to reawaken latent HIV in cells of patients treated with antiretroviral drugs, allowing suppression of the virus. Researchers used a class of drugs called Smac mimetics to reawaken latent HIV in cells of patients treated with antiretroviral drugs, allowing suppression of the virus.
In the journal Cell Host & Microbe, a team led by researchers from the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) in La Jolla, CA, reveals how drugs called Smac mimetics suppress dormant HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) cells among patients treated with antiretroviral therapy (ART).
ART is a combination of at least three antiretroviral drugs that slows the progression of HIV. While the treatment has led to significant reductions in death rates from HIV around the globe, the search continues for a way to eliminate the disease once and for all.
Antiretroviral drugs work by preventing HIV cells from multiplying, reducing levels of the virus in the body and giving the immune system the opportunity to stave off other infections.
However, HIV is never completely eradicated in patients treated with ART; the virus can lay dormant in cells, escaping detection by the immune system.
"If you take people off their antiretroviral therapies, some of these dormant cells reawaken to make more virus and re-establish disease," explains lead study author Lars Pache, PhD. "The key for a cure for HIV is to purge these cells that have dormant HIV."
This type of strategy is referred to as a "shock-and-kill" approach, but although it is a method that has been widely investigated by researchers in recent years, it has yet to see success.
Pache and colleagues explain this is because candidate drugs used to reawaken dormant HIV - such as latency reversing agents (LRAs) - are not potent enough or can trigger immune system overactivity, which can be deadly.
A 'one-two punch' for HIV
After searching for genes within host cells that aid in the suppression of HIV, the team identified one gene - called BIRC2 - that when absent, increases HIV activity.
Because Smac mimetics work by blocking BIRC2 and molecules related to the gene, they investigated whether the drugs could reawaken dormant HIV, allowing it to be identified and attacked by the immune system.
The team notes that one of the reasons why HIV can hide from the immune system is because it is covered by "tightly wound" DNA. They hypothesized Smac mimetics may work well with another class of drugs called histone deacetylase inhibitors, which can unwind this DNA, revealing the HIV underneath.
The researchers tested a Smac mimetic called SBI-0637142 combined with a histone deacetylase inhibitor called panobinostat on cells from HIV-infected patients undergoing ART. They found that the drug combination reawakened HIV in the cells without activating the immune system.
They also tested another Smac mimetic called LCL161 - currently being tested in phase 1 and 2 clinical trials for the treatment of cancer - combined with panobinostat, finding that the treatment produced similar results.
Based on their findings, the team suggest Smac mimetics - in combination with other drugs such as histone deacetylase inhibitors - could be potential candidates for an HIV cure.
Study co-author Sumit Chanda, PhD, adds:
"This is a one-two punch for HIV. Our internal drug possesses about 10-100 times more potent LRA activity than the small molecules currently in clinical development, making it a promising next-generation candidate to tackle HIV latency."
The researchers say they now hope to team up with a pharmaceutical company in order to develop Smac mimetics for assessment in clinical models of HIV latency, before moving to human trials if they are deemed safe and effective.
Because the drugs are already being tested in clinical trials, the team says the approval process for their use in the treatment of HIV is likely to be shorter.
In July, Medical News Today reported on a study published in PLOS Pathogens in which researchers found HIV cells awaken much less frequently than previously thought following ART.
While latent HIV cells were believed to awaken around four to five times a day once ART had ceased, the new study found they actually only awaken once a week.In our first look at the purchase interest and intent of the Mobile Nations' communities, we tapped into the level of demand for tablets, watches, and TV boxes being offered by the biggest smartphone providers. But the smartphone itself remains the primary digital device for many, and plenty of companies have debuted offerings in the past few months that vied to become holiday purchases — or at least a last-minute buy before the calendar flips over. So late last month, we asked over 5,700 readers of Android Central, CrackBerry, iMore and Windows Central to share their thoughts on what could be taking their calls. Even the smartphones that garnered the most interest didn't muster the same amount of attention as some of the hot (and newer) non-smartphone products like as Android Wear, Apple TV and the Surface Book.
There are likely numerous reasons for this. First, there is far greater competition in the smartphone market and so there's more to dilute consumer interest in any given model. Second, unlike the new platforms and novel form factors discussed in our last article, the staid monoblock form factor has dominated the smartphone landscape for years now. Third, the contracts that once suppressed holiday season smartphone purchases have been replaced by upgrade plans that have a similar effect of spreading out smartphone purchases throughout the year. Therefore, particularly for devices that debuted earlier in the year, such as the LG G4 and Galaxy S6, many who may have been interested in those devices may have already purchased them. All this said, some phones certainly fared better — and dramatically so — when it came to whether early adopters were interested in purchasing them or intended to purchase them before the end of 2015. Android One clear trend among Android phone owners in our community is that their next phone is likely to be large and true to stock Android. Three of the five top Android phones on their list featured screens over 5.5". In addition, three of them (the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P and Moto X 2015 Pure Edition) embrace Android as Google has conceived it, with a fourth (the BlackBerry Priv) coming pretty close both in terms of both stock purity and phablet contention. Given BlackBerry's long history in mobile (many of you likely had a BlackBerry as your first smartphone) and the quiet clamoring of a subset of users for a good Android keyboard phone, it's not too surprising to see such a strong embrace of the Priv. Indeed, among Android phones, it ranked the second highest in terms of imminent purchase intent, with 6% of current Android phone owners (including perhaps some former BlackBerry owners) planning to lay down dollars to pick up the privacy-focused keyboard slider.
The big dog by far, though, was the Nexus 6P, with nearly half of Android phone owners interested in purchasing it and 13 percent planning to buy one before the end of 2015. Indeed, nearly twice as many Android phone owners would opt for the Nexus 6P versus the 5X. The 5X, though, was no slouch, ranking third overall and attracting purchase interest from nearly a quarter of Android phone owners. Three of the five top Android phones featured screens larger than 5.5 inches. Sandwiched between them was the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, which nearly 30% of Android phone owners said they were interested in purchasing. 2015 saw a significant redesign of the historically plastic Note and improvements to its S Pen stylus. These seem to have been enough to stave off some competition from its stablemate, the Galaxy 6 edge+, which boasts a thinner, and arguably cooler, curved screen design. The newcomer virtually tied with the LG G4 in terms of of both purchase interest and intent and fell below the even newer video-focused LG V10, which also offers an extended secondary display for quick access tools. Both of the larger Samsung phones placed higher than the smaller and older Galaxy S6 devices which, as noted earlier, may have already been purchased by those eager to snap up Samsung's current generation of Galaxy S devices. While its screen may be shatterproof, demand for the Motorola Droid Turbo 2 was not. The Motorola flagship variant for Verizon had to contend with both carrier exclusivity and the software meddling of Verizon, despite Motorola having convinced Big Red to ease back a bit on the customizing. Also featuring a lighter skinning touch than in years past is the HTC One A9. The device, which hews closer to the iPhone's design than previous One devices like the M8 and M9, just isn't |
idea, but a couple of scientists have run the slide-rule over measurements of the CMB power spectrum and reckon it offers a random number space big enough to beat any current computer.
Not in terms of protecting messages against any current decryption possibility: the CMB's power spectrum offers a key space “too large for the encryption/decryption capacities of present computer systems”.
A straightforward terrestrial radio telescope, this Arxiv paper states, should be good enough to make “astrophysical entropy sources accessible on comparatively modest budgets”.
The Baylor University (in Waco, Texas) researchers, Jeffrey Lee and Gerald Cleaver, also note that even if Eve (attacker) watched the same bit of sky at the same time as Alice, she wouldn't get the same random number, “due to random variations in photon energy at any sky frequency, spurious signals within the detectors, interference from other sources of stellar radio noise, etc.
“Therefore, the digitised CMB power spectrum obtained by Alice is unique and cannot be acquired through “identical” power spectrum observations of the CMB by Eve”.
Apart from the maths by which Lee and Cleaver demonstrate the CMB power spectrum's randomness, another interesting wrinkle in the paper is that they suggest it could meet the requirements of America's Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2.
Except for one thing: back when FIPS was created, the standard didn't consider astrophysical sources for randomness, so it stipulates that “the RGB or portion of the RGB cryptographic module that generates the key must'reside' within the FIPS 140 key-generating module.” ®
*Bootnote: Lest pedants or real astrophysicists lambast me on this point, yes: the CMB is actually, as Lee and Cleaver note, the “remnant of the Recombination Epoch in Big Bang cosmology”, rather than a direct “echo of the Big Bang”. ®The Dursts: Going Strong
You may remember Robert Durst as the twitchy, hollow-eyed subject of this past winter’s HBO documentary series The Jinx. His clan, the New York Dursts, operate one of the oldest and most prominent family-run real estate companies in the country. It recently celebrated its centennial.
In 1926, the family’s patriarch, Joseph, who came from Eastern Europe with next to nothing and made a fortune selling dresses, made his first significant real-estate investment: He purchased the Temple Emanu-El building at Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street. The synagogue, which dates back to 1868 and housed New York’s oldest Reform congregation, went for $7 million, making it “one of the most valuable parcels of real estate of its size in the world” at the time. Joseph tore it down to make way for shops.
Joseph continued buying buildings, and his children owned so much of Midtown for so long that, in 2002, The New York Times quipped, “Maybe every Durst gets a Times Square of his own.” And, although tradition is for the third generation to blow the family fortune, Douglas, the son who took over when it became clear that Robert, his older brother, was less than stable, seems to be maintaining it. He is the developer of the Condé Nast Building and as well as One World Trade Center, or the “Freedom Tower,” the tallest structure in the Western hemisphere.
Current Status: #59 on Forbes’ 2015 list of America’s Richest Families, with an estimated net worth of $5.2 billion
The Goulds: Going Bust
Jason “Jay” Gould, the original 19th-century robber baron, is one of the richest American citizens of all time and possibly one of the richest people, ever.* He made his money in railroads, by attempting to corner the stock market, and by being what CNBC has called one of the worst CEOs ever:
Gould sold out his associates, bribed legislators to get deals done, and even kidnapped a potential investor. He duped the U.S. Treasury, pushing up the price of gold and prompting a scare on Wall Street that depressed all stocks. After hiring strikebreakers during a railroad strike in 1886, he was reported to have said, “I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.”
Where did his billions go?
Jay had several children and, among them, they married a Tallyrand, a Baron Decies, and a Drexel. Jay’s oldest son, George, inherited the family fortune. George had seven legitimate and three illegitimate children, all of whom he recognized in his will. But more of George’s money went to creditors than to his offspring: He had $30,000,000 to bequeath when he died, according to his obituary in the Times, down from his father’s peak of $77,000,000 (not adjusted for inflation). Yet even that was later revised down by the Times to only half as much. After the creditors were paid off, George’s children were said to collectively receive a little over $5 million in 1933 dollars.Freedom of information and privacy statutes courtesy of Access Reports Newsletters (http://www.accessreports.com), the news source of choice for professionals concerned with access to government information.
President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992
(Public Law No. 102-526)
Section 1. Short Title
This Act may be cited as the "President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992."
Section 2. Findings, Declarations, and Purposes
(a) FINDINGS AND DECLARATIONS -- The Congress finds and declares that --
(1) All government records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy should be preserved for historical and governmental purposes;
(2) all government records concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy should carry a presumption of immediate disclosure, and all records should be eventually disclosed to enable the public to become fully informed about the history surrounding the assassination;
(3) legislation is necessary to create an enforceable, independent, and accountable process for the public disclosure of such records;
(4) legislation is necessary because congressional records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy would not otherwise be subject to public disclosure until at least the year 2029;
(5) legislation is necessary because the Freedom of Information Act, as implemented by the executive branch, has prevented the timely public disclosure of records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy;
(6) legislation is necessary because Executive Order No. 12356, entitled "National Security Information" has eliminated the declassification and downgrading schedules relating to classified information across government and has prevented the timely public disclosure of records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; and
(7) most of the records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy are almost 30 years old, and only in the rarest cases is there any legitimate need for continued protection of such records.
(b) PURPOSES -- The purposes of this Act are --
(1) to provide for the creation of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection at the National Archives and Records Administration; and
(2) to require the expeditious public transmission to the Archivist and public disclosure of such records.
Copyright Access Reports, Inc.
Section 3. Definitions
In this Act:
"Archivist" means Archivist of the United States.
"Assassination record" means a record that is related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, that was created or made available for use by, obtained by, or otherwise came into the possession of --
(A) the Commission to Investigate the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (the "Warren Commission");
(B) the Commission on Central Intelligence Agency Activities Within the United States (the "Rockefeller Commission");
(C) the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities (the "Church Committee");
(D) the Select Committee on Intelligence (the "Pike Committee") of the House of Representatives;
(E) the Select Committee on Assassinations (the "House Assassinations Committee") of the House of Representatives;
(F) the Library of Congress;
(G) the National Archives and Records Administration;
(H) any Presidential library;
(I) any Executive agency;
(J) any independent agency;
(K) any other office of the Federal Government; and
(L) any State or local law enforcement office that provided support or assistance or performed work in connection with a Federal inquiry into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy,
but does not include the autopsy records donated by the Kennedy family to the National Archives pursuant to a deed of gift regulating access to those records, or copies and reproductions made from such records.
"Collection" means the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection established under section 4.
"Executive agency" means an Executive agency as defined in subsection 552(f) of title 5, United States Code, and includes any Executive department, military department, Government corporation, Government controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive branch of the Government, including the Executive Office of the President, or any independent regulatory agency.
"Government office" means any office of the Federal Government that has possession or control of assassination records, including --
(A) the House Committee on Administration with regard to the Select Committee on Assassinations records of the House of Representatives;
(B) the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate with regard to records of the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities and other assassination records;
(C) the Library of Congress;
(D) the National Archives as custodian of assassination records that it has obtained or possesses, including the Commission to Investigate the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Commission on Central Intelligence Agency Activities in the United States; and
(E) any other executive branch office or agency, and any independent agency.
"Identification aid" means the written description prepared for each record as required in section 4.
"National Archives" means the National Archives and Records Administration and all components thereof, including Presidential archival depositories established under section 2112 of title 44, United States Code.
"Official investigation" means the reviews of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy conducted by any Presidential commission, any authorized congressional committee, and any Government agency either independently, at the request of any Presidential commission or congressional committee, or at the request of any Government official.
"Originating body" means the Executive agency, government commission, congressional committee, or other governmental entity that created a record or particular information within a record.
"Public interest" means the compelling interest in the prompt public disclosure of assassination records for historical and governmental purposes and for the purpose of fully informing the American people about the history surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
"Record" includes a book, paper, map, photograph, sound or video recording, machine readable material, computerized, digitized, or electronic information, regardless of the medium on which it is stored, or other documentary material, regardless of its physical form or characteristics.
"Review Board" means the Assassination Records Review Board established by section 7.
"Third agency" means a Government agency that originated an assassination record that is in the possession of another agency.
Section 4. President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection at the National Archives
and Records Administration
(a) IN GENERAL --
(1) Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the National Archives and Records Administration shall commence establishment of a collection of records to be known as the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection. In so doing, the Archivist shall ensure the physical integrity and original provenance of all records. The Collection shall consist of record copies of all Government records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which shall be transmitted to the National Archives in accordance with section 2107 of title 44, United States Code. The Archivist shall prepare and publish a subject guidebook and index to the collection.
(2) The Collection shall include --
(A) all assassination records --
(i) that have been transmitted to the National Archives or disclosed to
the public in an unredacted form prior to the date of enactment of this Act;
(ii) that are required to be transmitted to the National Archives; or
(iii) the disclosure of which is postponed under this Act;
(B) a central directory comprised of identification aids created for each record transmitted to the Archivist under section 5; and
(C) all Review Board records as required by this Act.
(b) DISCLOSURE OF RECORDS -- All assassination records transmitted to the National Archives for disclosure to the public shall be included in the Collection and shall be available to the public for inspection and copying at the National Archives within 30 days after their transmission to the National Archives.
(c) FEES FOR COPYING -- The Archivist shall --
(1) charge fees for copying assassination records; and
(2) grant waivers of such fees pursuant to the standards established by section 552(a)(4) of title 5, United States Code.
(d) ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS -- (1) The Collection shall be preserved, protected, archived, and made available to the public at the National Archives using appropriations authorized, specified, and restricted for use under the terms of this Act.
(2) The National Archives, in consultation with the Information Security Oversight Office, shall ensure the security of the postponed assassination records in the Collection.
Section 5. Review, Identification, Transmission to the National Archives, and Public Disclosure
of Assassination Records by Government Offices
(a) IN GENERAL -- (1) As soon as practicable after the date of enactment of this Act, each Government office shall identify and organize its records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and prepare them for transmission to the Archivist for inclusion in the Collection.
(2) No assassination record shall be destroyed, altered, or mutilated in any way.
(3) No assassination record made available or disclosed to the public prior to the date of enactment of this Act may be withheld, redacted, postponed for public disclosure, or reclassified.
(4) No assassination record created by a person or entity outside government (excluding names or identities consistent with the requirements of section 6) shall be withheld, redacted, postponed for public disclosure, or reclassified.
(b) CUSTODY OF ASSASSINATION RECORDS PENDING REVIEW -- During the review by Government offices and pending review activity by the Review Board, each Government office shall retain custody of its assassination records for purposes of preservation, security, and efficiency, unless --
(1) the Review Board requires the physical transfer of records for purposes of conducting an independent and impartial review;
(2) transfer is necessary for an administrative hearing or other Review Board function; or
(3) it is a third agency record described in subsection (c)(2)(C).
(c) REVIEW -- (1) Not later than 300 days after the enactment of this Act, each Government office shall review, identify and organize each assassination record in its custody or possession for disclosure to the public, review by the Review Board, and transmission to the Archivist.
(2) In carrying out paragraph (1), a Government office shall --
(A) determine which of its records are assassination records;
(B) determine which of its assassination records have been officially disclosed or made publicly available in a complete and unredacted form;
(C)(i) determine which of its assassination records, or particular information contained in such a record, was created by a third agency or by another Government office; and
(ii) transmit to a third agency or other government office those records, or particular information contained in those records, or complete and accurate copies thereof;
(D)(i) determine whether its assassination records or particular information in assassination records are covered by the standards for postponement of public disclosure under this Act; and
(ii) specify on the identification aid required by subsection (d) the applicable postponement provision contained in section 6;
(E) organize and make available to the Review Board all assassination records identified under subparagraph (D) the public disclosure of which in whole or in part may be postponed under this Act;
(F) organize and make available to the Review Board any record concerning which the office has any uncertainty as to whether the record is an assassination record governed by this Act;
(G) give priority to the identification, review, and transmission, under the standards for postponement set forth in this Act, of assassination records that on the date of enactment of this Act are the subject of litigation under section 552 of title 5, United States Code; and
(H) make available to the Review Board any additional information and records that the Review Board has reason to believe it requires for conducting a review under this Act.
(3) The Director of each archival depository established under section 2112 of title 44, United States Code, shall have as a priority the expedited review for public disclosure of assassination records in the possession and custody of the depository, and shall make such records available to the Review Board as required by this Act.
(d) IDENTIFICATION AIDS -- (1)(A) Not later than 45 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Archivist, in consultation with the appropriate Government offices, shall prepare and make available to all Government offices a standard form of identification or finding aid for use with each assassination record subject to review under this Act.
(B) The Archivist shall ensure that the identification aid program is established in such a manner as to result in the creation of a uniform system of electronic records by Government offices that are compatible with each other.
(2) Upon completion of an identification aid, a Government office shall --
(A) attach a printed copy to the record it describes;
(B) transmit to the Review Board a printed copy; and
(C) attach a printed copy to each assassination record it describes when it is transmitted to the Archivist.
(3) Assassination records which are in the possession of the National Archives on the date of enactment of this Act, and which have been publicly available in their entirety without redaction, shall be made available in the Collection without any additional review by the Review Board or another authorized office under this Act, and shall not be required to have such an identification aid unless required by the Archivist.
(e) TRANSMISSION TO THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES -- Each Government office shall --
(1) transmit to the Archivist, and make available to the public no later than 300 days after the date of enactment of this Act, all assassination records that can be publicly disclosed, including those that are publicly available on the date of enactment of this Act, without any redaction, adjustment, or withholding under the standards of this Act; and
(2) transmit to the Archivist upon approval for postponement by the Review Board or upon completion of other action authorized by this Act, all assassination records the public disclosure of which has been postponed, in whole or in part, under the standards of this Act, to become part of the protected Collection.
(f) CUSTODY OF POSTPONED ASSASSINATION RECORDS -- An assassination record the public disclosure of which has been postponed shall, pending transmission to the Archivist, be held for reasons of security and preservation by the originating body until such time as the information security program has been established at the National Archives as required in section 4(c)(2).
(g) PERIODIC REVIEW OF POSTPONED ASSASSINATION RECORDS -- (1) All postponed or redacted records shall be reviewed periodically by the originating agency and the Archivist consistent with the recommendations of the Review Board under section 9(c)(3)(B).
(2)(A) A periodic review shall address the public disclosure of additional assassination records in the Collection under the standards of this Act.
(B) All postponed assassination records determined to require continued postponement shall require an unclassified written description of the reason for such continued postponement. Such description shall be provided to the Archivist and published in the Federal Register upon determination.
(C) The periodic review of postponed assassination records shall serve to downgrade and declassify security classified information.
(D) Each assassination record shall be publicly disclosed in full, and available in the Collection no later than the date that is 25 years after the date of enactment of
enactment of this Act, unless the President certifies, as required by this Act, that --
(i) continued postponement is made necessary by an identifiable harm to military defense, intelligence operations, or conduct of foreign relations; and
(ii) the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
(h) FEES FOR COPYING -- Executive branch agencies shall --
(1) charge fees for copying assassination records; and
(2) grant waivers of such fees pursuant to the standards established by section 552(a)(4) of title 5, United States Code.
Section 6. Grounds for Postponement of Public Disclosure of Records
Disclosure of assassination records or particular information in assassination records to the public may be postponed subject to the limitations of this Act if there is clear and convincing evidence that --
(1) the threat to the military defense, intelligence operations, or conduct of foreign relations of the United States posed by the public disclosure of the assassination is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest, and such public disclosure would reveal --
(A) an intelligence agent whose identity currently requires protection;
(B) an intelligence source or method which is currently utilized, or reasonably expected to be utilized, by the United States Government and which has not been officially disclosed, the disclosure of which would interfere with the conduct of intelligence activities; or
(C) any other matter currently relating to the military defense, intelligence operations or conduct of foreign relations of the United States, the disclosure of which would demonstrably impair the national security of the United States;
(2) the public disclosure of the assassination record would reveal the name or identity of a living person who provided confidential information to the United States and would pose a substantial risk of harm to that person;
(3) the public disclosure of the assassination record could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, and that invasion of privacy is so
substantial that it outweighs the public interest;
(4) the public disclosure of the assassination record would compromise the existence of an understanding of confidentiality currently requiring protection between a Government agent and a cooperating individual or a foreign government, and public disclosure would be so harmful that it outweighs the public interest; or
(5) the public disclosure of the assassination record would reveal a security or protective procedure currently utilized, or reasonably expected to be utilized, by the Secret Service or another Government agency responsible for protecting Government officials, and public disclosure would be so harmful that it outweighs the public interest.
Section 7. Establishment and Powers of the Assassination Records Review Board
(a) ESTABLISHMENT -- There is established as an independent agency a board to be known as the Assassination Records Review Board.
(b) APPOINTMENT -- (1) The President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint, without regard to political affiliation, 5 citizens to serve as members of the Review Board to ensure and facilitate the review, transmission to the Archivist, and public disclosure of government records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
(2) The President shall make nominations to the Review Board not later than 30 calendar days after the date of enactment of this Act.
(3) If the Senate votes not to confirm a nomination to the Review Board, the President shall make an additional nomination not later than 30 days thereafter.
(4)(A) The President shall make nominations to the Review Board after considering persons recommended by the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Society of American Archivists, and the American Bar Association.
(B) If an organization described in subparagraph (A) does not recommend at least 2 nominees meeting the qualifications stated in paragraph (5) by the date that is 45 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the President shall consider for nomination the persons recommended by the other organizations described in subparagraph (A).
(C) The President may request an organization described in subparagraph (A) to submit additional nominations.
(5) Persons nominated to the Review Board --
(A) shall be impartial private citizens, none of whom is presently employed by any branch of the Government, and none of whom shall have had any previous involvement with any official investigation or inquiry conducted by a Federal, State, or local government, relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
(B) shall be distinguished persons of high national professional reputation in their respective fields who are capable of exercising the independent and objective judgment necessary to the fulfillment of their role in ensuring and facilitating the review, transmission to the public, and public disclosure of President John F. Kennedy and who possess an appreciation of the value of such material to the public, scholars, and government; and
(C) shall include at least 1 professional historian and 1 attorney.
(e) SECURITY CLEARANCES -- (1) All Review Board nominees shall be granted the necessary security clearances in an accelerated manner subject to the standard procedures for granting such clearances.
(2) All nominees shall qualify for the necessary clearance prior to being considered for confirmation by the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the Senate.
(d) CONFIRMATION HEARINGS -- (1) The Committee on Governmental Affairs of the Senate shall hold confirmation hearings within 30 days in which the Senate is in session after the nomination of 3 Review Board members.
(2) The Committee on Governmental Affairs shall vote on the nominations within 14 days in which the Senate is in session after the confirmation hearings, and shall report its results to the full Senate immediately.
(3) The Senate shall vote on each nominee to confirm or reject within 14 days in which the Senate is in session after receiving the report from the Committee on Governmental Affairs.
(e) VACANCY -- A vacancy on the Review Board shall be filled in the same manner as specified for original appointment within 30 days of the occurrence of the vacancy.
(f) CHAIRPERSON -- The Members of the Review Board shall elect one of its members as chairperson at its initial meeting.
(g) REMOVAL OF REVIEW BOARD MEMBER -- (1) No member of the Review Board shall be removed from office, other than --
(A) by impeachment and conviction; or
(B) by the action of the President for inefficiency, neglect of duty, malfeasance in office, physical disability, mental incapacity, or any other condition that substantially impairs the performance of the member's duties.
(2)(A) If a member of the Review Board is removed from office, and that removal is by the President, not later than 10 days after the removal the President shall submit to the Committee on Government Operations of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the Senate a report specifying the facts found and the grounds for the removal.
(B) The President shall publish in the Federal Register a report submitted under paragraph (2)(A), except that the President may, if necessary to protect the rights of a person named in the report or to prevent undue interference with any pending prosecution, postpone or refrain from publishing any or all of the report until the completion of such pending cases or pursuant to privacy protection requirements in law.
(3)(A) A member of the Review Board removed from office may obtain judicial review of the removal in a civil action commenced in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
(B) The member may be reinstated or granted other appropriate relief by order of the court.
(h) COMPENSATION OF MEMBERS -- (1) A member of the Review Board shall be compensated at a rate equal to the daily equivalent of the annual rate of basic pay prescribed for level IV of the Executive Schedule under section 5315 of title 5, United States Code, for each day (including travel time) during which the member is engaged in the performance of the duties of the Review Board.
(2) A member of the Review Board shall be allowed reasonable travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, at rates for employees of agencies under subchapter I of chapter 57 of title 5, United States Code, while away from the member's home or regular place of business in the performance of services for the Review Board.
(i) DUTIES OF THE REVIEW BOARD -- (1) The Review Board shall consider and render decisions on a determination by a Government office to seek to postpone the disclosure of assassination records.
(2) In carrying out paragraph (1), the Review Board shall consider and render
decisions --
(A) whether a record constitutes an assassination record; and
(B) whether an assassination record or particular information in a record qualifies for postponement of disclosure under this Act.
(j) POWERS -- (1) The Review Board shall have the authority to act in a manner prescribed under this Act including authority to --
(A) direct Government offices to create identification aids and organize assassination records;
(B) direct Government offices to transmit to the Archivist assassination records as required under this Act, including segregable portions of assassination records, and substitutes and summaries of assassination records that can be publicly disclosed to the fullest extent;
(C)(i) obtain access to assassination records that have been identified and organized by a Government office;
(ii) direct a Government office to make available to the Review Board, and if necessary investigate the facts surrounding, additional information, records, or testimony from individuals, which the Review Board has reason to believe is required to fulfill its functions and responsibilities under this Act; and
(iii) subpoena private persons to compel testimony, records, and other information relevant to its responsibilities under this Act;
(D) require any Government office to account in writing for the destruction of any records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy;
(E) receive information from the public regarding the identification and public disclosure of assassination records; and
(F) hold hearings, administer oaths, and subpoena witnesses and documents.
(2) A subpoena issued under paragraph (1)(C)(iii) may be enforced by any appropriate Federal court acting pursuant to a lawful request of the Review Board.
(k) WITNESS IMMUNITY -- The Review Board shall be considered to be an agency of the United States for purposes of section 6001 of title 18, United States Code.
(l) OVERSIGHT -- (1) The Committee on Government Operations of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the Senate shall have continuing oversight jurisdiction with respect to the official conduct of the Review Board and the disposition of postponed records after termination of the Review Board; and shall have access to any records held or created by the Review Board.
(2) The Review Board shall have the duty to cooperate with the exercise of such oversight jurisdiction.
(m) SUPPORT SERVICES -- The Administrator of the General Services Administration shall provide administrative services for the Review Board on a reimbursable basis.
(n) INTERPRETIVE REGULATIONS -- The Review Board may issue interpretive regulations.
(o) TERMINATION AND WINDING UP -- (1) The Review Board and the terms of its members shall terminate not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, except that the Review Board may, by majority vote, extend its term for an additional 1-year period if it has not completed its work within that 2-year period.
(2) Upon its termination, the Review Board shall submit reports to the President and the Congress, including a complete and accurate accounting of expenditures during its existence, and shall complete all other reporting requirements under this Act.
(3) Upon termination and winding up, the Review Board shall transfer all of its records to the Archivist for inclusion in the Collection, and no record of the Review Board shall be destroyed.
Section 8. Assassination Records Review Board Personnel
(a) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR -- (1) Not later than 45 days after the initial meeting of the Review Board, the Review Board shall appoint one citizen, without regard to political affiliation, to the position of Executive Director.
(2) The person appointed as Executive Director shall be a private citizen of integrity and impartiality who is a distinguished professional and who is not a present employee of any branch of the Government and has had no previous involvement with any official investigation or inquiry relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
(3)(A) A candidate for Executive Director shall be granted the necessary security clearances in an accelerated manner subject to the standard procedures for granting such clearances.
(B) A candidate shall qualify for the necessary security clearance prior to being
approved by the Review Board.
(4) The Executive Director shall --
(A) serve as principal liaison to Government offices;
(B) be responsible for the administration and coordination of the Review Board's review of records;
(C) be responsible for the administration of all official activities conducted by the Review Board; and
(D) have no authority to decide or determine whether any record should be disclosed to the public or postponed for disclosure.
(5) The Executive Director shall not be removed for reasons other than by a majority vote of the Review Board for cause on the grounds of inefficiency, neglect of duty, malfeasance in office, physical disability, mental incapacity, or any other condition that substantially impairs the performance of the responsibilities of the Executive Director or the staff of the Review Board.
(b) STAFF -- (1) The Review Board may, in accordance with the civil service laws but without regard to civil service law and regulation for competitive service as defined in subchapter 1, chapter 33 of title 5, United States Code, appoint and terminate additional personnel as are necessary to enable the Review Board and its Executive Director to perform its duties.
(2) A person appointed to the staff of the Review Board shall be a private citizen of integrity and impartiality who is not a present employee of any branch of the Government and who has had no previous involvement with any official investigation or inquiry relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
(3)(A) A candidate for staff shall be granted the necessary security clearances in an accelerated manner subject to the standard procedures for granting such clearances.
(B) A candidate for the staff shall qualify for the necessary security clearance
prior to being approved by the Review Board.
(c) COMPENSATION -- The Review Board shall fix the compensation of the Executive Director and other personnel in accordance with title 5, United States Code, except that the rate of pay for the Executive Director and other personnel may not exceed the rate payable for level V of the Executive Schedule under section 5316 of that title.
(d) ADVISORY COMMITTEES -- (1) The Review Board shall have the authority to create advisory committees to assist in fulfilling the responsibilities of the Review Board under this Act.
(2) Any advisory committee created by the Review Board shall be subject to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.).
Section 9. Review of Records by the Assassination Records Review Board
(a) CUSTODY OF RECORDS REVIEWED BY BOARD -- Pending the outcome of the Review Board's review activity, a Government office shall retain custody of its assassination records for purposes of preservation, security, and efficiency, unless --
(1) the Review Board requires the physical transfer of records for reasons of conducting an independent and impartial review; or
(2) such transfer is necessary for an administrative hearing or other official Review Board function.
(b) STARTUP REQUIREMENTS -- The Review Board shall --
(1) not later than 90 days after the date of its appointment, publish a schedule for review of all assassination records in the Federal Register; and
(2) not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, begin its review of assassination records under this Act.
(c) DETERMINATION OF THE REVIEW BOARD -- (1) The Review Board shall direct that all assassination records be transmitted to the Archivist and disclosed to the public in the Collection in the absence of clear and convincing evidence that --
(A) a Government record is not an assassination record; or
(B) a Government record or particular information within an assassination record qualifies for postponement of public disclosure under this Act.
(2) In approving postponement of public disclosure of an assassination record, the Review Board shall seek to --
(A) provide for the disclosure of segregable parts, substitutes, or summaries of such a record; and
(B) determine, in consultation with the originating body and consistent with the standards for postponement under this Act, which of the following alternative forms of disclosure shall be made by the originating body:
(i) Any reasonably segregable particular information in an assassination record.
(ii) A substitute record for that information which is postponed.
(iii) A summary of an assassination record.
(3) With respect to each assassination record or particular information in assassination records the public disclosure of which is postponed pursuant to section 6, or for which only substitutions or summaries have been disclosed to the public, the Review Board shall create and transmit to the Archivist a report containing --
(A) a description of actions by the Review Board, the originating body, the President, or any Government office (including a justification of any such action to postpone disclosure of any record or part of any record) and of any official proceedings conducted by the Review Board with regard to specific assassination records; and
(B) a statement, based on a review of the proceedings and in conformity with the decisions reflected therein, designating a recommended specified time at which or a specified occurrence following which the material may be appropriately disclosed to the public under this Act.
(4)(A) Following its review and a determination that an assassination record shall be publicly disclosed in the Collection or postponed for disclosure and held in the protected Collection, the Review Board shall notify the head of the originating body of its determination and publish a copy of the determination in the Federal Register within 14 days after the determination is made.
(B) Contemporaneous notice shall be made to the President for Review Board determinations regarding executive branch assassination records, and to the oversight committees designated in this Act in the case of legislative branch records. Such notice shall contain a written unclassified justification for public disclosure or postponement of disclosure, including an explanation of the application of any standards in section 6.
(d) PRESIDENTIAL AUTHORITY OVER REVIEW BOARD DETERMINATION --
(1) PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OR POSTPONEMENT OF DISCLOSURE -- After the Review Board has made a formal determination concerning the public disclosure or postponement of disclosure of an executive branch assassination record or information contained in an assassination record, obtained or developed solely within the executive branch, the President shall have the sole and nondelegable authority to require the disclosure or postponement of such record or information under the standards set forth in section 6, and the President shall provide the Review Board with an unclassified written certification specifying the President's decision within 30 days after the Review Board's determination and notice to the executive branch agency as required under this Act, stating the justification for the President's decision, including the applicable grounds for postponement under section 6, accompanied by a copy of the identification aid required under section 4.
(2) PERIODIC REVIEW -- Any executive branch assassination record postponed by the President shall be subject to the requirements of periodic review, downgrading and declassification of classified information, and public disclosure in the collection set forth in section 4.
(3) RECORD OF PRESIDENTIAL POSTPONEMENT -- The Review Board shall, upon its receipt, publish in the Federal Register a copy of any unclassified written certification, statement, and other materials transmitted by or on behalf of the President with regard to postponement of assassination records.
(e) NOTICE TO PUBLIC -- Every 30 calendar days, beginning on the date that is 60 calendar days after the date on which the Review Board first approves the postponement of disclosure of an assassination record, the Review Board shall |
edly, that the universe is a random place, but video games are a constant for me. I don’t know much about what the future holds, but I know I will be buying a Nintendo Switch. Sometimes I can’t shake the feeling that this is all pointless, so I load up a save file and remember I can make things happen. And on the days I can’t shake my depression, I clean my apartment for the third time and make a visual novel unfold.
We have games about cancer and heart disease. We have games that reflect the mundane and games that offer the surreal. And in the ever-growing landscape of the video game industry, I can’t help but think all of it offers us some type of healing through connection — whether it’s a connection with the developers, connection with other players, or connection with our inner-selves. I don’t know if I’ll ever be free of mental health issues — it’s too soon to say anything — but behind a controller seems as good a place as any to wait out the storm.
FROM AROUND THE WEBThis was the pointed question posed in a recent article on the website of Forbes, the proud and unapologetic mouthpiece of capitalism. In the words of the article’s author, Igor Greenwald: “Capitalism has been the dominant economic system in the Western world for, give or take, 400 years. And in that virtual eye blink in the grander scheme of things it has produced more wealth than all the prior economic systems put together... But nothing—not even the bestest thing ever—lasts forever. Stuff happens. Things change. Systems work until they don’t. How close is capitalism to the end of its useful life? What comes next?”
[We publish here the editorial of the present issue of the American Marxist journal Socialist Appeal]
He continues: “In 14th century Europe, the bubonic plague temporarily boosted wages and reduced agricultural rents. Barring a similar game-changer, it’s hard to be optimistic about the spending power of workers who double as consumers... If a zero-sum, winner-take-all struggle for leverage is the name of the game, those games seldom conclude as the winners might hope.” [our emphasis]
In other words, unless there is another “game changer” like the “Black Death—which “boosted wages” by wiping out 75–200 million people worldwide, including an estimated 30–60% of Europe’s population—workers can’t expect things to get better under this system! Leaving the cynicism of this comment to one side, the very fact that the question of capitalism’s viability is being presented in this way in a publication like Forbes indicates that even some of its most ardent defenders are having some second thoughts.
The grinding crisis of the last few years has brought to the surface the inherent contradictions of the system, and shaken up the consciousness of millions at every level of society. Throughout the 1800s, when the system was still playing a historically progressive role in developing the productive forces, this kind of pessimism was simply not seen among capitalism’s advocates. On the contrary. The capitalist class was full of confidence for the future, with grand plans to rule the planet for centuries to come. Nor was it being asked by its defenders in the 1950s and 60s, during the prolonged postwar boom, when the overall curve of economic development trended upward. But things are different now.
It is also significant that the Forbes article acknowledges that capitalism is a specific and relatively recent form of human socio-economic organization. We are usually led to believe that capitalism is “the best of all possible worlds,” that it has “always been, and always will be.” In reality, capitalism is a historically developed system, which superseded various systems that preceded it. The logic, of course, is that it too will one day be superseded—although the author does not conclude this.
Forbes is not the only serious news and information outlet concerned with the system’s structural problems. The geopolitical strategic analysts at Stratfor had this to say in a recent article by their founder, George Friedman: “...The United States faces a potentially significant but longer-term geopolitical problem deriving from economic trends. The threat to the United States is the persistent decline in the middle class’ standard of living, a problem that is reshaping the social order that has been in place since World War II and that, if it continues, poses a threat to American power.
“The United States was built on the assumption that a rising tide lifts all ships. That has not been the case for the past generation, and there is no indication that this socio-economic reality will change any time soon. That means that a core assumption is at risk. The problem is that social stability has been built around this assumption... the social fabric of the United States is at risk, and with it the massive global power the United States has accumulated. Other superpowers such as Britain or Rome did not have the idea of a perpetually improving condition of the middle class as a core value. The United States does. If it loses that, it loses one of the pillars of its geopolitical power.” [our emphasis]
Just what is the “socio-economic reality” for the majority in the U.S. today? The percentage of working-age Americans with a job has been below 59% for 39 months in a row. It has remained virtually unchanged at 58.7% since the low-point trough of the economic cycle back in September 2009. That’s roughly 100 million working-age Americans without a job. 48% of Americans are living in poverty or are “low income.” 77% of Americans say they are living “from paycheck to paycheck.” 60% of the jobs lost during the last period were considered “mid-wage” jobs, while 58% of the jobs created over the same period have been “low wage.” According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, only 24.6% of all American jobs qualified as “good jobs” in 2010.
Median income has fallen for 4 consecutive years, by roughly $1,000 per family per year. For those at the bottom of the income scale, and especially for young people, things are even worse. 57% of all U.S. children are living in “low income” or outright impoverished homes. Families with a head of household 30 years old or younger have a poverty rate of 37%. More than one million public school students in the U.S. are homeless. According to Bloomberg, since 1978, tuition and fees for college have risen by more than 1,000%, medical expenses by 601%, and food prices by 244%. 53% of those 25 years or younger with bachelor degrees were either unemployed or underemployed last year. An estimated 25 million adults are living with their parents.
40% of Americans have less than $500 in savings. 28% have a grand total $0.00 set aside in the bank for emergencies. 20.2 million Americans spend more than half of their income on housing, a 46% rise since 2001. Electricity bills have risen faster than inflation for 5 years running, and water bills have tripled over the last 12 years. 47.7 million Americans depend on food stamps, a 50% rise from just 4 years ago. That’s one of every 6.5 Americans, as compared to one of every 50 in the 1970s. This is roughly equal to the combined populations of half the U.S. states plus the District of Columbia.
In other words, as we have explained many times in the pages of Socialist Appeal, the material basis for the American Dream is dead, and this betrayal of expectations will have profound consequences on workers’ and young people’s consciousness.
So when Friedman refers to the “middle class,” he is really talking about wide swathes of the working class—the vast majority of the population. When Mr. Friedman hints at the growing risks to social stability, and Mr. Greenwald ominously notes that “those games seldom conclude as the winners might hope,” they are referring to the prospects for mass social upheavals and in the final analysis—revolution. Everything has its limits and eventually reaches a “breaking point.”
The recent rotten-egg-of-a-deal on the debt and “fiscal cliff” will only add to the immiseration and intensify the contradictions. The automatic cuts have only been postponed for a few weeks, so we will be treated to another farcical “showdown” between those who want cuts now and those who want cuts gradually. One way or another, billions of dollars in painful cuts are coming. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and more remain on the chopping block.
Barely mentioned during the media storm over December’s debt ceiling negotiations was the fact that the Social Security “paycheck tax holiday” was allowed to expire, which means less weekly take-home pay for 163 million workers. This is a regressive tax that hits those least able to afford it the hardest. Meanwhile, the rich and their corporations are being allowed to continue squirreling away their money virtually undisturbed. The idea that the wealthy’s riches will somehow “trickle down” has been thoroughly discredited by the reality of the last 30 years.
Corporate profits as a percentage of GDP are at an all-time high, while wages as a percentage of GDP are near the all-time low. It has been estimated that between subsidies, corporate tax underpayments and deductions, offshore tax havens, and various corporate tax loopholes, the wealthiest Americans avoid as much as $3 trillion in taxes every year. This is 3 times the U.S. annual budget deficit.
Never mind the trillions in cash the so-called “job creators” and “captains of industry” have parked unproductively in bank accounts, while millions of able and willing workers languish in unemployment. The top 1% have as much wealth as the bottom 95%. The richest 400 families in the U.S. have as much wealth as the bottom 50% of the population. The six individual Wal-Mart heirs alone are “worth” more than the bottom 30% of Americans combined. The poorest 50% own just 2.5% of the country’s wealth.
We say: make the bosses pay for their crisis, not the workers and the poor! If the capitalists can’t run society in the interests of everyone, the workers certainly can!
The American working class can and must fight back. More importantly, it can and must fight to win. The imposition of “Right to Work” in Indiana and Michigan are a warning to the labor movement of what’s to come if the unions do not adopt class struggle tactics that recognize the opposed interests of the workers and the bosses. The failure of the labor leadership to give a real lead in the fight against Right to Work and on the political front over the past few decades led us to this situation. However, the 8-day strike at the Port of Los Angeles, the “Black Friday” Wal-Mart protests, and the walkout by hundreds of NYC fast-food workers indicate that more and more workers will not simply lay down and take continued abuse. More fight backs are sure to erupt in the months and years ahead.
So what is the way forward? Mr. Friedman declines to provide an answer and says simply, “People who are smarter and luckier than I am will have to craft the solution.” As he sees the world through geopolitical eyes and not from a class perspective, he is unable to conceive of a way forward, despite his many insights. As for Mr. Greenwald, his solution is predictable: he wants to save capitalism from itself. But he fails to understand that attempting to regulate capitalism is like trying to “regulate” the eruptions of a super-volcano!
Our answer to Forbes’ question is clear: the capitalist system is indeed dying. If it is not replaced by socialism, it threatens to take the whole of society back into an age darker than humanity has seen in a thousand years. We would also add that it will not breathe its last gasp of its own accord; it will require the conscious and organized efforts of the united working class to give it a final push over the cliff of history.
Although many on the left are pessimistic about the future, we Marxists are optimistic. By keeping the big picture in mind, we understand that the perspective for humanity is bright, despite the capitalist horrors that take place every day.
Under capitalism, humanity has developed the means of production and technology to previously unimaginable heights. However, the right of any socio-economic system to continue to exist depends on its ability to develop the productive forces and consistently increase the standard of living of the majority. Capitalism can no longer achieve this. Its best days are behind it and there are only bad days ahead.
Only socialism can give humanity a new lease on life. Once society’s vast untapped potential is unleashed from the shackles of the profit motive, we will see an unprecedented flowering of culture, art, and science, and a dramatic increase in the quality of life of every inhabitant of this planet. That’s a future worth fighting for.The most senior US diplomat for Asia is seeking an explanation for comments made by the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, about his country separating from the US.
Daniel Russel, the assistant secretary of state for east Asian and Pacific affairs, expressed concern over Duterte’s deadly war on drugs and anti-US rhetoric during a meeting with the Philippine foreign secretary, Perfecto Yasay, on Monday.
“I’ve pointed out to secretary Yasay that the succession of controversial statements, comments and a real climate of uncertainty about the Philippines’ intentions has created consternation in a number of countries, not only in mine,” Russel said. “This is not a positive trend.”
Has Duterte really ditched the US for Beijing's embrace? Read more
The relationship between the Philippines, a former US colony, and Washington has soured significantly since Duterte took office in June, reaching a low when he suggested Barack Obama was a “son of a whore”.
Last week, on the eve of a visit to China, Duterte said: “I announce my separation from the United States … both in military and economics also.”
In a press briefing, the spokesman for the US Department of State, John Kirby, said Washington was “baffled” by the comments and sought “an explanation of exactly what the president meant when he talked about separation from the US”.
While he stated that Russel’s trip had been planned months in advance, Kirby said: “It does give us an opportunity in the context of these comments to try to get a better explanation of what was meant by ‘separation’ and where that’s going.
“I think [Russel’s] conversations will hopefully suffice for the kind of explanation and more detail that we’re seeking.”
Shortly after he arrived in the Philippine capital, Manila, Russel’s team tweeted a photo of Philippine newspaper headlines referring to the separation comment.
EAP Bureau (@USAsiaPacific) Arrived in Manila. Trying to make sense of what we're hearing. Will ask our friends. pic.twitter.com/SBExcGmXPD
Duterte visited Beijing last week and has increasingly spoken about friendly ties with China after years of antagonism over a territorial dispute in the South China Sea. Observers say Duterte is looking to China to take over from the US as a major ally for the Philippines.
But Russel said it was a mistake to think improved relations between Manila and Beijing “somehow come at the expense of the United States … This should be addition and not subtraction”.I’ve built my first rotation safe deck. It’s mono-white with help from some artifacts. The creature casting cost is low, so it should maintain a fast tempo. Let’s take a look at:
Innistradical
Creature (26)
3x Avacynian Priest
4x Cathedral Sanctifier
3x Emancipation Angel
4x Fiend Hunter
3x Guardians of Akrasa
1x Herald of War
1x Intrepid Hero
3x Seraph of Dawn
4x Spectral Rider
Artifact (7)
2x Chalice of Life
2x Elixir of Immortality
3x Gallows at Willow Hill
Enchantment (4)
4x Oblivion Ring
Land (24)
24x Plains
Sideboard (15)
4x Loyal Cathar
4x Unruly Mob
3x Thraben Heretic
4x War Priest of Thune
Maybeboard (5)
1x Midvast Protector
4x Farbog Explorer
The deck incorporates many of my favorite elements. The mana curve is low. The deck has unblockable potential with Spectral Rider. Hopefully, a Guardians of Akrasa can help pump the Spectral Rider. If the life gain takes off, Chalice of Life can provide more offense when it flips to Chalice of Death. Emancipation Angel is particularly helpful. You can use it to bounce a Fiendhunter/Oblivion Ring that targeted a token or bounce a Cathedral Sanctifier for more life gain. The deck has permanent and creature control. Oblivion Ring can handle a variety of threats, while Gallows at Willow Hill can supplement the creature control of Fiend Hunters. Gallows looks like a very splashable artifact that could be used in many human heavy decks. The most questionable inclusion is the Herald of War given the low cost of the creatures already.
This is my first serious post-rotation deck. Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to test it soon. According to the calendar, I understand that there will be a free FNM at GoodFellas Games this Friday that I might check out.
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I have a question. I never liked rap until I heard Macklemore. And I listened to some other stuff, and so the only rap I like is by white people. I wrote an informative persuasion speech for my Public Speaking class about how black people started rap but white people made it better because it’s not all gangster. I got docked for points because my teacher (a black prof) said it was racist, that it’s in the syllabus hate speech won’t be tolerated, and it’s not a persuasion speech. Who’s right?
Anonymous
Meg at Cognitive Dissonance:
You are definitely in the wrong here. So. Very. Wrong.
Your opinion is just that — an opinion. If you’re doing an informative persuasion speech, I’m going to guess your professor wanted you to cite sources. I don’t even know what sources you’d cite to suggest that white people were able to take rap and make it better because it’s not “all gangster.” I’m gonna guess Stormfront. It was Stormfront, right?
And that leads to the whole racism thing…
Yes, your professor is right. Let me quote another white rapper, Eminem, as our starting point:
“I am the worst thing since Elvis Presley / to do Black Music so selfishly / and use it to get myself wealthy (Hey) / there’s a concept that works” — “Without Me”
There’s a long history of cultural appropriation with Black music and culture, whether it’s rap, blues, rock n’ roll, etc. (Harlem Shake anyone?) What do you think birthed rock n’ roll? It just fell out of the sky like manna from White Jesus? Bullshit. I encourage you to pick up this book, The Soul of Rock ‘N Roll: A History of African Americans in Rock Music.
Now, on to rap. First off, I’ll help you with the whole hip hop white people like thing. Brian over at Cats and Beer complied a list of hip hop songs for white people and damn, if it isn’t the truth from what I’ve seen with white people who say, “Oh yeah, I LOVE rap!”
In all seriousness, examine what you’re saying up there. You like rap that white people have done because it’s “not all gangster” — did you stop to consider that perhaps the music you hear from people of color has something to do with their real-life and their struggles? Yeah, there’s gangsta rap, but check your privilege at the door anon — I’m guessing your objections don’t come from growing up in and seeing that as a part of everyday life.
However, some rap and hip hop IS problematic itself with the derogatory language towards women, LGBTQ people, and Black women in particular, but there’s also the same degradation in rock music — largely by white men, and for decades. On my radio show, we came to the conclusion that Death Cab for Cutie’s, “I Will Posses Your Heart” is the ultimate “nice guy” song:
“You reject my advances and desperate pleas / I won’t let you let me down so easily / So easily”
Let me? How sweet of you Ben Gibbard, let me have hundreds of your twee lil’ babies!
Dr. Edward Rhymes wrote an excellent piece about rap being scapegoated by the dominant culture in America called “Caucasian please! America’s Cultural Double Standard for Misogyny and Racism.” An excerpt:
In this composition I will not be addressing the whole of hip-hop and rap, but rather hardcore and gangsta rap. It is my assertion that the mainstream media and political pundits — right and left — have painted rap and hip-hop with a very broad brush. Let me be perfectly clear, hardcore and gangsta rap is not listened to, watched, consumed or supported in my home and never has been. I will not be an apologist for anything that chooses to frame the dialogue about Black women (and women in general) and Black life in morally bankrupt language and reprehensible symbols. In the wake of MSNBC’s and CBS’s firing of Don Imus, the debate over misogyny, sexism and racism has now taken flight — or submerged, depending on your point of view. There are many, mostly white, people who believe that Imus was a fall guy and he is receiving blame and criticism for what many rap artists do continually in the lyrics and videos: debase and degrade Black women. A Black guest on an MSNBC news program even went as far as to say, “Where would a 66 year-old white guy even had heard the phrase nappy-headed ho” — alluding to hip-hop music’s perceived powerful influence upon American culture and life (and apparently over the radio legend as well) — and by so doing gave a veneer of truth to the theory that rap music is the main culprit to be blamed for this contemporary brand of chauvinism. However, I concur with bell hooks, the noted sociologist and black-feminist activist who said that “to see gangsta rap as a reflection of dominant values in our culture rather than as an aberrant ‘pathological’ standpoint, does not mean that a rigorous feminist critique of the sexist and misogyny expressed in this music is not needed. Without a doubt black males, young and old, must be held politically accountable for their sexism. Yet this critique must always be contextualized or we risk making it appear that the behavior this thinking supports and condones — rape, male violence against women, etc. — is a black male thing. And this is what is happening. Young black males are forced to take the ‘heat’ for encouraging, via their music, the hatred of and violence against women that is a central core of patriarchy.”
How about that for an informative persuasion speech?
Not liking rap isn’t racist. I dig Macklemore — “Same Love” and “Thrift Shop” are catchy as hell. Saying the only rap you like is by certain artists who are white, well, it’s awkwardly walking a fine line and some people will assume you’re racist. Claiming white people took rap and made it better? Fuck, anon, you should be grateful you just got points taken off. You assume that rap by people of color is just gangster? Yeah, that’s racist but sadly, I bet there are a few in your class that agree with you. Again, your professor is right. It wasn’t a persuasion speech. It was (likely) racist. I say likely because I obviously didn’t hear it, but I seriously can’t think of a way in which it wouldn’t be racist.
And lest you think all rap by white artists is a-OK, please, let me remind you of 3OH!3’s “Don’t Trust Me” — which holds the honor of being the only song I have ever refused to play as a request on my own radio show.
In conclusion, check out Sarah Jones, “Your Revolution”:
Hopefully you’ve learned something here, and your next speech is just a simple how-to instructional speech. May I suggest how not to be an ignorant tool as the topic? Re-read the above if you have any questions.
Class dismissed.
Cheers,
MegThe four largest cartels with affiliates in United States cities were the Federation, the Tijuana Cartel, the Juarez Cartel and the Gulf Cartel.
“There is evidence that Mexican cartels are also increasing their relationships with prison and street gangs in the United States in order to facilitate drug trafficking,” a Congressional report from February 2008 stated. Intelligence analysts were detecting increased Mexican drug cartel-related activity in Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Seattle and Yakima, Wash. — areas that used to be controlled by other ethnic networks.
Smuggling is still most conspicuous in the Southwest, which has been home to Mexican traffickers for more than two decades. From Nogales, Ariz., recently, a reporter watched as smugglers across the border, in hilltop stations, peered through binoculars at the movements of American Border Patrol agents. The agents gunned their trucks along the barrier looking for illegal crossings.
About noon, border agents saw a 60-pound bale of marijuana drop over the fence.
“That kind of thing happens every day here,” said Agent Michael A. Scioli, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection.
For the cartels, “marijuana is the king crop,” said Special Agent Rafael Reyes, the chief of the Mexico and Central America Section of the Drug Enforcement Administration. “It consistently sustains its marketability and profitability.”
Marijuana trafficking continues virtually unabated in the United States, even as intelligence reports suggest the declining availability of heroin, cocaine and other hard drugs that require extensive smuggling operations.
By combining smuggling with domestic production, the cartels have sustained the marijuana trade despite the onslaught of enforcement actions on both sides of the border. From 2000 through 2007, Mexican authorities arrested about 90,000 drug traffickers, more than 400 hit men and a dozen cartel leaders, according to a 2008 Congressional report. The United States extradited 95 Mexican nationals last year. Seizures in the first half of 2008 outpaced the average seizure rate from 2002 to 2006.
Photo
But the price has been high. Tensions have increased among the cartels, which are warring over lucrative drug routes through Mexican border towns like Juarez, Tijuana and Nogales, Sonora. More than 6,000 people, including hundreds of police officers, were killed by drug-related violence in Mexico in 2008. United States Border Patrol agents are also reporting more violent confrontations with traffickers.
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As the Mexican government and American authorities have hardened the border, drug cartels are increasing production just north of it to avoid resorting to smuggling.
Many of the largest marijuana plantations are hidden on federal and state parklands, federal authorities say. Bill Sherman, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent based in San Diego, said the authorities were also finding an increasing number of farms in Imperial and San Diego Counties, an area traffickers traditionally avoided because of the presence of border guards, various police agencies and Camp Pendleton, a Marine base.
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“We’re seeing a lot more grows down here now,” Mr. Sherman said. “That is a shift.”
Drug enforcement agents uprooted about 6.6 million cannabis plants grown mostly by cartels in 2007, one-third more than the plants destroyed in 2006. In California, the nation’s largest domestic marijuana producer, the authorities eradicated a record 2.9 million plants by the end of the marijuana harvest in December.
Yet enforcement officials say they see no discernible reduction in the domestic supply. Prices have remained relatively steady even as the potency of marijuana increased to record levels in 2007, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center, a Justice Department analysis agency.
Mr. Reyes also noted that Mexican traffickers in the United States were choosing hydroponic marijuana, which is more potent, profitable and easier to hide because it can be grown year round with sunlamps. (A pound of midgrade marijuana sells for about $750 in Los Angeles, compared with $2,500 to $6,000 for a pound of hydroponic marijuana.) He noted a case last year in Florida in which Cuban growers used several houses in a single Miami tract development to supply hydroponic marijuana to Mexican traffickers.
Kathyrn McCarthy, an assistant United States attorney in Detroit, said Mexican traffickers in Michigan were trading Colombian cocaine for hydroponic marijuana from British Columbia to sell in the United States. In Washington State, now the second biggest domestic producer of marijuana, Mexican cartels are growing improved varieties of outdoor marijuana to compete with BC Bud and other potent indoor plants.
Last year, narcotics officers discovered 200,000 high-quality marijuana plants growing amid leased vineyards in the Yakima Valley. The Northwest has traditionally been the province of Asian hydroponic networks.
Despite increased planting, the cartels still rely on smuggling. Near Nogales, Ariz., Mr. Scioli pointed out several cross-border tunnels, one of which extended from the backyard of a house, under the fence and into Mexico 40 yards away. Another series of cross-border tunnels made use of existing sewer lines or drainage pipes. They were among the nine smuggling tunnels drug enforcement agents have discovered there since 2003.
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Despite the fact that the authorities are discovering more marijuana production inside the United States, most of the cartels’ leadership remains in Mexico and, for now, so does most of the violence. Still, recent photographs from Mexico of the decapitated heads of Mexican policemen play in the minds of law enforcement officials on this side of the border, who are vigilant for signs of spillover.
The Mexican police in Sonora “are stuck between two warring cartels,” said Anthony J. Coulson, a federal drug enforcement agent. “The cops are being killed as pawns. They’re being used to show how much power and control the cartels have.”
Mr. Reyes, the special agent, said, “The violence is happening because of the pressure we’ve exacted, but it does not fuel any increase or decrease in marijuana.”
No one sees a quick end of the violence in Nogales, Sonora.
Sheriff Tony Estrada of Santa Cruz County said there was so much violence on the other side of the border that many Mexican police officers and politicians had become virtual refugees in Nogales, Ariz.
“The violence has left a large contingent of police on this side of the border,” Sheriff Estrada said. “The killing will stop when somebody dominates. When somebody takes control.”Hamburgers might seem like a stretch for a family famous for chocolate.
But Michael and Laurence Gottlieb are trying to change that perception, one juicy bite at a time. The Savannah brothers, who own the recently resurrected Gottlieb's Bakery, are vying for a shot to cook their newest creation at a James Beard Foundation Food Conference in New York.
And as of Tuesday, their Worcestershire Glazed Double Mushroom Burger was in the top six most popular entries in the James Beard Blended Burger Contest - an event that's open to voters through July 31. The contest aims to create a healthier hamburger by mixing mushrooms with beef to create lower-calorie patties.
When the Gottliebs heard about the contest two days before deadline, they knew it was a catchy way to get the word out about their new barbecue joint, Woods Kitchen in Bloomingdale.
The brothers work as a team, with Michael focusing on the savory side and Laurence on baking. For the contest, Michael made the patty and Laurence concocted a bun dyed with beet juice to make it red like a mushroom. The bun's also topped with mushroom salt, and Michael adds charred Vidalia onions to balance out the flavor of the hefty, savory burger.
The beef, which comes from Hunter Cattle Co. in Brooklet, is mixed with locally grown cremini mushrooms.
"It reduces the fat in the burger, it reduces the caloric intake and it gives it an earthy taste," Michael said.
But, he added, the way the burger is cooked still has a traditional appeal.
"At the end of the day, we still have you feeling like you're tasting grease."
Michael says the contest fits in with the Woods Kitchen mission - showing off locally sourced products.
"I feel good about (representing Savannah," Michael said while grilling one of the burgers. "But I'm doing it to represent a quality product being made in an area that's trying to take steps forward with food and using local ingredients."
So far the Gottliebs are doing well online, and their burger is in the running with entries from two of Georgia celebrity chef Hugh Acheson's restaurants. But voting is open through July, so the Gottliebs are counting on Savannah's hungry residents to send them to New York in October.
As an incentive, the brothers are offering a free "chocolate chewie" treat at Woods Kitchen to anyone who votes for them on the James Beard Foundation's website.
And anyone who wants to try the burger can head to Woods Kitchen on U.S. 80. The restaurant is open from 10:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Tuesday and from 10:45 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday.
"Or," said Laurence, "until we run out of meat."
Worcestershire Glazed Double Mushroom Burger
Voting in the James Beard Blended Burger Contest is open through July 31. To vote for Woods Kitchen of Bloomingdale and to see other entries, go to www.jamesbeard.org/blendedburgerproject/vote.
Learn more about Woods Kitchen and Gottlieb's Bakery at www.gottliebsfood.com.
Woods Kitchen at 1304 Highway 80 in Bloomingdale is open from 10:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Tuesday and 10:45 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday. The burger costs $10. For more info, call 912-348-3340.The Rubik’s cube just won the right to European Union trademark protection, fending off a challenge from Simba a German toy maker that had applied an EU trademark in 2006 for the non-color representation of the cube. (see Bloomberg article here)
The European General Court dismissed Simba Toys action in its entirety, thus making it the biggest legal win yet in the Rubik Brand’s history.
In the words of David Kremer, President, Rubik’s Brand Ltd, “Rubik brand can now legally claim protection for any flat sided Cube with equally spaced orthogonal 3x3x3 grid whatever surface decoration within the toy and game category”.
Below is the full official press release from Rubik’s :
Rubik’s Cube: EU Court in Luxembourg confirmed trade mark protection In 2006, Simba Toys, a German toy manufacturer, applied to the EU Trademark Office (OHIM) to have the Community (EU) trade mark protecting the non-coloured representation of the Rubik’s Cube cancelled mainly on the ground that it involves a technical solution. OHIM dismissed the application and Simba Toys therefore brought an appeal action before the European General Court (EGC). With today’s judgment the European General Court dismissed the action of Simba Toys in its entirety wa5ivqd. The Court confirmed that the cubic grid structure of the trade mark which appears on the representation of the Cube does not fulfil any technical function; therefore the registration of the shape of the Rubik’s Cube as a trade mark cannot be refused on the ground that that shape incorporates a technical function. In addition, the Court found that the cubic grid structure of the mark differs significantly from other three-dimensional puzzles available on the market. That structure therefore has distinctive character which enables consumers to identify the producer of the goods in respect of which the mark is registered. This decision may be appealed again to the European Court of Justice (ECJ – the highest authority in Europe) but only within the next two months and only either on procedural irregularities or because of an overarching conflict with EU legal principles. The ECJ rarely overturns the decisions of the EGC and does not go into the technical legal arguments of the Trademark. There are other Rubik Cube infringement legal cases that were “stayed” pending the European General Court deliberation but now can be concluded with an almost certain chance of success in favour of the Rubik Trademark. Effectively this decision allows the Rubik brand to claim protection for any flat sided Cube with equally spaced orthogonal 3x3x3 grid whatever surface decoration within the toy and game category. Source: Rubik’s brand Dec 2, 2014
Rubik’s continues to fight against fakes around the world, with tens of thousands destroyed each year.
Its most recent win in October is a shipment of 40,000pcs of fake Rubik’s Cubes seized by the US Customs and Border Protection.
More about Rubik’s protection here:
https://www.rubiks.com/info/The watchdog Canadians go to if they feel they've been wronged by their financial services provider can't really do its job because it can't force companies to pay up, an independent evaluator says.
The Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) released the results of an independent evaluation of its operations and practices for investment-related complaints today.
The evaluation was led by Deborah Battell, a former banking ombudsman and former regulator with the New Zealand Commerce Commission. Battell has conducted evaluations of more than 30 organizations in a wide range of industries, most recently New Zealand's Financial Services Federation.
Battell found that the OBSI "performed well within its current mandate: its decisions are fair and consistent with those made internationally; and with its loss calculation tools, its ability to determine fair amounts of compensation is world leading."
But Battell found that unlike other comparable financial ombudsmen in other countries around the world, OBSI has no power to enforce any of its decisions.
"[OBSI] does not have the authority to bind firms to comply with its compensation recommendations. This drives its operating model and prevents it from fulfilling the fundamental role of an ombudsman, securing redress for all consumers who have been wronged."
Calls for change
The evaluation was ordered in the wake of amendments written by Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), which took effect in May |
river in his locality after the boy wrote to her, asking for one.
Shirshendu Biswas, a class-IV student at Patuakhali Government Jubilee High School, wrote a letter to the prime minister on August 15, requesting her to have a bridge built on the river in Patuakhali's Mirzaganj upazila.
The PM in her reply said she was delighted to receive the letter from him. She praised the boy for his awareness regarding his family's safety while crossing the river.
She said she was aware that the Payra in Mirzaganj is a turbulent river. The PM assured Shirshendu of taking steps to build a bridge over the river.
The prime minister's letter, written on September 8, reached the school on September 20, said sources in the school.
In his letter to the premier, Shirshendu said he is a citizen of the country and his father's name is Bishawjit Biswas and mother's name Sheela Rani Sonnamot.
“I am a regular student of class-IV at Patuakhali Government High School. Abinash Sonnamot, my maternal grandfather, was a freedom fighter.”
He said he wrote an essay on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's childhood at a programme marking the death anniversary of the leader. He stood third at the competition.
“My village home is in Jhalakathi and we have to cross the Payra river to go to my home... The river has high waves... Sometimes boats and trawlers sink in the river.”
The boy mentions that many lives are lost in such accidents and he does not want to lose his parents as he loves them very much.
“Therefore, I request you to take steps to build a bridge on the Mirzaganj [Payra] river,” he says towards the end of his letter.
Talking to this correspondent yesterday, Shirshendu said, “I wrote the letter to the prime minister on August 15 this year and posted it.”
Shirshendu is the only child of his parents. His father works for a non-government organisation in Patuakhali town and mother works at the social welfare office. They live in a rented house in the town's Puran Bazar area.
“We are very proud of him [Shirshendu] and glad to know that the prime minister replied to his letter,” Bishawjit said.
Siddiqur Rahman, headmaster of the school, said the letter would be formally handed over to Shirshendu tomorrow.'s film Raees has been in news ever since MNS had threatened the Pakistani artists to leave the country because of the Uri Attacks. SRK invited more trouble after he went to Dubai to shoot with Mahira Khan. Following that, the 51-year-old actor had to meet Raj Thackeray and assure that Mahira won't be promoting the film.
But it doesn't end here! Shia community is now offended by a particular scene in the film. The representatives of the community have written a letter to the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) demanding the exclusion of the scene in which the actor is seen jumping over a Muharram procession carrying Alame Mubarak. According to the community, it's a sign of disrespect.
Spokesperson of United Shia Front, Samar Abbas Jaidi said, “The actor is shown crossing over an Alam (a Shia religious structure) in a chase sequence. It is strictly prohibited for anyone to cross over the holy structure. We will boycott the movie in the district if the movie is released without removing the scene.”
Influential Shia cleric from Lucknow, Maulana Syed Kalbe Jawad Naqvi, told a leading UK daily, "I never watch movies, but when I saw this particular stunt in the movie's trailer, I was shocked. This is wrong. Mr. Khan should know that such religious rituals are followed by Shias to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussain."
Will troubles end for SRK's Raees anytime soon?
Read MoreCLOSE Arizona Sen. John McCain joined azcentral for a one-on-one interview to talk about his cancer diagnosis, President Trump, health care and more. (azcentral.com)
Sen. John McCain and his wife, Cindy, enter the Republic Media building in downtown Phoenix on Aug. 3, 2017. (Photo: Tom Tingle/The Republic)
Sen. John McCain proclaimed himself in good spirits and said he's feeling in good health during his first week of radiation treatment for an aggressive form of brain cancer.
The remarks came Thursday during a Facebook Live broadcast from The Arizona Republic.
“Fine, I’m feeling fine,” McCain said. The senior senator from Arizona said he has felt no ill effects from the targeted radiation treatments. “I have not felt anything except feeling good.”
PREVIOUSLY: Sen. John McCain has brain tumor, doctors say
McCain said his doctors told him that exercise and good food would be important to his recovery, as well as staying active. McCain said he expected to be back on the Senate floor in September.
McCain said his doctors had advised him against heading back to D.C. last week. It was less than two weeks after he underwent surgery to remove a blood clot, a procedure that also revealed the cancerous tumor.
MORE: Full speech: McCain makes dramatic return to Senate floor
“I thought about it (and) there’s men and women putting their lives on the line every hour, and I can’t go back to Washington?" McCain said.
McCain on the health-care vote
A viewer asked McCain about that deciding no vote on the so-called “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act.
“It wasn’t an easy call,” McCain said, “but I could see it wasn’t going to address the challenges that Arizona faces.”
MORE: What Ducey told McCain ahead of his big vote to kill GOP'repeal' bill
McCain said he’s read speculation that his dramatic vote was orchestrated, but he said that was not the case.
McCain was not on his floor when his name was called during the vote. McCain walked onto the Senate floor moments later, held his hand up to get the clerk's attention, then, when recognized, quickly turned his open hand into a thumbs-down gesture while saying, "no."
McCain said that Vice President Mike Pence had called him into his Senate office just off the floor so Pence could try to sway his vote. McCain said Pence also told him he wanted him to speak with President Donald Trump.
“Meanwhile the roll call is going on,” McCain said. “To make a long story short, I came out — I had made up my mind a long time ago — and decided no.”
NEWSLETTERS Get the AZ Memo newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Get the pulse of Arizona -- Local news, in-depth state coverage and what it all means for you Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-332-6733. Delivery: Mon-Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for AZ Memo Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
In an earlier interview with the editorial board of The Republic, McCain described that phone call with Trump as “very pleasant, as you might expect.”
PREVIOUSLY: Trump wishes 'crusty voice' McCain a speedy recovery
McCain also said that his no vote was not a revenge vote against Trump for his disparaging comments about McCain’s time as a prisoner of war, comments Trump made as a candidate two years ago.
McCain on presidential campaigns, growth
A Facebook viewer asked whether McCain had a “red line” with President Trump.
McCain said he did not. “I will do everything in my power to work with this president,” he said. “He’s our president, unlike me.”
It was the second reference McCain had made to his failed candidacies for the nation’s highest office. As political editor Michael Squires introduced McCain to Facebook Live viewers, he said he was a former presidential candidate. “Thanks for mentioning that,” McCain said dryly.
Another Facebook Live viewer asked about how the nation’s infrastructure could be funded.
MORE: Census Bureau: Maricopa County fastest growing in country
McCain suggested making a deal with people who have money parked overseas to avoid high taxes. “You bring that money back and we’ll tax you at 20 percent,” he said. “If you bring it back, that tax money will go to building infrastructure throughout this country.”
McCain said Arizona’s growth has made the state in dire need of infrastructure. “Anybody who drives north on a Friday knows how badly we need more infrastructure,” he said.
McCain on the border wall
CLOSE A look at the socioeconomic and environmental impact of a 2,000-mile long wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Another Facebook Live viewer asked about the border wall.
“Walls are not the answer, although walls are part of the answer,” McCain said.
MORE: Trump waives environmental laws to speed border wall construction
He said any wall would face challenges as it cuts across reservations and privately owned land.
“Yes, it sounds good and I’m for it,” he said, “but I believe it’s got to be part of an overall equation rather than: we built a wall and we’ve found the answer.”
"To think a wall is going to stop illegal immigration and drugs is crazy," @SenJohnMcCain to @azcentral editorial board — Richard Ruelas (@ruelaswritings) August 3, 2017
McCain had earlier told the newspaper’s editorial board that he was talking with Sen. Chuck Schumer, the minority leader of the Senate, about reviving comprehensive immigration reform.
Great talking with @azcentral editorial board today about top issues facing #Arizona & the nation pic.twitter.com/bqb7BAFYLs — John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) August 3, 2017
“I want to work to reintroduce the same package that passed through the United States Senate and was never taken up in the house,” he said.
McCain on his legacy
Another Facebook Live commenter asked if McCain’s cancer diagnosis and made him ponder his legacy.
McCain said he thought the most important work was in defense funding while serving as chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
MORE: Special report: McCain the 'Maverick'
But he seemed in no mood to address retirement.
As the Facebook Live closed, McCain looked into the camera and said: “My dear friends, I’m coming back.”
READ MORE:
McCain's type of brain cancer vexes doctors
McCain barely escaped death 50 years ago
Meghan McCain on father: 'He is the toughest person I know'
3 AZ lawmakers want bipartisan health- care fix
Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/2vwDebpKarr writes: "Think you have the right to speak freely via cellphones, websites and social media? Well, the companies that provide you with access to the Internet don't."
Verizon's motto: 'We Rule the Air.' (photo: Verizon)
Freedom = Censorship?
By Timothy Karr, Media Citizen
hink you have the right to speak freely via cellphones, websites and social media? Well, the companies that provide you with access to the Internet don't.
The framers drafted the First Amendment as a check on government authority - not corporate power. But whether we're texting friends, sharing photos on Facebook, or posting updates on Twitter, we're connecting with each other and the Internet via privately controlled networks.
And the owners of these networks are now twisting the intent of the First Amendment to claim the right to control everyone's online information.
Right before the Fourth of July, Verizon filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that expressed this intent in no uncertain terms. The brief was part of the telecom company's bid to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's Net Neutrality rules, which prohibit carriers from blocking or discriminating against Internet users' content.
In the brief, Verizon argues that the First Amendment gives the company the right to serve as the Internet's editor-in-chief.
The First Amendment "protects those transmitting the speech of others, and those who ‘exercise editorial discretion' in selecting which speech to transmit and how to transmit it," the company's attorneys wrote. "In performing these functions, broadband providers possess ‘editorial discretion.' Just as a newspaper is entitled to decide which content to publish and where, broadband providers may feature some content over others."
By "content" Verizon means all digital communications that cross its wires, from photographs of your cousin's backyard barbeque to YouTube videos of human rights violations in Syria.
Verizon filed its brief quietly just before the July Fourth holiday, but it has caught the attention of the Internet freedom community like a skunk under the back porch.
This is not the first time Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have suggested that they have a First Amendment right to stifle speech online. AT&T argued in 2010 that its role is similar to that of an editor who selects content and speaks - and that it is not merely a conduit for the communications of others.
This defense of corporate censorship is no idle threat but a pretext for a full-scale takeover of the Internet - a move that first requires killing off any consumer protections that stand in the way.
We live in a time when growing numbers of people watch television programs, listen to music, create videos and share photographs via Internet connections provided by private entities.
A 2011 report from European Digital Rights states that ISPs and other technology companies are fast becoming the information cops of the world. The report paints a picture of an emerging "censorship ecosystem" fueled by private entities that often work hand in glove with governments.
This collusion serves both corporate and political interests. ISPs are seeking new authority to interfere with user traffic, including limiting access to the content of competitors like Netflix or shutting down the accounts of users they charge with sharing too much media. Governments are demanding that access providers help them filter and police the Internet - and that they do so under a veil of secrecy.
The most dangerous threats to free speech today lie at this intersection between corporate and political power. While businesses might do many things better than governments, our government is at least by definition directly accountable to the American people. So when Verizon claims the right to decide who gets free speech on the Internet, it's making this claim as a benevolent despot, not as a representative democracy.
The framers of the U.S. Constitution could not have foreseen a time in which technology allowed more than a billion people to communicate via mobile phones connected to the World Wide Web. Nor could they have envisioned a world in which companies like Verizon, AT&T and Comcast wield more authority over our free speech than a British monarch.
And yet the First Amendment has survived to this day in defense of democracy's most consequential right. People on both the left and right value freedom of speech. Just days after Verizon filed its brief, a diverse coalition of more than 1,000 groups and Internet dignitaries joined together behind a Declaration of Internet Freedom that establishes freedom of expression as its first principle.
But popular consensus behind free speech on the Internet is running headlong into media giants like Verizon that want to suppress open Internet culture.
Any claim that the First Amendment protects corporations - and not people - is absurd. And it shows just how far some companies are willing to go to control 21st century communications.NBC TV pilot “Exposed” is based on a Scandinavian television series. The drama follows an investigative journalist (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who will stop at nothing to uncover the truth — including making questionable alliances.
The NBC Pilot features Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ben Barnes, Sandrine Holt, Pedro Pascal, Peter DeJersey, Brian F. O’Byrne, and Fran Kranz.
Beau Bonneau Casting is seeking a wide range of extras to work on the production. All of the roles are paid. For more details, see the casting call below:
Beau Bonneau Casting is casting paid extras for the pilot episode of a new NBC television show, “Exposed” about an investigative journalist that relies on questionable methods in order to expose the truth. Extras are needed 4/1 in SF and Wed 4/2 & Thurs 4/3 in Vallejo. We are immediately seeking the following types on the following dates:
* 4/1 SF – Caucasian-appearing woman 18 – 20s with dreadlocks to portray a gutter punk type homeless girl. Will be featured in a coffee house scene with speaking actors, likely recognizable, no speaking lines. Approx report time 7AM.
* 4/2 & 4/3 Vallejo – Latino Men & Women 18 & over with strong emphasis on rough, tough Latinos 18-early 30s. Body and face tattoos, shaved heads, etc. are a huge plus, as well as 18 yr olds that can pass for younger teens. A small group of the 18-25 yr old men will be selected to work both days and be featured in scenes with the speaking actors, likely recognizable with no speaking lines. Additional Latino extras, both tough looking and general neighborhood types are needed 4/3 only. Approx report times each day 8AM or 9AM.
* 4/3 Vallejo – Hmong Man & Woman in their late 50s-60s to portray grieving grandparents in very small funeral scene with speaking actors. Likely recognizable, but no speaking lines. Approx report time 9AM or later for one scene, should be free all day, but may only be needed a partial day.A proposed class-action lawsuit accusing Fitbit of misrepresenting the ability of its wearable fitness products to track sleep can move forward, a federal judge has ruled.
The San Francisco federal lawsuit claims that Fitbit materially misrepresented on its packaging the ability of the Flex product to track users' hours slept, times woken up, and sleep quality. The suit alleges false advertising, unfair trade practices, fraud, and a host of other claims.
US District Judge James Donato did not rule on the merits of the case but instead refused to toss the lawsuit as Fitbit had wanted. Now Fitbit, which claimed the allegations were based on "bad science," according to the judge, must mount another defense to the allegations. The case could still be dismissed at a later stage, and it might also go to a trial or settle.
"Fitbit’s dismissal request is focused on attacking the plaintiffs’ evidence as bad science and proffering a compilation of studies that it believes validates the efficacy of accelerometer-based sleep tracking," the judge wrote. "Fitbit disputes those allegations and the parties clearly have sharply divergent views about sleep monitoring technology and what works and what does not, but those issues of fact are far beyond the scope of this motion to dismiss. And even if Fitbit’s studies might validate the use of accelerometers for sleep monitoring, plaintiffs’ claims arise out of Fitbit’s representations on product packaging and similar sources. Consumers are not expected to do research 'beyond misleading representations on the front of the box.'"
Fitbit said in a statement that it would "vigorously" defend the case, which it said has "no merit."
The lawsuit, (PDF) which was filed last year and amended, cites a 2012 study in the journal Sleep Health as evidence that the Fitbit allegedly does not adequately track sleep.
The judge gave Fitbit until July 29 to respond to his Friday ruling.The line break is such an important feature of poetry that we can almost use it to define poetry: prose is text that runs all the way to the margin, whereas poetry is text written with line breaks. (Prose poetry poses a wrinkle here).
For poets writing in fixed-form and spoken traditions, the line break was in some sense an invisible feature of their art. Since its placement was determined by the form, the poet needn’t concern themselves with moving it around; words moved around the line breaks. Things have changed. The position of the line break is no longer fixed or determined by form or tradition, so the poet needs to make decisions about where line breaks should fall.
The evolution of free verse has also changed the relationship between sound and typography:
[…] in metrical verse, the auditory structure generates the printed structure; in free verse, the printed structure generates the auditory. Stephen Adams, “Poetic Designs”, p.153
We listen to metrical verse to determine where the line endings fall; we look at free verse to see where the line endings generate auditory effects.
One of the main skills of a poet -perhaps the fundamental skill- is sensitivity to the aesthetic effects of formal elements. Since free verse has given the poet greater control over the positioning of line breaks, poets need to develop sensitivity to the aesthetic effects of line breaks in varying positions.
It is the duty of a poet to take care and consideration in crafting their poems. Every word, sentence, and punctuation mark is chosen deliberately and against a backdrop of all alternatives. Every element of the poem, every mark and all the white space, serves the whole. So it is with line breaks. It is the duty of a poet to be aware of the options for placement of line breaks and to choose judiciously among them, just as it is their duty to choose the right word and to put the punctuation marks in the right place. And by “right place”, I mean the best choice in service of the needs of the poem; the form must serve the content.
This post is all about developing sensitivity to and skill with line breaks.
Learning Goals
develop sensitivity to the effect of line breaks; develop awareness of the range of effects of the poetic line; analyze a variety of uses of line breaks from poems; practice using line breaks to achieve varying effects.
Poetic Lineation
The first effect of lineation is to create a visual structure that affects the reader before they have even read the first word. The words look like a poem. Presenting words in the visual shape of a poem has the effect of drawing the attention and focus of the reader and shaping their expectations; the reader feels as though they are approaching something poetic, something that demands poetic attention.
Take a look at the following lines:
The night hours passed, and the dark
was in against the truck. Sometimes cars passed them, going west and
away; and sometimes great trucks came up out of the west and
rumbled eastward. And the stars flowed down in a slow cascade
over the western horizon.
It feels like a poem. A reader looks at the words, sees the lines, recognizes the familiar signs of a poem, and treats it as such when they are reading it. This is one effect of lineation. It is a cheap effect. I say it is cheap because it takes almost nothing to pull off, and it doesn’t require the poet to put any thought into where the line endings fall. It comes free.
These lines were taken from The Grapes of Wrath, which happened to be within arm’s reach. I flipped to a random page, took the first few sentences in a random paragraph, and chopped it into lines of roughly the same length.
Here are the same words as they appeared in the book:
The night hours passed, and the dark was in against the truck. Sometimes cars passed them, going west and away; and sometimes great trucks came up out of the west and rumbled eastward. And the stars flowed down in a slow cascade over the western horizon.
To be sensitive to the differences between the words as prose and the words as I have chopped them up above is to appreciate the aesthetic impact of lineation. How do the words feel different in each form?
First, when broken into lines, the words posture as a poem. They are read more slowly, with additional attention drawn, in particular, to the ends of lines -which linger in the mind for a pause that might be said to roughly equal a half-comma- and the beginnings of lines, which can surprise the reader and carry extra weight. Although I chopped these lines up purely for the visual effect, there were some fortuitous line-endings that create interesting aesthetic effects: a parallel structure between enjambment in the second and third stanza with the recurring words “west and” enhances the effect of passage of time and the monotony of cars passing on the highway; a similar enjambment between the third and fourth stanza forces the reader to link the movement of the cars to the movement of the stars; “flowed” at the beginning of the final stanza gets extra emphasis, as the third stanza flows over into the fourth -a formal complement to the content. These are happy accidents. They are the sort of thing that poets look for in language and exploit to the benefit of the poem (rhyming poetry, for example, to the extent that words are not onomatopoeic, is an art of exploiting accidents of language). Whether or not those lines were chopped in the right place is precisely the question that a poet needs to answer when they compose a poem, and they do so by relying on their sensitivity to the effects of various alternatives.
It’s the job of the poet to judiciously arrange words in coordination with punctuation and line endings, so that the effects generated by the interaction of those elements contribute to the aesthetic whole. Form must complement content; the greatest sin in composition is arbitrariness. If someone created a poem merely by chopping up sentences, as I have done above, and if there were nothing to be said of any of the other elements -if there were not an inordinate confluence of fortuitous accidents- it would be a very poor poem indeed.
We need to look at the different ways in which line-endings can be deployed to create various effects: these are the dimensions of choice in which the poet’s craft is exercised. A skilled poet exercises control over these dimensions of choice to create a well-crafted structure.
Before we look at the many uses of line breaks, we should do a simple exercise to develop sensitivity to the effects of lineation.
Poetic Lineation Exercise – General Sensitivity Exercise: Arbitrary Lineation
1. Arbitrary Lineation. I recommend doing this exercise on paper. Take the following words (from the Wikipedia entry on pigeons) and chop them into lines of roughly equal length, about seven or eight syllables, two lines per stanza (if you prefer, use a random paragraph from a random article):
Pigeons have made contributions of considerable importance to humanity, especially in times of war. In war the homing ability of pigeons has been put to use by making them messengers. So-called war pigeons have carried many vital messages and some have been decorated for their services.
Additional instructions: for this exercise, don’t omit any words; it’s important to exercise a minimal degree of creative control over the manipulation.
2. Compare the effect of your lineated words to the plain prose. Read your version twice. How does it feel different? Does it feel like a poem? Did any line-endings fall in interesting places or create interesting effects?
Reminder: the purpose of this exercise is to be attendant to the aesthetic effects of lineation. By fixing the words and comparing them to prose, we are isolating the line-endings as a formal element; any aesthetic difference between the two forms is entirely the product of lineation. Think of it as a controlled experiment. We are controlling for the effect of word choice so we can experiment with the effect of line-endings.
3. Take the same words you used in the first exercise. Chop them into shorter lines -maybe four to six syllables, or about three words (your choice)- and stanzas of three lines each.
4. Compare the effect of the shorter line version to the longer lines. Without reading them, just looking at the shape on the page, do they feel different? After reading both versions, does one feel faster or slower than the other? Did you notice any different interesting line-effects in the short version? Which version do you prefer? Why?
Lineation to Direct Attention
Modern poetry expanded the power of the line break. But it’s difficult to say what the line break’s power is, precisely. It doesn’t have a standard “meaning” or a standard effect; its “meaning” and effect changes depending on the context. Nor is there a numerable list of functions that the line break can serve, as we have for punctuation marks.
Still, we can try. If a line break were said to have a meaning, it could be, roughly, “pay attention; something interesting is happening”. It doesn’t specify what kind of interesting thing is happening, nor where it happens. It might happen at either end of the line break, or somewhere in the line.
Part of the effect of the line break comes from the time it takes your eyes to move from one line to the next -a slight pause that the reader feels, even if it is subconscious- and part of the effect comes from our knowledge that the poet has chosen every formal element deliberately, so we can expect the placement of every formal element to mean something.
The reader expects that line breaks serve a purpose. To satisfy this expectation means that each line should have, at a minimum, at least one interesting thing going on. By interesting thing, I mean the sort of thing that deserves attention for its poetic merit: a fresh metaphor, a clever thought, an emotional truth -something that justifies the reader’s attention. If you think this density of interesting-ness sounds hard, you’re right. Poetry is hard. It takes skill and craft to justify poetic attention.
The poet’s choice between long and short lines is a decision about what kind of attention they are asking for from the reader. If we want readers to focus on each image and each minute detail of description, we will use shorter lines; if we want them to focus on phrasal units, or the musicality of the speech, or larger arrangements of words or images, or complete, complex thoughts, we will use longer lines.
Imagist poems and haiku tend to use short lines. They are asking for close attention to be paid to each word. This is also why the poet needs to take great care to condense their imagery in these forms: not just because there are fewer words to work with, but because the reader is being promised by the form that close attention is justified. So it had better be.
One of the principles of Imagism is:
To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.
This statement of the importance of each individual word relates to the formal tendency in imagist poetry towards short lines. If indeed each word is chosen with deliberate care, this warrants greater attention, and therefore shorter lines.
It is difficult to sustain this level of heightened attention for long. This explains the formal tendency of Imagist poetry towards fewer lines. (Conversely, poems with many lines are likely to have longer lines).
Haiku is similar. Here is a haiku:
Autumn moonlight—
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut. -Matsuo Basho
This is characteristic of haiku: the unadorned expression, short lines, and lack of commentary all suggest that we should pay close attention to the individual words and images. The overall impression is that the poem contains condensed meaning. The reader will expect it, and the poet should work to satisfy that expectation.
By contrast, longer lines, such as Walt Whitman’s, ask us to pay attention to whole phrasal units and aggregate images. These types of poems are meant to be read in a different way, and we’re told this through their form.
Here are four lines of Whitman (selected pretty much at random, and pulled completely out of context):
And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud,
And I or you pocketless of a dime may purchase the pick of the earth,
And to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod confounds the learning of all times,
And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero, -Song of Myself XLVIII, Walt Whitman
The long lines suggest that it would be inappropriate to focus tightly on individual words like “furlong” or “sympathy” without considering them in the context of the poetic unit in which they appear; we are meant to read these lines as whole units, and reflect on the entirety of the thought expressed. This way of reading is further suggested by the alignment of line breaks with syntactical breaks. Whitman is not using line breaks to direct our thoughts any more than they are already directed by ordinary punctuation. Each line is presented as a complete unit, and it is meant to be read as such.
This type of poetry is more suitable for delivering philosophical concepts; it allows room to move beyond letting images speak for themselves to let the poet have a say. The disruption caused by enjambment would interfere with expressing the whole thought as a single unit; by maintaining the whole thought in a line, the poet ensures that our focus is there.
These long lines preserve the voice of the speaker. The poem feels less like a crafted object than a speaking voice. We feel the presence of a speaker more in Whitman than we do in haiku, or in imagist poetry. This effect derives in large part from the alignment of syntax with line breaks.
Exercise – Developing Sensitivity to Line Breaks, Line Length, and “Interesting-ness”
The following text was generated by taking poems and removing the line breaks. I’ve also changed the punctuation to remove capitalization at line beginnings. In other words, it’s been rendered as prose, and clues as to where the line breaks originally fell have been removed.
Here is the poem “Night, And I Travelling”, by Joseph Campbell, rendered as prose.
Night, and I travelling. An open door by the wayside, throwing out a shaft of warm yellow light. A whiff of peat-smoke; a gleam of delf on the dresser within; a woman’s voice crooning, as if to a child. I pass on into the darkness.
Here are some lines from the poem “On the Metro”, by C.K. Williams, rendered as prose.
On the metro, I have to ask a young woman to move the packages beside her to make room for me; she’s reading, her foot propped on the seat in front of her, and barely looks up as she pulls them to her.
1. One of these poems uses short lines. One uses long lines. Can you tell which is which? What makes you think that?
2. Take each passage, and add your own lineation. There is no “right” answer here: it’s about poetic sensibilities. Your goal is to make the text into the best poem you can by doing nothing other than adding line breaks (do this for both poems before moving on to the next question).
3. Do you think you would be able to reconstruct the poem as the poet intended? Why or why not? What kind of information might help you to reconstruct the poem?
4. Compare your lineation to the lineation as the poet intended it (provided below). Where are the differences? Is there anything surprising about the poet’s choices? Choose one of the most surprising choices made by the original poet -a line break that you didn’t expect, or a missing line break(s) where you expected them. Why do you think the poet wrote the poem that way? What effect were they going for? Justify your decision to lineate the poem differently (rely on the aesthetic effect you were aiming for).
To see the lineation as the poet intended:
Classifying Line Breaks by Strength of the Break
We can understand line breaks as existing on a continuum based on the “strength” of the break. Line breaks are weaker to the extent that they align with natural breaks in language, and stronger to the extent that they disrupt our expectations about where the language should be broken. The stronger the break, the more we feel its disruption, and the more we expect it to correspond to something significant occurring within the poem.
Break Type Example Aligned with sentence I ate a cranberry. Aligned with phrase Yesterday,
I ate a cranberry. Breaks within clause I ate
a cranberry. Breaks at morphemes I ate a cran
berry. Breaks at letters I ate a cranberr
y.
Any of these types of break can be “strengthened” by having the break occur across stanzas, rather than lines within the same stanza. Having the break occur across stanzas will increase the effect.
William Carlos Williams uses the first three types in one stanza of his poem “To a Poor Old Woman”, when he describes a woman munching plums:
They taste good to her
They taste good
to her. They taste
good to her
This stanza has three sentences and three different strengths of line break, appearing in order of increasing strength -aligned first with the sentence, then with the phrase (“good / to her”), then a break within the phrase (“taste / good to her”). This poem is a perfect illustration of the way we can use line breaks to direct the attention of the reader, and to shift their focus within a sentence. As the lines are used here, they have the effect of first setting the image, then zeroing in our attention, slowing down time as the stanza progresses through increasingly strong breaks. Critically, the same sentence is used three times, which helps isolate the effect of the line breaks.
This poem can still exist as an auditory work, since the pauses that indicate line breaks can be represented in speaking. But the same is not true of poems that increase the strength of the break further by placing it within a morpheme. These types of poems are orthographic works only.
e.e. cummings makes use of line breaks within morphemes. check out his poem “r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r”. There is no way we can read this poem. It exists visually. But the effect of the break exists on the same continuum.
cummings’ lineation focuses our attention on the moment of recognition of a leaping grasshopper. The words broken into pieces enact uncertainty, and the letters gather themselves into a comprehensible form just as the grasshopper comes into focus, leaping up from the grass.
(e.e. cummings also makes use of jagged white space at the beginning of lines, further reinforcing its existence as an orthographic work, rather than spoken. There is no possible way to speak this poem into existence.)
Breaking within a morpheme signals that something interesting is going on. The reader knows to pay attention. If a line is occupied by a single element, it warrants a great deal of attention:
fire
stick
marshmall
!
ow
In this short poem, marshmallow is split within the morpheme by an exclamation mark, which also produces an independent morpheme out of “ow”.
We connect fire, stick, and marshmallow straightforwardly, since these words are all joined by the weakest line breaks in the context of the poem. The scene is set by these initial lines: someone roasting a marshmallow on a stick over a camp-fire.
The strongest line breaks occur at “marshmall/!/ow”, breaking for the first time within a word, and demanding our full attention. We feel this break, we know something interesting is happening, so we look for it. The isolation of “ow” suggests the person has burned themselves. The isolation of “!” enacts their surprise, and suggests an iconic similarity between the ‘!’ and a marshmallow on a stick.
Exercise – Copy Carlos
To develop |
unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
Statesmen are like bald eagles around here – almost extinct.
The United States spends more per year on war than the next thirteen countries combined. That imminent attack by the Iranian navy may be overblown. Our generals blather about the threat from China, that spends 18% of our budget, and threat from Russia, that spends 7% of our budget. The mainstream media articles and fear mongering drivel from our corrupt bought off politicians are nothing but propaganda designed to keep the billions flowing to the arms peddlers like Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, Raytheon, Boeing, and the rest of the dealers of death. Politicians who have been bribed with decades of “political contributions” won’t even vote to get rid of weapons programs the military no longer wants.
It’s interesting how politicians are able to tell citizens they are only spending $520 billion per year on war when the true figure is $820 billion. Obama’s FY15 budget says we are going to spend $520 billion. He conveniently leaves out the cost of ongoing wars and the cost of past wars. We are still spending over $100 billion per year on our ongoing wars in Afghanistan, occupation in Iraq, and provocations in Libya and Syria. We are also providing military support of $50 billion to Egypt, Israel and dozens of other countries around the globe. Lastly, we spend over $150 billion per year on veterans of past wars. Our beloved leaders move that expense to another line item in the budget and pretend it is not a cost of war. The American people have short attention spans and once our wars of choice aren’t on the nightly news anymore they think it’s over. Tell that to the families of the 7,100 dead soldiers killed in our Middle East invasions, along with the 50,000 badly wounded servicemen, and the thousands more mentally damaged by the ordeal. The cost of war goes on forever. Government obfuscation does not fool anyone with critical thinking skills.
The dogs of war – McCain and Graham, along with hundreds of other war mongering pricks in Congress claim Obama is some pacifist attempting to dismantle our beloved military. These traitors of truth evidently can’t understand math or charts. Bush’s last war budget was $731 billion. The Iraq war has ceased and Obama is still spending $820 billion per year on war. Does it sound like the military is being gutted? Are we more in danger of being attacked by another country today than we were in 1999? That is the question that should be asked. They call it the DEFENSE budget because it is supposed to be used to defend us from attack, not to bully countries throughout the world and attack sovereign countries who are no threat to our security. Isn’t it convenient that the U.S. provoked overthrow of the democratically elected government of the Ukraine has initiated a new media created “Cold War”?
The country was sufficiently defended with a war budget of $333 billion in 1999. No one invaded us or threatened to invade. The Cold War was long over. The military industrial complex needed a 9/11 to revitalize their profits. The neo-con/military industrial complex created War on Terror has opened the door to never ending wars of choice around the world with no consent or approval from the people. War spending grew to $879 billion by 2011, a 164% increase in 13 years. Over this same time frame GDP grew by 74%. Does this sound like the military has been short changed? The fear mongering neo-cons and conservative websites are nothing but nattering nabobs of nonsense. Even the hint of slowing in spending on our empire building creates an urgency for a new evil enemy. Is it a coincidence that Vlad Putin has now emerged as an existential threat to our freedom and liberty according to the den of vipers in Congress, the military industrial complex, and the corporate media mouthpieces?
Even the dreaded sequester would have done nothing but slowed the rate of growth in war spending. You have to understand that a Federal government spending “cut” isn’t really a cut. It means the increase in spending you anticipated will be slightly lower. Of course, the one party system in Washington DC compromised and eliminated the sequester “cuts”. Those politicians need those “political contributions” to get re-elected in 2014. Defense spending will be far higher over the next decade, not including the inevitable wars of choice we are led into by our noble leaders. Putin must be stopped. Assad must be stopped. Iran must be stopped. China must be stopped. The world policeman must do his job and bankrupt the empire. War is highly profitable for peddlers of debt, corporate dealers of death, and the politicians getting bribed by Wall Street and the military industrial complex. The peasants who are sent off to die are nothing but cannon fodder for the power brokers of death, destruction and debt.
The war mongers will continue to use propaganda and misinformation to convince you we are in danger if the war budget is cut by 2%. The truth is that we need to cut the military by 50%, stop trying to operate a world empire, and withdrawal our troops from Germany, Japan, and the dozens of other countries around the globe. We need to stop handing billions of dollars we don’t have to Israel, Egypt and dozens of other countries so they can buy arms from our arms dealers. We are the cause of all the war and violence in this world. The job of our military is to protect our borders, not to police the world. Hubris, arrogance, and overreach, financed by central bank created debt, is how empires die.
“As many frustrated Americans who have joined the Tea Party realize, we cannot stand against big government at home while supporting it abroad. We cannot talk about fiscal responsibility while spending trillions on occupying and bullying the rest of the world. We cannot talk about the budget deficit and spiraling domestic spending without looking at the costs of maintaining an American empire of more than 700 military bases in more than 120 foreign countries. We cannot pat ourselves on the back for cutting a few thousand dollars from a nature preserve or an inner-city swimming pool at home while turning a blind eye to a Pentagon budget that nearly equals those of the rest of the world combined.” – Ron Paul
Understand where they are spending your money:
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year_spending_20XXUSbn_XXbs2n_3031_051America's increasingly abnormal politics have now surrendered to dystopia.
Donald Trump, a serial liar, narcissist, failed businessman, political con artist, adulterer, professed grabber of women's genitals without their permission, man who does not read, ignoramus, admirer and fan of despots and dictators, encourager of vigilante violence against innocent people, actor in a porn video, person who does not pay his employees, member of the Vladimir Putin fan club, racist landlord, preferred candidate of neo-Nazis and other fringe racists, professional wrestling villain, and candidate who incites violence against his political opponents, is now the 45th president of the United States of America.
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Donald Trump is also a fascist authoritarian in the American mold and leader of the world's most powerful and influential "democracy."
Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, the American news media desperately avoided using such language to describe Donald Trump. They did this because of material self-interest and advertising revenues, as well as an inability to accept how Trump had gamed obsolete journalistic norms of "fairness," "balance" and "objectivity."
In doing so, the American news media facilitated Trump's rise to power. They labeled Trump as a "populist" who was "unconventional." The American news media kept suggesting that Trump would "pivot" for the general election in order to win more "mainstream" and "centrist" voters. There were some bold voices who said that Trump had "authoritarian tendencies." But very few commentators had the courage to plainly state that Donald Trump was a fascist -- even though the evidence was growing then and is now insurmountable.
Consider the following.
Donald Trump does not believe in freedom of the press.
Donald Trump threatens his political enemies with violence and/or prison.
Donald Trump uses ethnocentrism, bigotry, nativism and racism to mobilize his voters.
Donald Trump does not believe in standing norms of democratic governance or tradition.
Donald Trump is a misogynist.
Donald Trump is obsessed with "strength" and his own "virility."
Donald Trump promises "law and order."
Donald Trump is a militant nationalist.
Donald Trump traffics in conspiracy theories and lies.
Donald Trump admires authoritarians and political strongmen.
Donald Trump's most recent press conference was modeled on the way Vladimir Putin manipulates Russia's news media.
Donald Trump has surrounded himself with a cabal that consists of family members and self-interested Cabinet appointees, who -- like him -- stand to enrich themselves through the agencies they are supposed to administer in the public interest.
Ultimately, the American news media were and are like the troglodytes in Plato's "Allegory of the Cave," comforted by the dark because their eyes would be hurt by the light of the truth. Or, to borrow from a more contemporary example, the media did not want to face the situation Morpheus explains to Neo in "The Matrix": "Standing there, facing the pure horrifying precision, I came to realize the obviousness of the truth."
The anxiety about calling Donald Trump a fascist was also enabled by many liberals and progressives who were desperate to appear fair-minded by being politically generous to their conservative and Republican foes. Such people maintain an erroneous belief that there is some type of continuum or symmetry between today's Republicans and the policies offered by Democrats.
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Because liberals and progressives belong to a centuries-long tradition with origins in the Enlightenment, they are unprepared to deal with the primitive thinking and irrationality that drives Donald Trump's political movement and contemporary conservatism more generally. In reality, the Republican Party abandoned any semblance of normal politics beginning with their assaults on Bill Clinton in the 1990s. This long decline culminated with the Republican reaction to Barack Obama and now the rise of Trump.
In New York magazine, Jonathan Chait offers a classic example of this dangerous liberal reasoning:
It is impossible to know what course American democracy will take under Trump’s presidency. The fears of authoritarianism may prove overblown, and Trump may govern like a normal Republican.
This assumes there is something called a "normal Republican," and that Trump is something else. But Trump won more votes than any Republican presidential candidate in history. Research shows that authoritarian attitudes have increased among the American public over the last 20 years, especially among Republicans. The Republican Party is the country's largest white identity organization: It mobilizes anti-black and anti-brown animus for political gain. Since at least the 1960s, conservatism and racism have been functionally identical in this country. Trump leveraged those forces to maximum effect in order to defeat Hillary Clinton and win the White House.
In short, Donald Trump is a normal Republican. Pretending otherwise is what led the chattering classes to underestimate Trump's appeal to the angry, authoritarian-minded white voters who elected him.
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Donald Trump is a fascist. It's not an easy thing to say. Own those words. Acknowledge the truth of the situation that America (and the world) now faces.
What to do now?
Protest marches are great. Now plan for what comes after the cathartic release.
Run for office on the local and state level. Practice political consumerism: Refuse to spend money at stores, banks, and other businesses that work with Trump, his administration or his enterprises. Target Republican officials with phone calls and emails. Let them know that if they support Trump there will be negative consequences at the ballot box.
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Borrow from the obstructionist strategy that Republicans used against Barack Obama. Turn the metaphorical map upside down and practice political Aikido.
Learn from those groups and individuals who have been actively fighting fascism. Donald Trump and his movement are not normal. Do not make the mistake of treating them like they are. There is no room for negotiation or compromise.
America is your country. Donald Trump and his supporters represent the tyranny of minority opinion. Consequently, they are the worst example of the will, spirit and character of the American people.
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Now is the time to reclaim the United States' fundamental character before the world, and recapture the most noble sense of American exceptionalism. Shouting "Not in my name!" is a fine beginning, but not an ending. Resistance to Donald Trump and everything he represents must be the new normal. Anything less is not acceptable.This morning I gave a Keynote presentation to the Jobs Australia conference in Melbourne, which is a gathering of people who work in what I call the extra industry – the ‘unemployment industry’ – which has sprung up in the neo-liberal period to manage the unemployment that the government has deliberately created as a result of its obsession with fiscal austerity (trying to run surpluses when increased and on-going deficits are required). I take no umbrage with individuals who work in the ‘industry’ but its productivity is close to zero (you cannot search for jobs that are not there) and they have become co-opted servants of the pernicious government policy regime. The facts are clear – we have erected a massive corporate sector funded by government to manage the fiscal failure. The problem is that all these job service providers are not just shunting inanimate widgets around into so-called training schemes etc but are dealing with very disadvantaged people, which the capitalist system is excluding from the opportunity to engage in paid and productive work. The ‘unemployment sector’ is the Government’s front-line attack dog on the victims of the policy failure.
I was walking back to my office in Melbourne (where I work regularly) after the talk and thought about the great Arthur Altmeyer, who was the founding father of the US social security system, which while minimalist relative to the Welfare States that emerged in other advanced nations in the Post World War 2 period, was still founded on the fundamental principles that should guide all societies – hope and opportunity.
Arthur Altmeyer wrote in 1968 that:
What motivates people and leads them to high endeavor is not fear but hope.
His contribution to the book – Social Security Anniversary 1968 – A Third of a Century – was entitled ‘Social Security and the Human Touch’.
At a ceremony, held in Washington on August 14, 10968 which was celebrating the 33rd anniversary of the signing of the Social Security Act, various key players gathered to witness the “Department of Health, Education, and Welfare’s Award for Distinguished Public Service” being presented to Arthur J. Altmeyer, who carried the nickname “Mr. Social Security”.
One of the Keynote speakers was the US Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Wilbur J. Cohen who was representing the President at the time, Lyndon B. Johnson.
Cohen commented on Altmeyer’s contributions to the welfare of disadvantaged Americans in this way:
To those who declared that if men were no longer afraid to lose their jobs America would become a nation of loafers, Arthur Altmeyer replied that there was a motivating force in the lives of men that was even stronger than fear–that force, he said, was hope. A democratic society, he said, must rely on hope and incentive rather than fear and compulsion to influence the conduct and aspirations of its citizens. And I think that is a worthy note for us to remember in the issues that face us today. Social security, he taught us, replaces fear with hope. As he put it, liberty means more than freedom to starve. It means a real opportunity to make the fullest use of one’s capacity. Far from destroying individual initiative and thrift, social security, by providing a degree of protection to families against the major vicissitudes that beset them in this modern and complicated and hazardous world, releases energies because it substitutes hope for fear as the mainspring of human endeavor. In short, Arthur Altmeyer preached and practiced the idea that liberty and security are interrelated and that we cannot have one without the other. With this kind of faith that he demonstrated in man’s perfectability, with this kind of vision of democratic government …
Contrast that with the sort of narratives that come from Governments obsessed with fiscal austerity these days. Contrast that with the pernicious policy regimes that seek to punish the most disadvantaged in our societies and isolate them via nomenclature that casts them as lazy, corrupt, dishonest, and unmotivated.
In accepting the award, Altmeyer said, among other things:
…. Before I get off of the early days I want to say another thing–an important thing many people forget. Important as the Social Security Act was, it was only part of the New Deal. We recognized it as largely an income maintenance program. But we had all kinds of work and education programs going. For example, the National Youth Administration. It financed not only vocational schools, but made grants to the colleges, secondary schools, and primary schools. People have forgotten that that was a part of the picture. We had the work programs–PWA, WPA and CCC. Today I run across people who went to those CCC camps. They are proud of what they did in those days. They go and visit–when they have their vacations– the places where they planted trees, or what not, to show their children, their grandchildren, what they did for their country.
This is a highly significant point. The priority was to create jobs as the primary income source for workers and if the private sector could not create sufficient work for all, then there was only one sector left that could do the job – the government sector.
Income support for the unemployed was never meant to be a permanent state. It was just a safety net for those between work. The primary responsibility of government was clearly recognised by the Americans and other advanced Western nations to use fiscal and monetary policies in such a way there there was sufficient jobs available at all times.
How far have we moved from that ideal?
Altmeyer continued in this way (leaving out bits):
In conclusion let me say that I think we mustn’t forget that in trying to develop a more perfect income maintenance system, we should not forget we have to tackle the root causes of poverty in the sense of dependency. If we merely introduce another income maintenance system, we are just replacing one type of dependency for another type. The most important cause of dependency is a lack of jobs at adequate wages. So we must work toward full employment. We must have a permanent, long-range, nationwide public works program. We must abolish discrimination on account of race or creed, in our hearts as well as in the law. And we must provide adequate education and training to hold a job. I am sure that this Nation of ours will win this war on poverty because we are fortunate that we do have the economic resources. All we need, really, is the will and the determination to perfect our social organization to take full advantage of these resources.
All our modern politicians and policy makers and those who the policy makers have co-opted within the ‘unemployment industry’ they created should reflect on that and work out where they have gone wrong and why.
Governments should:
1. Use their resources – which in financial terms are unlimited. The currency-issuing government can purchase anything that is for sale in its own currency at any time it likes, including the labour services of the unemployed labour.
2. There should be no divide-and-conquer strategies employed or accepted to allow the government to vilify one segment of the population who happen to be at the back of the unemployment queue. As a collective we should stand with all citizens and demand from our governments that they cease attacking the welfare of the unemployed, who are in that state (overwhemlingly) because of failures by the government to run sufficient fiscal deficits.
3. We must “work towards full employment” which means there should be enough work and working hours for all those who desire it.
4. We must “have a permanent, long-range, nationwide public works program” that is well designed, scalable to contract and expand when non-government economic activity expands or contracts.
5. We must invest in our education and vocational training systems, recognising that the most effective vocational training is done within the paid work environment rather than being isolated from that environment. Education should not be a vehicle for divide-and-conquer and stratification of income groups as the current policy encourages. There is no better investment by government than in its people.
6. There may be 1-2 per cent or so of current income recipients who are unemployed and do not want to work and have worked out a way to eke out an existence on the below-poverty line unemployment benefits that the Federal government in Australia provides. But it is extremely poor policy design to introduce elaborate penal conditions for the 98 per cent to get at the 2 per cent. By introducing a Job Guarantee, the Government would have the perfect activity test. Turn up for work and you will be paid. Otherwise, if you are able to work and do not want to – then find another source of income!
Finally, the Australian government issues its own currency and can never run out of money. The Greek government uses a foreign currency and can run out of it if it cannot borrow to cover its deficit.
My presentation today
The following YouTube video is a capture of my slides today with the complete audio (unedited). It is just over 48 minutes in length. I didn’t include the question time which lasted for about 10 minutes.
One person asked me why Australia wouldn’t become like Greece if it endorsed my view of economics. I replied via a question along the lines of: Isn’t it true that Australia bears no relation to Greece? I encouraged him to answer the question in the affirmative!
Anyway, perhaps this is of interest to you.
Conclusion
Run out of time so …
That is enough for today!
(c) Copyright 2014 Bill Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.Prof Colin Ellard was walking past the rows of new-build towers that dominate the west of central Toronto when he had a sudden realisation. “I was struck by how dark, sombre and sad these new urban canyons made me feel,” he says.
Ellard, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Waterloo in Canada who studies the impact of places on the brain and body, wanted to know why he felt like that – and if others felt the same.
His curiosity ultimately led him to conduct a series of virtual reality experiments in which he asked people to wear specialised headsets and stroll through a variety of urban environments created to test their responses. The findings, he says, proved he was not alone. Being surrounded by tall buildings produces a “substantial” negative impact on mood.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest One of Tom Ryaboi’s photographs of the Toronto streets from the top of a skyscraper. Photograph: Tom Ryaboi/Barcroft Media
If proven, Ellard’s theory adds weight to existing studies finding a negative effect of high-rises on the mental health of city residents. With both government policy and the potential for greater profits driving high-density construction in cities around the world, this raises an important question for the development industry.
Urban environments are associated with higher levels of psychiatric disorders (pdf) – city dwellers have a 40% increased risk of depression and double the rate of schizophrenia, according to the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health. Ellard’s idea is that the moment to moment bad feelings he observed in the virtual reality environment can affect everyday interactions in the real world and people’s experience of living in cities.
“When people are in these very dense environments that produce oppressiveness and increase negative emotion, it seems logical that those things will spin off into the ways we understand other people and the way we treat them,” he says. “Those are the variables that are most likely to show relationships with [increased incidence of] psychiatric illness.”
Can prefab homes solve UK's housing crisis? Read more
This may seem a big leap but Ellard is the latest in a long line of researchers to see a link between high-rises and poor mental health. Nicholas Boys Smith, founder of built environment social enterprise Create Streets, analysed academic studies on high-rise living for his 2016 report on the design of cities. According to Boys Smith, the balance of evidence shows residents of high-rise blocks tend to suffer from more stress, mental health difficulties and neurosis, with child development particularly affected. “High-rise can work, but it’s much harder,” he says.
This all appears to cut against the urban planning orthodoxy that a certain level of density – around 30-50 homes per hectare – is necessary to make lively communities that are able to support shops, businesses and public transport. This idea is the reason the government endorsed higher density development close to transport links in February’s housing white paper.
These concerns also come up against the commercial reality in high value areas such as London, where there are more than 400 towers in the development pipeline (pdf). David Birkbeck, chief executive of housing consultant Design for Homes, says inflated land prices mean developers have little option but to go upwards to make their investment back. “Once they’ve outbid everyone for a site, height is their only way to recover the price paid,” he says.
The question is how to build densely without these negative repercussions. “The villain isn’t density itself, it’s insensitive design,” says Layla McCay, director of the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health. “It’s about how you design in things that are protective to people’s mental health – green spaces and opportunities for social interaction.”
Some have concluded there is a density “sweet spot” (pdf) that gives the benefits of sustainable city living without the mental health costs. Proponents of mid-rise development such as that found in European cities like Vienna and Barcelona, for example, argue for buildings constructed to heights of up to eight storeys within mixed use neighbourhoods where residential buildings sit alongside shops, offices and other work spaces.
“Living at one storey is probably the most healthy thing for the human animal. But it is so much worse for the environment as a whole. That’s why we talk about the sweet spot,” says architect Jason McLennan, founder of the US-based Living Future Institute.
London's changing skyline: planned tall buildings 'almost double in two years' Read more
At the same time Boys Smith says there are signs the commercial impetus that has encouraged tower building may be altering, particularly given the recent reduction in demand for high-end housing in London. While towers are more profitable, the greater up front cost of construction makes them riskier at times when demand isn’t as strong.
Boys Smith says he is working with one large UK developer who is considering reworking unbuilt tower schemes in its pipeline using a “mid-rise” approach, and he and others promoting a mid-rise approach sense an opportunity, particularly where developers haven’t overpaid for land. Hackney council has also been promoting a similar idea for the controversial Bishopsgate Goodsyard site on the edge of the City of London, where developers Hammerson and the Ballymore group have gone back to the drawing board on earlier proposals to build seven towers of between 17 and 46 storeys.
The incoming president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, housing architect Ben Derbyshire, says many developers are already “reacting quite well” to the idea. “It’s perfectly possible at mid-rise density to design places with plenty of biodiversity, with a mix of uses and well-designed streets,” he says.
Boys Smith admits that having a home at all is the most important thing. Likewise a recent report by homelessness charity St Mungo’s shows the number of homeless people in the capital with an identified mental health need has tripled in five years. But that doesn’t make concerns about densification invalid. “It’s about finding a more humane way to house people when we do it,” says Boys Smith.
Sign up to be a Guardian Sustainable Business member and get more stories like this direct to your inbox every week. You can also follow us on Twitter.By site editor Dan Chung:
If you want a PL-mounted cinema zoom for your ARRI, Red, F55 or Varicam then your choices are limited. If you have a spare $70,000, then Canon sell an amazing 50-1000mm Cine Servo zoom. Otherwise you are limited to older adapted stills zooms or B4 superzoom lenses with mount convertors.
Dutch specialists Ekton have created an interesting solution that, while not cheap, is much less than other alternatives. For 1900 Euros they will take a Sigma 150-600mm Sports stills zoom and convert it into a PL-mounted lens with a manual iris.
This is no mean feat. The rear of the lens had to be cut off and then replaced with a custom made PL back end. Being a zoom of this length it doesn’t hold focus throughout the zoom range. Etkon remedy this by adjusting the back focus of the lens to make it as parfocal as possible. Samples of the 150-600mm may vary from sample to sample, but Etkon told us that the initial lens they converted holds perfect focus during zooming.
The original lens has an image stabiliser, but I don’t think this will work after the conversion has been done as there is no way to power it once the electronic mount is removed.
The iris has nicely engraved aperture values and the pictures below show what to expect – although, as you can see, it is yet to be sprayed and to have the engravings painted in.
The lens has its own tripod collar and foot, but Etkon recommend this is removed and replaced with a custom lens ring that they can supply.
The conversion takes around two weeks from when the lens is booked in. For more details contact Edwin Schouten at Etkon.Some people are fans of the Cleveland Browns. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Cleveland Browns. This 2013 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the 2013 NFL previews so far right here.
Your team: Cleveland Browns
Your 2012 record: 5-11. FUN FACT: the Browns have won either four or five games every year for the past five years. OOOOH WHICH ONE WILL IT BE THIS YEAR?! My money is on four!
The Browns have lost 10 or more games in nine of the past 10 years. That's a large enough sample size for us to know this is no accident. You have to really TRY to be that bad. You have to deliberately plant staph fungus in the locker room showerheads and sign Jake Delhomme and hire Leo Bloom as your accountant to craft a failure this magnificent, this seemingly permanent.
Your coach: Rob Chudzinski. Here's a photo of ol' Chud.
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Shouldn't he be leaking secret government cyber-surveillance programs to Julian Assange or something? Anyway, young Beau Bridges here was hired only after Chip Kelly gave the Browns a handjob for 12 hours before punching them in the balls and fleeing the massage parlor. Chud was the offensive coordinator in Cleveland back in 2007, the year Derek "Horse Balls" Anderson inexplicably threw 29 touchdown passes (OMG STEROIDS!) and the Browns won an un-Browns-like 10 games. So Chud is back to restore Cleveland to its former anomalous, soft-schedule-aided glory days. And he's brought Norv Turner with him! YAY! Can you believe it took this long for Norv and the Browns to join forces? THEY WERE MEANT TO BE TOGETHER. I hope he never leaves.
Also, the Browns have a shiny new GM in PANTHEON BS REPORT GUEST Mike Lombardi. Let's hope that Mike's time-tested method of kissing Bill Belichick's ass and assigning arbitrary "blue chipper" labels to good players helps the Browns reverse decades of institutionalized failure.
Your quarterback: Brandon Weeden, who should be pro-ready in just a few years, at which point he'll also be eligible for Medicare. Weeden will be 30 this October, which means that the Browns exhausted a first-round draft choice on a quarterback who was openly trashed on national television by his new GM, who failed to make a noticeable impact in his rookie season, and who is already in the wrong part of his aging curve. And yet, the story of the 2013 Browns somehow is even sadder than that, as you will soon see.
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Your one fantasy player everyone will hate: Trent Richardson. I owned Richardson last year and he scored 12 touchdowns. Now, 12 touchdowns is great, but holy shit did he have to WORK to muster up those scores. We're talking about a guy who ran for a grueling 3.6 yards per agonizing carry. If he hadn't scored those touchdowns, owning him would have been like contracting syphilis. Having Norv around doesn't magically make things any better. Richardson will still be running into 26 men in the box on every down, with you sitting there praying that he gets the ball any time the Browns manage to block a punt inside the two-yard line.
Why your team sucks: Only in Cleveland. ONLY in Cleveland would the new owner be a minority Steelers owner who turned out to be a fucking crook. Not only is Jimmy Haslam a crook, but his company of truck driver handjob emporiums is a whopping FOUR BILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT. Oh my fucking God! Are his truck stops built out of fucking platinum? This man isn't even an effective crook. The feds are so far up Haslam's ass that his dad might be called in to run the team. Jimmy Haslam's father, you should note, is 82 years old. You get a crook AND you get Ralph Wilson all in one!
The Browns are so colossally fucked up that they stand as a monument to more than just football incompetence. They are a living allegory of EVERYTHING WRONG WITH AMERICA. Here's Roger Goodell, who is a glorified errand boy, defending Haslam despite the fact that the feds have said Haslam knowingly defrauded other companies out of millions of dollars:
"Jimmy Haslam is a man of great integrity," Goodell said, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "We're proud to have him as an owner in the NFL and think he's going to be a great owner for the Cleveland Browns and their fans here. [...] We actually hold ownership to a higher standard and management. I think we've proven that in what we've done."
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Everything Goodell has said here, from beginning to end, is a breathtaking lie. It's amazing, really. To think that you can buy a billion-dollar football team with money that you probably don't have, and then have the commissioner of the NFL prop you up because the league can't ever admit in public that it's dealing in some seriously shady shit. Isn't that remarkable? If you know the right people, you don't even have to be rich to be rich in this country. You can just go billions of dollars into debt and then have everyone keep you afloat because they don't want to go down with you. What a complete and utter fucking disgrace. I hope Jimmy Haslam gets sent to Elkton, and I hope Roger Goodell is assigned to do cafeteria duty with him.
By the way, we haven't even gotten to the on-field product in Cleveland, which is wretched. Weeden will almost certainly be benched during the season for Brian Hoyer (former Patriot! MIKE LOMBARDI SAYS BILL BELICHICK KNOWS HOW TO DEVELOP YOUNG BLUE CHIPPERS!). The offensive line is somehow on the downswing. The receivers can't catch, even when they're not under suspension. The defense is terrible and is shifting base alignments. They also gave $15 million guaranteed in the offseason to THIS guy:
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There's no part of this that isn't horribly depressing. I feel like I'm watching a dog being strangled. Of course, this is what Cleveland fans get for voluntarily living in one of America's most downtrodden cities and then acting surprised when they get trodden down.
Why your team doesn't suck: Barkevious! He nasty!
The 18 worst Browns ever:
1. Tim Couch. Still married to Heather Kozar! Something tells me he lives his life with few regrets.
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2. Dwayne Rudd
3. Courtney Brown
4. Brady Quinn. Choosing your least favorite Cleveland starting QB is like choosing your favorite child. I simply can't decide!
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5. Taupe
6. Charlie Frye
7. William Green
8. Pat Shurmur. I'm telling you, I had already forgotten he was the coach last year. It's like they were coached by a vapor cloud.
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9. Eric Zeier
10 (t). Kevin Johnson, Dennis Northcutt, Quincy Morgan, André Davis, Brian Robiskie. You guys should NEVER draft a wideout in the second round. Ever.
15. Jake Delhomme
16. Dwight Clark
17. Tommy Vardell. TOUCHDOWN TOMMY! (NOTE: Scored three touchdowns in his entire career)
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18. Eric Mangini. Read this and be horrified.
Emails from Browns fans:
Zach:
I've been to 30 or so home games and only remember seeing 6 wins.
Randy:
Their best player in the last decade was LeBron hypothetically becoming a tight end for them.
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Dino:
Oh why Cleveland did you have to bring the Browns back? I almost escaped Browns fandom after not having them around for four formative years of my childhood, but they came back to make sure that I remember every fall that my city's sports teams will always be worthless. I can already see it around me; fans getting excited and whatnot for the upcoming season, but I already know exactly how it's going to go for me at 1pm on Sundays... Week 1: Tailgate in the Muni lot, get shitfaced, watch the team lose in the last minute but still have a reasonably fun day. Week 9: Drink a beer and watch the first half before ending the misery. Week 17: Get really high and play FIFA for three hours.
John:
Every year, I lie to myself and believe that this team can go.500. My optimism for 14 years of expansion has revolved around them hitting 8-8 and not being in the basement with a high draft pick. And they can't even do that.
Everything about this team is screaming for yet another horrifying season. Unusually light schedule? Check. A defense with some hype behind it? Check. A RB most of the league thinks will break out? Check. A new owner who everyone seems to like despite being a potential crook? Check check and check. I'm already settled on the idea of Cleveland doing just well enough to be out of the Clowneystakes and decent QB range and having to settle for a reach at signal caller (Read: Derrick Carr or worse |
by a pocket watch and chain.
Later, in 1994 two sisters, Dixie & Susie Coombs formed T.E.D.S. - the Edwardian Drape Society at the Empress of Prussia pub in Islington, North London with the objective of taking a co-ordinated approach at encouraging those Teds still around to start wearing a more authentic form of Teddy Boy clothing and to reclaim the original 1950's Teddy Boy style. This group which was later headed by well known North London Teddy Boy, Ritchie Gee had a lasting effect and influence on the the Teddy Boy movement. As another well known Teddy Boy from North London says: "It's great what The Edwardian Drape Society set out to do back then in those days, because this had a permanent lasting effect on putting our image right."
Another factor that has changed along with the Teddy Boys dress style has been a big interest in British Rock n Roll music in place of Rockabilly. Many of today's Teds are now listening to the sounds of Tommy Steele, Tony Crombie, Vince Taylor, Shane Fenton and Johnny Kidd & the Pirates. There are now a number of bands on the scene who are playing the British Rock n Roll of the late 1950's and early 1960's such as The Rapiers, The Fireballs and Serious Charge.
Most of the Teddy Boys around today are third generation Teds and the nineteen seventies was the period that they became active on the Teddy Boy scene. There are also a few second generation and fourth generation Teds and even a small number of new recruits from the current period. Due to the fact that many of these Teds are in their late forties, fifties and sixties, their style of dress has been toned down with the passing of years and is totally different to what many would have worn in the 1970's. Despite this, there is nevertheless a number of Teds who like to maintain the brighter 1970's look and still prefer to wear the drapes that they would have worn then, which is their right of course.
Despite the variety of styles and differences in opinions within the Teddy Boy movement, one thing is for sure, the British Teddy Boy is likely to be around for a good few years to come and represents the first distinctive style that made teenagers in Britain stand out and be different from the rest. The Teddy Boy's were the originators of a distinctive Youth Culture in Britain and the first rebels against conformity and conventional style. They have continued to maintain that reputation to this day, standing out from the rest of society - the British Teddy Boy really has become a British Cultural icon!
_______________________________________________
The style evolution of the Teddy Boy
Towards the end of the 1950's when the number of Teddy Boys had started to dwindle, the style of suits and jackets started to change. This was because of two factors, the change in style towards narrow lapels on jackets and tighter bottom trousers of 14" and the availability of new brighter coloured fabrics that had become available. Brighter fabrics had been previously unavailable in Britain in the immediate post war years. There was also greater use of velvet with the use of it on pockets as well as collars and cuffs, although there is evidence that they were Teds wearing Velvet trim as early as 1954, for those who could afford it! Derek Keates (known as "The Sheriff" due to his Western Gambler image) with girlfriend Valerie Kitts at a Best Dressed Teddy Boy Competition in 1954 who is wearing a rolled collar Drape Jacket with half-moon pockets with full velvet trim and wearing a genuine "Bootlace Tie". This period is when Ice Blue, Maroon and Bottle Green drape suits became popular with mainly black velvet trim, although other coloured velvet's were used, particularly blue. This particular style would then set the scene for the re-emergence of the Teddy Boy some 10 years later in 1967 when the identical style became re-adopted. Although the so called Rock n Roll Revival started in 1967, there was always an underground Teddy Boy movement which continued throughout the 1960's largely due to stalwarts like Breathless Dan Coffey and Boppin' Brian Spilsbury, to name but a few!
However, during the 1970's, the Teddy Boy style had become somewhat bastardised compared to the original Edwardian Teddy Boy of the early to mid 1950's where jackets were characterised by much more sober colours of black, grey, navy blue and plaid checks.
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/teddy-boys/query/
This 1970's Glam Rock image was started when fashion designer Vivienne Westwood had started making glam Teddy Boy clothing for Malcolm McLaren and in 1971, they opened a shop called 'Let it Rock' at 430 Kings Road, London.
A group of Leeds Teddy Boys in the 1970's showing the different coloured velvets, use of roll collars and half-moon pockets which were very popular at the time. Note many Teddy Boys at this time would also wear Leather Jackets which were a spin off from the Rockers of the 1960's, however these would be generally worn during the days with Drapes being worn during the evenings. As a result, many of the 1970's drape jackets were heavily influenced by this glam rock image which had perpetuated 1970's popular culture and much brighter colours were then worn. These colours included Scarlet Red, Royal Blue, Canary Yellow and in some cases the jackets had Lurex and Leopard skin trim in place of velvet. Generally however, greater use of velvet however was worn on both collars, pockets and cuffs, all in velvet of varying colours. One of the most popular designs worn by Teds in the seventies was black drape jackets with red velvet trim, however black velvet still predominated as being the popular trim. Lynda Gedge originally from Horsforth near Leeds with Dave Cass from Doncaster circa 1975. Dave sadly died at the very young age of 27 - R.I.P. "Cass" is wearing a Royal Blue Drape two peice with black velvet rolled colllar, half-moon pockets and black velvet "Vandyke" cuffs. Dave has turn-ups on his trousers. The use of Vandyke cuffs on Drape Jackets became popular. There was also a predominance of drape jackets with velvet rolled collars and velvet edged half-moon pockets. Trousers were generally of 14" bottoms with very few who would wear turn-ups. Many Teddy Boys in the 1970's were wearing Bootlace (or Bolo) ties with their suits as opposed to'slim jim' or'maverick' ties worn in the 1950's. Leeds, 5th July 1976 Rock and Roll line up from left: Henry Karasiewicz 25 Kirkstall, Julie Skelton 18 Horsforth, Nick Kovrlija 21 Halton, Lynda Gedge 18 Horsforth, and Terry Best 25 Roundhay. Henry is wearing a Scarlet Red Drape trimmed with White/ Silver Lurex, Nik is wearing a dark Yellow Drape with Black Velvet pockets and Terry is wearing a Black Drape with Blue Velvet. Apart from Henry, the other Teds are wearing the squared-off Roll Collar which was influenced by Big Gerry Townes older brother Rocky Townes who wore a similar style of Drape back in 1959 - very much a Leeds individual style. As time went on, an interest steadily developed amongst pockets of Teds into to reclaiming the original 1950's style. This started in the 1980's amongs't those Teddy Boys, who had become disillusioned with the outfits of the 1970's. This original style was found to have little in common with the Teddy Boy Glam Rock influenced outfits of the 1970's. These small pockets of Teddy Boys and Girls at this point in time became pre-occupied into researching the styles of the original Edwardians. They realised that they wanted to go back to the roots of the original pre-1955 Edwardian's and wanted to wear Teddy Boy outfits and adopt the look of 1953/4.
Farnbourough 'Edwardians', Richard Wooley, Paul Culshaw, Simon Moon and Fiona somewhere in London in 1986 - they, along with others, had started to reclaim the original style.
This original Edwardian look comprised of wearing more sober colours with far less velvet trim, with velvet on the collar and maybe on the cuffs, but with no velvet on the pockets. Many original drape jackets featured no velvet trim and these same Teddy Boys were also then starting to have Drape Jackets tailored with no velvet at all.
Teddy Boy Johnny Gard dances with a "Judie" (Teddy Girl) in a London suburban Dance Hall, 1954.
The photograph above of Johnny Gard, exemplifies the style that a number of 1980's Teds were attempting to emulate, which many did very successfully as you will see in the above photograph of Paul Culshaw and the Farnborough Edwardians taken in Birmingham in 1986. However as 1980's Teddy Girl, Susie Prince recalls, there was no internet (like now) that had images of original Teds and the research of the original Teds had to be done by purchasing copies of photographs from establishments such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in Central London. This was often the only method of obtaining images of original Teds at that point in time.
The original pre 1955 style jackets featured wider lapels of 31/2" and 4" with the trousers featuring pleated fronts and wider 16" bottoms with turn ups. The move towards this original style has continued and many Teddy Boys are now wearing a much more authentic style of dress as opposed to the Glam Rock image made popular in the 1970's. One the main purposes of this website is to perpetuate this original 1953/4 image amongst the Teddy Boy movement.
The principal main effort, of the Edwardian Teddy Boy website however, is to collect as much historical information and photographs on Teddy Boys as possible in order to become the prime source of information on the movement. This includes the 1970's so called Teddy Boy revival, as this is as much a major important period for the Teddy Boys as the 1950's.
Therefore if you have any historical data or photographs that you would like to donate to this site, please send it to Nidge at: shanganipatrol@ntlworld.com You will be credited with any information or photographs that you supply and if you want to loan these for scanning, they will be returned to you in the same condition that you sent them.
In terms of history and to understand how the original Edwardian style emerged, we need go back to the late 1940's, just after the Second World War. Teddy Boys or Edwardians (as they were first called), first began to appear in the early 1950's on the streets of South and West London after the style had become adopted by working class youths. The style had originally appeared in the late 1940's when Saville Row Tailors attempted to revive the styles of the reign of King Edward VII, 1901-1910 into men's fashions. The Teddy Boy fashion of the fifties had it's origins in what was an upper class reaction to the austerity imported by the socialist government in the years following World War II.
1956 Photo shoot on a Saturday Afternoon in Pompey. Original Southsea Teddy Boy, Hugh Finnegan recalls: "Not much else to do in them days, had to wait till 7.30pm for any dance halls to open, also pubs opened at 6pm and closed at 10.30pm but we still had a good time!!"
Standing, L to R: Barry Stewart, Roger Sands, Derek Field, Harry Harris, Johnny Valentine, Brian Frost, Eugeen Finnegan, Brian????, Albie Deacon and Peter Jackson. Front, L to R: Buller Wilson, Mick Childs and Alfie Gunner. Photograph courtesy of Hugh Finnegan.
However the newly established working class 'dandified street gangs' with their extravagant dress and defiant pose made Teddy Boys popular subjects for the media in the 1950's. Like the Spiv of the Second World War, the Teddy Boy became a media folk devil and ended up as the scapegoat for anything to do with juvenille delinquency. The media in their efforts to vilify the great British Teddy Boy unwittingly spread the image far beyond the London area, until the Teddy Boy became a nationwide teenage style and the first post-war teenage subculture in Great Britain and Ireland.
THE MORMON CREEP CUDDLE at the Mecca Royal Dance Hall, Tottenham, Middlesex. In this dance each girl has at least two partners. Psychologists think that the cult (Teddy Boys) which favors such dances as the Mormon Cuddle Creep in which a girl has several partners, is the aftermath of World War II with its separation of families and bombing neurosis. It is also a revolt by "young braves" against a drab post-war existence.
The Edwardian Teddy Boy website is run for the benefit of all British Teddy Boys and Teddy Girls who have continued to maintain this great British distinctive style and tradition.
One of the principal aim's of the Edwardian Teddy Boy is to promulgate the original styles of the pre 1955 Teddy Boy and actively promote the ethos and style of the original and authentic British Teddy Boy movement.
The Legendary 'Sunglasses' Ron Staples at Southend-on-Sea in the 1970's
It also aims to research, document and promote the entire history and continued existence of the movement including the so called revival of the late 1960's and 1970's and styles of this period along with the influence of Rockabilly music among'st the movement during that period.
Teddy Boys pictured at Worthing, Sussex in 1955.
For those who are unaware, the Edwardian image and lifestyle is very much alive and kicking today as it was during the 1950's and then in the 1970's. The outfit is practically unchanged, the haircuts, and the music are still the same.
Photograph by Ken Russell January 1955 of Teddy Girls, Pat Wiles and Iris Thornton, aged 17 from Plaistow, showing off their lace up espadrilles.
At Rock 'n' Roll clubs throughout Britain, Teddy Boys and Girls still strut their stuff on the dance floors, bopping and jiving to their favorite music.
A young Teddy Boy in 2012 from Stockton-on-Tees keeping the movement alive.
The only difference is that the aggressiveness of their predecessors has all but gone, the fighting in the cinemas, and the weapons are but a thing of the past. However, one thing is for sure, the great British Teddy Boy is here to stay.
Members of the Manchester Peacock Society pose at the Castle Pub in Oldham Street, Manchester', 30th May 2011.
This site is designed to educate and inform all who are genuinely interested the history of the Teddy Boy as a British cultural icon and those who are studying fashion and popular culture including the development of British Rock 'n' Roll music. I hope that you will find this developing site a useful source of historic and current information.
Regards
John aka Rockin' Nidge
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Norman Noel Dodds (1903-1965), Labour Cooperative politician pictured talking to two typical "Teddy Boys" with their Edwardian style clothes and "Tony Curtis" hairstyles in a Cafe in July 1955. Norman Dodds was the MP for Dartford from 1945-1955 and for Erith and Crayford from 1955 to 1965 until his death at the age of 61.
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Edwardian Teddy Boy Mick Mcloughlin cycles in to The Tramway Hotel, Pakefield, Lowestoft in July 2011.
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Teddy Boys on T.V.
Simply Media TV produced a Television Documentary called Teen Spirit: 'Here Come the Teds' which was filmed at the 'Wildest Cats in Town' Weekender in June / July 2011. This was narrated by Graham McPherson (better known as ex-Madness singer 'Suggs') and was originally broadcast on Thursday 26th January 2012 at 9.00 pm on the Yesterday Channel. It has been subsequently repeated, however if you missed it, you can view the documentary on the Here comes the Teds page.
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Book on the History of the Teddy Boy Movement - written by two top Teddy Boys.
No youth cult has been so enduring, yet so misunderstood, as the Teddy Boys. They were maligned by a British Establishment that had no clue what they were about, and as the movement grew that scorn turned to fear. Teddy Boys tells of their roots, the music of jive and boogie artists, how the fashion became associated with violence and how the Teds fell into decline after the 1958 Notting Hill Riots. Their spirit was preserved by the Rockers of the 60s and through the rising popularity of rockabilly across Europe and beyond. 'Teddy Boys - a concise History' is a great book that was released on 1st December 2012 and written by Ray Ferris and Julian Lord based on an idea from Paul Ramsbottom. Retail Price approx: £8.00. The Ted on the finalised front cover is London Gang member, Colin Donellan taken on 10th October 1953.
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This book, which came out in November 2015 was put together by Michael McIlwee who is the Information Officer at Liverpool John Moores University. The actual information in the book was gathered and collected over a number of years by Teddy Boy Brian Rushgrove. Michael McIlwee has written a number of books on the history of gangs in and around Liverpool.
In the mid-1950s, British society was gripped by a sudden terror: of its own youth. The murder of a 17-year-old Londoner in September 1953 marked the start of a strange and horrifying fad. As if from nowhere, gangs of young men, dressed in a remarkable new fashion, emerged to turn the streets, dance halls and fairgrounds into battlefields. The Teddy Boys had arrived.
Soon they were blamed for a rising tide of post-War crime. Successors to aggressive thugs known as Cosh Boys, the Teds combined English Edwardian dress with American zoot-suit style, with weapons an essential accessory. Accounts of their sorties with knives, chains and knuckledusters filled the newspapers, and from the seminal Battle of St Mary Cray, in 1954, to mass brawls in Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester, few towns or cities were unaffected. Some of the worst affrays pitched them against National Service squaddies and American GIs based in the UK. Various fighters claimed the title King of the Teds, some of them hyped by the. Teddy Girls joined in enthusiastically. Then the arrival of rock 'n' roll and the movie Rock Around the Clock sparked a wave of cinema riots, further condemnation and a sharp police and judicial response.
Yet others saw the Teds as a positive sign of an independent generation unbound by the restrictive attitudes of their parents, and similar fashions were embraced by teenagers abroad, from the Blousons Noir of France to the Bodgies of Australia. The Ted movement inevitably declined as the originals grew up, got married and had children. But their legacy survives to this day. Well done Brian Rushgrove for what is actually a collection of your material! Available from Amazon.
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The Edwardian Teddy Boy and the Teddy Boy Movement.
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Teddy Boys gather outside a Picture House on the Old Kent Road 1955.
Teddy Boy Lifestyle 1955.
In March of 1954, a sixteen year-old youth had been convicted at Dartford Magistrate's Court of robbing a woman 'by putting her in fear'. The Chairman of the Magistrates said:
"There are a lot of things and so-called pleasures of the world which demand a lot of money. You tried to get hold of money for ridiculous things like Edwardian suits. They are ridiculous in the eyes of ordinary people. They are flashy, cheap and nasty, and stamp the wearer as a particular undesirable type."
"In April two gangs, also dressed Edwardian-style, met after a dance, at St Mary Cray, Kent, Railway Station. They were ready for action: bricks and sand-filled socks were used. Fifty-five youths were taken in for questioning."
"East of Barking in the summer of 1954, on a train from Southend, someone pulled the communication cord. The train ground to a halt. Light bulbs were smashed. When the train eventually reached Barking, Police arrested a gang dressed in Edwardian suits"
The first 'Best Dressed Ted Contest' was held at Canvey Island, Essex, during the August Bank Holiday of 1954. The winner was a twenty-year-old greengrocer's assistant.
"The Teddy Boy myth was born.''
Two original 1954 Teddy Boys at Kingston upon Thames wearing Drape Jackets with 4" wide lapels, silk patterned waistcoats and trousers with pleated fronts and 16" bottoms with turn-ups.
"Cinemas, Dance halls and other places of entertainment in South-East London are closing their doors to youths in 'Edwardian' suits because of gang hooliganism. The ban, which week by week is becoming more generally applied, is believed by Police to be one of the main reasons for the extension of the area in which fights with knuckle dusters, coshes, and similar weapons between bands of teenagers can now be anticipated. In Cinemas, seats have been slashed with razors and had dozens of meat skewers stuck into them." - Daily Mail, 12th April 1954.
The Stag-Line at a Dance Hall. The Teddy Boy in the centre is wearing an Edwardian outfit, which may have cost him as much as £50.00 ( very expensive at the time). Note the Long Jacket with 'Shawl' collar and single link button fastening (nearly coming off), Drainpipe trousers, thick Crepe soled shoes ('Creepers') and parallel-striped 'Slim Jim' tie. The boy on the right has a 'Tony Curtis' haircut and is wearing crepe soled suede shoes. - July 1955.
Welcome to The Edwardian Teddy Boy, a proactive website that is dedicated to maintaining and furthering the British Teddy Boy movement and culture amongst like-minded people throughout Britain and Ireland and the rest of the World.
Totally authentic Edwardian Teddy Boy, Paul Trainor from Eccles, Lancashire.
This is a site where Teddy Boys & Girls who are committed to the 1950's neo-Edwardian lifestyle can access current and historical information, news, details of events and view photographs from Teddy Boy and Rock 'n' Roll events.
Teddy Boys pictured at Surrey Street Market, Croydon, Surrey in 1976. Left to Right: Unknown, Micky Mould & Brian Boyce. Photograph: Chris Steele-Perkins.
'The Edwardian Teddy Boy' as a website, was started in April 2010 and has been built by Edwardian Teddy Boy, John aka Rockin Nidge.
Edwardian Teddy Boys - Jake and Gaz from Preston & John from Oldham, Lancashire.
This is a very useful website for those who are researching 1950's British Youth culture, British Rock 'n' Roll and the evolution of the Teddy Boys. From their conception in the early fifties through the so called Rock 'n' Roll Revival of the late 1960's and 1970's through to the return to the fifties neo-Edwardian roots and the evolvement of The Edwardian Drape Society during the mid 1990's, and to the present day, the Teddy Boy has always been an icon of British Youth Culture and Lifestyle.
The 'Tramways' at Pakefield, Lowestoft hosts the Edwardian Invasion each year and has now become an annual Saturday afternoon pilgrimage for Teddy Boys & Girls whilst attending the 'Wildest Cats in Town' weekender in early July.
The Edwardian Teddy Boy website is specifically for Teddy Boys and Teddy Girls who are dedicated to perpetuating and maintaining the authentic 1950's Teddy Boy image and lifestyle. However always remember that Teddy Boy attire is a style and not a uniform and the whole reason for wearing the gear is that it enables the individual to make their own design within a given style.
A famous photograph taken by photographer, Ken Russell in January 1955 by at the back of the Walthamstow Palace Theatre of a small group of Teddy boys talking to 17 year old Josie Buchan a Teddy Girl who is sporting a DA hairstyle which was unusual for women in 1955.
British Rock 'n' Roll
The Edwardian Teddy Boy strongly supports British Rock n Roll music from original artists such as Tommy Steele, Tony Crombie & his Rockets, Terry Dene, Billy Fury and Cliff Richard & the Drifters.
Norrie Paramor with Cliff Richard & the Drifters - Jet Harris, Tony Meehan, Hank Marvin & Bruce Welch in 1958.
The site also promotes ALL forms of 1950's Rock 'n' Roll music such as Doo Wop, Rockabilly, main stream Rock 'n' Roll and British Rock n Roll.
The 2i's Coffee Bar, Old Compton Street, Soho, in London's West End in 1959 - Birthplace of British Rock 'n' Roll. The 2i's Coffee Bar was a coffee bar upstairs and in the basement was a small area where emerging British Rock 'n' Roll artists and groups were able to perform. It was situated at 59 Old Compton Street, Soho, London, England, between 1956 and 1970. The 2i's was owned by Paul Lincoln, an Australian wrestler and wrestling promoter.
The Edwardian Teddy Boy website acts as a link and source of information for all drape wearing Teddy Boys and Girls and promotes the common cause of maintaining the British Teddy Boy culture and lifestyle.
The Edwardian Teddy Boy has always been in support of the original pre 1955 Teddy Boy style of dress. However, the actual return to the original Conservative Edwardian style of Teddy Boy dress was originally a concept that was steadily being developed during the mid to late 1980's.
Regular members of the London Rock n Roll Club photographed at The Edwardian Club, Southgate, North London in 1986 featured in the HMV booklet 'British Youth Culture'.
Teddy Boys at venues such as the Edwardian Club in Southgate, North London and Paul Culshaw and his Farnborough Edwardians were examples of this. This was because many Teddy Boys had become disgruntled with the 1970's glam image that had dominated the Teddy Boy style during the 1970's.
Later in 1992, The Edwardian Drape Society (T.E.D.S.) was started in a move to support and promote of the re-claiming of the original 1950's Teddy Boy style back into Teddy Boy culture.
Teddy Boys and Girls at the Tennessee Club in the mid 1990's
As a well known Teddy Boy from North London says: "It's great what The Edwardian Drape Society set out to do back then in those days, because this had a permanent and lasting effect on putting our image right."
Manchester Teddy Boys outside a Cinema in 1955.
There are now a large number of Teddy Boys who are very much in support of the ethic of maintaining and promoting the original pre 1955 Conservative Edwardian Teddy Boy style and this site actively encourages this. Typically this involves the wearing of Drape jackets with 3"- 4" lapels, minimum use of velvet apart from the collars and cuffs (or none at all), matching or silk patterned brocade waistcoats and 16" bottom trousers with turn-ups.
Edwardian Teddy Boys at the Adelphi Pub in Leeds on 30 April 2011 taking part in the Ted's Around Town in Leeds Pub Crawl.
When Teddy Boys first emerged in 1953 amongst British working class youths, it became acceptable for young people to care about what they looked like and to dress for show, instead of having work or school clothes and Sunday-best.
A Teddy Boy with his girl 'Moon Dance' at a Dance Hall - July 1955 - note the Drape Jacket with half back full velvet collar with 16-17" turned up trousers and Brogue Shoes.
Today people dress very casually and there seems not to be the same sense of occasion when Going out on the Town. This was never the case for the Teddy Boys, who despite their reputation always dressed up and strutted around like peacocks when they went out.
The Edwardian Teddy Boy website encourages those like-minded individuals who are committed to emulating the original Teddy Boy styles as near as possible, taking into account regional variations.
The Edwardian Teddy Boy is keen to stimulate interest amongst younger people and develop them to become the Teddy Boys of the future and continue to keep the neo-Edwardian culture alive.
Edwardian Teddy Boys in the 1980's recreating the original pre 1955 style L to R: Paul Culshaw, Richard Wooley, Jerry Lunn & Frankie Calland.
The Edwardian Teddy Boy website is certainly not telling anyone what to wear and is in no position to do so. However, this site is somewhat cognosenti about authentic Teddy Boy attire and is keen to emulate and encourage the wearing of the original 1950's Teddy Boy styles in terms of colours, suiting's, footwear and clothing accessories as much as possible.
Boys wearing Edwardian style clothes at the "Teen Canteen" at Elephant & Castle, South London, July 1955 - note the unusually long sideburns of the Teddy Boy with the double breasted waistcoat for the period..
The Edwardian Teddy Boy is particularly against the 'Glam Rock' influence that was responsible for bastardising much of the Teddy Boy attire worn during the 1970's and support a return to the more authentic 1950's style.
A Group of Deeside Teddy Boys and Girls at the Tower Ballroom, New Brighton, Cheshire in the Mid 1950s
The Edwardian Teddy Boy website embraces and welcomes all committed Teddy Boys and Girls. We encourage those of you to dress smartly and wear your clothes with pride when attending Teddy Boy and Rock 'n' Roll events, venues and functions.
At Steph and Michele Brian's Wedding at Mundersley - Nidge, Roger, Jonny and Sophie in true Edwardain style, March 2012.
There is too much emphasis on dressing casually these days and this seems to have become the norm. We, as proud Edwardian Teddy Boys and Girls on the other hand want to dress and stand out and apart from the rest!
Well dressed Edwardian's Steve, Pete and Mark at a TEDS Do at the Holloway Tavern 1992.
In the last 30 years Teddy Boys in Britain have fostered and strengthened links with Teddy Boy groups that have emerged and developed in Europe, particularly in Germany, France, Spain, Norway and Finland.
These links have strengthened the Edwardian brotherhood considerably and there are regular events that British Teddy Boys attend in these countries. Our European counterparts are regular supporters of functions and events held here in the UK.
Well known London Teddy Boy, Johnny T.
1979 TV Documentary 'England Their England' featuring workers from Raleigh Cycle Factory Nottingham. It features Clive Hodgson, Teddy Boy and Rock' n' Roll DJ, playing at the 'Cocked Hat' pub. Featuring Tony Goodman and all.
Please note that this website is maintained by Rockin' Nidge and that the views and comments expressed therein, are not necessarily those shared by the rank and file of Teddy Boy's.
If you wish to contact Nidge regarding any comments or statements on this website, please feel free to email Nidge at: shanganipatrol@ntlworld.com.
An iconic photograph taken in 1970 with Ray Flight (centre), then 22 years of age with 'Driftin' Den Board (right) and Dick (surname unknown) on the left. Ray is wearing a midnight blue drape suit with black velvet, gold waistcoat and black suede buckle creepers. Although these Teds are pictured during the late 1960's / 1970's period, they have resisted the glam rock image that many Teds adopted during the seventies.Getty Images
Drew Brees says NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has “little to no credibility” with players. Vikings defensive end Jared Allen seems to agree with that.
Asked by Jim Rome on Showtime what he’d do if he became NFL commissioner, Allen said his goal would be to do everything he could to reverse the changes to the game that Goodell has supported.
“I’d probably undo everything Roger Goodell’s done,” Allen said. “I’d get football back to its rawest, simplest form, and just take all these, you know, horse-collar tackles, and so-called illegal hits, out. Get football back to its rawest form.”
Goodell has always insisted that his efforts are all about making the game safer for the players. Allen is one of many, many players who have told Goodell they liked the game better before Goodell started trying to make them safer.I just finished re-reading Tim Weiner’s magnum opus, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA,which is perhaps the best book ever written on the Central Intelligence Agency, and its general history of dismal failures. On the eve of the LDP’s retaking of power, December 16th 2012, I thought it might be interesting to take a look back at the LDP and how they came into being in the first place. It’s like a story out of a John Le Carre novel, but as is often the case, truth is stranger than fiction–and more interesting.
Operations in Japan turned out to be one of the Agency’s rare success stories. Not only did the CIA put their party of choice in power, according the book 原発 正力 CIA-機密文書で読む昭和裏面史 (What Secret Documents Tell Us About The Hidden Showa-Era History of Ties Between the Nuclear Industry, Matustaro Shoriki–the former president of the Yomiuri Shimbun and founder of Nippon Television) published by Shinchosha, but using the Japanese media, they were able to convince Japan to invest in nuclear energy. Of course, US firms reaped the profits. But that’s another very long story.
Legacy of Ashes is a phenomenal book, especially in how it documents the CIA’s many, many failures–but operations in Japan were something else.
Chapter 12: “We Ran It In A Different Way” is a must for anyone interested in the shadow history of Japan. It details how in post-war Japan, the CIA, using large amounts of cash, reinstated former war criminal Kodama Yoshio and hand-picked one of Japan’s Prime Ministers–in order to supress communist/socialist movements. Kodama had extensive yakuza ties and huge amounts of capital made in the black markets in China. ($175 million estimated). The Tokyo CIA station reported on September 10th, 1953, “(Kodama) is a professional liar, gangster, charlatan, and outright thief….and has no interest in anything but the profits.” It still didn’t keep the CIA from doing business with him up to that time and behind the scenes later. The chapter also notes how the CIA was able to ensure that Nobusuke Kishi became Japan’s prime minister and the chief of its ruling party, in order to ensure that Japan didn’t go red. The president himself seemed to have authorized huge cash payments to Kishi and his other lackeys within the LDP.
Kishi’s links to the Yamaguchi-gumi and other organized crime groups are well-known. His former private secretary was instrumental in organizing the deal between former Yamaguchi-gumi Goto-gumi boss, Goto Tadamasa, and the FBI; it was a deal in which Goto shared intelligence on organized crime groups within Japan and information on North Korea in exchange for a visa to the the United States. He received a liver transplant at UCLA, a transaction which the FBI did not set up or was involved in. Some of this is discussed in Tokyo Vice.
According to the excellent book, The Japanese Mafia by Peter Hill, and other sources, Kishi also once put up the bail money for a Yamaguchi-gumi boss accused of a felony. Goto Tadamasa, the ex-yakuza boss (currently a Buddhist priest doing charitable work) in his memoirs Habkarinagra (Pardon me but…) also discusses his close ties to ex-Prime Minister Kishi. Robert Whiting in the seminal Tokyo Underworld also covers US political connections to organized crime in Japan in great depth and quite entertainingly. Whiting-san worked for the National Security Agency at one point in his life and what he says has great credibility as far as I’m concerned. (I’m not outing Robert by writing that he once worked for the NSA; it was mentioned in a Japan Times article several years ago and proved to be correct.) David Kaplan’s groundbreaking Yakuza:Japan’s Criminal Underworld was probably the first book to really examine the shadowy ties between the yakuza, the LDP and the US after the occupation. What makes Tim Weiner’s small chapter so impressive are the extensive notes, documents obtained from the CIA, and that he apparently conducted interviews on the CIA side as well. Impressive work.
Kodama, the right-wing industrialist mentioned above, is notorious for his gangster connections but perhaps what best illustrates the point is that in the early sixties, Kodoma, Taoka Kazuo (田岡 一雄氏), the third generation leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi, and Machii Hisayuki (町井 久之) head of the once powerful Japanese-Korean mafia, Toseikai（東声会) all served as board members of the Japan Professional Wrestling Association at the same time. They were all good buddies. As noted in Legacy Of Ashes, and in other sources, the Liberal Democratic Party was founded with a mixture of criminal proceeds, yakuza money, and US funds. The days when the US were able to exert control over Japanese politics are long gone but the yakuza have managed to maintain their own ties and connections to politicians across the board. For the Japanese government, they are still a useful entity, at times, and before the APEC summit, calls were sent out to all the major yakuza leaders urging them not to get into any gang wars and to keep an eye on anti-American lefties. After APEC ends, the aftermath of someone lobbing a hand-grenade into the headquarters of the Yamaguchi-gumi Yamaken-gumi headquarters will probably result in a bloody gang war. But for the time being, the yakuza are keeping the peace.
Full Disclosure Memo: In the worst of the Japanese press and blogosphere, I |
quatch.
Meanwhile, Biscardi sent three samples of the carcass to biologist Curtis Nelson at the University of Minnesota for analysis. In an e-mail, Nelson told Biscardi that most of DNA segments taken from two of the samples matched human DNA. One came back as a likely match for an American opossum. Biscardi said this is likely from a stomach sample and that the creature might have eaten an opossum. He did not say why he had sampled from the stomach.
Despite Biscardi's assurances that soon he would bring in scientists from Stanford University and journalists from Fox News to inspect the body, scientists are skeptical that the find is legitimate. "It's about what I expected," said Jeffrey Meldrum, a professor of anatomy and anthropology from Idaho State University in Pocatello who has studied the bigfoot phenomenon. "Today they should have produced a physical piece of the corpse, if not the corpse itself. Until they produce the body, it doesn't matter."
"What they should have done is contact a reputable scientist and have it examined at a known university," said Benjamin Radford, who writes for the Skeptical Inquirer magazine and has followed bigfoot hunters for more than a decade. "Instead, this whole thing is very cloak and dagger. It all about, 'We have unnamed scientists working at an undisclosed location under armed guard.'"
Meldrum said it's still remotely possible the claims are genuine, but that the group's behavior resembles that of previous hoaxes. He said that even if the genetic testing had turned up some evidence that it was bigfoot, no one can verify where the animal was found.
Today's pronouncement was not Biscardi's first. In 2005 he claimed that he had captured a Sasquatch. The beast never materialized, and Biscardi said he had been swindled by a deranged attention-seeker.
Radford says hoaxers make money off tours through bigfoot country and with documentary films—a motivation Biscardi doesn't discount. When asked at the press conference how much money he expects to make from his alleged discovery, Biscardi said, "As much as I possibly can."
He said, however, that he will satisfy all skeptics when he releases the actual body. Earlier this week he invited Megyn Kelly of Fox News to Georgia to view the carcass.Formatting may be lacking as a result. If this article is un-readable please report it so that we may fix it.
Posted on August 5, 2013, James Murff Alleged Photo From Valve Tour Confirms L4D3, Source 2 (RUMOR)
Valve can’t seem to catch a break with their leaks.
During a tour of Valve HQ, a developer’s monitor was apparently left conspicuously open on a list of Valve projects. One of the tour members claims to have snapped a picture of it (hi-res), naturally, and posted it on Reddit.
If legitimate, this picture confirms several of the projects leaked through the Jira snapshot seen back in June. The most important projects are obviously Source 2 (represented by a gold icon with “2″ in the center in the picture above) and Left 4 Dead 3. Several names on the list are known Valve developers, such as Ken Birdwell, lending a slight air of legitimacy to the photo.
Then again, this is the Internet, and images are as easy to doctor as names of Valve developers are easy to find. And frankly, until we’re able to verify the veracity of the image, we remain skeptical. But there are a few little details that play in the photo’s favor, not the least of which is that, while L4D3 is mentioned, Half-Life 3 is not. But there’s no shortage of Valve rumors that have hit the Internet in the past, only to eventually be proven false.
As for the photo — if it is the real deal, it might give a peek into part of Valve’s future. Numerous more project references are made, such as engine changes to Source 2, changes to the spectator mode in Dota 2 for caster use, and a counter to track “keys left” for Steam games. While those items are obviously overshadowed by Source 2 and Left 4 Dead 3, they seem like new improvements that could be useful for players and Steam customers.
We have reached out to Valve for comment, and will update as we learn more.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Sir Tim Berners-Lee: "We're setting the agenda"
Sweden has topped a new global index evaluating the state of the web in 61 countries, with the US coming second and the UK third.
Compiled by Sir Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Web Foundation, it ranked both the social and political impact of the web.
It found that only one in three people are using the web globally and fewer than one in six in Africa.
It highlighted censorship and high broadband prices as barriers to a "web for all".
Using data from the past five years, it scored nations in seven different categories.
These were: communications infrastructure - the state and availability of web-enabling infrastructure; institutional infrastructure - education, laws, regulation and censorship; web content - what relevant and useful content is available; web use - the extent to which the web is used in a country; political impact; economic impact and social impact.
WEB INDEX TOP 10 Sweden United States United Kingdom Canada Finland Switzerland New Zealand Australia Norway Ireland
According to the index, Iceland has the greatest web use, with 95% of its population online.
Ireland, which overall ranked 10th, gained the highest score for economic impact with 14.8% of its gross domestic product coming from ICT service exports between 2007 and 2010.
Yemen came bottom of the index in three categories, including social and economic impact of the web.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee explained why he thought such an index was important: "By shining a light on the barriers to web for everyone, the index is a powerful tool that will empower individuals, government and organisations to improve their societies."
'Global conversation'
According to the index, 30% of countries face moderate to severe government restrictions on access to websites, while about half of them show increasing threats to press freedom.
WEB INDEX BOTTOM 10 Nepal Cameroon Mali Bangladesh Namibia Ethiopia Benin Burkino Faso Zimbabwe Yemen
"The web is a global conversation. Growing suppression of free speech, both online and offline, is possibly the single biggest challenge to the future of the web," warned Sir Tim.
Despite falling costs in western Europe, internet access remains a luxury in most countries, it suggested.
Across the 61 countries surveyed, broadband connections still cost almost half of monthly income per capita.
"The high price of connectivity is stopping billions of people from achieving their rights to to knowledge and participation.
Costs have got to come down dramatically," said Sir Tim.Human rights in Canada have come under increasing public attention and legal protection since World War II. Prior to that time, there were few legal protections for human rights. The protections which did exist focussed on specific issues, rather than taking a general approach to human rights. There were notable events in Canada's history which would today be considered violations of human rights.
Controversial human rights issues in Canada have included patient rights, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, parents' rights, children's rights, abortion rights vs rights of the unborn, minority rights, majority rights, rights of the disabled, aboriginal rights, tenant rights and economic, social and political rights.[1]
Outline of current human rights laws [ edit ]
The events of World War II, and the treatment of individuals and groups by some governments during that period, led to an increased international and national awareness of the need to protect human rights. The trend to provide legal protections for human rights began with the passage of the Saskatchewan Bill of Rights by the province of Saskatchewan in 1947. Other provinces began to enact comprehensive human rights laws. At the federal level, Canada was one of the members of the United Nations which voted to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. In 1960, the Parliament of Canada enacted the Canadian Bill of Rights. The trend towards legal protections for human rights culminated in the enactment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, an entrenched constitutional charter of human rights.
Human rights in Canada are now given legal protections by the dual mechanisms of the Charter and the statutory human rights codes, both federal and provincial. The Charter provides individuals with constitutional rights which governments must respect. The statutory human rights codes provide individuals with rights binding on governments, and also in some cases in the private sector, such as in services, employment, education and housing. The Canadian Human Rights Act applies to the federal government and to activities within federal legislative jurisdiction, and the provincial codes apply to the provincial governments and to activities within provincial jurisdiction. Although human rights codes are statutory in nature, the Supreme Court of Canada has held that they are quasi-constitutional in nature, taking priority over other statutes.
Charter rights are enforced by legal actions in the criminal and civil courts, depending on the context in which a Charter claim arises. Claims under the human rights laws are of a civil nature. They are normally investigated by a human rights commission under the applicable human rights law, and are adjudicated either by a human rights tribunal or by the court of first instance. A ruling on a human rights claim can be appealed through the normal court process, ultimately to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Historical development of human rights laws [ edit ]
Colonial period [ edit ]
The first legal protection for human rights in Canada related to religious freedom. The Articles of Capitulation of the town of Quebec, negotiated between the French and British military commanders after the fall of Quebec in 1759, provided a guarantee of "the free exercise of the Roman religion" until the possession of Canada was determined by the British and French governments.[2] A similar guarantee was included in the Articles of Capitulation of Montreal the next year.[3] The two guarantees were formally confirmed by Britain in the Treaty of Paris, 1763,[4] and then given statutory protection in the Quebec Act, 1774.[5] The result was that the British subjects in Quebec had greater guarantees of religious liberty at that time than did the Roman Catholic inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland, who would not receive similar guarantees until Catholic emancipation in 1829.[6]
Nearly a century later, the Province of Canada passed similar legislation, ending the establishment of the Church of England in the province, and recognizing instead the principle of "legal equality among all religious denominations". The Act provided that the "free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship" was protected by the Constitution and laws of the Province.[7]
Confederation and onwards [ edit ]
Constitutional framework [ edit ]
In 1867, Canada was created by the British North America Act, 1867 (now named the Constitution Act, 1867).[8] In keeping with British constitutional traditions, the Act did not include an entrenched list of rights, other than specific rights relating to language use in legislatures and courts,[9] and provisions protecting the right of certain religious minorities to establish their own separate and denominational schools.[10] Canadian law instead followed the British constitutional approach in which the (unenumerated) "Rights of Englishmen" had traditionally been defended by all the branches of the government (Parliament, the courts, and the Crown) collectively and sometimes in competition with each other. However, 19th century political and legal thought also emphasized the importance of freedom of contract and property rights as important aspects of liberty and the rule of law. This approach meant that what are now viewed as human rights concerns, based on personal circumstances, would be considered of lesser importance than contractual and property rights.
Human rights issues in the first seventy years of Canadian history thus tended to be raised in the framework of the constitutional division of powers between the federal and provincial governments. A person who was affected by a provincial law could challenge that law in the courts, arguing that it intruded on a matter reserved for the federal government. Alternatively, a person who was affected by a federal law could challenge it in court, arguing that it intruded on a matter reserved for the provinces. In either case, the focus was primarily on the constitutional authority of the federal and provincial governments, not on the rights of the individual.
The division of powers is also the reason that the term "civil rights" is not used in Canada in the same way as it is used in other countries, such as the United States. One of the main areas of provincial jurisdiction is "Property and civil rights",[11] which is a broad phrase used to encompass all of what is normally termed the civil law, such as contracts, property, torts/delicts, family law, wills, estates and successions and so on. This use of the phrase dates back to the Quebec Act, 1774.[5] Given the broad, established meaning of "civil rights" in Canadian constitutional law, it has not been used in the more specific meaning of personal equality rights. Instead, the terms "human rights" / "droits de la personne" are used.
Early cases [ edit ]
Union Colliery Co. v. Bryden (1899) [ edit ]
In Union Colliery Co of British Columbia v Bryden a shareholder of Union Colliery Co. accused the company of violating the Coal Mines Regulation Act. That law had been passed by the provincial Legislature of British Columbia and prohibited the hiring of people of Chinese origin, using an ethnic slur in the legislation.[12] The company successfully challenged the constitutionality of the Act on the grounds that it dealt with a matter of exclusive federal jurisdiction, namely "Naturalization and Aliens".[13][14] In reaching this conclusion, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, at that time the highest court for the British Empire, found that evidence which had been led at trial about the reliability and compentence of the Chinese employees of the colliery was irrelevant to the constitutional issue. The personal circumstances and ability of those employees did not relate to the issue of federal and provincial jurisdiction.
Cunningham v Homma (1902) [ edit ]
The decision in Union Colliery did not establish any general principle of equality based on race or ethnicity. In each case, the issue of race or ethnicity was simply one fact the courts took into account in determining if a matter was within federal or provincial jurisdiction. For example, just three years later, in the case of Cunningham v Homma, a provincial law prohibiting people of Chinese, Japanese or Indian descent from voting in provincial elections was held to be constitutional.[15] The Judicial Committee rejected a challenge to the provincial law brought by a naturalized Japanese-Canadian, Tomekichi Homma, who had been denied the right to vote in British Columbia provincial elections. The Judicial Committee held that control of the franchise in provincial elections came within the province's exclusive jurisdiction to legislate with respect to the constitution of the province. Again, the personal circumstances of the individual, in this case whether naturalised or native-born, were not relevant to the issue of the constitutional authority of the province. There was no inherent right to vote.[16]
Quong Wing v R (1914) [ edit ]
Quong Wing v R Justice Idington, who dissented in
Similarly, in the case of Quong Wing v R, the Supreme Court upheld a Saskatchewan law which prohibited businesses owned by anyone of Japanese, Chinese or other East Asian background from hiring any "white woman or girl" to work in the business.[17][18] The Court, by a 4–1 majority, found that the province had jurisdiction over businesses and employment, or alternatively that the law in question was in relation to local public morality, another area of provincial jurisdiction.[19] The judges in the majority acknowledged that the law had an effect on some Canadians based on their race or ethnic origins, but that was not sufficient to take the case outside of provincial jurisdiction. The dissenting judge, Justice Idington, was the only one who would have struck down the statute, but as in the other cases, he based his conclusion on the division of powers, not on the rights of the individual. He would have held that the provincial Act limited the statutory rights granted by the federal Naturalization Act, and was therefore beyond provincial jurisdiction.
Christie v York Corporation (1940) [ edit ]
Canadian courts also upheld discrimination in public places based on freedom of contract and property rights. For example, in Christie v York Corporation,[20] the plaintiff, a black man, was denied service at a bar at the Montreal Forum. He sued for damages, arguing that the tavern was under a duty to provide services to all members of the public. The case reached the Supreme Court, which held by a 4-1 majority that the owner of the business had complete freedom of commerce and could refuse service to whomever it wished, on whatever grounds it wished. The lone dissenter, Justice Davis, would have held that the Quebec statute regulating liquor sales to the public required restaurants to provide their service to all customers, without discrimination.
The King v Desmond (1946) [ edit ]
Viola Desmond, who defied segregation in a Nova Scotia movie theatre
Viola Desmond, a black Nova Scotian, went to see a movie in a theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. The owner of the theatre would only allow white people to sit on the main floor. Non-whites had to sit in the gallery. Desmond, who was from out of town, did not know of the policy. She bought a ticket for the movie and went onto the main floor. When the theatre employees told her to go to the gallery, she refused. The police were called and she was forcibly removed. Desmond spent a night in jail and was fined $20, on the basis that by sitting on the main floor when her ticket was for the gallery, she had deprived the provincial government of the additional tax for the main floor ticket: one cent. She sought to challenge her treatment, by an application for judicial review of the tax ruling. The court dismissed the challenge on the basis that the tax statute was neutral with respect to race. The judge suggested in his decision that the outcome might have been different if she had instead appealed the conviction, on the basis that the law was being used improperly by the theatre owner to enforce a "Jim Crow" type of segregation.[21]
In 2018, the Bank of Canada announced that Viola Desmond would be the person shown on the new ten-dollar note.[22][23][24]
Noble v Alley (1955) [ edit ]
Noble v. Alley was a challenge to a restrictive covenant for the sale of land at a cottage resort. The owner of the land had bought it with a requirement from an earlier owner that the land not be sold to Jewish or non-white people. The owner wished to sell it to an individual who was Jewish. The owner challenged the restrictive covenant, over the opposition of other residents in the cottage resort. The Supreme Court held that the covenant was not enforceable on the basis that it was too vague, and that restrictive covenants on land had to be related to land use, not the personal characteristics of the owner.[25]
Implied Bill of Rights [ edit ]
In 1938 there was a development in judicial protection of rights. The government of the province of Alberta had passed a series of laws to implement its social credit platform, and had come under heavy media criticism. In response, the Legislature enacted the Accurate News and Information Act, which would give the government the power to direct media's coverage of the government. The federal government referred several of the Alberta bills to the Supreme Court for a reference opinion. Three of the six members of the Court found that public comment on the government, and freedom of the press, are so important to a democracy that there is an implied bill of rights in Canada's Constitution, to protect those values. The Court suggested that only the federal Parliament could have the power to impinge on political rights protected by the implied bill of rights. The Accurate News and Information Act was therefore unconstitutional.[26] The Supreme Court has not, however, used the "implied bill of rights" in very many subsequent cases.
Enactment of modern human rights legislation [ edit ]
Beginning in 1947, the provinces began adopting human rights legislation: the Saskatchewan Bill of Rights (1947), Ontario (1962), Nova Scotia (1963), Alberta (1966), New Brunswick (1967), Prince Edward Island (1968), Newfoundland (1969), British Columbia (1969), Manitoba (1970) and Quebec (1975). In 1977, the federal government enacted the Canadian Human Rights Act. Also, many collective agreements between employers and trade unions include non-discrimination provisions.
Significant historical cases [ edit ]
In addition to these particular court cases, there were also general cases which arose in Canada, prior to the enactment of human rights legislation.
Komagata Maru incident [ edit ]
The Komagata Maru incident occurred 1914 when a group of Indians, all British subjects, arrived in Vancouver with the intention of settling in Canada.[27] They were denied entry because of their race.
One of the Sikh passengers, Jagat Singh Thind, was the youngest brother of Bhagat Singh Thind, an Indian-American Sikh writer and lecturer on "spiritual science" who was involved in an important legal battle over the rights of Indians to obtain U.S. citizenship (United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind).[28]
World War I treatment of Ukrainian Canadians [ edit ]
Memorial at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, east of Edmonton, Alberta. Includes a map showing the locations of the internment camps across Canada. Installed 11 August 2002.
The Ukrainian Canadian internment was part of the confinement of "enemy aliens" in Canada during and for two years after the end of the First World War, lasting from 1914 to 1920, under the terms of the War Measures Act. About 4,000 Ukrainian men and some women and children of Austro-Hungarian citizenship were kept in twenty-four internment camps and related work sites – also known, at the time, as concentration camps.[29] Many were released in 1916 to help with the mounting labour shortage.
Chinese Head Tax and Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 [ edit ]
The Chinese head tax was a fixed fee charged to each Chinese person entering Canada. The head tax was first levied after the Canadian parliament passed the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 and was meant to discourage Chinese people from entering Canada after the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The tax was abolished by the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, which stopped Chinese immigration altogether, except for business people, clergy, educators, students, and other categories.[30]
World War II treatment of Japanese Canadians [ edit ]
A road crew of interned men building the Yellowhead Highway
Japanese Canadian internment refers to confinement of Japanese Canadians in British Columbia during World War II. The internment began in December 1941, after the attack by carrier-borne forces of Imperial Japan on American naval and army facilities at Pearl Harbor. The Canadian federal government gave the internment order based on speculation of sabotage and espionage, although the RCMP and defence department lacked proof.[31] Many interned children were brought up in these camps, including David Suzuki, Joy Kogawa, and Roy Miki. The Canadian government promised the Japanese Canadians that their property and finances would be returned upon release; however, these assets were sold off cheaply at auctions.[32]
Cold War forced relocation [ edit ]
In the early 1950s and in the context of the Cold War, the federal government forcibly relocated 87 Inuit citizens to the High Arctic as human symbols of Canada's assertion of ownership of the region. The Inuit were told that they would be returned home to Northern Quebec after a year if they wished, but this offer was later withdrawn as it would damage Canada's claims to the High Arctic; they were forced to stay.[33] In 1993, after extensive hearings, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples issued The High Arctic Relocation: A Report on the 1953–55 Relocation.[34] The government paid compensation but has not apologised.[35]
PROFUNC [ edit ]
PROFUNC (1950–1983[36]), which stands for "PROminent FUNCtionaries of the communist party", was a Government of Canada third rail top secret plan to identify and intern Canadian communists and crypto-communists during the height of the Cold War.[37][38]
Residential schools [ edit ]
St. Paul's Indian Industrial School, Middlechurch, Manitoba, 1901
The Indian residential schools of Canada were a network of "residential" (boarding) schools for Aboriginal peoples of Canada (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit) funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs, and administered by Christian churches, most notably the Catholic Church in Canada and the Anglican Church of Canada.[39] The system had origins in pre-Confederation times, but was primarily active following the passage of the Indian Act in 1876, until the mid-twentieth century. The last residential school was not closed until 1996.[39]
Re-settlement of indigenous groups [ edit ]
There have been numerous resettlement programs that spanned over a century and a half, whereupon the original agreements of Treaty territory had been revised without consultation with the indigenous groups who signed the treaties. For example, the Peguis Reserve, the largest land owning Cree Nation in Manitoba, was transposed from their territory (now known as Selkirk) to a swampy area approximately 150 km northwest, in the 1870s. The territory where they were removed from was a rich and fertile area to farm. Currently the territory they are on floods yearly.[citation needed]
International human rights claims [ edit ]
Separate schools [ edit ]
Three provinces, Alberta, Ontario, and Saskatchewan, are constitutionally required to operate separate and publicly funded schools.[10] Some argue that the separate school system discriminates by religion, although students attending these schools need not be Roman Catholic by faith. These are usually Roman Catholic schools which are run parallel to the public school system that historically had been either Protestant or Roman Catholic, but which in recent years has become secular. In addition to Roman Catholic school boards, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario each have one Protestant separate school district.
On November 5, 1999, the United Nations Human Rights Committee condemned Canada and Ontario for having violated the equality provisions (Article 26) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Committee restated its concerns on November 2, 2005, when it published its Concluding Observations regarding Canada's fifth periodic report under the Covenant. The Committee observed that Canada had failed to "adopt steps in order to eliminate discrimination on the basis of religion in the funding of schools in Ontario".
Bill 101 in Quebec [ edit ]
Bill 101 in Quebec is a collection of laws instituted in order to propagate the French language and restrict the use of English. In 1993, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that Quebec's sign laws broke an international covenant on civil and political rights.[40] "A State may choose one or more official languages," the committee wrote, "but it may not exclude, outside the spheres of public life, the freedom to express oneself in a language of one's choice. The Committee accordingly concludes that there has been a violation of article 19, paragraph 2. Bill 101 itself was however considered as adhering to international standards for human rights and the complaint was ultimately rejected as "non-admissible" while recommending an amendment to the law concerning outdoors advertising.[41]
The current law specifies that commercial outdoor signs can be multilingual so long as French is markedly predominant.[42]
Assessments [ edit ]
Comparisons of provincial and territorial legislation [ edit ]
In January 2018, the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion released a report comparing provincial legislation regarding human rights. Every province includes slightly different "prohibited grounds" for discrimination, covers different areas of society (e.g. employment, tenancy, etc.), and applies the law slightly differently. For example, in Nunuvut, the Nunavut Human Rights Act directs the Nunavut Human Rights Tribunal to interpret the law so as not to conflict with the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement and to respect the principles of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, described as "Inuit beliefs, laws, principles and values along with traditional knowledge, skills and attitudes." Nunuvut is unique in Canada tying its humans rights code to an indigenous rather than a European-derived philosophical foundation.[43]
See also [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]
Among the leading works on human rights in Canada, which have added great complexity to the issue by exploring twentieth-century paradigms, are Christopher MacLennan, Toward the Charter: Canadians and the Demand for a National Bill of Rights (Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003); Ross Lambertson, Repression and Resistance: Canadian Human Rights Activists, 1930–1960 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005); and Dominique Clément, Canada's Rights Revolution: Social Movements and Social Change, 1937–82 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2008). On the quest for anti-discrimination legislation in Ontario, see Ruth Frager and Carmela Patrias, "'This Is Our Country, These Are Our Rights': Minorities and the Origins of Ontario's Human Rights Campaign," Canadian Historical Review, vol. 82, no. 1 (March 2001), 1–35. On the situation in Montreal and Toronto, including the Catholic aspect and Cold War discourse, see Patrick Lacroix, "Immigration, Minority Rights, and Catholic Policy-Making in Post-War Canada", Histoire sociale/Social History, vol. 47, no. 93 (May 2014), 183–203. The situation in Quebec may best be explored through the events of the Quiet Revolution. At last, for yet further information, see Dominique Clément and Canada's Human Rights History.The very best trend is absence of Time. This trend is apparently an eye catching. A number of these trends have existed for some time, and others are rather new. This trend will just continue in 2017. Anti-ageing trends from some other regions are getting more global. Consumers’ media consumption changes in the summertime, which makes it important to recognize seasonal trends that might affect your organization. According to Entrepreneur Magazine, among the most important advertising trends for companies to concentrate on is relationship marketing and advertising.
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Conservatives say it's a Western-inspired event that's spreading vulgarity in their country
Romantics fought back with an arsenal of flowers, pink teddy bears and heart-shaped balloons
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Romance is not dead in Pakistan, but it's under attack.
Conservatives in Pakistan tacked up posters urging people to boycott Valentine's Day on Thursday, saying it's a western-inspired event that's spreading vulgarity in their country. Romantics fought back with an arsenal of flowers, pink teddy bears and heart-shaped balloons.
"Here in this part of Pakistan we are faced with bomb blasts, and we don't have much opportunity to enjoy and celebrate so to me it is one of those few occasions to celebrate," said Taimur Hassan, a 29-year-old man working in the northwestern city of Peshawar. He was out buying a gift for his girlfriend, and looking for something different than a stuffed bear he got her last year.
That's exactly the type of behavior many of Pakistan's conservatives are worried about.
For them, Valentine's Day is nothing but an occasion to encourage illicit relations between the country's young — unmarried — males and females. It's a sign that Western culture and values are eating away the fabric of Pakistan's traditional, Islamic society. Valentine's Day, they say, is not a Pakistani holiday and not part of the culture here.
In the southern city of Karachi, billboards implored people to "Say no to Valentine's Day." The "no" was encapsulated in a black heart, and the sign said the holiday reflects insensitivity and ignorance of Islam.
Tanzeem-e-Islami, the organization that put up the billboards, called on the interior ministry to suspend cell phone service on the holiday that celebrates love. Group spokesman Muhammad Samee said many young people use mobile phones to send Valentine's Day greetings and suspending the service for the day would save people from "moral terrorism."
Attitudes toward Valentine's Day, named after a Christian saint said to have been martyred by the Romans in the 3rd Century, vary across the Arab world, with some devout Muslims opposing the holiday as a Western celebration of romantic love that corrupts Muslim youth.
Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a hardline Pakistani cleric, warned that young people who celebrate Valentine's Day will be celebrating children's births in November.
"In Islam, there is a concept of respecting and loving mother, sister, wife and daughter for 365 days a year," said Ahmed, who thinks the holiday breeds vulgarity across the country.
Fearing a backlash against the holiday, Pakistani officials charged with monitoring and censoring television content issued a letter on Wednesday asking TV stations to be respectful when airing programs on Valentine's Day. The letter, issued by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, noted that large segments of society do not think the holiday is in line with Pakistani culture and religion.
However, the instructions were rescinded following a hue and cry on social media and pressure from TV channels, according to an official with the regulatory authority. The official spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
In Pakistan, social media like Twitter and Facebook have increasingly become a way for the country's small, liberal, secular segment of society to voice their opinions. By midday Thursday, Valentine's Day was one of the most popular themes on Twitter.
Despite the earlier regulatory warning, TV channels didn't seem to be shying away from Valentine's Day programming. Many featured video of people shopping for presents like heart-shaped |
's other statistics are gaudy, Roenicke's favorite is that he has struck out just 29 times in 269 plate appearance. That is why Roenicke has Lucroy batting third in the order.
"He's not a wild swinger like we know a lot of our guys are," Roenicke said. "He's a guy that will hit to all fields. He uses the other field very well and if you look at every other third and fourth hitter, all the good ones really use the whole field well. He stays on pitches well, so he doesn't chase pitches too much out of the zone. He's a tremendous offensive player."
Especially for his position. Lucroy's.908 OPS ranks second among major league catchers with at least 100 plate appearances, just two points behind the.910 of the Cincinnati Reds' Devin Mesoraco. Lucroy, though, has been to bat 136 times more than Mesoraco, who has been hampered by injuries.
Lucroy is all but a lock to make his first All-Star Game appearance next month in Minneapolis, which would have been hard to believe during his senior year of high school when he wasn't drafted and had only the offer from Louisiana-Lafayette. The lack of interest remains a mystery to Lucroy, who was seen by plenty of professional and college scout while playing in the talent-rich Orlando area. His best guess is scouts were turned off by his size.
"At that time, everybody was looking for big catchers, a big strong Joe Mauer-type, and I'm not a big guy," Lucroy, who is 6-foot-0, 195 pounds. "That's changed now, though. Teams are looking for catchers who are more mobile and can move better behind the plate. I'm more the kind of guy teams are looking for."
Lucroy could certainly start for many more major league teams but he was not a highly touted prospect in the minor leagues. The knock was that he was a poor defensive catcher who did not possess the power or speed to switch to another position. Yet Lucroy made it to the major leagues on May 21, 2010, a little less than three years after being drafted, and has been a fixture behind the plate ever since in Milwaukee.
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However, Lucroy does not feel he is a complete catcher yet. He believes he can improve his pitch calling and the way he hands the staff in general.
Lucroy recalled remember a spring training conversion he had with veteran catcher Jason Kendall when Kendall was Milwaukee's catcher and Lucroy was still in the minor leagues. Kendall said it took him until his sixth season until he totally felt control behind the plate. Lucroy is in his fifth season.
"I think it's one of those things that with experience comes confidence in your ability to call a game and to prepare yourself the best that you can to call a game," Lucroy said. "For a young player, I know, it was really hard to do. And now that I've got a good system down of being able to remember and recall things and how to go about it in certain situations, I think it gives you that confidence to do better."
Lucroy will have plenty more time to develop as a catcher. He is under contract through at least 2016 after signing a five-year, $10.28-million deal prior to the 2012 season that includes a club option for 2017.
Lucroy has also become very involved in a number charitable causes in the Milwaukee community, including one called Fisher House, which is a facility for veterans and their families receiving treatment at the Milwaukee VA Hospital. Lucroy also provides tickets to military families and funds a $5,000 college scholarship each year to a student from a military family.
The military causes are dear to Lucroy's heart because his former college teammate and roommate, John Coker, was severely wounded when shot three times in Afghanistan while serving in the National Guard. Coker's platoon was ambushed and the solders on each of side of him were killed.
Between his play on the field and his willingness to lend a helping hand off the field, Lucroy has become a household name in Milwaukee. The question is when will the rest of the country catch on?
"When we get to where we want to go, which is the playoffs," he said. "When you win and play deep into October, that's when people know you're start to know your name. That's what I care about most, winning. Recognition is nice but it's nicer when it comes because you're playing for a winner."
* * *
John Perrotto has covered professional baseball since 1988 for such outlets as USA Today, The Sports Xchange, Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus and the Beaver County (Pa.) Times. You can find more of his work on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.For a time, anyone used to be able to write to their Congressman and request a free goldfish.
For several decades starting in the 1880s, the U.S. Fish Commission had several fisheries (now filled in) around the Washington Monument where they mass produced carp and goldfish. The annual harvest of hundreds of thousands of carp were sent out to stock the country’s waterways, and fish were made available to the public upon request.
The lakes were the brainchild of Orville E. Babcock of the Army Corps of Engineers. In the late 1870s, as the Washington Monument was nearing completion, he saw an opportunity to improve the optics of the area by creating several manmade ponds. The eponymously named Babcock Lakes replaced a marshy eyesore, as a Washington Evening Star reporter noted at the time, writing that “The improvement of these lakes for fish culture has done away with a terrible swamp nuisance which used to exist in that locality.”
In order to make the bodies of water productive, Babcock enlisted the help of Smithsonian Institution Curator Spencer Baird. Baird imported a stock of carp from Germany (they aren’t native to North America) and set about multiplying them. The local newspaper archive contains some amusing anecdotes about how all this played out.
The Star describes how during springtime the lakes would be drained, allowing workers to wade in with baskets and ensure that “all the eels and catfish are thrown out, as they devour the young carp.” One year Baird was pleased to discover that carp seemed to love pumpkins—“entirely devoured in eight days, rind and all”—and another year “10,000” carp escaped into the Potomac during a flood.
While events were proceeding swimmingly in Washington, the same could not be said as the harvested carp were unleashed in waterways across the country. According to the National Park Service’s, “History of the Common Carp” the “fish’s remarkable ability to live and reproduce in most every water condition allowed it to quickly infiltrate others,” and within a few years the once prized fish had become a nuisance. The omnivorous carp feasted on the eggs of native species prompting decades of carp removal programs.
The goldfish program had also rapidly became a victim of its own success. In 1894, the New York Times wrote that “The business of distributing free goldfish… has become such a tax on the Fish Commission that it appears they must choose between running a goldfish bureau for Washington exclusively and conducting the legitimate work of the bureau.” Goldfish distribution halted shortly thereafter. The carp program in Washington was discontinued in 1906, and in 1911 the Babcock lakes were filled in.Miami Hurricanes linebacker Marques Gayot was airlifted to Ryder Trauma Center in Miami after suffering a neck injury during Wednesday's practice.
The sophomore from Lake Worth, who played high school football at Park Vista, is expected to be released Thursday, UM officials said.
"Linebacker Marques Gayot suffered a neck injury... at practice today and was transported to Ryder Trauma Center," UM said in a statement. "He has undergone a battery of tests and will be kept overnight for precaution. He will be placed in a neck collar and released tomorrow morning. He is expected to make a full recovery."
According to multiple sources, the injury occured when Gayot collided with a teammate.
“Marques’ injury was caused by helmet-to-helmet contact,” according to Park Vista Athletic Director Pam Romero.
Gayot, who transitioned to linebacker this season after playing safety previously, has seven tackles this year, including 2.5 for loss. He notched his first career sack in Miami's season-opening win against Bethune-Cookman.
Alan Diaz / AP Miami linebacker Marques Gayot sacks Bethune Cookman quarterback Quentin Williams during a game Sept. 5. Miami linebacker Marques Gayot sacks Bethune Cookman quarterback Quentin Williams during a game Sept. 5. (Alan Diaz / AP) (Alan Diaz / AP)
He appeared in six games as a freshman last year, seeing time mostly on special teams.
The 3-0 Hurricanes are off this week and resume action on Thursday, Oct. 1, at Cincinnati.
Miami coach Al Golden was scheduled to speak to reporters Wednesday morning during the weekly ACC football coaches teleconference, but he did not appear at his scheduled time.
Staff writer Dave Brousseau contributed to this report.Pinterest is starting to roll out Buyable Pins on Android phones today, the company said.
Buyable Pins let some retailers who are partners with Pinterest and retailers use Shopify and Demandware. The company unveiled Buyable Pins earlier in June earlier this year, with the iPhone getting access to them later that month. The tool lets retailers add a buy button to pins that let users purchase products directly from Pinterest.
After putting in their credit card and address, users can purchase products that have the buy button placed — which is placed on Rich Pins that have more information. They then get that product delivered to them by simply clicking on the buy button. Purchases can be made from all points of the app’s features, like search and home feed.
Beyond that, the company is today rolling out what it is called the Pinterest Shop, which is a collection of trending products that users can buy on Pinterest. Examples would be products that fall under topics like sweaters and pillows. Some of Pinterest’s top trends, according to the company, were leather leggings and blanket scarves, which fall into the company’s trend report as part of its shop.
All this taken together helps merchants get another touch point for their user base, giving them an opportunity to sell their goods without requiring users to jump off Pinterest. That can require leaving the site to a chain of additional screens to set up a final purchase, which might discourage a user from making a final purchase.
These tools are equally important for Pinterest, because they help drive additional engagement for its products. Around two-thirds of the content on Pinterest is pinned by people from business websites, Pinterest’s general manager of monetization Tim Kendall told TechCrunch at the time of the launch of Buyable Pins. If users are sticking around on the site longer, and more often, Pinterest can more easily monetize them — and use that revenue to further drive its business.
Commerce is increasingly a strong point for Pinterest as it continues to roll out new products that have the potential to drive additional revenue for the company. According to an earlier TechCrunch report, Pinterest is forecast to make around $169 million in revenue this year.ILLUSTRATION: DAVIDE BONAZZI
The email that arrived in Richard Young's inbox in October 2013 was polite but firm. The writer was part of a group of researchers who “are conducting a study to investigate the reproducibility of recent research findings in cancer biology.” A paper that Young, a biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, had published in Cell in 2012 on how a protein called c-Myc spurs tumor growth was among 50 high-impact papers chosen for scrutiny by the Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology. The group might need help with materials and advice on experimental design, the message said. It also promised that the project would “share our procedure” to ensure “a fair replication.”
Young wrote back that a European lab had already published a replication of his study. No matter, the project's representative replied, they still wanted to repeat it. But they needed more information about the protocol. After weeks of emails back and forth and scrambling by graduate students and postdocs to spell out procedures in intricate detail, the group clarified that they did not want to replicate the 30 or so experiments in the Cell paper, but just four described in a single key figure. And those experiments would be performed not by another academic lab working in the same area, but by an unnamed contract research organization.
This past January, the cancer reproducibility project published its protocol for replicating the experiments, and the waiting began for Young to see whether his work will hold up in their hands. He says that if the project does match his results, it will be unsurprising —the paper's findings have already been reproduced. If it doesn't, a lack of expertise in the replicating lab may be responsible. Either way, the project seems a waste of time, Young says. “I am a huge fan of reproducibility. But this mechanism is not the way to test it.”
That is a typical reaction from investigators whose work is being scrutinized by the cancer reproducibility project, an ambitious, open-science effort to test whether key findings in Science, Nature, Cell, and other top journals can be reproduced by independent labs. Almost every scientist targeted by the project who spoke with Science agrees that studies in cancer biology, as in many other fields, too often turn out to be irreproducible, for reasons such as problematic reagents and the fickleness of biological systems. But few feel comfortable with this particular effort, which plans to announce its findings in coming months. Their reactions range from annoyance to anxiety to outrage. “It's an admirable, ambitious effort. I like the concept,” says cancer geneticist Todd Golub of the Broad Institute in Cambridge, who has a paper on the group's list. But he is “concerned about a single group using scientists without deep expertise to reproduce decades of complicated, nuanced experiments.”
Golub and others worry that if the cancer reproducibility project announces that many of the 50 studies failed its test, individual reputations will be damaged and public support for biomedical research undermined. “I really hope that these people are aware of how much responsibility they have,” says cancer biologist Lars Zender of the University of Tübingen in Germany.
Timothy Errington, the reproducibility effort's manager at the nonprofit Center for Open Science in Charlottesville, Virginia, knows the scrutiny has unsettled the community. But, he says, the project is working hard to make sure that the labs have all the details they need to match the original studies. The effort will ultimately benefit the field, he says, by gauging the extent of the reproducibility problem in cancer biology. “Some see this as a threat, a way to disprove something. That's not what this is about.”
CONCERNS THAT MUCH PRECLINICAL research can't be reproduced are not new, but the spotlight turned to cancer biology 3 years ago, when a commentary in Nature reported that scientists from the biotech company Amgen could reproduce only six of 53 high-profile cancer papers. (Another firm, Bayer, had reported a 79% failure rate for a set of mostly cancer studies in 2011.) The Amgen piece argued that irreproducible data contributed to high drug development costs and failed clinical trials. Indeed, a year earlier Amgen had dropped an entire research effort to find drugs targeting a cancer protein called STK33 after it could not confirm key results in a Cell paper.
To the frustration of many, the commentary's co-authors Glenn Begley, who had left Amgen to become a consultant, and Lee Ellis of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston said confidentiality agreements with some labs barred them from sharing data from their replication efforts or even the titles of the papers. However, Begley, now at TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals in Malvern, Pennsylvania, wrote a follow-up commentary in Nature describing the six main problems he found, including a lack of proper controls, faulty statistics, and failure to validate reagents.
At about the same time, cancer biologist Elizabeth Iorns launched the Reproducibility Initiative, which offered to replicate life sciences experiments for a fee through a network of 1000 contract labs she had established, called Science Exchange (Science, 31 August 2012, p. 1031). Iorns was inspired by the fact that drug companies often used her network for replications, seeing a chance to avoid wasting money pursuing shaky science. But Iorns had to seek funding to examine academic research, starting with cancer biology. That led her to the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, which introduced her to the Center for Open Science, founded by University of Virginia (UVA) psychologist Brian Nosek to promote transparency in science.
Their collaboration was a new direction for Nosek's center, which had started out with a project to replicate psychology papers by recruiting volunteers from academia (Science, 30 March 2012, p. 1558). But for the cancer research replications, which involved messy “wet” biology, organizers decided to pay labs belonging to the Science Exchange—contract labs or fee-based support labs at universities known as core facilities.
Some authors of the top 50 papers suggest that it's a conflict of interest for Iorns's own company to be getting the business. Iorns responds that her firm is not profiting, because it is donating its roughly 5% fee to the project. She says that organizing replication efforts through Science Exchange is faster and cheaper than through academic collaborations, and the results are less likely to be biased, because the scientists doing the work needn't worry about offending their peers with a negative result.
Errington was hired to run the cancer replication project just after completing a Ph.D. in microbiology at UVA. Iorns and a colleague had compiled a list of the 50 most widely cited cancer biology studies from 2010 to 2012 (see table, p. 1412). The topics reflect the field's hottest areas, from new protein drug targets in tumors to the role of gut microbes in cancer. With $1.3 million from the Arnold foundation—which works out to $26,000 per paper, sufficient to replicate key experiments from each paper, Iorns says—and donations of reagents from companies, they sent off their first emails to corresponding authors and posted their progress online.
Early on, Begley, who had raised some of the initial objections about irreproducible papers, became disenchanted. He says some of the papers chosen have such serious flaws, such as a lack of appropriate controls, that attempting to replicate them is “a complete waste of time.” He stepped down from the project's advisory board last year.
Amassing all the information needed to replicate an experiment and even figure out how many animals to use proved “more complex and time-consuming than we ever imagined,” Iorns says. Principal investigators had to dig up notebooks and raw data files and track down long-gone postdocs and graduate students, and the project became mired in working out material transfer agreements with universities to share plasmids, cell lines, and mice.
To add rigor to the replications, the group decided to publish a peer-reviewed protocol for each experiment before the work began, through a partnership with the open-access journal eLife. This has enabled the original authors and outside scientists to provide critical input, Errington says. Charles Sawyers, a researcher at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and an eLife senior editor, says the journal's editors felt that participating would “ensure that the reproducibility experiments are well designed and that the results are as interpretable as possible.” So far, the project has published 11 protocols. It hopes to release the first experimental results in eLife this fall and all 50 by the end of 2017.
ALTHOUGH ERRINGTON SAYS many labs have been “excited” and happy to participate, that is not what Science learned in interviews with about one-fourth of the principal investigators on the 50 papers. Many say the project has been a significant intrusion on their lab's time—typically 20, 30, or more emails over many months and the equivalent of up to 2 weeks of full-time work by a graduate student to fill in protocol details and get information from collaborators. Errington concedes that a few groups have balked and stopped communicating, at least temporarily.
For many scientists, the biggest concern is the nature of the labs that will conduct the replications. It's unrealistic to think contract labs or university core facilities can get the same results as a highly specialized team of academic researchers, they say. Often a graduate student has spent years perfecting a technique using novel protocols, Young says. “We brought together some of the most talented young scientists in the area of gene control and oncology to do these genomics studies. If I thought it was as simple as sending a protocol to a contract laboratory, I would certainly be conducting my research that way,” he says.
DATA: C. G. BEGLEY AND L. M. ELLIS, NATURE 483, 7391 (29 MARCH 2012); F. PRINZ ET AL., NATURE REVIEWS DRUG DISCOVERY 10, 712 (SEPTEMBER 2011); A. MOBLEY ET AL., PLOS ONE 8, 5 (15 MAY 2013)
Jeff Settleman, who left academia for industry 5 years ago and is now at Calico Life Sciences in South San Francisco, California, agrees. “You can't give me and Julia Child the same recipe and expect an equally good meal,” he says. Settleman has two papers being replicated.
Academic labs approach replication differently. Levi Garraway of the Harvard University–affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who also has two papers on the project's list, says that if a study doesn't initially hold up in another lab, they might send someone to the original lab to work side by side with the authors. But the cancer reproducibility project has no plans to visit the original lab, and any troubleshooting will be limited to making sure the same protocol is followed, Errington says. Erkki Ruoslahti of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in San Diego, California, has a related worry: The lab replicating one of his mouse experiments will run that experiment just one time; he repeated it two or three times.
The scientists behind the cancer reproducibility project dismiss these criticisms. Iorns says the contract labs and core facilities “are highly trained” and often “have much more expertise” than the original investigators in the technique at hand. If a recipe has enough detail, two different cooks should be able to produce the exact same meal, she says.
She adds that the project will generate a vast data set that will allow those interested in reproducibility to examine “all kinds of variables” that determine whether an experiment can be repeated. And she argues that the time and effort it requires of the targeted researchers shows that their papers are short on key information. Researchers should be reporting every detail of an experiment when they publish, down to catalog and lot numbers for reagents and underlying data sets—if not in the paper, through links to other sites, she says: “The biggest lesson so far is that we should change the way that we publish our results.”
But many cancer biologists say the solution is not another Amgen-like paper labeling many cancer studies as irreproducible—this time with the titles of the papers and their lead investigators. Instead, journals and reviewers should require more rigorously designed experiments and demand that key conclusions be adequately supported, Settleman says. Many journals are already beefing up review criteria, and the National Institutes of Health is taking steps to bolster reproducibility, for example, by asking study sections to scrutinize a proposal's experimental design. (On page 1422, Nosek and others, including Science's editor-in-chief, suggest journal standards to increase reproducibility.)
Iorns agrees that such reforms are needed, but so is scrutiny of these high-profile papers, which are shaping the search for new cancer treatments. Instead of worrying about damaged reputations and threats to federal funding, the research community “should be worried about the consequences right now,” she says—that pharmaceutical companies can't reproduce key cancer papers. “All we're saying is, there may be issues with being able to repeat this experiment in another lab. Hiding that is really the biggest mistake.”McKINNEY (CBSDFW.COM) – A McKinney animal sanctuary is in the middle of a desperate effort to save dozens of pets left without a home.
On five acres in McKinney, Lori Birdsong owns a sanctuary for dogs and cats unwanted by pet stores, shelters and even their owners.
She took a total of 70 animals, and while there’s no shortage of generosity there is a shortage of revenue. “I’m a big fat failure. What we built didn’t work.”
Birdsong has been forced to sell the property and place or euthanize the pets in 30 days. “We have no donations, we have no adoptions. Our dogs and cats go to Petsmart every Saturday and Sunday and they come home every and Saturday and Sunday back to the sanctuary.”
These are the big, old, ugly and dogs and cats that would have been euthanized by now if not for this sanctuary. But they are still lovable and adoptable even though time is running out.
Dedra Shaver cares for the animals that show their gratitude every day. “I didn’t take these dogs in to see these dogs euthanized. My blood sweat tears every ounce of my bones doesn’t want to leave any of them behind.”
She and Birdsong hope to find owners willing to overlook the imperfections and give their misfits a home for the holidays and for the rest of their lives.
If you are interested in adopting one of the dogs or cats, go to linensforanimals.org or to the linens for animals facebook page.
The sanctuary will donate $100 to a rescue organization for every adoption.
Also Check Out:Nearly every year under former Head Coach Jeff Fisher, the Los Angeles Rams boasted the youngest roster in the NFL. Partly due to undertalented player turnover and partly due to the overwhelming quantity of draft picks, the Rams were constantly stocked with players fresh out of the college ranks.
So it’s a bitter pill to swallow when Elliot Harrison puts together his All-Under-25 team for NFL.com and nary a Ram is to be found.
No Jared Goff
Last year, the Rams traded up to the #1 spot in the 2016 NFL Draft to take Jared Goff. Obviously given his atrocious rookie campaign, he’s not on the list. He’s not in the running. The clear issue here is that the Rams invested HEAVILY in a franchise QB that new Head Coach Sean McVay is forced to rescue in order to return a semblance of competitiveness to this team.
Obviously until we see if McVay can execute that rescue, it’s unknown whether or not Goff will be a long-term solution for the Rams. But to trade up for a QB at #1 overall and not even be in the discussion for the best QB in his age bracket let alone anywhere near the top tier in the league is...not great, Bob.
Goff turns 23-years old in October.
No Todd Gurley
No, with Gurley doesn’t make the top two running back slots just for under-25 RBs. Those instead go to Dallas Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott and Chicago Bears RB Jordan Howard. Gurley does get an honorable mention though:
The debate here is between Howard and Todd Gurley. Went with Howard, despite the fact that Gurley might be more gifted in terms of physical measurables. As fantastic as Gurley was during his rookie year, Howard was better. He ran for more yards, caught more passes and averaged more yards per carry than Gurley. Howard was an every-down, productive back -- in an offense that struggled through the air.
Gurley went into last season aboard a pretty special hype train with a term like “legend” being thrown around and gracing a magazine cover headlined “The Offense Strikes Back.” Gurley averaged 55 yards per game, and the Rams’ offense ranked 32nd in the NFL in yards and scoring. Go back and look at how Rams fans felt about Gurley going into last season.
There’s legitimate reason to worry that Gurley’s last 24 games are going to be the norm.
No...anybody else
That’s a lot of players on the Rams’ roster under 25 years of age. Outside of Gurley, none even approaches Harrison’s list.
With Jeff Fisher the current scapegoat for the Rams’ ills in recent years, many of these players are removed from the level of criticism they deserve for their performances on the field. Should those performances continue into 2017, there won’t be any Jeff Fisher to shield them from disdain (though already GM Les Snead has picked up the slack on that front).
In the end, the lack of quality to match the quantity on the Rams’ roster of under-25 players is ultimately what McVay is going to have to solve in order to turn the Rams into a winning team. Doing it with the current roster is likely an impossibility.Thank you for supporting the journalism that our community needs!
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*Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year.
*Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year.
Thank you for supporting the journalism that our community needs!
For unlimited access to the best local, national, and international news and much more, try an All Access Digital subscription:
We hope you have enjoyed your trial! To continue reading, we recommend our Read Now Pay Later membership. Simply add a form of payment and pay only 27¢ per article.
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Swan is expected to be sentenced later this spring following completion of a court-ordered report into his background, including his troubled upbringing. Lawyers are not making a joint-recommendation on his penalty. He remains in custody without bail.
Adolph Swan, 26, pleaded guilty to sexual interference for his role in what police described as one of the worst abuse cases they’d ever seen. The victim suffered extensive injuries and major blood loss that required emergency surgery and resulted in long-term physical and emotional trauma, court was told.
Details of the July 2014 attack emerged publicly for the first time on Tuesday. It occurred on the Lake Manitoba First Nation, which is about 170 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
A man and his son are accused of repeatedly beating and raping a 12-year-old girl who passed out from severe intoxication while drinking inside their rural Manitoba home.
Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 16/2/2016 (1106 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/2/2016 (1106 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A man and his son are accused of repeatedly beating and raping a 12-year-old girl who passed out from severe intoxication while drinking inside their rural Manitoba home.
Details of the July 2014 attack emerged publicly for the first time on Tuesday. It occurred on the Lake Manitoba First Nation, which is about 170 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
Adolph Swan, 26, pleaded guilty to sexual interference for his role in what police described as one of the worst abuse cases they’d ever seen. The victim suffered extensive injuries and major blood loss that required emergency surgery and resulted in long-term physical and emotional trauma, court was told.
Swan is expected to be sentenced later this spring following completion of a court-ordered report into his background, including his troubled upbringing. Lawyers are not making a joint-recommendation on his penalty. He remains in custody without bail.
Swan’s father, Robert, is still pending on charges including aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault with a weapon for his alleged actions. He is presumed innocent. No trial dates have been set.
Crown and defence lawyer went to great pains Tuesday to ensure Adolph Swan was specifically agreeing to certain acts which occurred on the night in question. He swore an oath confirming responsibility, and his lawyer also signed an agreed statement of facts. This is likely to ensure future criminal proceedings can’t be clouded over who did what to the victim.
Court was told the teen girl was one of several people who gathered at the Swan residence and began drinking heavily. She also smoked marijuana and later told police she has little memory of what happened because she was going in and out of consciousness after playing a number of drinking games.
She described how Adolph Swan was trying to have sex with her that night, even though he was well aware she was only 12. The legal age of consent in Canada is 16. He offered her money and alcohol at one point, but she declined.
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The victim described how she awoke on a bed, missing her clothes, and on a pool of blood. She managed to return home and told family members she had fallen down some stairs. She was taken to hospital in Lundar, where doctors expressed concern about her story and called police.
Adolph Swan later admitted to raping the victim. Police also found the victim’s underwear in a collection he had in his drawer. Lawyers say the girl was repeatedly beaten — with fists and a metal bar — and sexually assaulted again later that same night by a different person.
Jody Ostapiw, the lawyer for Adolph Swan, told court Tuesday it’s not clear whether her client specifically caused the injury which required surgery.
"We can’t know which of the assaults caused that specific injury," she said.
A detailed victim impact statement will be presented at the sentencing hearing.
www.mikeoncrime.comWe may think most Canadians support the federal government's wide-open immigration policy, which has made Canada a beacon of tolerance in this increasingly intolerant world, but the reality is more worrying.
Support for immigration in Canada is soft and vulnerable. Governments must act to strengthen it, if this country is to avoid the polarization and conflict afflicting the United States and much of Europe.
These are the findings of Keith Banting, who researches public policy at Queen's University. Prof. Banting and I each gave a talk on immigration policy at a recent gathering sponsored by the Conference Board of Canada. This column is based on his remarks, which were much more interesting than mine.
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Preston Manning: Canada's elites could use a crash course in populism
Six out of 10 Canadians support the federal government's target of accepting 300,000 immigrants a year, the highest intake per capita of any country in the developed world, according to a 2016 Environics poll. But four in 10 do not, and almost six in 10 believe that "too many immigrants do not adopt Canadian values." Support for both immigration and multiculturalism – which welcomes diverse cultures within the Canadian mosaic – is far from universal.
Canadians, Prof. Banting believes, are every bit as susceptible as Americans or Britons or Poles to a lethal combination of economic insecurity and cultural anxiety. Many of us fear we may lose our job to a machine or to a foreigner in an overseas factory, even as the 1 per cent accrue more and more of the common wealth.
And some descendants of Canada's settler culture fear that their Christian, European heritage is being overwhelmed by new arrivals from developing countries.
Meanwhile, a string of terrorist attacks in Europe and elsewhere contributes to the fear that some newcomers or their descendants seek to do us harm.
Drawing on attitudinal research by former graduate students and the Queen's University Multicultural Policy Index (http://www.queensu.ca/mcp), Prof. Banting paints a much more ambiguous picture of support for multiculturalism in Canada.
"The population could roughly be divided three ways," he argues. "One third of Canadians really don't support multiculturalism. One third are enthusiastic multiculturalists. And one third are what you could call'soft multiculturalists': They support the current policies, but with reservations. And that support could change."
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Canadians living outside Quebec roughly correspond with Americans when asked whether they |
my database) is there. I am used to the vituperative style of the epoch gone by, but Dasent was not only sarcastic, trenchant, and arrogant: he was unbearable. He never doubted that he possessed a key to the ultimate truth. Etymologists’ specialization may have a negative influence on their preferences. The number of deluded people who descry Hebrew, Arabic, or Slavic roots everywhere is not negligible. Someone who has an intimate knowledge of Irish tends to trace hundreds of words to Celtic. Familiarity with Icelandic makes one oversensitive to Scandinavian. This is what happened to Dasent, in whose opinion, aloof was a borrowing of Icel. á hlaupi, literally, “on the run” (the verb hlaupa is akin to Engl. leap). Now, in the earliest examples, as they appear in the OED, aloof signifies an order to the steersman to go to windward, so that “on the run” does not look too good a match for it.
Dasent wanted to cut rather than disentangle the knot, but etymology, to quote an old lexicographer, is a work of difficulty and delicacy. The puzzle was solved by Skeat in the first edition of his dictionary (1882). Many of the solutions he offered in that work proved wrong, and Skeat, aware of his deficiencies, kept revising them, but this etymology has remained intact. Already in 1857 aloof was explained as the word for keeping one’s luff in the act of sailing to the wind, the luff being a contrivance for altering a ship’s course. Very many nautical terms reached English from Dutch. (A respectable English sailing term almost has to look Dutch. That is why schooner, which is not from Dutch, has the letter h after sc.) The same holds for aloof. Its etymon is Dutch te loef. English substituted on for te, and on loof became aloof, just as aboard, despite the many vicissitudes through which this word went, developed from on board.
Does the denouement look like an anticlimax? I don’t think so. To be sure, the etymology of aloof is almost in plain view, but it took people more than two hundred years to see the picture in its true light. Aloof may have come not from Dutch but from Danish, because the phrase had international currency (for example, it was also used by French sailors), but the Dutch source is more likely. Some dictionaries keep saying that aloof is a word of unknown origin. This verdict should be dismissed as unjustifiably harsh. No doubt, it is better to be safe than sorry. Yet, in this case there is nothing to be sorry about. Could aloof experience the influence of aloft (a suggestion made by many)? Such possibilities can never be excluded. Similar words of this type are sometimes called paronyms. The closer any given two words sound, the greater the possibility they will interact. As far as I can judge, aloft and aloof have little in common. From an etymological point of view, loft, a borrowing of Scandinavian lopt, means “air,” as German Luft still does.
The episode related above (a typical just so story, but with a much greater degree of verisimilitude than the story of the elephant’s trunk) shows that panning for etymological gold, even when the gold does not lie too deep, is hard but that some efforts pay off. And this is all there is to my tale, as Chesterton might have said and perhaps even said somewhere.
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Image credit: Sailing ship by Ivan Aivazovsky. Public domain via Wikipaintings.Far-left Nasreen Khan, a shortlisted Labour Party candidate for a Bradford council seat, posted anti-Semitic comments on Facebook and accused teachers of “brainwashing” children into thinking “the bad guy was Hitler”.
A former activist for anti-Israel George Galloway’s Respect Party, Ms. Khan was responding to a video on Facebook in 2012 called, “The Palestine You Need to Know”.
Using the name Naz Kahn, she posted: “It’s such a shame that the history teachers in our school never taught us this but they are the first to start brainwashing us and our children into thinking the bad guy was Hitler.
“What have the Jews done good in this world??”
‘Nasty Party’: Labour Faces Brighton Conference Ban Over Anti-Semitism, Racism
https://t.co/Z5omYPLEcY — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) September 27, 2017
When questioned about the comment, she had added: “No, I’m not a Nazi, I’m an ordinary British Muslim that had an opinion and put it across. We have worse people than Hitler in this world now.”
Responding to more criticism, she had said: “Stop beating a dead horse. The Jews have reaped the rewards of playing victims. Enough is enough!!”
The Labour member is in a two-person shortlist for council elections next year in the Labour safe seat in the ward of Little Horton, Bradford.
On Friday, Ms. Khan told the Telegraph & Argus that she “apologised straight away” after recently being confronted with her comments, and said they were “inappropriate and unacceptable”.
“I have travelled a long way since then and learned so much. I profoundly regret the comments I made in 2012 and any offence they caused,” she added.
The Labour Party has seen several high-profile figures amongst its ranks making anti-Semitic or anti-Israeli comments, notably since the party was taken over by socialist Jeremy Corbyn, who praises the Palestinian terror group Hamas.
Vile Anti-Semitic Rants as Labour Activists Call for Expulsion of Jewish Groups
https://t.co/0cDNbLMyyK — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) September 26, 2017
In April, former London mayor Ken Livingstone was suspended from the party for claiming there was a “real collaboration” between Zionists and the Nazis before World War Two.
And in 2016, MP Naz Shah was suspended from the party for calling for the “transportation” of Israelis out of the Middle East on social media.
However, an investigation ordered by Corbyn, headed by Shami Chakrabarti, the director of human rights campaign group Liberty, found no indication of institutional anti-Semitism within Labour which led to Jewish community leaders calling the findings a “whitewash” and a “fraud”.
Ms. Chakrabarti was nominated for a peerage by Corbyn just a few weeks afterwards.
British Jews have been abandoning the Labour Party since the election of Corbyn, and a recent survey showed that four in five believe that Labour harbours anti-Semites in its ranks.
Twitter Follow @friedmanpress Follow Victoria Friedman onThis story is a part of Faces of Fracking: Stories From the Front Lines of Fracking in California. Click here for the full series.
Cliquea aqui para leer esta historia en español.
The first thing Don Martin asks me is if I want the little picture or the big picture. Big picture, I tell him, and he leads me from the gate of his apartment complex to the driveway of his next-door neighbor.
Martin’s neighbor is Freeport McMoRan, a company worth $30 billion. Freeport’s property beside Martin is just one tiny sliver of an empire that spans continents and includes some of the largest gold and copper mines in the world.
But Freeport is not mining for precious metals next to Martin — this is Los Angeles. Instead, Freeport is drilling for oil. It’s hard to see from the street. If you’re driving through West Adams, a tightly packed residential neighborhood in south central L.A., you’re liable to miss the whole operation.
From the road, all you can see is a strip of manicured lawn, egg-shaped hedges, and a green cement wall. Before a soundwall (which looks like canvas hung several stories from metal I-beams) was erected last year and a drilling rig peaked over the top, most neighbors had no idea this was a facility that includes more than 30 wells, 22 of which are active oil and gas wells. Pipelines snake out from here underground in a matrix that connects two sister sites, each about a mile and a half away in opposite directions. All three sites are owned by Freeport McMoRan Oil and Gas, acquired in 2013 when Freeport gobbled up oil company Plains Exploration.
The Freeport property next to Martin’s apartment is known as the Murphy drill site (named after the Daniel Murphy mansion, which was demolished in 1960 to drill the wells). We can’t see inside the site, and a large sign warns of no trespassing. Another smaller says that, “This area contains chemicals known by the state of California to cause cancer or birth defects or other reproductive harm.”
“They want to keep us out, but do they keep their chemicals in?” asks Martin.
To answer his question he leads me back into his apartment complex, St. Andrews Gardens, a sprawling arrangement of stucco units each a couple of stories high. We stand in a small parking lot, and even with the drilling tower looming behind him Martin is imposing in stature, with a broad build, bald head, and a white mustache and goatee. But he has a gentle demeanor. As he talks, his words indicate a growing outrage, but his voice never rises.
Other than Freeport’s wall, this plot of asphalt is the only thing that sits between an industrial operation and the open windows of residents’ homes, he says.
The first thing I notice is the smell — it’s the kind that makes your stomach turn and your head feel light — like you’ve taken too many deep breaths next to a gas pump. About 30 yards from us is cluster of kids who have gathered at a play area at the end of the parking lot to ride bikes, shoot hoops, and hang out.
One of the kids playing is Martin’s granddaughter Kiari. She is 11 now and in remission from Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She stands shyly next to her grandfather, wearing black frame glasses and a T-shirt that reads, “I’m the boss.”
“We didn’t know if she was going to live or die,” Martin says. Kiari was 8 years old when she first had surgery and dealt with chemo. “That’s how I got involved in this whole thing,” he says. He believes her disease is caused by all of the chemicals wafting from next door. Martin can’t prove that, of course. But he lives here, breathing this air. His neighbors have nosebleeds, skin and eye irritation, headaches, and asthma. His thoughts about Kiari’s illness might seem like a logical conclusion.
“The oil company was not forthcoming,” says Martin. “When I asked about those fumes being emitted — I was told it was steam. Can you imagine? Those toxic fumes say differently. Just piss in my shoe and call it rain!”
The Murphy drill site has been in operation since the 1960s, but residents noticed that some changes began taking place recently. After Freeport took over operations in 2013, drilling for new wells began. With lights and noise coming at them around the clock, community members were worried the company was doing a more intensive type of production, like fracking, that was different from conventional oil and gas activity that had been going on for decades.
Short for hydraulic fracturing, fracking is a favored industry technique to wring more oil and gas out of the ground. And it’s come under close scrutiny in many places across the country because of complaints of air pollution, water contamination, and health problems.
Fracking is why I tracked Martin down. For the last few years I’ve been writing about the impacts of fracking on communities. I’d heard talk that fracking was happening not just in the boomtowns of rural North Dakota, but in the city of Los Angeles. What I didn’t realize until I visited West Adams is that another industry technique similar to fracking is less talked about, but more common, and maybe even more concerning for folks like Martin and his neighbors.
A 13-year-old’s plea to the Pope
Less than two miles from Martin’s neighborhood is another well site, this one owned by Allenco Energy Company, a puny operation in comparison to Freeport. But Allenco taps the same oil field — Las Cienegas — as the Murphy site. The wells are located in the University Park neighborhood, about a half-mile from the campus of the University of Southern California.
In 2010, neighbors began logging complaints with city agencies regarding Allenco’s operation after residents endured what they described as horrible odors, and experienced headaches, nausea, nosebleeds, and respiratory problems. Over the course of nearly four years, more than 250 complaints were filed. It wasn’t until federal investigators from the Environmental Protection Agency did a site visit and got sick themselves in November 2013, that action was taken to temporarily halt the operation.
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In an investigation, the Los Angeles Times found that the company had boosted production by 400 percent. Allenco had also put idle wells back into production using acid stimulation — also known as acidizing — the injection of acids underground to break up minerals and rocks that block the flow of oil and gas. The process is similar to fracking, but uses different chemicals, and is sometimes done at high pressure. Increasing the pressure can increase the risk if something goes awry. The Allenco site was found to be dangerously run, with residents likely being exposed to low levels of pollutants such as hydrogen sulfide over long periods of time. Just the daily operations of the site was enough to sicken neighbors.
Nallei Cobo, a 13-year-old resident who lives across the street from the Allenco site, sent an impassioned plea to Pope Francis telling him that for four years she had experienced nosebleeds, stomach pains, heart problems, and headaches. Even though the site is temporarily shut down, she said, she worries every day that it will reopen.
Why was the Pope her target? The well site is leased to Allenco by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. It sits next to the campus of Mount St. Mary’s on land donated to the Catholic Church by the widow of Edward Doheny. Coincidentally, Doheny is the father of L.A.’s oil industry, the first to strike it rich here, hitting the big time in the Los Angeles City Oil Field in 1892 and becoming the city’s first oil tycoon and one of the country’s wealthiest men.
The Los Angeles City Oilfield, the first urban oil field, and the longest running here, is all but exhausted now. The last remaining active oil well burped a meager four barrels a day on average last year in trendy Westlake. But the oil industry continues in other fields in L.A. — with 5,000 wells still in use. Many are hiding in plain sight, behind malls, in golf courses, on the grounds of the Beverly Hills High School. The industry is staying afloat here with help from the high price of oil, which makes using techniques like acidizing to revive old wells economically viable. But what does that mean for the health of people who live around these sites, like Martin, his granddaughter Kiari, and 13-year-old Nallei?
The big picture
The day I visit Martin in mid-July, the neighborhood is buzzing over the fact that another Freeport well site linked to the Murphy, just a mile and a half away in Jefferson Park, may be acidizing. Neighbors photographed Halliburton trucks arriving at that site and reported that the trucks were marked with the numbers 3264 for “corrosive liquid, acid” or 1789 for hydrochloric or muriatic acid.
In 2013, Freeport applied for permits to re-drill two older wells and drill a new well for wastewater injection there. It included plans to use 24,619 pounds of acid.
Alina Evans was a first year student at USC last year when she moved in next to the Jefferson well site. She had thought the drilling rig was a cell tower. Within weeks she realized she was living next to an active oil and gas operation. “There were bright lights all the time, and the smell was terrible,” she said. “They were drilling 50 feet from my window. I could see the Halliburton trucks. There were hazardous material signs. The workers had covered suits — they were wearing protection. But I’m up here in my house with no protection. It was scary.”
Hydrochloric acid can be risky stuff: The EPA warns that if inhaled, it can cause “eye, nose, and respiratory tract irritation and inflammation and pulmonary edema,” which causes your lungs fill up with fluid, making breathing difficult.
Fumes from a well site using this material near your home could be dangerous. And an accident at a facility using it could be catastrophic. In July a fracking operation in rural Oklahoma spilled 20,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid. What if that had happened in a densely packed urban area?
This, Martin tells me, is the big picture. If something occurred at the Murphy site next to his home, he believes that not just his neighbors in St. Andrews Gardens would be at risk, but potentially thousands of people who live in close proximity.
I’ve visited oil and gas wells all across the country, but I’d never seen one in an urban area before where the company was using high intensity production methods like acidizing — and it’s down-right scary.
Donna Ann Ward lives five blocks from Martin and the Murphy drill site and helped start the community group CoWatchingOil LA. She’s been one of the main community watchdogs in the neighborhood. With financial support from Holman United Methodist Church a few blocks away, her group has set up a video camera on the roof of a building that overlooks the Murphy site.
Ward leads me up there, through a small metal ladder and out a hatch onto the roof. From here we can see what everyone else walking by on the road cannot: the full length of the drilling rig and a cement lot with green tanks and pipes. Most of what happens here, though, takes place underground — metal grates in the cement reveal ladders that lead to well cellars.
From the roof we have a perfect view of Martin’s ‘big picture.’ Who’s at risk here? Ward points all around. There are apartment buildings where people live on government subsidies, low-income housing for seniors, a convalescent home, a health clinic for HIV positive people (which is the roof we’re standing on), a home for nuns (this drilling site is leased from the Archdiocese as well), and, just a few blocks away, several schools.
This area contains not just a dense population, but a vulnerable one.
That’s one of the reasons that Martin decided to speak out about his concerns — he has even traveled to Sacramento to address state legislators on the issue.
“What I gathered is that they don’t want to end oil production operations because of the jobs involved,” he says. “If you close down this facility, you take away jobs. It’s all about jobs, jobs, jobs. I’ve seen people who can get other jobs, but I’ve not seen anyone yet who can get another life. So what, they become unemployed? At least my children and grandchildren are alive to see another day, to perhaps create other jobs with clean energy.”
Lack of transparency
Evans, the USC student who moved in next to the Jefferson well site, knew what was happening at the drilling site in her neighborhood because she happened to have a bird’s-eye view from her window. But for most people what happens inside the walled compounds is a mystery — they are a fiefdom all to themselves.
The city of Los Angeles doesn’t have one designated body to oversee all oil and gas activities. West Adams resident and UCLA professor Michael Salman found out that the city used to have a petroleum administrator, which is required by the city’s administrative code — but the position was vacated in the early 1990s when production was at a low, and has never been filled again.
Only in the last year has anyone even attempted to shed light on the subject.
Beginning in June 2013, the South Coast Air Quality Monitoring District (AQMD) required that companies report whether they were hydraulic fracturing, acidizing, or gravel packing (another practice similar to hydraulic fracturing). This was a first — it had never been required before in L.A. or anywhere in the state of California.
After a year of gathering data, AQMD found that in the Los Angeles Basin, which includes L.A. and Orange Counties, there had been 14 occurrences of hydraulic fracturing, 149 occurrences of gravel packing, and 314 occurrences of acidizing. The agency found that companies used 44 different toxic chemicals more than 5,000 times for a grand total of 45 million pounds of chemicals used in the L.A. Basin in a single year. Three of the wells that were acidized were at the Jefferson site next to Evans’ house.
The results provide the first look into some of the chemicals that are being used, which is a crucial first step in determining if there are any health impacts. But it is only a tiny sliver of what should be studied.
Many companies are operating on leases granted decades ago, and no new permitting or requirements are needed if they begin fracking or acidizing. Since 1970 the state has required an in-depth environmental assessment known as CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act), which requires state and local agencies to identify environmental impacts of their actions and any proposed projects. It’s unclear if it’s ever been required for wells in L.A.
Salman knows that it was indeed never required for the Murphy site. He’s checked the records back to the well site’s beginning. The problem, he explains, is that “during 1970 to the present the number of wells has more than doubled,” and no consideration has ever been given to see how it would affect neighboring residents.
The long fight ahead
Now Freeport is also seeking to expand the operation outside the bounds of the existing compound to add a new gas waste incinerator. This doesn’t sit well with neighbors, especially since Freeport has already had several violations in its short tenure, ranging from zoning abuses to health infractions. AQMD found a methane leak at 400 times the allowable limit in January. And just days later the company was cited for having a torn water cover that allowed excessive levels of volatile organic compounds to escape.
“We were told it will result in a fine, but that due to budget cuts and lawyer overload, it can take AQMD’s legal department up to three years to wrap it up,” Ward says.
Pastor Kelvin Sauls, who heads the Holman United Methodist Church and has helped support the community in its fight against Freeport, says that the company has shown disrespect, disregard, and deception. Neighbors he said, “have been treated as persona non grata — treated as if they are invisible. And there is a sheer disregard for city protocols and policies. They’ve violated I don’t know how many ordinances and processes.”
The threats of fracking or acidizing aside, simply operating conventional oil and gas wells in such volume in a dense urban neighborhood may simply be no longer tenable. And this is the even bigger picture: As long as oil and gas remain primary sources of energy, we face the reality of having to choose between filling our tanks and protecting our communities.
In February, the Los Angeles City Council voted 10-to-1 to prohibit fracking and other unconventional drilling practices. The city attorney’s office was tasked with drafting an ordinance but the exact language has yet to be revealed, and it’s unclear if practices like acidizing will be included. If it’s only fracking, then many communities where acidizing takes place will still be at risk, and others may still be impacted from threats from poorly run conventional operations as well.
So West Adams residents continue to fight what is likely to be a long battle. “It’s draining, it’s time consuming, it’s confusing,” admits Ward. “But it’s a worthy endeavor; to stand on the sideline is not something the people that I know are comfortable with.”
For Martin, it’s intensely personal. “Some people are into saving the spotted owl,” he says. “Some people are into saving the whales. I’m in to saving our babies. That’s, to me, what this is all about.”2013 NCAA Frozen Four
March 20, 2013
FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
1. The Golden Gophers, who are on an NCAA record 47-game winning streak, enter the 2013 Frozen Four with a perfect 39-0-0 record. Their 39 wins this season is the most in NCAA history, and they are two wins away from becoming the first-ever undefeated team. Minnesota's last loss was a 2-1 overtime loss to North Dakota at Ridder Arena on Feb. 17, 2012. After that loss, the Gophers won eight straight to claim the 2012 NCAA National Championship. The Maroon & Gold have also tied the NCAA record for consecutive home wins with 25.
2. Minnesota is embarking on their ninth NCAA Frozen Four and their second consecutive appearance. The Gophers are seeking their fifth national title, which would tie Minnesota Duluth for the most in women's ice hockey history. A win on Sunday would make the Gophers only the fourth program to win back-to-back titles (Wisconsin - 2006-2007; Minnesota - 2004-2005; Minnesota Duluth - 2001-2002-2003). The Frozen Four is in Minneapolis for the fourth time, but Minnesota has only been in the championship game once during those four years (2006). In 2006, they were defeated by Wisconsin, 3-0, at Mariucci Arena.
3. Boston University makes only their second Frozen Four appearance in school history this weekend. The Terries, who are 27-5-3 on the year, carry a nine-game winning streak into their matchup with Mercyhurst. During the nine-game span, BU has outscored their opponents 4.56 to 1.78. Boston U advanced to the Frozen Four after defeating Clarkson, 5-3, in the NCAA Quarterfinal. They have a balanced offense with four players scoring over 40 points on the year. Junior Marie Philip-Poulin leads the team with 51 points (17g-34a). Freshman Sarah Lefort has made some noise as she is third in the nation in scoring (42 points) for rookies and is tied for the most goals (23) on the team.
4. Boston College qualified for their third consecutive Frozen Four by defeating Harvard, 3-1. The Eagles are 27-6-3 on the year. They have the second best offense in the nation, behind the Gophers, averaging 4.36 goals per game. This is partially due to their power play efficiency, which they score on 27.6% of the time and is third in the country. Sophomore Alex Carpenter heads up the charge with 69 points (32g-37a). BC's freshman Haley Skarupa ranks second in the nation in scoring by rookies with 51 points (24g-27a).
5. Mercyhurst is in their first Frozen Four since 2010 after upsetting No. 2 Cornell in overtime, 4-3. The Lakers are one of the most balanced teams in the country as they rank third in offense average 4.22 goals game and sixth in defense allowing just 1.69 goals per game. Mercyhurst also ranks third in the country in penalty minutes as they average 12 minutes a game. They enter the weekend on an eight-game win streak. Christine Bestland is their scoring threat as she has 71 points (28g-43a) on the year. Senior goaltender Stephanie Ciampa has been a huge part of MU's success as she is 20-1-0 on the year and has a 1.44 goals against average.TOPEKA, Kan. (April 20, 2016) – It was the dusty desert of Southern California, two hours north of Los Angeles or two hours east of Bakersfield, where adventurous drivers gathered to play April 15-17 at the 2016 SCCA West Coast RallyCross National Challenge.
Hosted at the Desert Empire Fairgrounds in Ridgecrest, California, this weekend’s event was the first ever RallyCross National Challenge conducted in the revitalized format that aims to mimic the success of the RallyCross National Championship. On Fridays, open “Test & Tune” sessions are held followed by competition Saturdays and Sundays. Each weekend has three unique course layouts, and drivers get at least three shots at each configuration. Runs are timed to 1/1000th of a second with missed “gates” resulting in a 10-second penalty. Class winners are based on the total time of all runs Saturday and Sunday.
This weekend in SoCal, high winds Friday and Saturday whipped up a lot of dust, thus adding to the challenge for drivers. Competitors each got four runs on the three courses. The first course included a “keyhole” that gave drivers three options for going through the feature: clockwise, counterclockwise or a tight right-hand turn. The second course of the weekend incorporated a lot of sweeping turns, a layout that proved fun for drivers willing to break loose the rear of their cars to rotate through the bends. The third and final course featured slaloms that rewarded patience at the beginning of the course.
Class, winner’s name, hometown and car are as follows:
Stock-Front Wheel Drive: Sanjay Singh; Clovis, CA; Suzuki Swift GA
Stock-Rear Wheel Drive: Jakob Groth; Ford Mustang
Stock-All Wheel Drive: Gonzalo San Miguel; Draper, UT; Subaru Impreza 2.5RS
Prepared-Front Wheel Drive: Bill Martin; Ridgecrest, CA; Nissan Sentra SE-R
Prepared-Rear Wheel Drive: Alexander Newman; Sherman Oaks, CA; Toyota MR2
Prepared-All Wheel Drive: Doug Rowse; Phoenix, AZ, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo
Modified-Front Wheel Drive: Brent Blakely; Antelope, CA; Suzuki Swift GT
Modified-Rear Wheel Drive: Lance Gross; Capistrano Beach, CA; Toyota Corolla
Modified-All Wheel Drive: Bryan Rodgers; Rochester, WA; Mitsubishi Lancer Evo
Also introduced at this weekend’s event was a new package where video of each new course layout was captured using a Garmin VIRB XE and made accessible to drivers for review prior to runs. Along with that, a course map was produced from the camera’s data and supplied to competitors.
Overall, this first event was a great success as indicated by broad smiles on participant faces. As the SCCA’s most widespread and readily accessible form of extreme motorsport, RallyCross is a scaled down version of a rally stage laid out on a non-paved plot of land where the course is delineated by traffic cones instead of trees or rocks. Participation requirements are considerably less than those associated with other forms of performance rally, so drivers usually only need a mechanically sound, hardtop vehicle and a helmet to come play in the dirt.
Next up on the RallyCross schedule is the July 8-10 2016 SCCA East Coast RallyCross National Challenge at Gravel Mountain in Frostburg, Maryland.
Image: Juraj Bodnar digs into a corner in his Audi TT during this weekend’s SCCA West Coast RallyCross National Challenge.
Credit: Marek KocanHollywood, It’s Time to Retire the ‘Loveable Misogynist’ Movie Hero Posted by Lindsay Ellis on July 14th
Of all the big budget franchise films that have come out this summer, the most productive discussions around the representation of women have come not from Avengers: Age of Ultron, not from Jurassic World, but, shockingly, from Mad Max: Fury Road. And before we get into why, I just want to say: Thank God.
Every now and then we need a movie to come along to remind us why we love movies in the first place, but I did not expect Mad Max: Fury Road to be that shot in the arm for me. Disengage from the intellectualizing for a moment; isn’t it nice that a movie came out, and people from all different walks of life loved it? Men, women, filmmakers, casual filmgoers, birds, bees, capybaras — just positivity all around with relatively little baggage. It’s just nice to know that can still happen, you know?
Okay, so with that out of the way, we’re going to intellectualize some stuff, so hunker down.
I love Mad Max. The character, that is, and yes I mean the version as portrayed by too-pure-for-this-world precious cinnamon roll Tom Hardy. This version of Max Rockatansky was a game- changer, a turning point, and it’s not so much because of what he does do in the film (tortured gun-toting loners like Max are common) but what he doesn’t do. And the most important thing Max doesn’t do in Mad Max: Fury Road is be a dick to women.
This is remarkable because Max spends almost his entire movie surrounded by women. While there is some debate as to who is the protagonist of the piece, Max is the main character as the audience views the story through his lens, the Nick Carraway to Furiosa’s Jay Gatsby. So in a movie with a male lead, it’s an extreme rarity to see a supporting cast that’s even half female, let alone mostly female. And the most revolutionary element in Fury Road isn’t necessarily the quantity of female characters (though that is certainly extremely noteworthy, considering the relative paucity in most other movies that aren’t romantic comedies), but that gender doesn’t inform character interaction. Max doesn’t alter his language or actions when he’s interacting with any of the women. He doesn’t need to remark on girls doing non-girl things like shooting or punching, he doesn’t need to second guess anyone’s abilities and his ego isn’t bruised when Furiosa is his better at certain skillsets. Here’s a male lead who isn’t driven by insecurity about his masculinity.
Why is that so rare?
The release of Jurassic World several weeks later, and the subsequent eye-rolling at the dull, played-out Beavis and Butt-head-level way that Chris Pratt’s character treated his female co-lead was placed into even more stark contrast by how people embraced Hardy’s Max. Loveable wink-wink, nudge-nudge misogyny in your male lead isn’t a problem unto itself. The problem is sheer volume. It seems like with tentpoles and franchise properties that aren’t aimed at children, the lovable misogynist is a handy stock character if you want your protagonist to be flawed but relatable. After all, if the Hollywood bro-club presumes the audience doesn’t respect women, why the hell should your protagonist?
These things seem to come and go in waves, but it’s nothing new.
In the original King Kong, Ann Darrow’s love interest Jack Driscoll will not shut the hell up about what a mischievous troublesome woman-y womanthing she is. Ann even at one point taps him affectionately on the shoulder and says the line, “But Jack, you hate women!” This was practically a staple in comedies starring John Wayne. Here he is in Donovan’s Reef, congratulating his leading lady on her “mean Irish temper” before a good spanking.
Romance!
And, uh, well, here’s the poster for McLintock!.
Loveable misogyny was always an element to varying extents in the James Bond franchise — here is a beautifully illustrative clip from Goldfinger:
The Lovable Misogynist got a big revival in the ’80s — Bill Murray’s Venkman in Ghostbusters is a snarky womanizer, Indiana Jones doesn’t “like fast women” and even Han Solo to a lesser extent is constantly belittling his love interest (though in fairness to when he dismissively spits the word “princess,” Leia is quite literally a princess) and on and on and on. The go-to method for showing an initial antipathy between romantic leads is to have the dude say sexist crap that skirts the edge of what’s acceptable for the day. Sexist, sure, but relatable, amirite fellas? And we, the audience, lose track of the times that a female character either comes back with some whip-smart remark, or has to amp up the grrrrl power so she can prove herself to the boys, or just stays uncomfortably quiet like most of us do in the real world.
In recent years, protagonists in franchise properties skew younger, and even if the men aren’t actively shitty or dismissive to women in their narratives, they do tend to objectify women, and be rewarded with sex at the end of their journey. One of my personal favorite examples of an exposed nerve of male insecurity personified is Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) from the first three Transformers films.
I particularly love the title of that clip.
Then of course there is Cade Yaeger (yep, that’s his name!), Mark Wahlberg’s character in the fourth Transformers movie, who spends the entire film wrestling for control over his daughter with her new boyfriend, an Irish(?) racecar driver who is creepily proud of the legal loophole that allows him to avoid statutory rape charges in the great state of Texas.
Tony Stark in Iron Man and Peter Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy are more overt examples of the lovable misogynist — guys who don’t respect women (or remember their names after sleeping with them), but hey, they’re bros, y’know? The kind of guys you want to get a beer with. Part of Tony’s arc in his first movie is learning not to objectify women. He still makes the occasional sexist jab, but hey, at least he’s not man-slutting it across Malibu anymore. Peter Quill doesn’t even make it that far — his general disrespect towards women and his come-ons to Gamora are dropped about halfway through the film and never really build to anything. And it’s not like it’s just Quill who’s disrespectful to Gamora (let’s not get started on Drax calling her a “green- skinned whore.”) We see more of the same with Pratt’s character in Jurassic World, where once again he plays a tells-it-like-it-is, I-didn’t-go-to-no-fancy-school leveled-up Andy Dwyer shot through a shitty-to-women filter. “Burt Macklin: Lovable Misogynist.”
It is a little bit surprising that Chris Pratt has made this a part of his “brand” in such a way, considering it is Parks and Recreation to which he owes his fame. Through seven seasons of the NBC sitcom, Pratt’s character Andy supports his wife and values her intelligence and advice, supports all of his |
of Congress signed letters of opposition to FCC Internet regulation, and just 27 have sponsored Rep. Edward J. Markey’s bill to impose network-neutrality rules. The bill has not even been introduced in the Senate this Congress. Last Congress, there were just 11 Senate co-sponsors. (Mr. Obama was one of them.) During the recent election, the issue proved an embarrassment for Democrats. A group called the Progressive Change Campaign Committee touted a net-neutrality pledge signed by 95 candidates. All 95 lost.
This sets up a crystal-clear test case of whether the Obama administration can get away with ignoring the election, Congress, the legitimate legislative process and the American people to force a big-government power grab through a regulatory back door.
To pass the test, the House should pass a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act, overturning the network-neutrality order. Senate Republicans then can force a Senate vote with a petition of just 30 senators and force a floor vote that would require just 51 votes to pass. The Congressional Review Act would protect the privileged resolution from filibuster. The Senate has 60 legislative days from when the order is issued on Dec. 21 before the privileged status is lost.
Using the Congressional Review Act would require just four Democratic senators to join Republicans in saying the FCC should not be permitted to create for itself vast new regulatory powers. If it succeeds, it will dare Mr. Obama to concede and suffer a political loss as Congress asserts its power, or veto it and take full ownership of completely disregarding this election to keep pushing left with ever more government control. Either way, it would be a huge statement from Congress that regulatory power grabs will not go unnoticed.
Congress must assert itself now before the Obama administration uses regulatory back doors to thwart the electorate and continue shoving the country hard to the left. If the FCC can get away with this, expect the Environmental Protection Agency to be emboldened in its backdoor “cap-and-trade” efforts and the National Labor Relations Board in its backdoor card-check efforts. Expect the vast new regulations from the Department of Health and Human Services and the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the health care and financial regulation laws to be extremely aggressive.
Stopping the FCC is critical to remind President Obama and all the bureaucrats that Congress is elected by the American people to make the laws in this country.
Phil Kerpen is vice president for policy at Americans for Prosperity.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.If you like the SID music from the Commodore 64, check out my other web site too – DeepSID. It's an online player that includes both the HVSC and CGSC collections.
Format All Video Game Formats 3DO Amstrad CPC Android Apple iPad Apple iPhone Apple Macintosh / iMac Arcade Atari 2600 Atari 5200 Atari Jaguar Browser Commodore 64 Commodore Amiga Game Boy Game Boy Advance Game Boy Color Intellivision Linux Microsoft Xbox Microsoft Xbox 360 Microsoft Xbox One NEC TurboGrafx-16 Neo Geo NES New Nintendo 3DS Nintendo 3DS Nintendo 64 Nintendo DS Nintendo GameCube Nintendo Switch Nintendo Wii Nintendo Wii U Ouya PC (DOS) PC (Windows) Sega 32X Sega CD / Mega-CD Sega Dreamcast Sega Game Gear Sega Master System Sega Mega Drive / Genesis Sega Saturn Sinclair ZX Spectrum Sinclair ZX81 Sony PlayStation Sony PlayStation 2 Sony PlayStation 3 Sony PlayStation 4 Sony PlayStation Portable Sony PlayStation Vita Super NES TI-99/4A Virtual Boy
Mode All SP/MP/CO Modes SP: All Single-Player SP: Unspecified SP: Only Online SP: Solo to Cap in MMO SP: Against MP Bots SP: Online and MP Bots MP: All Multi-Player (PvP) MP: Unspecified MP: Only Online MP: Only Single Device MP: Only Local Network MP: Online and Single MP: Online and Local MP: Single and Local MP: Includes All Types CO: All Co-Operation CO: Unspecified CO: Only Online CO: Only Single Device CO: Only Local Network CO: Online and Single CO: Online and Local CO: Single and Local CO: Includes All Types
Series No Series Selected
RESETMark Sanchez, taking his turn today with the first team offense, took the Jets on a trip down memory lane, throwing an interception and completing just 3 of his 10 passes. Head coach Rex Ryan noted that he’d “like to see higher numbers than that.”
On the other hand, rookie Geno Smith continued to impress. He completion percentage was nearly perfect, he completed 5 of 6 attempts with the second team. Smith’s one blemish was that he was once again sacked twice, which has highlighted his biggest flaw, his tendency to hold onto the football for too long.
“Holding the football concerns me a little bit. He’s got to get rid of it,” Rex Ryan said in his daily press conference. “If I could point to a negative it might be we’re going to take some hits.”
So far, that is the only real negative point against Smith. Ryan went on to praise the rookie, “he has confidence, he’s got poise and he’s hanging in there and then he’s very accurate with the football so he has been impressive.”
If we’re analyzing the negatives of the two quarterbacks, as ESPN New York’s Rich Cimini pointed out, which is worse a sack or an interception?
You know the answer to that.
Advantage Geno Smith.Researchers have uncovered a large and sophisticated cyber attack infrastructure that appears to have originated in India.
A group of attackers, based in India seem to have employed multiple developers to deliver specific malware for private threat actors, according to a report by malware analysis firm Norman Shark.
The report said the attacks, conducted over a period of three years and still ongoing, showed no evidence of state-sponsorship.
The primary purpose of the global command-and-control network is intelligence gathering from a combination of national security targets and private sector companies.
“The organisation appears to have the resources and the relationships in India to make surveillance attacks possible anywhere in the world,” said Snorre Fagerland, head of research for Norman Shark labs.
“What is surprising is the extreme diversity of the sectors targeted, including natural resources, telecommunications, law, food and restaurants, and manufacturing,” he said.
Fagerland believes it is unlikely that this organisation of hackers would be conducting industrial espionage for just its own purposes.
The investigation revealed evidence of professional project management practices used to design frameworks, modules and subcomponents.
It seems that individual malware authors were assigned certain tasks and components were “outsourced” to what appear to be freelance programmers.
“Something like this has never been documented before," said Fagerland, adding that the discovery is under investigation by national and international authorities.
Researchers made the discovery while investigating data breaches at Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor.
Fagerland said the amount of malware found by Norman analysts and their partners was surprisingly large and it became clear the Telenor intrusion was not a single attack, but part of a continuous effort to compromise governments and corporations worldwide.
Analysis of IP addresses collected from criminal data stores showed that attacks targeted victims in more than a dozen countries.
Specific targets included government, military and business organisations, with attacks relying on well-known vulnerabilities in Java, Word documents and web browsers rather than unknown vulnerabilities.
Attribution to India is based on an extensive analysis of IP addresses, website domain registrations and text-based identifiers contained within the malicious code.
“This type of activity has been associated primarily with China, but to our knowledge, this is the first time that evidence of cyber espionage has shown to be originating from India,” said Fagerland.GOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLL!
Every goal scored in the football World Cup, by minute
AS THE 20th FIFA World Cup continues in Brazil, we examine the state of play via the stats. Our interactive chart depicts every goal in previous World Cup games by minute, whether from open play, a penalty or an own goal (including extra time). Filters let you drill down by country, year and stage; rolling over a “goal dot” reveals the game and final score. More than 2,200 goals have been scored since 1930 (Brazil netted a tenth of them) with an average of 2.9 goals per game, including no-score draws not shown in the chart. One can expect a rush of goals in the last ten minutes of normal time, but the 18th and 75th minutes have proved fertile. As for how the 2014 tournament compares, we will update the chart daily to keep you onside and in the goals—even if your team isn’t.Senator Rand Paul Introduces Audit The Fed Bill
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– Today, Senator Rand Paul introduced legislation allowing for a full audit of the Federal Reserve. This legislation is a Senate version of similar legislation long-championed by and introduced this session in the House of Representatives by his father, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. Co-sponsoring the “Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2011” (S. 202), are Senators Jim DeMint of South Carolina and David Vitter of Louisiana.“We must take a critical look at the Fed’s monetary policy decisions, discount window operations, and a host of other things, with a real audit – and not just pay lip-service to the idea of an audit,” Sen. Paul said today. “At a time when we're seeing great volatility in small Euro-zone economies like Greece, Portugal, and Ireland, it is more crucial than ever that we have real transparency at our own central bank.“The bill will eliminate the current audit restrictions placed on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and mandate a complete audit of the Federal Reserve to be completed by a firm deadline, finally delivering answers to the American people about how their money is being spent by Washington.A new look, a new name and a new direction was announced by Ontario’s provincial soccer body today.
Ontario Soccer is the new name and brand for the organization, replacing Ontario Soccer Association, and it’s meant to signal a fresh start for the game of soccer in Ontario.
As well, a new simple and modern logo was unveiled to the over 380,000 players, 70,000 coaches, 10,000 match officials and 25,000 administrators.
“The re-branding of our organization was one of the top priorities of our new strategic plan,” said Johnny Misley, Executive Director of Ontario Soccer. “We spent all of 2016 working with membership surveys and focus groups to help us better understand our brand’s past, present and with a more important look into the future. The new brand of Ontario Soccer allows us to be more relevant and current to our membership and the general public who are valued fans of the game.”
Combining modern and sleek design elements, with a nod to the organization’s long-standing heritage, the primary logo is the new face of Ontario Soccer.
The five outer rings create a contemporary soccer ball shape, representing Ontario Soccer’s five most important stakeholder groups: Players, Coaches, Match Officials, Volunteers and Administrators.
The inner three shapes, celebrating the mantra of Play, Inspire and Unite, create an Ontario trillium at the very centre of the mark.
Play is about making the beautiful game accessible, fun and meaningful for all who try it.
As thought leaders and experts in the progression of soccer development, Ontario Soccer also aims to Inspire Ontario’s best who aspire for more.
All in all, the game of soccer is the common thread that links and Unite us as one.[quote] At this point of unimaginable threats on the horizon, this is what hope looks like. In these times of a morally bankrupt government that has sold out its principles, this is what patriotism looks like. With countless lives on the line, this is what love looks like, and it will only grow. The choice you are making today is what side are you on. [/quote]
Tim DeChristopher was allowed to address the court and the judge during his sentencing hearing.
This is what he said:
Thank you for the opportunity to speak before the court. When I first met Mr. Manross, the sentencing officer who prepared the pre-sentence report, he explained that it was essentially his job to “get to know me.” He said he had to get to know who I really was and why I did what I did in order to decide what kind of sentence was appropriate. I was struck by the fact that he was the first person in this courthouse to call me by my first name, or even really look me in the eye. I appreciate this opportunity to speak openly to you for the first time. I’m not here asking for your mercy, but I am here asking that you know me.
Mr. Huber has leveled a lot of character attacks at me, many of which are contrary to Mr. Manross’s report. While reading Mr Huber’s critiques of my character and my integrity, as well as his assumptions about my motivations, I was reminded that Mr Huber and I have never had a conversation. Over the two and half years of this prosecution, he has never asked my any of the questions that he makes assumptions about in the government’s report. Apparently, Mr. Huber has never considered it his job to get to know me, and yet he is quite willing to disregard the opinions of the one person who does see that as his job.
There are alternating characterizations that Mr Huber would like you to believe about me. In one paragraph, the government claims I “played out the parts of accuser, jury, and judge as he determined the fate of the oil and gas lease auction and its intended participants that day.” In the very next paragraph, they claim “ It was not the defendant’s crimes that effected such a change.” Mr Huber would lead you to believe that I’m either a dangerous criminal who holds the oil and gas industry in the palm of my hand, or I’m just an incompetent child who didn’t affect the outcome of anything. As evidenced by the continued back and forth of contradictory arguments in the government’s memorandum, they’re not quite sure which of those extreme caricatures I am, but they are certain that I am nothing in between. Rather than the job of getting to know me, it seems Mr Huber prefers the job of fitting me into whatever extreme characterization is most politically expedient at the moment.
In nearly every paragraph, the government’s memorandum uses the words lie, lied, lying, liar. It makes me want to thank whatever clerk edited out the words “pants on fire.” Their report doesn’t mention the fact that at the auction in question, the first person who asked me what I was doing there was Agent Dan Love. And I told him very clearly that I was there to stand in the way of an illegitimate auction that threatened my future. I proceeded to answer all of his questions openly and honestly, and have done so to this day when speaking about that auction in any forum, including this courtroom. The entire basis for the false statements charge that I was convicted of was the fact that I wrote my real name and address on a form that included the words “bona fide bidder.” When I sat there on the witness stand, Mr Romney asked me if I ever had any intention of being a bona fide bidder. I responded by asking Mr Romney to clarify what “bona fide bidder” meant in this context. Mr Romney then withdrew the question and moved on to the next subject. That, right there, is the entire basis for the government’s repeated attacks on my integrity. Ambition should be made of sterner stuff, your honor.
[pullquote]”I’ve made my views clear that I agree with the founding fathers that juries should be the conscience of the community and a defense against legislative tyranny.”[/pullquote]Mr Huber also makes grand assumptions about my level of respect for the rule of law. The government claims a long prison sentence is necessary to counteract the political statements I’ve made and promote a respect for the law. The only evidence provided for my lack of respect for the law is political statements that I’ve made in public forums. Again, the government doesn’t mention my actions in regard to the drastic restrictions that were put upon my defense in this courtroom. My political disagreements with the court about the proper role of a jury in the legal system are probably well known. I’ve given several public speeches and interviews about how the jury system was established and how it has evolved to its current state. Outside of this courtroom, I’ve made my views clear that I agree with the founding fathers that juries should be the conscience of the community and a defense against legislative tyranny. I even went so far as to organize a book study group that read about the history of jury nullification. Some of the participants in that book group later began passing out leaflets to the public about jury rights, as is their right. Mr Huber was apparently so outraged by this that he made the slanderous accusations that I tried to taint the jury. He didn’t specify the extra number of months that I should spend in prison for the heinous activity of holding a book group at the Unitarian Church and quoting Thomas Jefferson in public, but he says you should have “little tolerance for this behavior.”
But here is the important point that Mr Huber would rather ignore. Despite my strong disagreements with the court about the Constitutional basis for the limits on my defense, while I was in this courtroom I respected the authority of the court. Whether I agreed with them or not, I did abide by the restrictions that you put on me and my legal team. I never attempted to “taint” the jury, as Mr Huber claimed, by sharing any of the relevant facts about the auction in question that the court had decided were off limits. I didn’t burst out and tell the jury that I successfully raised the down payment and offered it to the BLM. I didn’t let the jury know that the auction was later reversed because it was illegitimate in the first place. To this day I still think I should have had the right to do so, but disagreement with the law should not be confused with disrespect for the law.
[pullquote align=”right”] “This is really the heart of what this case is about. The rule of law is dependent upon a government that is willing to abide by the law. Disrespect for the rule of law begins when the government believes itself and its corporate sponsors to be above the law.” … “When a corrupted government is no longer willing to uphold the rule of law, I advocate that citizens step up to that responsibility.” [/pullquote] My public statements about jury nullification were not the only political statements that Mr Huber thinks I should be punished for. As the government’s memorandum points out, I have also made public statements about the value of civil disobedience in bringing the rule of law closer to our shared sense of justice. In fact, I have openly and explicitly called for nonviolent civil disobedience against mountaintop removal coal mining in my home state of West Virginia. Mountaintop removal is itself an illegal activity, which has always been in violation of the Clean Water Act, and it is an illegal activity that kills people. A West Virginia state investigation found that Massey Energy had been cited with 62,923 violations of the law in the ten years preceding the disaster that killed 29 people last year. The investigation also revealed that Massey paid for almost none of those violations because the company provided millions of dollars’ worth of campaign contributions that elected most of the appeals court judges in the state. When I was growing up in West Virginia, my mother was one of many who pursued every legal avenue for making the coal industry follow the law. She commented at hearings, wrote petitions and filed lawsuits, and many have continued to do ever since, to no avail. I actually have great respect for the rule of law, because I see what happens when it doesn’t exist, as is the case with the fossil fuel industry. Those crimes committed by Massey Energy led not only to the deaths of their own workers, but to the deaths of countless local residents, such as Joshua McCormick, who died of kidney cancer at age 22 because he was unlucky enough to live downstream from a coal mine. When a corrupted government is no longer willing to uphold the rule of law, I advocate that citizens step up to that responsibility.
This is really the heart of what this case is about. The rule of law is dependent upon a government that is willing to abide by the law. Disrespect for the rule of law begins when the government believes itself and its corporate sponsors to be above the law.
Mr Huber claims that the seriousness of my offense was that I “obstructed lawful government proceedings.” But the auction in question was not a lawful proceeding. I know you’ve heard another case about some of the irregularities for which the auction was overturned. But that case did not involve the BLM’s blatant violation of Secretarial Order 3226, which was a law that went into effect in 2001 that requires the BLM to weigh the impacts on climate change for all its major decisions, particularly resource development. A federal judge in Montana ruled last year that the BLM was in constant violation of this law throughout the Bush administration. In all the proceedings and debates about this auction, no apologist for the government or the BLM has ever even tried to claim that the BLM followed this law. In both the December 2008 auction and the creation of the Resource Management Plan on which this auction was based, the BLM did not even attempt to follow this law.
[pullquote] “My future, and the future of everyone I care about, is being traded for short term profits. I take that very personally. Until our leaders take seriously their responsibility to pass on a healthy and just world to the next generation, I will continue this fight.” [/pullquote] And this law is not a trivial regulation about crossing t’s or dotting i’s to make some government accountant’s job easier. This law was put into effect to mitigate the impacts of catastrophic climate change and defend a livable future on this planet. This law was about protecting the survival of young generations. That’s kind of a big deal. It’s a very big deal to me. If the government is going to refuse to step up to that responsibility to defend a livable future, I believe that creates a moral imperative for me and other citizens. My future, and the future of everyone I care about, is being traded for short term profits. I take that very personally. Until our leaders take seriously their responsibility to pass on a healthy and just world to the next generation, I will continue this fight.
The government has made the claim that there were legal alternatives to standing in the way of this auction. Particularly, I could have filed a written protest against certain parcels. The government does not mention, however, that two months prior to this auction, in October 2008, a Congressional report was released that looked into those protests. The report, by the House committee on public lands, stated that it had become common practice for the BLM to take volunteers from the oil and gas industry to process those permits. The oil industry was paying people specifically to volunteer for the industry that was supposed to be regulating it, and it was to those industry staff that I would have been appealing. Moreover, this auction was just three months after the New York Times reported on a major scandal involving Department of the Interior regulators who were taking bribes of sex and drugs from the oil companies that they were supposed to be regulating. In 2008, this was the condition of the rule of law, for which Mr Huber says I lacked respect. Just as the legal avenues which people in West Virginia have been pursuing for 30 years, the legal avenues in this case were constructed precisely to protect the corporations who control the government.
[pullquote align=”right”] “The reality is not that I lack respect for the law; it’s that I have greater respect for justice.” … “The authority of the government exists to the degree that the rule of law reflects the higher moral code of the citizens, and throughout American history, it has been civil disobedience that has bound them together.” [/pullquote] The reality is not that I lack respect for the law; it’s that I have greater respect for justice. Where there is a conflict between the law and the higher moral code that we all share, my loyalty is to that higher moral code. I know Mr Huber disagrees with me on this. He wrote that “The rule of law is the bedrock of our civilized society, not acts of ‘civil disobedience’ committed in the name of the cause of the day.” That’s an especially ironic statement when he is representing the United States of America; a place where the rule of law was created through acts of civil disobedience. Since those bedrock acts of civil disobedience by our founding fathers, the rule of law in this country has continued to grow closer to our shared higher moral code through the civil disobedience that drew attention to legalized injustice. The authority of the government exists to the degree that the rule of law reflects the higher moral code of the citizens, and throughout American history, it has been civil disobedience that has bound them together.
This philosophical difference is serious enough that Mr Huber thinks I should be imprisoned to discourage the spread of this idea. Much of the government’s memorandum focuses on the political statements that I’ve made in public. But it hasn’t always been this way. When Mr Huber was arguing that my defense should be limited, he addressed my views this way: “The public square is the proper stage for the defendant’s message, not criminal proceedings in federal court.” But now that the jury is gone, Mr. Huber wants to take my message from the public square and make it a central part of these federal court proceedings. I have no problem with that. I’m just as willing to have those views on display as I’ve ever been.
[pullquote] “Their concern is not the danger that I present, but the danger presented by my ideas and words that might lead others to action.” [/pullquote] The government’s memorandum states, “As opposed to preventing this particular defendant from committing further crimes, the sentence should be crafted ‘to afford adequate deterrence to criminal conduct’ by others.” Their concern is not the danger that I present, but the danger presented by my ideas and words that might lead others to action. Perhaps Mr Huber is right to be concerned. He represents the United States Government. His job is to protect those currently in power, and by extension, their corporate sponsors. After months of no action after the auction, the way I found out about my indictment was: the day before it happened, Pat Shea got a call from an Associated Press reporter who said, “I just wanted to let you know that tomorrow Tim is going to be indicted, and this is what the charges are going to be.” That reporter had gotten that information two weeks earlier from an oil industry lobbyist. Our request for disclosure of what role that lobbyist played in the US Attorney’s office was denied, but we know that she apparently holds sway and that the government feels the need to protect the industry’s interests.
[pullquote align=”right”] “It was about recognizing our interconnectedness rather than viewing ourselves as isolated individuals.” … “Alienation is perhaps the most effective tool of control in America, and every reminder of our real connectedness weakens that tool.” [/pullquote] The things that I’ve been publicly saying may indeed be threatening to that power structure. There have been several references to the speech I gave after the conviction, but I’ve only ever seen half of one sentence of that speech quoted. In the government’s report, they actually had to add their own words to that one sentence to make it sound more threatening. But the speech was about empowerment. It was about recognizing our interconnectedness rather than viewing ourselves as isolated individuals. The message of the speech was that when people stand together, they no longer have to be exploited by powerful corporations. Alienation is perhaps the most effective tool of control in America, and every reminder of our real connectedness weakens that tool.
But the sentencing guidelines don’t mention the need to protect corporations or politicians from ideas that threaten their control. The guidelines say “protect the public.” The question is whether the public is helped or harmed by my actions. The easiest way to answer that question is with the direct impacts of my action. As the oil executive stated in his testimony, the parcels I didn’t bid on averaged $12 per acre, but the ones I did bid on averaged $125. Those are the prices paid for public property to the public trust. The industry admits very openly that they were getting those parcels for an order of magnitude less than what they were worth. Not only did those oil companies drive up the prices to $125 during the bidding, they were then given an opportunity to withdraw their bids once my actions were explained. They kept the parcels, presumably because they knew they were still a good deal at $125. The oil companies knew they were getting a steal from the American people, and now they’re crying because they had to pay a little closer to what those parcels were actually worth. The government claims I should be held accountable for the steal the oil companies didn’t get. The government’s report demands $600,000 worth of financial impacts for the amount which the oil industry wasn’t able to steal from the public.
That extra revenue for the public became almost irrelevant, though, once most of those parcels were revoked by Secretary Salazar. Most of the parcels I won were later deemed inappropriate for drilling. In other words, the highest and best value to the public for those particular lands was not for oil and gas drilling. Had the auction gone off without a hitch, it would have been a loss for the public. The fact that the auction was delayed, extra attention was brought to the process, and the parcels were ultimately revoked was a good thing for the public.
[pullquote] “Those in power … are those for whom the status quo is working, so they always see civil disobedience as a bad thing.” … “But the majority of the public is exploited by the status quo far more than they are benefited by it.” [/pullquote] More generally, the question of whether civil disobedience is good for the public is a matter of perspective. Civil disobedience is inherently an attempt at change. Those in power, whom Mr Huber represents, are those for whom the status quo is working, so they always see civil disobedience as a bad thing. The decision you are making today, your honor, is what segment of the public you are meant to protect. Mr Huber clearly has cast his lot with that segment who wishes to preserve the status quo. But the majority of the public is exploited by the status quo far more than they are benefited by it. The young are the most obvious group who is exploited and condemned to an ugly future by letting the fossil fuel industry call the shots. There is an overwhelming amount of scientific research, some of which you received as part of our proffer on the necessity defense, that reveals the catastrophic consequences which the young will have to deal with over the coming decades.
[pullquote align=”right”] “A renewable energy economy … [will] create a more distributed economic system, which leads to a more distributed political system. It threatens the profits of the handful of corporations for whom the current system works” [/pullquote] But just as real is the exploitation of the communities where fossil fuels are extracted. As a native of West Virginia, I have seen from a young age that the exploitation of fossil fuels has always gone hand in hand with the exploitation of local people. In West Virginia, we’ve been extracting coal longer than anyone else. And after 150 years of making other people rich, West Virginia is almost dead last among the states in per capita income, education rates and life expectancy. And it’s not an anomaly. The areas with the richest fossil fuel resources, whether coal in West Virginia and Kentucky, or oil in Louisiana and Mississippi, are the areas with the lowest standards of living. In part, this is a necessity of the industry. The only way to convince someone to blow up their backyard or poison their water is to make sure they are so desperate that they have no other option. But it is also the nature of the economic model. Since fossil fuels are a limited resources, whoever controls access to that resource in the beginning gets to set all the terms. They set the terms for their workers, for the local communities, and apparently even for the regulatory agencies. A renewable energy economy is a threat to that model. Since no one can control access to the sun or the wind, the wealth is more likely to flow to whoever does the work of harnessing that energy, and therefore to create a more distributed economic system, which leads to a more distributed political system. It threatens the profits of the handful of corporations for whom the current system works, but our question is which segment of the public are you tasked with protecting. I am here today because I have chosen to protect the people locked out of the system over the profits of the corporations running the system. I say this not because I want your mercy, but because I want you to join me.
After this difference of political philosophies, the rest of the sentencing debate has been based on the financial loss from my actions. The government has suggested a variety of numbers loosely associated with my actions, but as of yet has yet to establish any causality between my actions and any of those figures. The most commonly discussed figure is perhaps the most easily debunked. This is the figure of roughly $140,000, which is the amount the BLM originally spent to hold the December 2008 auction. By definition, this number is the amount of money the BLM spent before I ever got involved. The relevant question is what the BLM spent because of my actions, but apparently that question has yet to be asked. The only logic that relates the $140,000 figure to my actions is if I caused the entire auction to be null and void and the BLM had to start from scratch to redo the entire auction. But that of course is not the case. First is the prosecution’s on-again-off-again argument that I didn’t have any impact on the auction being overturned. More importantly, the BLM never did redo the auction because it was decided that many of those parcels should never have been auctioned in the first place. Rather than this arbitrary figure of $140,000, it would have been easy to ask the BLM how much money they spent or will spend on redoing the auction. But the government never asked this question, probably because they knew they wouldn’t like the answer.
The other number suggested in the government’s memorandum is the $166,000 that was the total price of the three parcels I won which were not invalidated. Strangely, the government wants me to pay for these parcels, but has never offered to actually give them to me. When I offered the BLM the money a couple weeks after the auction, they refused to take it. Aside from that history, this figure is still not a valid financial loss from my actions. When we wrote there was no loss from my actions, we actually meant that rather literally. Those three parcels were not evaporated or blasted into space because of my actions, not was the oil underneath them sucked dry by my bid card. They’re still there, and in fact the BLM has already issued public notice of their intent to re-auction those parcels in February of 2012.
The final figure suggested as a financial loss is the $600,000 that the oil company wasn’t able to steal from the public. That completely unsubstantiated number is supposedly the extra amount the BLM received because of my actions. This is when things get tricky. The government’s report takes that $600,000 positive for the BLM and adds it to that roughly $300,000 negative for the BLM, and comes up with a $900,000 negative. With math like that, it’s obvious that Mr Huber works for the federal government.
[pullquote] “The truth is that my intention, then as now, was to expose, embarrass and hold accountable the oil industry … [and] to play a role in the wide variety of actions that steer the country toward a clean energy economy where those $100 billion in oil profits are completely eliminated.” [/pullquote] After most of those figures were disputed in the presentence report, the government claimed in their most recent objection that I should be punished according to the intended financial impact that I intended to cause. The government tries to assume my intentions and then claims, “This is consistent with the testimony that Mr. DeChristopher provided at trial, admitting that his intention was to cause financial harm to others with whom he disagreed.” Now I didn’t get to say a whole lot at the trial, so it was pretty easy to look back through the transcripts. The statement claimed by the government never happened. There was nothing even close enough to make their statement a paraphrase or artistic license. This statement in the government’s objection is a complete fiction. Mr Huber’s inability to judge my intent is revealed in this case by the degree to which he underestimates my ambition. The truth is that my intention, then as now, was to expose, embarrass and hold accountable the oil industry to the extent that it cuts into the $100 billion in annual profits that it makes through exploitation. I actually intended for my actions to play a role in the wide variety of actions that steer the country toward a clean energy economy where those $100 billion in oil profits are completely eliminated. When I read Mr Huber’s new logic, I was terrified to consider that my slightly unrealistic intention to have a $100 billion impact will fetch me several consecutive life sentences. Luckily this reasoning is as unrealistic as it is silly.
A more serious look at my intentions is found in Mr Huber’s attempt to find contradictions in my statements. Mr Huber points out that in public I acted proud of my actions and treated it like a success, while in our sentencing memorandum we claimed that my actions led to “no loss.” On the one hand I think it was a success, and yet I claim it there was no loss. Success, but no loss. Mr Huber presents these ideas as mutually contradictory and obvious proof that I was either dishonest or backing down from my convictions. But for success to be contradictory to no loss, there has to be another assumption. One has to assume that my intent was to cause a loss. But the only loss that I intended to cause was the loss of secrecy by which the government gave away public property for private profit. As I actually stated in the trial, my intent was to shine a light on a corrupt process and get the government to take a second look at how this auction was conducted. The success of that intent is not dependent on any loss. I knew that if I was completely off base, and the government took that second look and decided that nothing was wrong with that auction, the cost of my action would be another day’s salary for the auctioneer and some minor costs of re-auctioning the parcels. But if I was right about the irregularities of the auction, I knew that allowing the auction to proceed would mean the permanent loss of lands better suited for other purposes and the permanent loss of a safe climate. The intent was to prevent loss, but again that is a matter of perspective.
[pullquote align=”right”] “Those who are inspired to follow my actions are those who understand that we are on a path toward catastrophic consequences of climate change. … The closer we get to that point where it’s too late, the less people have to lose by fighting back |
to take economic pain is greater that the EU’s.”
How far apart does this leave the Europeans and Americans? To some extent the differences are more rhetorical than real. Sanctions that would really hurt Russia, such as locking Russian banks and financial institutions out of the American-dominated international financial settlement system—the sort of measures that have caused Iran real pain—are likely to be held in reserve as a deterrent against further action. Most of the other sanctions being discussed are of limited effectiveness.
Not a worried man
Limited visa bans would be an irritant in Moscow, but are unlikely to apply to those who really matter because the West needs to go on talking to them. The same applies to freezing the financial assets of Kremlin officials and supportive oligarchs. Some of those assets have already been moved to territories where they are less vulnerable. Slowing down trade talks that run on for years is not much of a threat.
Suspending Russia from the G8 would hurt Mr Putin a bit—he enjoys the opportunity to grandstand on a world stage—but he would still have the BRICs summits to look forward to. Brazil and India have been typically silent on Russia’s Ukraine adventure. China, while saying it respects “the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine”, has avoided explicit criticism of Russia, just as it did when Georgia was invaded in 2008. Like his predecessors, President Xi Jinping regards China’s relations with Russia as a useful counterweight to American power.
With both American and European officials emphasising the need to “de-escalate” the crisis, progress on any sort of sanctions will probably be stately. The priority for now is to reach some agreement with Russia over such things as a timetable for elections and a framework for moves towards devolved power in parts of the country.
Jonathan Eyal of RUSI, a London think-tank, argues that the West’s inability immediately to deprive Mr Putin of his victory should be set against the substantial cost he is likely to end up paying in the end. In the first place, while stirring up discontent in parts of Ukraine that he may not be able to control, he has almost certainly turned much of the country against Russia in a way that it was not before. Future leaders of Ukraine will face even greater popular pressure to turn West.
Secondly, Russia’s aggression has breathed new life into NATO, which has been searching for a post-Afghanistan role. Poland, Romania and, most of all, the three Baltic states feel genuinely threatened. Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have invoked Article 4 of the treaty, a rarely used rule allowing any ally to consult with the others if it feels its security, territorial integrity or independence are under threat. Were it not for the more famous Article 5 that commits all members to regard an armed attack on one as an attack against all, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia all believe that they would be next in line for Moscow’s revanchism. The next NATO summit, to be held in Wales in September, will have a sense of real urgency. Mr Putin may end up with one of the things he has wanted least—a NATO with a new sense of purpose.
Out of gas
Mr Putin has also virtually ensured that Europe will accelerate the steps it is taking to reduce its dependence on Russian energy. Europe’s gas supply has become more resilient and diversified in the past decade. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is ever more available for import, and today’s interconnector pipelines already allow LNG unloaded in Britain to be sent more or less anywhere in continental Europe. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are still wholly dependent on Russian gas, as are Hungary, Bulgaria and Moldova—but the Baltics are scrambling to install LNG terminals.
Parts of Europe are likely to accelerate the exploitation of shale-gas reserves; for its part, hydrocarbon-rich America can now be expected to move quickly to end legal restrictions on exporting oil and LNG. Having lost its reputation for reliability as a gas supplier through frequent sanctions and threats, Russia must live with the consequences. As its stockmarkets demonstrated on Monday, it also needs to be aware that its economy is now vulnerable to investor sentiment, a much quicker comeback than sanctions.
In seizing Crimea and cocking a snook at the West, Mr Putin believes he has got away with an act of daring that will cement his popularity at home as a brutally effective statesman. He is right that the short-term consequences he faces for his recklessness may prove relatively trivial. But the long-term cost for a country that needs investment, trading partners and markets could still be high. Mr Putin may not suffer prompt retaliation. That does not mean, in the long run, that Russia does not face serious consequences.This hubris also explains how Western minds failed to foresee that instead of the triumph of the West, the 1990s would see the end of Western domination of world history (but not the end of the West) and the return of Asia.
There is no doubt that the West has contributed to the return of Asia. Several Asian societies have succeeded because they finally understood, absorbed and implemented the seven pillars of Western wisdom, namely free-market economics, science and technology, meritocracy, pragmatism, culture of peace, rule of law and education.
Notice what is missing from the list: Western political liberalism, despite Mr. Fukuyama’s claim that “The triumph of the West, of the Western idea, is evident first of all in the total exhaustion of viable systematic alternatives to Western liberalism.”
The general assumption in Western minds after reading Mr. Fukuyama’s essay was that the world would in one way or another become more Westernized. Instead, the exact opposite has happened. Modernization has spread across the world, but it has been accompanied by de-Westernization.
Mr. Fukuyama acknowledges this today. “The old version of the idea modernization was Euro-centric, reflecting Europe’s own development,” he said in a recently published interview. “That did contain attributes which sought to define modernization in a quite narrow way.”
In the same interview, he was right in emphasizing that the three components of political modernization were the creation of an effective state that could enforce rules, the rule of law that binds the sovereign, and accountability. Indeed, these are the very traits of political modernization that many Asian states are aspiring to achieve.
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Asians surely agree that no state can function or develop without an effective government. We feel particularly vindicated in this after the recent financial crisis. One reason the United States came to grief was the deeply held ideological assumption in the mind of key American policymakers, like Alan Greenspan, that Ronald Reagan was correct in saying that “government is not a solution to our problem; government is the problem.” Fortunately, Asians did not fall prey to this ideology.
Consequently, in the 21st century, history will unfold in the exact opposite direction of what Western intellectuals anticipated in 1991. We will now see that the “return of history” equals “the retreat of the West.” One prediction I can make confidently is that the Western footprint on the world, which was hugely oversized in the 19th and 20th centuries, will retreat significantly.
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This will not mean a retreat of all Western ideas. Many key ideas like free-market economics and rule of law will be embraced ever more widely. However, few Asians will believe that Western societies are best at implementing these Western ideas. Indeed, the assumption of Western competence in governance and management will be replaced by awareness that the West has become quite inept at managing its economies.
A new gap will develop. Respect for Western ideas will remain, but respect for Western practices will diminish, unless Western performance in governance improves again.
Sadly, in all the recent discussions of “the end of history,” few Western commentators have addressed the biggest lapse in Western practice. The fundamental assumption of “the end of history” thesis was that the West would remain the beacon for the world in democracy and human rights. In 1989, if anyone had dared to predict that within 15 years, the foremost beacon would become the first Western state to reintroduce torture, everyone would have shouted “impossible.”
Few in the West understand how much shock Guantánamo has caused in non-Western minds. Hence many are puzzled that Western intellectuals continue to assume that they can portray themselves and their countries as models to follow when they speak to the rest of the world on human rights.
This loss of moral authority is the exact opposite outcome that many Westerners expected when they celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Does this mean we should give up hope? Will the world become a sadder place?
Probably few in the West remember the last paragraph of Mr. Fukuyama’s essay. He wrote: “The end of history will be a very sad time. The struggle for recognition, the willingness to risk one’s life for a purely abstract goal, the worldwide ideological struggle that called forth daring, courage, imagination and idealism, will be replaced by economic calculation, the endless solving of technical problems, environmental concerns, and the satisfaction of sophisticated consumer demands. In the post-historical period there will be neither art nor philosophy, just the perpetual caretaking of the museum of human history.”
Here, too, as the 21st century unfolds, we will see the exact opposite outcome. The return of Asia will be accompanied by an astonishing Asian renaissance in which many diverse Asian cultures will rediscover their lost heritage of art and philosophy.
There is no question that Asians will celebrate the return of history. The only question is: Will the West join them in these celebrations, or will they keep waiting for the end to come?An intriguing paradox of contemporary Indian politics has been insufficiently noted: corporate India finances India's elections, substantially if not wholly, but it is unable to determine election outcomes. Money matters, but it is not always electorally decisive.
The recent Uttar Pradesh elections provide the clearest illustration of this proposition. As is well known, the Congress, BJP and BSP were all better financed than the SP which, especially after the departure of Amar Singh, had lost its biggest conduit to corporate India. But the SP won, and the best funded parties, the Congress and the BJP, lost quite badly. The voter listened more affectionately to the less well-funded.
It used to be said in the 1970s and 1980s that the party that could provide blankets, saris or liquor to the voters would swing the elections in its favour. By now, all major parties have the capacity to provide such side benefits and more; the voter collects them from each party; and then she goes to the polls and votes according to her conscience. India has reached a new point in its electoral history. Votes can't easily be bought.
In political and corporate circles, the empirical validity of this paradox businesses funding elections, but unable to determine election results has long been noticed. But in intellectual circles, very few have systematically analysed this aspect of Indian democracy. In the US, how elections are financed is a huge and recurring topic of public discussion. India has, on the whole, shied away from such debates. Indian democracy will be better off if we explicitly analyse the larger implications of election funding and put our findings and arguments in the public domain.
There was a time, roughly until the mid-1960s, when political campaigns cost very little and were heavily, though not entirely, financed by janata ka chanda (citizen contributions). Mahatma Gandhi was India's first, and most original, political party builder. After the 1920 Nagpur session of the Congress party, he invented the four anna (roughly 25 paise) per year membership. At today's prices, that amount would perhaps add up to Rs 50-60, roughly equal to one US dollar. A Gandhi-led, reinvigorated Congress raised a lot of funds through this method, and also took the freedom struggle to the masses.
But Gandhi was realistic enough to know that membership dues alone could not generate enough funds for the freedom movement. Fighting the mightiest empire of the world required greater resources. Gandhi was, therefore, not averse to courting businessmen for funds, a pursuit in which he brilliantly succeeded.
After commenting that "Gandhiji was something of a genius in collecting money", the late Gopal Krishna, in a classic study of the period, notes: "The Parsi and Marwari businessmen made really large contributions... Gandhiji was able to make them open their purses for the national cause. Seth Jamnalal Bajaj gave a donation of Rs 2,00,000. Bombay City contributed nearly 30 per cent of the total collection. Godrej, a Parsi businessman, gave a donation of Rs 3,00,000; Seth Anandlal Poddar, a cotton broker, gave Rs 2,00,000; other stock exchange brokers, Rs 5,00,000; and the Associations of Rice and Grain Merchants each Rs 1,00,000."
Measured in today's prices, these would be large sums of money. Clearly, not simply the masses, India's businessmen, too, handsomely contributed to the freedom struggle. Equally important, these contributions were legal and above board. Business and politics were intertwined in a virtuous circle.
How does the current situation compare? In a meticulous recent paper, Rajeev Gowda (IIM-Bangalore) and E. Sridharan (University of Pennsylvania Institute for the Advanced Study of India, Delhi) provide an enlightening account. Published in the truly arcane Election Law Journal, the paper deserves wide readership. It can be accessed at http://bit.ly/ GowdaSridharan2012.
Gowda and Sridharan review the history of election finance laws in India and compare it to such laws in other democracies, but the core of their argument is based on confidential interviews in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai: with current and former ministers, treasurers of the Congress and BJP, office holders of several political parties, top bureaucrats, and major business donors to parties. One cannot write about election finance in India without taking politicians and businessmen into confidence. Confidentially generated insights and data lent credibility to their arguments.
The year 1968 was a turning point in the history of election finance in India. Indira Gandhi outlawed corporate donations to political parties, but she did not move towards state funding as a substitute, as is true of most continental democracies. Citizen contributions were the only legal option left, but political parties turned increasingly towards illegal corporate donations, or black money. It was easier to raise large sums from a few businessmen, and harder to collect small sums from millions of citizens.
A veritably corrupt business-politician nexus was thus born. Given the heavily state controlled economy, Indian business could use politicians to get particularistic benefits: an import duty relaxation here, an industrial licence there. And politicians got access to a huge pool of funds. This was a striking departure from the Nehru era when, some exceptions notwithstanding, campaign financing was quite clean. Corporate funds were legally available, but the guiding assumption of politics was that for politics to remain honest and value-laden, a political party had to rely on the small contributions of citizens.
While this story is well known, the more recent developments are quite puzzling. Corporate donations to political parties were re-legalised in 1985, and after 2003, businesses were also allowed tax incentives for their donations. Yet, most, though not all, business donations have continued to take the form of black money. Cheques are not normally written. Why should this be so, despite tax incentives for business donations?
Essentially, it is clear that two decades of economic liberalisation notwithstanding, the government still has a lot of control over economic activity, especially mining, real estate and large industrial projects. On the basis of their confidential interviews, Gowda and Sridharan conclude that "industry is averse to alienating parties that are in power or that may come to power... Maintaining confidentiality of donations helps avoid reprisals by political parties that might want to penalise the donors for favouring their opponents; this is generally regarded as more important than any tax benefits."
The implications of this argument should be obvious. As India's democracy has turned more competitive and elections have become more unpredictable, corruption has increased, not gone down. We should celebrate the greater political competitiveness, but not the larger corruption. We need to uncouple the two.
For cleaner politics and more honest business, a vigorous debate on the reform of election finance laws is necessary. India's election war chests are awfully murky.
The writer is Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and Social Sciences at Brown University, where he also directs the India Initiative express@expressindia.com
ALSO READ Degrees of irresponsibility
Please read our terms of use before posting commentsPosted by: Craig Woolheater on September 9th, 2014
Results of identification of the non-human primate arm revealed!
It’s not any kind of primate, it’s an alligator…
After Hours with Rictor (The #1 Bigfoot Webcast): Stacy Brown Jr’s Skunkape Investigation
Continuing our After Hours with Rictor Bigfoot Bounty reunion series, we have the $100,000 grant winner Stacy Brown Jr. It’s been a few months since our Spike TV reality show ended and it looks like Stacy and David Lauer (The Sasquatchhunters) have been very busy with their ongoing Florida Sasquatch/Skunkape investigations.
See also:
Unknown Primate Arm Found in Florida?
More Photos of Purported Skunk Ape Arm
Video of Purported Skunk Ape Arm
About Craig Woolheater
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005. I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films: OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
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PrintSince time immemorial, theatre has been a tool to spread social awareness and create an impact. One such play that reflects and analyses our society, is director Kaushik Bose’s Flesh. The work, based on author Devdutt Pattanaik book The Pregnant King, explores different aspects of gender roles, sexual identity, dharma and religion.
“When the play is over, you will leave with an interpretation of your own.” - Kaushik Bose
“The story moved me and spoke to me at various levels. It is not just about LGBTQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer) issues or an impregnated man. It raises questions that we should be asking,” says Bose, adding, “The human nature of the story moves your far more than any issue would. When the play is over, you will leave with an interpretation of your own.”
The play is based on author Devdutt Pattanaik’s novel The Pregnant King.
The play revolves around Yuvanashva – a childless king who mistakenly drinks a magic potion meant to make his queens pregnant with a son. The plot follows his character as he struggles to come to terms with his true identity and gender.
“The story shows that no matter how capable you are, if you are a woman, you can’t play certain roles.” - Bose
“When Yuvanashva delivers a son, he is faced with a question — if he is the father or mother. However, if he chooses to be the mother, then he can’t be king. So, the story shows that no matter how capable you are, if you are a woman, you can’t play certain roles,” explains Bose.
The book is Pattanaik’s first fictional work. Talking about why he chose to explore topics of gender and sexuality through mythology, the author says that the idea of a man becoming pregnant fascinated him. “As people, we are comfortable exploring the unknown or the unfamiliar through fiction. So I felt this was a great place for people to deal with gender and sexuality related issues that generally frighten us,” Pattanaik adds.
Mayank Gulati plays the role of Yuvanashva.
“During preparations, we would sit and discuss what the king must have gone through. It became a journey that really widened our understanding of what a mother goes through.” -Mayank Gulati
Mayank Gulati, the actor who plays Yuvanashva, says, “A play of such nature makes us question our beliefs, which is very important. It throws light on contemporary issues around sexuality and gender.” He adds, “Playing Yuvanashva’s character was very hard for me as I had to channel a mother’s feelings being a guy. It became a journey that really widened our understanding of what a mother goes through.”
Catch It Live What: Flesh, an English Play
Where: LTG Auditorium, Copernicus Marg, Mandi House
When: January 14
Timings: 7pm onwards
Nearest Metro Station: Mandi House on Blue Line and Violet Line
First Published: Jan 09, 2017 18:04 ISTARA News
CIZRE – The Turkish government is blocking access for independent investigations into alleged mass abuses against civilians across the Kurdish region southeast Turkey, Human Rights Watch said today. The alleged abuses include unlawful killings of civilians, mass forced civilian displacement, and widespread unlawful destruction of private property. Moreover, the report confirms that Turkish security forces fired on civilians in the streets carrying white flags.
“The government should promptly grant the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights permission to enter the area and investigate according to its standards,” HRW said.
Since the July 2015 breakdown of a peace process to end the decades-long conflict between the Turkish state and the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), violence and armed clashes in the southeastern region have escalated. During security operations since August, the authorities have imposed curfews on 22 towns and city neighbourhoods, preventing non-governmental organizations, journalists and lawyers from scrutinizing those operations or any resulting abuses by security forces or armed groups.
According to HRW, authorities have blocked rights groups – including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights – from trying to document abuses even after curfews and operations ended.
“The Turkish government’s effective blockade of areas of the southeast fuels concerns of a major cover-up,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, senior Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Turkish government should give the UN and nongovernmental groups immediate access to the area to document what’s going on there.”
Most of the deaths, destruction, and mass displacement occurred in nine towns, including Cizre. More than 355,000 people have been temporarily displaced within towns or to other nearby towns and villages, or to other regions of Turkey. At least 338 civilians have been killed in places where clashes broke out between security forces and the PKK-linked Civil Protection Units (YPS), HRW said.
Moreover, a list of dead compiled by Cizre-based lawyers showed that 66 civilians, including 11 children were killed by gunfire or mortars, in operations between December 14 and February 22, 2015. “The available information also indicates that security forces surrounded three buildings and deliberately and unjustifiably killed about 130 people – among whom were unarmed civilians and injured combatants – trapped in the basements,” HRW said.
The majority of deaths of Cizre residents occurred in neighborhoods where the YPS had erected barricades and dug trenches, and clashes took place between security forces and armed groups. However, some civilians were killed in neighborhoods where there were no clashes or barricades.
On December 25, in an area of Sur where no barricades had been erected and no armed groups were operating, members of the security forces fired on and killed a 3-month-old baby, Miray İnce, and her 82-year-old great-grandfather, Ramazan İnce, relatives of the victims told Human Rights Watch. “As baby Miray, my brother Hasan’s granddaughter, was carried down the steps in the courtyard by her aunt they were shot at from the hill opposite where the military had placed snipers and armored vehicles. Miray was hit by a bullet,” Abdurrahman İnce (61) told HRW. “At first we thought she was dead but then she cried and we called 155 [the police] to get her to hospital. The emergency services told us that we should go as two men and a woman carrying a white flag as far as the ambulance. That’s exactly what we did,” he added.
However, when the Kurdish family carried a white flag, his father Ramazan and the baby Miray were shot again from the open hill where security forces were positioned. “Finally, a member of parliament, Faysal Sarıyıldız, got an ambulance to them but both my father and baby Miray died,” Ince said. “Even when the police told you things were safe, the security forces kept on shooting.”
“Credible accounts of Turkish security forces deliberately killing civilians, including children, when they were carrying white flags or trapped in basements should be ringing loud alarm bells,” said Sinclair-Webb. “The prosecutor in Cizre should conduct a full, effective, independent investigation capable of delivering justice for the victims.”
Reporting by: Wladimir van Wilgenburg
Source: ARA NewsThe Guardian reported on Tuesday that the National Endowment for Democracy has just been banned from Russia, under strict new laws regulating NGOs acting as foreign agents.
In that story, the Guardian cited the fact that Intercept publisher Pierre Omidyar co-funded Ukraine revolution groups with USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
If the Omidyar connection sounds familiar, that’s because it was Pando that first broke the story in February 2014 (the Guardian linked to our original scoop in its coverage.)
In the 18 months since we broke the story, Ukraine has collapsed into war and despair, with up to 10,000 people killed and one and a half million internally-displaced refugees — and top US brass talk openly of a new Cold War with nuclear-armed Russia, while US military advisors train and arm Ukrainians to wage war on Russian-backed separatists.
Svitlana Zalishchuk, one of the leaders of the Omidyar-funded NGO that helped organize last year’s revolution in Kiev, is now in power as an MP in Ukraine’s parliament, a member of the new, pro-NATO president’s party bloc. She’s gone from plucky Omidyar-funded adversarial activist, to heading a parliamentary subcommittee tasked with integrating Ukraine into NATO.
I can’t think of another media tycoon who co-funded a pro-US regime change with American intelligence cutouts like USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy. That Putin targeted the NED does not mean it’s either heroic or evil—the NED’s story speaks for itself: The brainchild of Reagan’s CIA director Bill Casey, the National Endowment for Democracy was set up as an intelligence cutout to support US geopolitical power and undermine unfriendly regimes. One of the NED co-founders, Allen Weinstein, explained its purpose to the Washington Post:
“A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
Throughout its 30-year history it’s been mired in very typical CIA controversies: In the 80s, the NED was caught funding an outlawed extreme-right French paramilitary gang during Socialist president Mitterand’s rule; funding a military leader’s victorious election in Panama against a more moderate civilian candidate; and financing rightwing opponents of Costa Rica’s democratically-elected Nobel Peace Prize-winning president, whose sin was opposing Reagan’s deadly, dirty war in Nicaragua.
More recently, the NED was caught funding groups that organized the 2002 coup against Venezuela’s democratically-elected president Hugo Chavez; planting a “free-lance journalist” in the AP and New York Times to report on Haiti while the NED was simultaneously funding rightwing groups to undermine Haiti’s ruling party; and co-funding Ukraine regime-change groups with Pierre Omidyar.
This week, Omidyar Network announced yet another partnership with the National Endowment for Democracy and the Poynter Institute to create an international online fact-checking hub. Given the power that a monopoly on “objective” fact-checking offers, the tie-up with the NED takes the Omidyar alliance with the US empire and media to newer, creepier levels. In yet another Omidyar-as-private-arm investment, Omidyar invested in the slick new Ukrainian media, Hromadske.tv, which was set up on the eve of the Maidan revolution with initial seed funding coming from the US Embassy in Kiev. Omidyar’s involvement in Ukraine media and “fact-checking” is all the more serious given that now Washington and NATO talk about “countering” Russia’s overhyped “information war” on the West and on Ukraine—this “information war” which I covered a bit in my piece on Peter Pomerantsev, is considered a top and urgent geostrategic priority for NATO and the West.
The connections between Omidyar and NED are difficult to believe, but that still doesn’t explain the response to the story from America’s most “fearless” independent bloggers and journalists.
In the roughly 24-hour period between the time we first published our Omidyar-Ukraine story, and when Greenwald finally responded with a bizarre “yes it’s true, so what not my problem” response completely contradicting his earlier pronouncements about Omidyar — the crowd that saw itself as most fiercely independent and adversarial was the same crowd that reacted most adversarially to the story.
I forgot just how insane the response was until this week, when I went back through some of the reactions. They read like the hysterical ravings of wounded Scientologists, and use the same playground strategy — playground taunts, bitter sarcasm — that wounded Scientologists tend to use when something that punctures their sacred narrative is aired not only to them, but to the general public who might now be laughing at them.
A small sample:
(Jillian C. York is Director of International Freedom of Expression at the Omidyar-funded Electronic Frontier Foundation. She later deleted the tweet.)
Again, there is no precedent that I know of where a media tycoon goes beyond just editorializing in favor of some US imperial expansion or policy, but actively participates as the private arm of the US State Department and intelligence cutouts. The story was so contrary to the consensus last year about Omidyar as some kind of Marvel comix superhero, a Big Tech Bruce Wayne who’d Segway’d to the rescue of American investigative journalism and protected our cherished American institution with his “civic-minded” billions. Glenn Greenwald personally vouched for Omidyar on Amy Goodman’s show, promising her progressive audience,
“Pierre... would not start a new business in order to make money. He would only start a new business for some goal, some civic-minded goal”
—while Jeremy Scahill gloated publicly that “Pierre” was creating a “journalistic paradise” at First Look unlike anything ever seen or experienced before, a quantum leap in adversarial journalism technology that would shatter all the old hierarchical models, and leave the White House completely powerless to so much as call Pierre on the phone, so removed from the old oppressive structures of power is He.
“They [the Obama Administration] know who to call at The Times, they know who to call at The Post. With us, who are they going to call? Pierre?”
John Dolan, who in his academia days studied literary frauds and hoaxes, described how the real enablers in literary hoaxes like James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces” and Margaret B. Jones’ “Love and Consequences” are the audience who want badly to believe those mythical stories are not just possible, but real:
Forgers count on a gullible, pious audience, though the pieties invoked may not be explicitly religious. Often, they're broader, older patterns of myth that we know at heart aren't true but want badly to believe.
In the case of Omidyar The Civic-Minded Billionaire Savior of Adversarial Anarcho-Left Journalism, the pious are the independent-left journalists, who see themselves as the only check on power, the anointed watchdogs and all that stands between government tyranny and Constitutional liberty. The pieties reach peak-insufferableness at Glenn Greenwald’s pulpit, where he’s spent the past eight or nine years tirelessly scolding and hectoring everyone for failing to live up to their sacred duties.
Someone who spends that much time scolding and hectoring and implicitly arguing that he’s that rare beacon of secular rectitude gains a lot of power over his believers, and it takes a lot more than mere facts to shake them awake once they’ve fallen for it. So just as the godly Christian preacher can cash in with flashy cars and suits and private jets and mansions without raising any doubts among his believers, so Greenwald could take his and Poitras’ exclusive monopoly access to the complete Snowden NSA cache and privatize them to a highly compromised billionaire deeply involved in the American national security state, a uniquely placed force for spreading neoliberalism and US geopolitical power around the globe — and get praised and adored even more by the one audience, progressive independent journalists, which is supposed to call bullshit on exactly this sort of sellout.
Indeed. As Dr. Dolan observed, writing about the James Frey literary hoax story (Dolan was the first to call Frey’s drug memoir a fake, in the pages of The eXile):
Frey's story of (fake) debauchery redeemed by stern self-discipline confirms Americans' beloved, fatuous beliefs that people change in mid-life and that self-discipline can overcome anything. That's all most readers of such tripe care about: the cultural bottom line, the ideology the story backs up.
Remember, the Omidyar Indie-Journalism Hoax was sold to us independent adversarial journalists at our profession’s most desperate, hopeless, defunded point. After years of mass layoffs and closings, the future looked even more bleak, prospects dimmer than ever.
Add to this a remarkable willful ignorance about what a billionaire even means today, politically and otherwise. A billionaire is so alien, so remote from the rest of the population, but particularly from progressive/independent journalists, who are more interested in emotionally-charged dramatic stories like war, drones, cops, oppression.... a tech billionaire seems like dreary stuff by comparison, even though billionaires are political power on a scale rarely seen in this or any country, giants among pygmies, except that they’re giants who look like harmless dweebs, and talk about boring dweeby things that don’t interest us.
So when Greenwald and Scahill and the others sold their followers a fantasy-billionaire, a billionaire of our dreams—a billionaire who was good, selfless, interested in us and our important mission for mankind — a billionaire who wanted to give us all the dirty, ugly, but necessary, money we lacked, without any strings attached, because he knew how important it was for liberty to protect and encourage our profession—it was the perfect snake oil, the answer to our prayers, the story we wanted desperately to hear. And we’d been plenty prepared by endless Hollywood movies about cold-hearted greedy billionaires who undergo the ol’ transformation of character and want only to do good—think Mr. Magoo’s Scrooge character, or a billion others like it.
Now seems like the right time to bring all of this up again, because the Omidyar “journalism paradise” dream has pretty much imploded on its own. The Intercept itself is still running, and putting out some good stories every so often — but the religious hysteria and the cultish defensiveness is pretty much gone. As are some of the very best journalists Omidyar had brought on board, and sat on for nearly a year — my former partner Matt Taibbi, whose “Racket” magazine never published a word; Ken Silverstein, one of my very few longtime journalism heroes, whose talent was also bitterly snuffed by Omidyar.
And now in the last week, the latest twist to the farcical “journalism paradise” shitshow: Omidyar is reportedly in talks with the king of online tabloid-sleaze, Nick Denton, to invest in the latter’s perma-sued organization. As Pando’s Paul Carr wrote earlier this week, the ground seems to be being prepared for a full-on merger of the Intercept and Gawker, backed by Omidyar’s cash.
As of yesterday, Nick Denton appointed John Cook -- formerly editor of the Intercept -- to be the “temporary” executive editor of Gawker. When Cook departed the Intercept, he wrote that “Working with my Intercept colleagues has been one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done in my career, and my decision to leave was a painful one to make.”
At the same time, IBT reported that Chief Revenue Officer, Michael Rosen, had resigned from First Look Media. Rosen’s departure comes just a week after John Temple, First Look’s “President, Audience and Products,” stepped down from his job saying “There clearly is much excitement ahead for First Look, but I feel my contribution is largely complete.”
Perhaps it’s a coincidence that both the guy who is in charge of building an audience for the Intercept and the guy tasked with making it profitable have left. Or perhaps not: IBT quotes a source explaining that “First Look would soon be moving away from trying to create a constellation of magazines and begin to focus on empowering ‘content creators.’ That is, Omidyar will be investing cash in sites like Gawker, alongside his investments in fact-checking sites and Ukraine revolutionary groups.
How will the Intercept’s audience, which accepted Greenwald’s decision to privatize the Snowden secrets to Omidyar, react if Omidyar then sells journalism paradise to journalism sleaze and the Snowden secrets — our secrets, the public’s secrets — wind up as capital assets in First Gawker Media?
Snowden revealed that NSA spooks were spying on their lovers online habits — how will that be monetized in First Gawker Media? Where will Denton’s 20% sleaze discount be applied?The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the identity of the second individual killed in a mobile home fire early Monday morning.
Robert “Amanda” Blanchard, 41, was found dead in the mobile home she lived in with her partner, Keith M. Barber, 50, according to a news release. The home at 2311 W 16th Ave. burned down shortly after midnight Monday. A cause of death has not been released for either victim.
Police are investigating the |
“convention over configuration.” And I still don’t know what that means — it seems both overlap quite a bit. But I’ll tell you: if I could configure my entire app as one big JSON blob I’d be one happy programmer.
You remember XML right? A tool used for configuration. Well HTML is XML, or sub or superset of it or whatever. And React specifically chose the JSX route. Why? Because “declarative” coding is half way from “imperative” coding to configuration. JSX is essentially configuration with a backdoor to write ad-hoc imperative code when you need to.
It depends on your definition of “imperative,” but I just mean you can write plain procedural javascript in your otherwise pure declarative component functions.
So, it’s for this reason that Sagas and Observables and ad-hoc thunks are closer on the declarative-to-imperative spectrum to the imperative side. Being able to define your thunks in a route configuration gives more meaning to those thunks, locks them in, and is therefore closer to the configuration/declarative side.
So that’s the premise of route thunks — meaningful URL context. You know exactly where your data dependencies are supposed to go. And that place is closest to URL state — the only state (minus your user session cookie) that you can synchronously render from.
Fancy middleware and RFR share another key concept/benefit: specifying data dependencies away from the place you dispatch requests, and in a centralized [hopefully] single place.
ASIDE: COOKIE SESSION STATE
As for cookie session state — it falls into the same category. That category is state you know upfront before you render your component tree.
The strategy for that is to call createStore server side with initial state (the second argument) containing your user object which you retrieved using a session cookie or JSON Web Token (also in the form of a cookie).
This article won’t tackle auth and the user session cookie, but the point is it’s in the same boat as URL state — so we can check it off in our minds. And similarly to how we call all client-side GraphQL caches simply “Apollo,” we’ll continue to call state from the URL even though it includes the user session cookie: “URL state” or “critical URL state.”™
REDUX’S CONTRACT REVELATION
To make sure we’re on the same page, let’s talk about “contracts” and what Redux’s core “contract revelation” was all about. The contract is:
your “UI database” is derived from pure functions called reducers
your reducers respond to serializable actions; that is, you can’t set state directly; you have to do so indirectly through the combination of actions + reducers
That’s the contract. The gains this gives you is 100% predictable state, and subsequently predictable view rendering.
These gains extend so far that you can provide the same sequence of actions and be guaranteed the same resulting state.
With this foundation, the opportunity of time-traveling debugging unveils itself as well as everything you see in the Redux Devtools. I live in there. If you build Redux apps, you probably use that far far more than the React Devtools.
I only use the later when I’m working on other people’s code. I use it as a cheat-tool to figure out what they did. For my own code, it doesn’t do much for me, since usually components rendered in the current component tree and their props are in my head, and their state is 80-99% of the time in Redux.
I remember the days when I used to debug in Chrome all the time. The Redux Devtools has basically displaced that too if you’re doing a good job at building your app out of pure functions, pure components, pure reducers, pure everything.
If you are doing those things, the Redux Devtools can answer your most common questions:
“well, did I dispatch the correct action?”
“are reducers responding to actions correctly?”
Subsequently since debugging these 2 are easy, and since pure components are also so damn easy to deal with, your primary bottleneck becomes the asynchronicity of data fetching + multiple dispatches.
Where RFR really shines is that in the midst of the asynchronous data fetching challenge, you don’t also have to deal with the URL. Just make sure the actions dispatched have a route matching it — once in the beginning when you initially setup your app (or every so often when you add a new feature).
It makes the URL an after-thought. And not an after-thought that causes you problems because you now have to re-architect your app. And certainly not something that requires additional dispatches.
See, that’s part of the problem here — developers end up dispatching too many actions. For example, in my apps, I do everything I can to avoid actions that synchronously dispatch one after another. I consider that “incorrect”.
Any time I’m tempted to dispatch consecutive synchronous actions, I instead figure out how to make my reducers respond correctly as if only one of the actions was dispatched.
Your reducers should be able to fully respond to the first action. There are reasons for batching middleware, but most of the time it’s an anti-pattern.
So if you have things setup where you have to dispatch one action to display one thing, another action to display something else, and yet another subsequent action (or function call) to change the URL, you’re definitely doing it wrong. Or it’s because you don’t have something like Redux-First Router at your service, and instead you’re littering lifecycle methods throughout your component tree with ad-hoc component-level dispatches.
In other words, component-level dispatches is the #1 cause of multiple synchronous dispatches, and ultimately crummy rendering performance + a disorganized redux architecture.
To be clear, there’s always an exception to the rule. Today we’re talking about the 80%, not the 20% of the 80/20 rule.
URL-MANAGEMENT OUT OF THE WAY
So with a 2nd problem out of your way (i.e. URL-management + keeping everything in sync), you have relieved a lot of pressure and complexity from your async data fetching.
Data-fetching now boils down to:
the user reaching a URL (no work for you)
you requesting some data (less work: no setup action)
making a decision on what to do with it & dispatching a single follow-up action (now better in focus as your sole task)
That follow-up action may be one of many possible actions. For example, if the user visits mysweetapp.com/entity/:slug, you dispatch a follow-up action that retrieves various related entities (based on the slug) you’d like to display.
Or if the user visits mysweetapp.com/me without being logged-in, you redirect back to the /login form. And if the user is logged-in, you asynchronously fetch some data you will need to display within their dashboard:
QUICK, ANSWER THIS: how do we trigger the loading spinner until ENTITIES_FETCHED is dispatched?
You no longer should worry about dispatching an initial setup action, as by virtue of visiting /me and the ME type being dispatched, your reducers should know to display spinners if the data isn’t cached.
As you can see, RFR offers a redirect action creator. It’s one of the few such utilities offered by the library, as the goal is to keep the API surface to a minimum. Most of your work is in the one-time setup of your routesMap and continued work via typical Redux patterns (e.g. within your reducers, connecting components, etc).
…While we’re here, another thing worth looking at is how routes NOT_FOUND can be addressed:
Dispatching the NOT_FOUND type exported from RFR is a solution for when you throw your hands up and don’t know exactly what to render because you didn’t get the data you needed — in this case, the videos for the given category.
You can simply dispatch NOT_FOUND, and depending on whether RFR can infer the URL or not, it will display the correct URL (even though it doesn’t have the data for it), or your notFoundPath as supplied as an option to connectRoutes.
From there it’s up to your reducers to determine what to display (when it receives the NOT_FOUND type) as they usually would. Also note: internally the system will dispatch NOT_FOUND when no route is matched.
Why do we bring up dispatching NOT_FOUND? Because like redirects, it’s part of the idiomatic ways to use your route thunks.
TAKEAWAY
The takeaway is you no longer have files full of ad-hoc action creator thunks that do who knows what. If that’s the path you took, you’re left having to read the comments to remember how everything works. See, the thing is URLs are something to be taken seriously. They force you to encode your app in as logical of a way as possible. They are much needed structure — contracts — that keep the actions your app deals with to a minimum.
When you see a thunk corresponds to a URL (say your /login path), and because of that you know it’s the only thunk that can handle that URL, you know exactly what to expect of that thunk. And you know no other thunks can deal with it.
You will inevitably struggle to manage your exponentially growing number of action creators if you treat them as setters. Having URL-ized actions prevents you from creating more actions than you need. As a result your reducers become fatter and smarter.
Whereas before they might have looked like this:
Now they look like this:
So in the former you often end up dispatching SIDEBAR_OPEN right after another action that does something else. Or at least you can easily fall into this trap.
Conversely with Redux-First Router your reducers become page-centric, and are now responsible for “tear down” in response to a bunch of actions it might not have responded to in the past.
HOW DID WE GET WHERE WE ARE TODAY
The fact of the matter is Redux took us in a direction where anything and everything became possible. And since users are likely to trigger all sorts of events, it became a nice way to be able to deal with anything that comes our way.
So with that flexibility, and React Router tricking us into thinking we were doing it the right way (by dealing with URL state within the View Layer), we forgot the old wisdom of MVC.
In MVC terms, React is the V, Redux the M, and RFR the C.
If you’re like me, you thought the MVC pattern was dead.
Bottom line: because new powerful tools have made all the possibilities possible, RFR gives us much structure in a world where we desperately need it. We have become children in desperate need of structure.
As in the initial RFR pre-release article, it’s been a case of getting lost along our way as new things opened up the pandora’s box of options.
In the RFR Pre-Release article, I describe how the “everything is a component” strategy is essentially a workaround for not having a client-side database like Redux synced with URL state.
In this article, we’ve debunked how fancy middleware is a workaround for not having a proper routing mechanism and its corresponding contextual structure (i.e. its routesMap ).
To be clear, RFR is a middleware. It’s a middleware, enhancer, reducer, set of action creators and Link components (but no Route components). The middleware is probably the biggest part. So it is a middleware just like the others, but rather than give you infinite flexibility, it constrains you via contracts just like Dan Abramov promoted was what Redux owed its true power/utility to.
RFR isn’t the first router or framework to provide you a defined place to request data in response to path + query params. To seasoned developers, this isn’t anything new. Everything old is new again. What RFR is, is the first solution to take MVC to heart and apply it to a Redux-specific context — after a period where MVC has been anathema to everyone.
At the end of the day, you’re using routing to do the same thing you do the bulk of the time in more complicated super flexible middleware. Even if a few people manage to come up with some discrepancies and edge cases, you’re covering somewhere between 75 and 95% of all cases by having thunks attached to URL-ized actions.
FINAL COMPARISON
To wrap things up let’s do a final comparison between the old ways and the new Redux-First Router way.
If you made it this far, you deserve a break; play this song while you review the code comparison that follows (i.e. the real meat of this article)
Old componentDidMount + react-router + redux-thunk way vs. RFR way:
OLD componentDidMount WAY
Take note of the way react-router state contained within the view layer ( ownProps.match.params.category ) is combined with Redux state to derive the final state, as well as to dispatch current and future actions via requestVideos within componentDidMount, componentWillReceiveProps.
NEW REDUX-FIRST ROUTER WAY
The primary thing to notice in the new way — besides that it’s half the size — is that the requestVideos thunk has moved to a permanent place as the value of a route’s thunk. In both cases they are standard Redux thunks that receive dispatch and getState arguments. However, when using Redux-First Router, you no longer need to dispatch the initial REQUEST_VIDEOS action, as the LIST action is intrinsically used instead.
Also keep in mind, since the thunk is tied to the route, you can easily add or switch in other components that need the videosByCategory state or remove the original one, without worrying about whether the necessary data will be available. While it’s nice to co-locate data to components, there are just as many reasons why de-coupled data is an improvement to your workflow.
The next thing to notice is how category is retrieved from Redux state, rather than ownProps.match.params.category which only exists in the View Layer.
The last and perhaps most important thing to observe is how the new way uses a stateless component, while the old way requires both componentDidMount and componentWillReceiveProps to truly get the job done:
after looking at RFR’s route-centric approach, it barely makes sense to update your store from components anymore (unless it’s onClick/etc)
Redux-First Router automates this and re-calls your thunk as the user navigates from category to category, i.e. from URL to URL. When it comes to server-rendering, RFR really shines — you no longer need to discover which components have data dependencies; the router will resolve all thunks and prepopulate your store for you, before your one and only render. We’ll tackle SSR with RFR in depth in a future article.
As for the videos themselves, they both share the same primary reducer for storing videos by category:
However their loading reducers are slightly different
old loading reducer
Notice the RFR loading reducer responds to the innate LIST type you never had to dispatch, and how match.params.category has moved out of the View Layer to its own simple reducer:
new loading reducer + category reducer
Aside from contextual application of thunks, the most important improvement is actually the simplicity of receiving types and payloads corresponding to routes, as you can see in the screenshot directly above.
The LIST type, remember, is the key/name of one your routes. It’s basically a reference to a URL that was visited. This isn’t just some random type whose awkward name you settled on. This is a page.
To give this some perspective, here’s a quote from the react-router-redux readme:
“You should not read the location state directly from the Redux store. This is because React Router operates asynchronously (to handle things such as dynamically-loaded components) and your component tree may not yet be updated in sync with your Redux state. You should rely on the props passed by React Router, as they are only updated after it has processed all asynchronous code.”
So in short, using React Router, you’re stuck with state in the view layer (and you already know what we think about that). Whereas with Redux-First Router, you can deal with URL state like any other state, and in a natural way. Might I say the way it’s supposed to be.
CONCLUSION
Redux-First Router gives your thunks context based on the URL, and by doing so reduces the number of action creators you need while self-documenting their purpose.
RFR brings into focus the core data-fetching work of your “follow-up” action by removing the need to perform URL/history-related chores and by performing the setup dispatch for you.
RFR forces you to write better, fatter, smarter reducers.
RFR eliminates the “state in the view layer” trap, as well as the aforementioned problems React Router has with syncing to Redux.
RFR’s configuration contract puts the breaks on exploding usage of middleware + thunks by providing you with a familiar yet Redux-specific interface that lends itself to “thin controllers.”
RFR nevertheless works with existing middleware and Apollo.
RFR makes server-rendering a first-class priority that won’t bite you in the butt when it comes time to address it. Code-splitting is equally straightforward.
Redux-First Router uses Redux terminology and idioms and is an excellent impedance match to Redux.
If you haven’t tinkered with it yet, you can do so right here. Here’s the routesMap.js file that has been the focus of today’s analysis:Allen Crabbe, a 6'6 shooting guard from the University of California, has been selected by the Portland Trail Blazers with the No. 31 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. The Blazers acquired the pick from the Cleveland Cavaliers, who gave up a pair of future second rounders, per Jeff Goodman.
Crabbe was expected to be a mid-to-late first-round pick, so for the Blazers to get him with the first pick of the second round -- where he won't have a guaranteed contract, by the way -- is a pretty decent selection. Having already taken C.J. McCollum, Portland has added two players talented at putting the ball in the hoop.
Allen Crabbe scouting report The Pac-12 Player of the Year is projected to go somewhere in the middle of the first round, but should he go higher?
Crabbe is a shooter who averaged at least five three-point shots per game in each of his three NCAA seasons, so he should be able to help stretch the floor on offense at the next level.
He has solid size for an NBA shooting guard, and should contribute immediately as a catch-and-shoot option on the weak side of plays and when working off screens. His mid-range game is solid, but there are questions about his ability to create offense off the dribble against NBA defenders. He is considered a solid defender when he stays focused enough to put in consistent effort on that end of the floor.
If Crabbe wants to make an immediate impact in the NBA, he will likely have to do it as a pure shooter. That's his best and most marketable basketball skill, and any improvements to other areas of his game will be bonuses that help him land additional playing time at the next level.
More from SB Nation:
• Noel way: Kentucky C traded to 76ers for Holiday
• Ziller: Noel’s stunning fall
• Viva Las Vegas! Cavs take Bennett No. 1
• Ziller: John Wall got some tattoos, let's freak out
• Draft resources: Scouting reports | Team Needs | Big Board
• Could KG, Pierce go to Brooklyn?A. Savage (aka Parquet Courts frontman Andrew Savage) has announced his debut solo album as A. Savage. Thawing Dawn arrives October 13 on Dull Tools. The first offering from the project, “Winter in the South” is out now; listen below. The new LP features contributions from Savage’s friends, including members of Woods, Ultimate Painting, PC Worship, EZTV, and Psychic TV. Savage said of the album in a press release, “Once I realized I had a small body of work that didn’t fit anywhere else, I started to examine the commonalities: What’s the common denominator of all this and how I can expand on it?” Savage has also announced a slate of tour dates; they take place in July and November. Find the full itinerary below.
Parquet Courts released Human Performance in 2016. Revisit our feature “Texas Never Whispers: Two Days on Tour With Parquet Courts.”
Thawing Dawn:
01 Buffalo Calf Road Woman
02 Eyeballs
03 Wild Wild Horses
04 Indian Style
05 What Do I Do
06 Phantom Limbo
07 Winter in the South
08 Ladies From Houston
09 Untitled
10 Thawing Dawn
A. Savage:
07-13 Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall!
07-14 Dallas, TX - Foundry Beer Garden!
07-15 Austin, TX - Barracuda!
11-01 Pittsburgh, PA - The Funhouse ^
11-02 Chicago, IL - The Empty Bottle ^
11-03 Detroit, MI - UFO Factory ^
11-04 Columbus, OH - Double Happiness ^
11-05 Louisville, KY - Kaiju ^
11-06 Nashville, TN - The End ^
11-08 Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn ^
11-09 Durham, NC - The Pinhook ^
11-10 Washington, DC - DC9 ^
11-11 Brooklyn, NY - Murmrr Ballroom ^
! with Alex Dupree
^ with Jack Cooper
Watch Parquet Courts’ episode of “Over/Under” on Pitchfork.tv:The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released a proposed re-draft of “commonsense safety standards” for hydraulic fracturing on federal and Indian land a year after its initial proposal generated more than 177,000 mostly negative comments from the public.
According to a May 16 BLM press release, the revised regulations seek "to achieve a balance between commercial and environmental interests, streamlining or loosening many requirements and adopting existing state programs, while providing a federal backstop to ensure protection of water quality and public disclosure."
The BLM manages more than 700 million subsurface acres of federal mineral estate and 56 million subsurface areas of Indian mineral estate across the U.S., most in the West. In May 2012, the BLM proposed the first comprehensive federal regulations on fracking since 1982, focusing on well fluid disclosure, well integrity and water management.
After receiving more than 177,000 comments on that proposal, many critical, BLM withdrew it and re-proposed new regulations in May 2013. Once the proposal is published in the Federal Register, it will be open for public comment for 30 days.
"This is an important proposal," writes environmental and energy law attorney Wayne J D'Angelo on lexology.com, noting there are more than 92,000 oil and gas wells in operation now on federal and Indian lands. "With upwards of 90 percent of all new wells expected to utilize hydraulic fracturing technology, unconventional resources on public lands will play a key role in America’s energy future. Therefore, how we regulate those activities matters."
The Western Energy Alliance issued a May 16 press release calling the BLM's proposed rules "an unnecessary layer of federal regulation" that will inhibit job creation and prevent resources from being developed for energy.
“States have been successfully regulating fracking for decades, including on federal lands, with no incident of contamination that would necessitate redundant federal regulation,” Kathleen Sgamma, the alliance’s vice president of government and public affairs, said in the news release. “DOI [Department of Interior] still has not justified the rule from an economic or scientific point of view."
Of course, many would dispute Sgamma's contentions, especially since there are no definitive studies assessing the environmental effects of fracking.
In 2005, Congress exempted fracking from the Superfund law and the Clean Water, Clean Air, and Safe Drinking Water acts, but it wasn't until September 2010 that the EPA began studying its potential the air and water risks. The $1.9 million study is mired in nettlesome debate about what it will and will not actually study.
There's been little discussion about how the BLM's new regulations will affect hunting and fishing on federal lands, as well as access to public lands leased for energy exploration.
However, several studies are seeping into the public domain from divergent sources, particularly from Pennsylvania, where the effects of fracking (mostly on private and state-owned lands) are allegedly being seen in Keystone state streams.
A study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science released in March "found that fracking has caused Keystone State rivers and streams to be muddier than normal, due to run-off from the construction involved," writes Morgan Lyle on March 21 in The Daily Gazette.
The study concludes that 18 wells in a watershed would increase silt in streams by 5 percent. "Not disastrous, but not good, either," Lyle writes. "And it’s easy to imagine far worse mud pollution any time you have bulldozers grinding through the woods."
A Trout Unlimited survey of 163 Pennsylvania streams for traces of chemical pollution from fracking uncovered another threat: "The most significant impact our members are seeing on the ground is erosion and sedimentation resulting from drilling-related activities, such as construction of well pads, new roads and pipelines,” said Katy Dunlap, Trout Unlimited’s eastern water project director. “This is of particular concern to TU because science has demonstrated at least 15 different direct negative effects from sedimentation on trout and salmon, ranging from stress, altered behavior, reductions in growth and direct mortality."
A Cornell University study of animal owners in six states — Colorado, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas — cited 24 cases where animals were potentially affected by fracking. Cornell is also studying the effects of fracking on trout streams in New York's southern tier.
For more, go to:
-- BLM seeks changes in hydraulic fracking rules
-- BLM proposes revised rules on hydraulic fracturing
-- Department of the Interior releases revised draft rule on hydraulic fracturing
-- A frame of reference for the BLM rule
-- Reasonably Foreseeable Effects of Leasing and Subsequent Activity
-- Leasing on Public Lands
-- Colorado Communities Take On Fight Against Energy Land Leases
-- Enviros return industry fire over access to public lands
-- New Fracking Rules Proposed for U.S. Land
-- FLY-FISHING : Study shows sediment in streams from fracking causes problems
-- Fracking: Myths and Facts
-- Frack-ture: Obama tries to kill U.S. energy
-- Group Asks BLM for Names of Additional Gas Lease Nominators“We see two major trends in the legal profession,” said Warren Zysman, the clinical director of the EARS Recovery Program in Smithtown, N.Y., a medically supervised chemical dependency program, and the former chief executive of Addiction Care Interventions, a rehabilitation center in Manhattan for professionals, including lawyers. “One is the opioid addiction, and the other is use of benzodiazepines like Xanax.”
In recent years, he said, “we’re seeing a significant rate of increase specifically among attorneys using prescription medications that become a gateway to street drugs.” It used to be mostly alcohol, he said, “but now almost every attorney that comes in for treatment, even if they drink, they are using drugs, too — Xanax, Adderall, opiates, cocaine and crack.”
Opioids and stimulants often go hand in hand with alcohol. In fact, drugs are sometimes used to combat the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.
Brian Cuban, a lawyer in recovery for alcohol and drug addiction and the author of the memoir “The Addicted Lawyer: Tales of the Bar, Booze, Blow and Redemption,” would regularly show up for work drunk and do a few lines of cocaine to be able to perform. “I was doing coke in the bathroom in the morning to recover from hangovers,” he said. “Cocaine got me back on focus.”
In addition to having a private practice at the time, Mr. Cuban was working for his well-known brother, the businessman Mark Cuban, who threatened to fire Brian if he didn’t get sober. “I kept thinking: ‘I’m not going to rehab. I’m a lawyer, lawyers don’t go to rehab, they aren’t in 12-step programs,’” he said. “Of course, half the people I know in my 12-step program are lawyers.”
Lisa Smith, a lawyer and recovering alcoholic and drug addict, said the only way she was able to perform in her marketing job at the firm Pillsbury Winthrop in the early 2000s was by using cocaine to deal with alcohol withdrawal symptoms. “I was drinking during the day and at night,” said Ms. Smith, now deputy executive director of the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler in New York and author of the memoir “Girl Walks Out of a Bar.” “I did coke because it would allow me to straighten up enough to show up to work in the afternoon.”
Professional stress also plays a role, said Dr. Daniel Angres, an associate professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “Law firms have a culture of keeping things underground, a conspiracy of silence,” he said. “There is a desire not to embarrass people, and as long as they are performing, it’s easier to just avoid it. And there’s a lack of understanding that addiction is a disease.”An apocalyptic force will strike Gotham. Arkham City will collapse. The criminals and lunatics held within it (some familiar, some new to the series) will spill out into Gotham City and even further afield. And something even worse and and more far-reaching than even that will happen. Batman will fight to save the innocent and to save himself, in a story which will take in multiple playable heroes, two different, brand-new cities, and heavy themes of personal responsibility and vindication. Batman will struggle to contain the spiralling doomsday scenario, while also being forced to defend his very existence as Batman. Oh, and a face from the past will turn up to mess things up royally.
How do I know this? I don’t yet. Not for definite. But I am very, very sure indeed that I’m right about a lot of it. Since I started playing Arkham City at the beginning of October, I’ve been fine-toothing it for every detail, clue and teaser pertaining to the storyline of the next game. Rocksteady like leaving those in, you see. And there are a lot. Quite a few more than you might think, in fact. If you want the explanations for my predictions, and a whole lot more detail, naturally, you’ll find them ahead, starting with plot and themes on this page, before moving to settings, heroes and villains over pages two and three. But naturally, given how much of Arkham City's plot I have to discuss in this article, you should know that
Right then, shall we crack on?
Batman vs. the angel of death
This is the most important clue dropped by Arkham City. Azrael is in Gotham now, and his arrival means very big, very serious business. He’s the mysterious ‘Watcher in the Wings’ you’ll track across Arkham City in the side-mission of the same name, and when you finally pin him down he spills some really big revelations regarding Batman’s future.
In case you don’t know who Azrael is, he’s the near-superhumanly conditioned enforcing agent of a centuries-old secret religious society called The Sacred Order of Saint Dumas. Originally a splinter group from the Knights Templar, The Order is a fanatical sect of religious warriors, not dissimilar to a holier-than-thou version of Ra’s Al Ghul’s League of Assassins. The centuries-old Ra’s actually hung out with the original Dumas. He once appraised him as a vicious nutjob. Yeah, Ra’s Al Ghul described someone else as a vicious nutjob. Depending on its intentions, The Order's presence in Gotham could mean big trouble.
Azrael warns Batman that from the ashes of Arkham, Gotham will burn. He tells him that despite his victory in Arkham, Batman will eventually burn too. He states that Batman's saving of this current day will directly lead to the events he warns about. Ambiguous. Apocalyptic. Fairly terrifying. Batman is definitely going to be dealing with something much bigger and further reaching than a bunch of whackos and street thugs next time.
Gotham will fall to Arkham
Here’s what will happen. Arkham City is going to burst out into the main city of Gotham. Walls broken down, every major crime boss, super-villain and street-hood pouring out to engulf the city. Everything points in that direction. With Doctor Strange and TYGER gone, Arkham City is effectively done as a secure facility. During Arkham City’s extensive end-game you’ll hear repeated thug ponderings regarding the future of the place.
Above: This sort of thing
One explicitly muses on the stupidity of re-housing them in increasingly large prisons, while another assumes that AC will be shut down. Looking back to the original Arkham Asylum from a high enough vantage point in the Industrial District, it’s clear that Poison Ivy’s plants still dominate the facility, making it a fairly infeasible option for relocation. But I think something big is going to happen before the Gotham authorities get a chance to make a decision on what happens next.
Un-natural disasters
There have been earthquakes in Arkham City. This is referenced in one of the unlockable Arkham City Stories files in-game. That’s why around a third of the city is broken and submerged. Hugo Strange glossed over the disaster as a one-off localised incident, but Hugo Strange, frankly, was full of shit.
Above: You might think it's a wreck now, but it's going to get a lot worse
While I don’t think Strange was in on the earthquake, I do think that it was artificially engineered. In fact I’m sure it was in one way or another. Consider the following. The Cataclysm/No Man’s Land storyline from the comics (by which Arkham City is arguably inspired) concerns an earthquake which rocks Gotham to its foundations, culminating in the city being officially cut off and left to fend for itself. Although a natural disaster, the Ventriloquist attempted to take credit, under the assumed guise of the Quakemaster. With the Sacred Order of St. Dumas now keeping an eye on things, it’s no great jump of logic to assume that they might be responsible for razing Arkham City to the ground in punishment for the moral crimes Gotham committed against itself in creating the place.
The Order could of course though be here purely in an advisory capacity, to warn Batman. As reader linorn has pointed out in the comments, Ra's Al Ghul's mining operations in aid of re-securing his Lazarus Pit could be the cause of the quake, though that would still further establish the theme of man-made disasters. Either way though, Arkham City is a powder-keg waiting to go off, and someone is about to light it up. The earthquake is foreshadowing at the very least. And that eventual ignition is going to be partly caused by the fact that...
The Joker has escaped (and is a dad)
He has not died. He has escaped. The shock ending of Arkham City is powerfully affecting, but look back over the evidence. He’s spent the entirety of the game bluffing and double-bluffing Batman regarding his state of health. He’s The goddamn Joker. His M.O. is to play sick pranks to sadistic ends, and in order to manipulate people into doing what he wants them to. And now, at the end of Arkham City, Batman has carried him right out of the front door of the very prison he wanted to escape from. Coincidence? I don’t think so. This is all part of the plan. Life-restoring Lazarus Pits now exist in Rocksteady’s Gotham. They could be part of the plan too. If he’s even really dead at all.
The Joker may well be part of the impending cataclysm. He’ll almost certainly be part of a jail-break plan from outside the prison walls. His escape bid may even all be part of a greater conspiracy with a third party. But the really mind-blowing bit? He's going to have a kid.
Yeah. Harley is pregnant. Fact. And she'll have had the baby by the time the next game comes around. If you spot her positive pregnancy test before you complete the game, you'll hear her rather venomously singing to the baby over the end credits. Unless she's already had the kid and has been hiding it throughout the duration of Arkham City, that obviously sets the next game around nine months later. This will have serious effects on The Joker's relationship with Batman, trust me. But I'll get onto that on page three.
On the off-chance that he is actually dead though, expect to see Harley on the warpath, gunning for Batman and possibly responsible for the incoming destruction herself. She does, after all, threaten to kill "the whole damn world" in her easter egg lullaby.
Breaking (and replacing) the bat
Okay, a brief history of Bats and Az. The first Azrael Batman encountered was Jean-Paul Valley, a college student unwittingly groomed since pre-birth to become The Order’s enforcer. He eventually broke free of their control, joined Batman, and swung between hero and anti-hero for some time. Being utterly rock-hard, Azrael made a great ally, but after years of conditioning as an angel of lethal religious retribution he had an unfortunate habit of being a bit nuts and not holding back on the killing when the mood took him. That obviously caused big problems when he took over as Batman for a while, when Bruce Wayne had his back broken by Bane in the Knightfall storyline.
Above: Like so...
The current Azrael though, and the one specified by Arkham City in his unlockable character bio, is Michael Lane. An ex-cop and ex-Marine, Lane is a supremely screwed-up individual. Once part of a secret military/police project to create three new Batmen in case anything happened to the real one, he had his mind broken by the horrors of the nightmarish conditioning.regime. He was later recruited as the new Azrael by The Order of Purity, a splinter group of The Sacred Order of Saint Dumas. Madder and more volatile than Valley, he’s repeatedly carried out vengeful missions for his employers and others, including a recent Ra’s-Al-Ghul-sponsored bid to detonate all of Gotham, should the city’s heroes be judged unworthy or impure.
The secret project that gave Lane his abilities though, was a dark and sinister one run by the equally dark and sinister Dr. Simon Hurt, a psychologist, psychopath, and otherwise very bad man. Basically, this guy makes Dr. Strange look like Patch Adams, and has been hell-bent on replacing and/or utterly physically and mentally destroying Batman for a few years now. With Lane so inherently tied in to Hurt’s “Ghosts of Batman” project, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of that stuff, at least thematically, bleed over into the new game.
Batman on the ropes? Certainly. An over-arcing plot to destroy him personally at the same time as he deals with a devastating |
personally. Now the justice system must take its course, and any of those found guilty of abusing the public’s trust should and will be punished,” the governor said in a statement sent to the Observer, vowing to pursue ethics reform in next year’s legislative session. “Changes need to be made to restore faith at every level of government. My administration has taken a number of steps in the past several months to reform the procurement process, and has proposed additional measures for the Legislature to take up when they return.”
The governor has also pointedly refused to stop taking campaign donations from companies seeking contracts with the state.
Last year, Bharara convicted two members of the infamous “three men in a room” troika which controls New York State government: former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and ex-State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos.
Updated to include comment from Cuomo and from Miller.More than 1 million views for tinnitus research topic in less than 2 years
— By Dr. Christopher R. Cederroth, Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, Research Topic Editor
In recent years open-access online journals have become more and more important in scientific communication. Their main feature — free access to scientific publications — eases scientific exchange and democratizes research. Complete access to the latest scientific findings is no longer restricted to those with access to well-equipped libraries or who can afford expensive journal subscriptions. Instead, every researcher and interested person has the possibility to get the most recent information.
But online research platforms have another important feature that might have even more impact: shaping future research directions through measuring the societal impact of scientific articles.
Traditionally, the importance of scientific articles was mainly defined by the impact factor of the journal in which it was published. The decision of which articles are considered for publishing in these journals is taken by the editorial board. Publication in high-impact journals is still the main evaluation criterion in scientific careers as well as for the allocation of research money.
Thus, current research directions are mainly defined by a scientific elite. This practice has many merits, but is a very conservative approach. It favors established research fields and makes it difficult for new emerging research areas to attract funding and stabilize tenure tracks. Furthermore, this approach clearly favors the scientists’ perspectives over the public perspective — but since research resources originate mainly from taxpayers money, metrics that determine public relevance are desirable.
While conventional print journals could not precisely measure how frequently a scientific article was viewed, exact metrics are now available from online publishers. This makes it possible to assess the wider relevance and interest of a research article.
Frontiers, one of the most innovative open-access science platforms, extends this assessment to an entire research area. The publisher offers the possibility to publish papers from multiple disciplines as a research topic on a particular theme. Managed and disseminated on Frontiers’ customized online platform, these highly visible collections increase the discoverability and readership of articles both within and between different fields. More than 4,500 such research topics have currently been created, and all provide metrics on the number of views and shares.
Such metrics suggest that our recent research topic on tinnitus — Towards the heterogeneity of tinnitus — has a very broad scientific and public appeal. Initiated by the Tinnitus Research Initiative and the EU-funded TINNET project, the research topic includes articles from the fields of neuroscience, neurology, medicine, psychology, genetics and pharmacology. Opened on 18 February 2016, the combined article views for the topic recently passed the 1 million mark, with viewers coming from around the world. This is a major achievement for a niche research area.
Tinnitus, the phantom perception of sounds, is a severely underfunded research area, considering its socioeconomic impact. “The massive public interest in this research topic showcases that tinnitus is a highly relevant societal issue,” says Berthold Langguth from the Tinnitus Research Initiative, also Topic Editor.
The number of views was also boosted by a dissemination plan established by us, the editors, which included connecting with academic researchers as well as patient organizations. For instance, many of the articles from the research topic have been featured by the online patient forum Tinnitus Talk.
“Tinnitus sufferers are in such need of new treatments, they often want the most recent research as fast as scientists do,” says Dr. Winfried Schlee, chair of TINNET.
The success of this research topic shows that scientific articles on tinnitus are not only interesting for specialized researchers and clinicians, but also for a large public audience. We hope that this clear public interest will no longer be neglected in future decisions on research priorities.
The success also demonstrates the value of online, open science platforms. Such wide engagement of researchers, patient organizations and the public was only possible thanks to a sophisticated digital platform to connect disparate fields and interested people, and the ability for everyone to freely access, read and share each article. This powerful approach tremendously increases the impact of scientific research.Worth Re-Collecting?
This was never my favorite issue of the four new Supermen and it still isn’t. It’s an introductory issue for the character and I don’t feel like we learn an awful lot about the Cyborg compared to Steel or Superboy. He shows up tosses Doomsday, confronts Lois and gets tested, that’s it.
I did like how the Superman was slowly revealed. He was shadowed for the first half of the issue created suspense, what we see looks like the Superman we know. This would have been better if he hadn’t been revealed in the final pages of Adventures of Superman #500 and the cover of this very issue!
The tossing of Doomsday into space reminds me of the Superman films and the Phantom Zone where Jor-El hurls Zod and his cronies into space but the way that the Cyborg Superman acts is straight of the "The Terminator." He acts with robotic, with a singular mission and will battle through anything to get it just like the T-800 in the search for Sarah Connor.Tim Kaine speaks to students on the Florida A&M University campus in Tallahassee, Florida on August 26. | AP Photo Kaine links Trump to 'Ku Klux Klan values'
Picking up where his running mate Hillary Clinton left off a day earlier in her speech tying Donald Trump to far-right fringe politics, Tim Kaine said Friday that “Ku Klux Klan values, David Duke values, Donald Trump values are not American values.”
Speaking at a voter registration event at historically black Florida A&M University, the Virginia senator once again tied Trump to Duke, the former Louisiana state legislator and KKK grand wizard. Duke has been effusive in his praise of Trump, saying at one point that "voting against Donald Trump at this point is really treason to your heritage.”
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Offered an opportunity to repudiate Duke’s endorsement during an interview on CNN, Trump initially said he wasn't familiar with his views, although he said in subsequent interviews, “I don’t need his endorsement; I certainly wouldn’t want his endorsement.”
At his Friday rally, Kaine said Clinton’s speech had called “him out on the fact that he has supporters like David Duke, connected with the Ku Klux Klan, who are going around and saying Donald Trump is their candidate because Donald Trump is pushing their values.”
“Ku Klux Klan values, David Duke values, Donald Trump values are not American values,” he continued. “They’re not our values, and we’ve got to do all we can to fight to push back and win, to say that we’re still about heading towards that North Star that we set out so long ago.”
In her speech Thursday, Clinton said Trump has a "long history of racial discrimination" and accused him of trafficking "in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far reaches of the Internet." Trump shot back that such accusations of racism represented a "tired, disgusting argument" that Democratic politicians rely on to discredit opponents.
Kaine also attacked Trump for being “a main guy behind the scurrilous and I would say bigoted notion that President Obama wasn’t even born in this country.” He compared Trump’s ties to white supremacist groups and the lawsuit filed against him for discriminatory housing practices with Clinton’s work for the Children’s Defense Fund and Kaine’s own work as a civil rights attorney.
Of that comparison, Kaine said, “That’s the difference in this election, and that’s the stakes.”
In a statement, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus condemned Kaine's remarks.
“Tim Kaine sunk to new lows with dirty and deplorable attacks which have no place in this campaign. No matter how desperate he is to distract from his running mate Hillary Clinton’s litany of corruption scandals, there is no excuse for these vile and baseless smears.”This post was contributed by a community member.
Mystery Cargo Ship MV Thorco Svendborg Remains Anchored For Weeks No Explanation
The 400 foot long 63 foot wide Chinese cargo ship MV Thorco Svendborg left New Bedford after leaving a few small wind turbine parts at the New Bedford South Terminal after a brief stay at the terminal.
Since then the MV Thorco Svendborg has remained anchored for nearly two weeks about 16 miles South of Newport, Rhode Island. The ship that brought them to the port is currently anchored offshore for reasons unknown.
On July 6, 2015 New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, civic leaders and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center were on scene at the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal. They were there to greet the Chinese cargo ship MV Thorco Svendborg literally carrying 4 massive wind turbines to be delivered from New Bedford to Plymouth.
The MV Thorco Svendborg left New Bedford on July 9, 2015 leaving a few small wind turbine parts at the New Bedford South Terminal.
Since July 9, 2015 the MV Thorco Svendborg has remained anchored for over a week about 16 miles South of Newport, Rhode Island. The marine traffic still has it listed with a destination of New Bedford. To date no one has seen the wind turbine blades, gear boxes or the massive 100 ton plus mono poles. Since its first appearance the 400 foot plus cargo ship has spent over ten days in the area.
There is an ongoing mystery over where the large turbine parts are and why the MV Thorco Svendborg remains anchored at the end of Vineyard Sound 20 miles from the Port of Providence, Rhode Island.
An international shipping company doesn't anchor a 400 foot plus cargo boat for weeks on end for free?
A news media report stated the turbines would be taken from the New Bedford terminal down Rte 6 by a land route to Plymouth. The weight limit on the three bridges from New Bedford to Fairhaven have limits of around 15, 20 and 30 tons. The sections to the turbines are 100 plus tons each.
The wind turbines ultimately being shipped to Plymouth are four massive Gamesa G97 turbines. The turbines are 25 percent larger than the Fairhaven and Falmouth wind turbines and have a rating of 2 megawatts.
Last Position Received
Info Received: (2015-07-19 15:03)
Area: Atlantic NorthLatitude / Longitude:41.34669° / -71.29631°
Status: At AnchorSpeed/Course: 0.1kn / -
AIS Source: Click here to : Show on live map
Wind:
9 knotsWind direction: SW (243o)Temperature: 22oC
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:685703/mmsi:477111500/vessel:THORCO%20SVENDBORG/_:fc17e9bfde474d42e53f52076df1ecc2
THORCO SVENDBORG - General Cargo: current position and details | IMO 9426570, MMSI 477111500, Callsign VREH9 | Registered in Hong Kong - AIS Marine Traffic
marinetraffic.comMost of us commonly think of Social Security as almost synonymous with retirement — but it was never planned to be.
When it was established in the 1930s it was set up to be primarily an anti-poverty program—or “social insurance”—dealing with old age, poverty, unemployment, and the burdens of widows and fatherless children.
The stock market crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression collapsed incomes across the board and wiped out the savings of many of the elderly. The government responded by implementing Social Security to remedy many of these economic ills.
Strictly speaking, it was never intended to be a retirement plan as much as a supplement for lost wages.
The Depression is now deep in the history books and with it, the original intent of Social Security. Today it’s mostly seen as a retirement plan.
But is it really?
Why you can’t rely on Social Security alone
For millions of people, Social Security will be either the biggest portion of income they will receive in retirement, or even the only income they have during their retirement years.
Can we rely on it to that degree?
According to the Social Security Administration the maximum social security benefit is $2,513 a month. The minimum benefit–are you ready for this—is one dollar!
Most people will fall somewhere in between, and that doesn’t sound at all like a plan that can be relied upon to insure a comfortable retirement. That’s why we all need to have other sources of income in place.
Think of Social Security as just one part of your retirement planning
We should never ignore Social Security as an income source in retirement—we just shouldn’t count too heavily on it for planning purposes.
Once again, according to the Social Security Administration, the the average monthly benefit is $1,230, or just about exactly halfway between the $1 minimum and the $2,513 maximum.
With the cost of living being what it is today that’s a true supplement and little more.
One of the complications we have with developing a more balanced approach to retirement planning is that relatively few employers have traditional defined benefit pension plans any more. That eliminates what was once a reliable component of retirement income.
In a very real sense when it comes to retirement planning, we’re truly on our own.
Even though retirement is an event that’s decades away for many, when it comes to retirement planning, there’s a definite element of carpe diem, or seize the day. As in this day—we need to be working now to be ready for a retirement that will be mostly the product our own efforts.
Building other sources of retirement income
Since we know that we can’t rely on employers and the government to provide even the majority of our retirement income, we should have all the incentive we need to make our own arrangements.
The two primary alternate income sources can be either self directed retirement plans or some form of post-retirement employment or self-employment. The combination of both would be ideal. (Work in retirement sounds like an oxymoron, but I’ll show you why it could be important in a moment).
Self-directed retirement plans have become a retirement planning necessity, and for a number of reasons they can be even better than traditional company pensions:
They’re generally tax deductible, which is an outstanding benefit while your saving;
Employer sponsored plans often include an employer match that’s like found money;
Since they’re self-directed we can take on as much risk—or risk avoidance—as we choose;
Unlike traditional pensions, we always know what we have in self-directed plans;
There’s less chance that a 401k plan will be squandered or poorly invested as sometimes happens with pension funds;
By maximizing contributions it’s possible to build a plan that dwarfs a traditional pension plan.
When it comes to self-directed retirement plans, we need to plunge in with all the financial resources we have.
Now, let’s get back to that working in retirement thing.
There are several strong reasons why you might want to have a work plan for your retirement years:
Working past retirement age is a way to preserve and extend retirement savings for years;
Working can provide some insurance against a less than expected retirement portfolio, or even a post-retirement stock market slide;
Employment income can form the third part of a retirement plan that includes Social Security and retirement investment income;
By working and delaying collecting Social Security until age 70 you can increase your monthly benefit by up to 32%.
Most of us think of retirement as a complete end to work, but as you can see there are compelling reasons why you might want to delay full retirement by at least a few years. At a minimum, having some sort of post-retirement employment/self-employment will keep open some options that will be good ones to have.
The low numbers on Social Security benefits shouldn’t be seen as a source of concern nearly as much as we should use them as a wake up call to make our own arrangements for retirement income—as if we need any more incentive…Pearland police arrested a woman Tuesday for allegedly stealing packages off of a couple’s porch.
Authorities say Alyssa Spikes, 23, was caught on home surveillance footage stealing packages from the home just after 3 p.m. last Thursday. Police say the video was viewed more than 600,000 times after it was posted to the victim’s Facebook page.
According to officials, after Spikes saw the footage of herself on TV and on Facebook, she dyed her hair from red to black in hopes of disguising herself.
To keep your packages safe during the holiday season, Pearland police recommend:
• Don't trust the email or text notifications for delivery. There can be a delay from 3 to 30 minutes between delivery and notification, plenty of time for a thief to steal a package.
• Require signatures on all package deliveries
• Have packages delivered to a place of business
• If packages are delivered by UPS, they offer a free service called 'Access Point' where customers can reroute the package to any UPS store. The service is free and is done online with UPS or call UPS customer service. Have the package tracking number.
• Consider having packages delivered to attended site, such as the UPS store or other local package store. Contact the store to register for delivery then they will receive and hold packages for you. There is a small fee, usually around $5 per package, with heavier packages costing more. They'll call you when your package arrives.
Police also urge if you're at home during the day, be alert and report all crime and suspicious activity to the police. If you see a package being stolen from a neighbor’s home, call 911, and consider a motion-activated or continually recorded home video surveillance system.Cool Tech of the Week: Solar Water Lilies
May 17th, 2008 by Michelle Bennett
Apparently Peter Richardson knew when he submitted a winning solar design to the International Design Awards. His idea is to turn disused water ways into functional space by populating them with solar panels shaped like water lilies. Aiming to increase quality of life, while generating energy, the lilies so impressed the Glasgow City Council that they expressed interest in developing a pilot project.
The technology itself is easily within reach:
“They can be moved and dismantled and are simply tethered to the river bed, integrated motors can rotate the discs so their orientation to the sun is maximised throughout the day.” (Project Description)
In other words, no new technology required, just some clever design. My concern would be recreational or commercial river traffic (how “disused”must the waterway be?). Would waves from wake disrupt the solar lilies? What about an impact on wildlife or wildlife’s impact on the panels? What if the river ices over in the winter? One hopes a pilot project would figure out the kinks.
What do readers think – would a product like this in your local water way make an impact on your community? (More images here)
Congratulations to Mr. Richardson and his firm, ZM Architecture for winning the Land and Sea Architecture award of the International Design Awards.
via BBC
Related links:
4 Things to Consider before Going Solar
Solar Leases Take Industry by Storm
Solar Thermal Housing Development
Image via the International Design AwardsJosh Sawyer (born October 18, 1975), is an American video game designer, known for his work on role-playing video games.
Early life and education [ edit ]
Sawyer grew up in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, and is the son of Linda Sawyer and sculptor Gerald P. Sawyer.[2] He is of German ancestry.[3] He earned a BA degree from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. In addition to being a history major, Sawyer participated in the theater (including mounting a production of Assassins). After Lawrence, Sawyer moved to California.
Career [ edit ]
Starting as a web designer at Black Isle Studios in 1999, he quickly worked his way up the ladder to an associate designer position and then lead designer on Icewind Dale II.[4][5] While at Black Isle he was known for coming up with the "Ex-Presidents" project naming system.
In November 2003 Sawyer announced his departure from Black Isle, where he had been serving as lead designer of Fallout 3, to pursue other projects.[6] Interplay went on to close Black Isle two weeks after Sawyer's departure.[7]
On July 19, 2005, GameSpot reported that he had left Midway's Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows, and was accepting a position at Obsidian Entertainment, a studio founded and staffed by many veterans of Black Isle. His first role was as the lead designer for Neverwinter Nights 2.[8]
He later acted as the project director and lead designer of Fallout: New Vegas. In December 2011 Sawyer publicly released a New Vegas mod designed for his own personal use adding a large variety of small tweaks to the game ranging from rebalancing the karma of certain characters to slowing down the level up speed.[9] As of November 2012, this mod is up to version 5.1 which was released in September 2012.[10]
He also served as the project director and lead designer on the Aliens RPG.[11] Sega, the game's planned publisher, subsequently canceled the project resulting in layoffs at Obsidian.[12] According to Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart, the game - titled Aliens: Crucible[13] - "looked and felt like it was ready to ship".[14][15]
In 2012, with Obsidian on the brink of financial disaster after the cancellation of another project by a publisher, Sawyer proposed the company return to its design roots by making an isometric RPG in the style of those created at Black Isle. Arguing there was a market for this type of game among fans, Sawyer suggested turning to the platform Kickstarter to secure funding for development without a publisher. He succeeded in persuading company leadership, and the game, Pillars of Eternity, met its Kickstarter funding goal of 1.1 million dollars in 27 hours. It ultimately raised nearly four million dollars, setting a Kickstarter record at the time.[16][17][18] Sawyer later served as the director and narrative designer on its sequel, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, which was also crowdfunded and released in 2018.
Works [ edit ]Not to be confused with flavored fortified wines
A glass of port, a fortified wine
Fortified wine is a wine to which a distilled spirit, usually brandy, is added.[1] Many different styles of fortified wine have been developed, including Port, Sherry, Madeira, Marsala, Commandaria wine, and the aromatised wine Vermouth.[2]
Production [ edit ]
One reason for fortifying wine was to preserve it, since ethanol is a natural antiseptic. Even though other preservation methods now exist, fortification continues to be used because the process can add distinct flavors to the finished product.[3][4]
Although grape brandy is most commonly added to produce fortified wines, the additional alcohol may also be neutral spirit that has been made from grapes, grain, sugar beets or sugarcane. Regional appellation laws may dictate the types of spirit that are permitted for fortification. For example, in the U.S. only spirits from grapes may be used.
The source of the additional alcohol and the method of its distillation can affect the flavour of the fortified wine. If neutral spirit is used, it will usually have been produced with a continuous still, rather than a pot still.[2]
When added to wine before the fermentation process is complete, the alcohol in the distilled beverage kills the yeast and leaves residual sugar behind. The end result is a wine that is both sweeter and stronger, normally containing about 20% alcohol by volume (ABV).
During the fermentation process, yeast cells in the must continue to convert sugar into alcohol until the must reaches an alcohol level of 16%–18%. At this level, the alcohol becomes toxic to the yeast and kills it. If fermentation is allowed to run to completion, the resulting wine will (in most cases) be low in sugar and will be considered a dry wine. The earlier in the fermentation process that alcohol is added, the sweeter the resulting wine will be. For drier fortified wine styles, such as sherry, the alcohol is added shortly before or after the end of the fermentation.
In the case of some fortified wine styles (such as late harvest and botrytized wines), a naturally high level of sugar will inhibit the yeast. This causes fermentation to stop before the wine can become dry.[2]
Varieties [ edit ]
Commandaria wine [ edit ]
The commandaria wine tasting
Commandaria is made in Cyprus' unique AOC region north of Limassol from high altitude vines of Mavro and Xynisteri, sun dried and aged in oak barrels. Recent developments have produced different styles of Commandaria, some of which are not fortified.
Madeira wine [ edit ]
Madeira is a fortified wine made in the Madeira Islands. The wine is produced in a variety of styles ranging from dry wines which can be consumed on their own as an aperitif, to sweet wines more usually consumed with dessert. Madeira is deliberately heated and oxidised as part of its maturation process, resulting in distinctive flavours and an unusually long lifespan once a bottle is opened.
Marsala wine [ edit ]
Marsala wine is a wine from Sicily that is available in both fortified and unfortified versions.[5] It was first produced in 1772 by an English merchant, John Woodhouse, as an inexpensive substitute for sherry and port,[6] and gets its name from the island's port, Marsala.[5] The fortified version is blended with brandy to make two styles, the younger, slightly weaker Fine, which is at least 17% abv and aged at least four months; and the Superiore, which is at least 18%, and aged at least two years. The unfortified Marsala wine is aged in wooden casks for five years or more and reaches a strength of 18% by evaporation.[5]
Mistelle [ edit ]
Mistelle (Italian: mistella; French: mistelle; Spanish, Portuguese, Galician and Catalan: mistela, from Latin mixtella/ mixtvm "mix") is sometimes used as an ingredient in fortified wines, particularly Vermouth, Marsala and Sherry, though it is used mainly as a base for apéritifs such as the French Pineau des Charentes.[7] It is produced by adding alcohol to non-fermented or partially fermented grape juice (or apple juice to make pommeau).[8] The addition of alcohol stops the fermentation and, as a consequence Mistelle is sweeter than fully fermented grape juice in which the sugars turn to alcohol.[9]
Moscatel de Setúbal [ edit ]
Moscatel de Setúbal is a Portuguese wine produced around the Setúbal Municipality on the Península de Setúbal. The wine is made primarily from the Muscat of Alexandria grape and typically fortified with aguardente. The style was believed to have been invented by José Maria da Fonseca, the founder of the oldest table wine company in Portugal dating back to 1834.
Port wine [ edit ]
A 10-year tawny port
Port wine (also known simply as Port) is a fortified wine from the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal.[10] It is typically a sweet red wine, but also comes in dry, semi-dry and white varieties.
Sherry [ edit ]
Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the town of Jerez, Spain. The word "sherry" itself is an anglicisation of Jerez. In earlier times, sherry was known as sack (from the Spanish saca, meaning "a removal from the solera"). In the European Union "sherry" is a protected designation of origin; therefore, all wine labelled as "sherry" must legally come from the Sherry Triangle, which is an area in the province of Cádiz between Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María.[11]
After fermentation is complete, sherry is fortified with brandy. Because the fortification takes place after fermentation, most sherries are initially dry, with any sweetness being added later. In contrast, port wine (for example) is fortified halfway through its fermentation, which stops the process so that not all of the sugar is turned into alcohol.
Sherry is produced in a variety of styles, ranging from dry, light versions such as finos to much darker and sometimes sweeter versions known as olorosos.[citation needed] Cream sherry is always sweet.
Vermouth [ edit ]
Vermouth is a fortified wine flavoured with aromatic herbs and spices ("aromatised" in the trade) using closely guarded recipes (trade secrets). Some of the herbs and spices used may include cardamom, cinnamon, marjoram and chamomile.[12] Some vermouth is sweetened; however, unsweetened or dry, vermouth tends to be bitter. The person credited with the second vermouth recipe, Antonio Benedetto Carpano from Turin, Italy, chose to name his concoction "vermouth" in 1786 because he was inspired by a German wine flavoured with wormwood, an herb most famously used in distilling absinthe. However, wine flavoured with wormwood goes back to ancient Rome. The modern German word Wermut (Wermuth in the spelling of Carpano's time) means both wormwood and vermouth. The herbs were originally used to mask raw flavours of cheaper wines,[13] imparting a slightly medicinal "tonic" flavor.
Vins doux naturels [ edit ]
A Grenache-based VdN from Rasteau
Vins doux naturels are lightly fortified wines typically made from white Muscat grapes or red Grenache grapes in the south of France. The production of vins doux naturels was perfected by Arnaud de Villeneuve at the University of Montpellier in the 13th century and they are now quite common in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France.
As the name suggests, Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise, Muscat de Rivesaltes and Muscat de Frontignan are all made from the white Muscat grape, whilst Banyuls and Maury are made from red Grenache. Regardless of the grape, fermentation is stopped by the addition of up to 10% of a 190 proof (95%) grape spirit.[14] The Grenache vins doux naturels can be made in an oxidised or unoxidised style whereas the Muscat wines are protected from oxidation to retain their freshness.[15]
Low-end fortified wines [ edit ]
Inexpensive fortified wines, such as Thunderbird and Wild Irish Rose, became popular during the Great Depression for their relatively high alcohol content. The term wino was coined during this period to describe impoverished people who drank these wines solely for their inebriating effect.[16]
These wines continue to be associated with the homeless, mainly because marketers have been aggressive in targeting low-income communities as ideal consumers of these beverages; organisations in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland have urged makers of inexpensive fortified wine, including E & J Gallo Winery, to stop providing such products to liquor stores in impoverished areas.[17] In 2005, the Seattle City Council asked the Washington State Liquor Control Board to prohibit the sale of certain alcohol products in an impoverished "Alcohol Impact Area." Among the products sought to be banned were over two dozen beers, and six fortified wines: Cisco, Gino's Premium Blend, MD 20/20, Night Train, Thunderbird, and Wild Irish Rose.[18] The Liquor Control Board approved these restrictions on August 30, 2006.[19]
Gwaha-ju is a fortified rice wine made in Korea.[20][21] Although rice wine is not made from grapes, it has a similar alcohol content to grape wine, and the addition of the distilled spirit, soju, and other ingredients like ginseng, jujubes, ginger, etc., to the rice wine, bears similarity to the above-mentioned fortified wines.
Terminology [ edit ]
Fortified wines are often termed dessert wines in the United States to avoid association with hard drinking.[22] The term "Vins de liqueur" is used by the French.[23]
Under European Union legislation, a liqueur wine is a fortified wine that contains 15–22% abv, with Total Alcoholic Strength no less than 17.5%, and that meets many additional criteria. Exemptions are allowed for certain quality liqueur wines.[24]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]by Georgi Stankov, September 3, 2013
www.stankovuniversallaw.com
Expect a huge energy shift in the next 24-48 hours. This is the latest information from the Elohim and I can assure you that I have already started experiencing the massive inflow of source energies in my left brain portal. Today will be another hard day for all of you, but we have not expected anything else in these last days prior to our ascension.
I can also confirm that the last two days were also very strenuous, with massive cleansing due to the following fact. After Carla was lost in the synthetic worlds, which the dark archons have created around the earth as to trap the ascending human beings, the source sent a huge photon wave from the central sun on the earth on September 1st and 2nd as to eradicate these synthetic worlds. Much of them were already obliterated and the pathways for ascension are now free again. This latest photon wave triggered one massive final cleansing.
However, there are still some rest pockets of these synthetic worlds that exist in a different version. Yesterday Carla made another journey to these worlds and got trapped again. At the same time I was retrieved from the earth and could bring her back safe from the level of my HS. Now these synthetic worlds will also be eliminated by the current energy inflow from the Source. This is just one aspect of the massive energy surge in the coming 24-48 hours. There is much more to this.
The veil to the 5D has been almost eliminated now, so that you will begin to feel and experience the new 5D world in a very tangible manner. Many parts of the 8th to 12th levels of this 4D earth are now fully entering the 5th dimension. I have moved in the last several days to the 4th level of 5D and Carla has moved to the 2-3 levels of 5D from her last position on the 12th level of 4D. The entire PAT has also ascended from the 12th level of 4D now to the 5th dimension. This is the latest information from the Elohim, which I can also confirm from my HS.
The current shift will propel all of us much higher one more time in preparation for the detonation of the PAT supernova. Everything is proceeding according to the ascension plan as previously outlined and even the synthetic worlds of the dark archons will not interfere with our ascension process.. These artificial worlds were known to the source and the forces of light since long time but only now have we reached the necessary energetic threshold to eradicate them parallel to the incremental detonation of the PAT supernova in these last days.
One final warning. Due to these massive final cleansing waves of photon energy from the Central sun, some most vicious and resistant dark entities that have somehow managed to hide until now in the deepest recesses of darkness have begun to emerge, so that you should reckon with some weak attacks from these desperate dark ones who can no longer stand the high frequency energies coming from the source and are now in their last throes. As soon as you notice such an attack, use the lightsaber of AA Michael and thrust it in the heart of such entities. They will be immediately neutralized and will disappear.
Both Carla and myself had such an experience in the last two days and the protection with the lightsaber of St. Michael accomplished miracles as he also assures us in his latest message. This is all for now. We have entered the most decisive phase in the ascension process and the sea will become somewhat rough, but the PAT-ship is sailing towards its final destination of ascension with full speed.Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF
That smell has a name. It's called petrichor. For decades, scientists have speculated on where this smell comes from, but the mechanism behind the phenomenon has remained elusive. Now, researchers at MIT studying high-speed video of raindrops think they've found the answer: The smell is released in tiny aerosol clouds that raindrops emit upon impact.
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Researchers, led by MIT mechanical engineer Cullen R. Buie, used high-speed cameras to show that, when a raindrop hits a porous surface, tiny bubbles of air are trapped at the point of contact. A fraction of a second later, the bubbles issue forth, rising up and out of the drop in the form of a fine spray:
Via MIT:
Using high-speed cameras, the researchers observed that when a raindrop hits a porous surface, it traps tiny air bubbles at the point of contact. As in a glass of champagne, the bubbles then shoot upward, ultimately bursting from the drop in a fizz of aerosols. The researchers suspect that in natural environments, aerosols may carry aromatic elements, along with bacteria and viruses stored in soil. These aerosols may be released during light or moderate rainfall, and then spread via gusts of wind. "Rain happens every day — it's raining now, somewhere in the world," says Cullen R. Buie, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. "It's a very common phenomenon, and it was intriguing to us that no one had observed this mechanism before." Youngsoo Joung, a postdoc in Buie's lab, adds that now that the group has identified a mechanism for raindrop-induced aerosol generation, the results may help to explain how certain soil-based diseases spread. "Until now, people didn't know that aerosols could be generated from raindrops on soil," Joung says. "This finding should be a good reference for future work, illuminating microbes and chemicals existing inside soil and other natural materials, and how they |
, alone and out of place. His grandfather was a prosperous clothier. But his parents were divorced, and he lived in modest circumstances with his mother. He strained against janteloven, a deeply ingrained cultural ethic that discourages boasting and prizes the society above the individual.
“No one’s supposed to believe they’re better than anyone else,” Wiik explains. Later, while studying acting in Australia, he picked up another term for it: “crabs in the bucket syndrome” — the crabs will tear down any crab that tries to escape.
Morgan Kane represented a rebellion against this philosophy. He was an American gunslinger who lived outside the bounds of society. He was dangerous and sexually magnetic. For Norwegianmen, especially of a certain age, it is a cherished myth.
“It’s an escape,” Wiik says.
Wiik himself had done everything he could to escape Norway. At 15, he spent a year studying abroad in Oklahoma, and he left for good at 19.
“He didn’t do any acting. I only saw him riding a horse and walking around the room in his underpants with a gunbelt on.” Patrick Strom, investor
But he remained rooted in Norway. His Norwegian friends and family provided the investment to get WR Entertainment off the ground. After Cannes, the Norwegian newspapers began to cover the Kane story.
“Morgan Kane Rides Into Hollywood” declared Aftenposten, the country’s largest and most reputable newspaper, after the Cannes announcement. “Hamar’s Hero in Hollywood,” declared a paper in the town where Wiik spent his early childhood.
But when a year went by with no real progress on the financing, the tone of the coverage shifted.
“No one puts money in a Kane movie,” wrote Dagens Naeringsliv, the country’s leading business publication. “Hanging by a thread,” wrote Hamar Arbeiderblad.
With every setback, Wiik’s ambitions seemed to grow. He started out trying to make a single movie. That swelled to a planned franchise and then to a $90 million film fund. As he scouted locations for Kane, he hit upon the idea of buying a derelict studio in Baja, Mexico.
As time went on, some investors became disenchanted. In 2014, Wiik moved out of Burns’ house and rented a place in Agoura Hills where he could practice horseback riding.
“He didn’t do any acting,” says Patrick Strom, an investor who lived with Wiik at the house. “I only saw him riding a horse and walking around the living room in his underpants with a gunbelt on.”
Strom never had much confidence in Wiik as an actor, and had come to believe his friend was turning delusional. Strom says that Wiik once told him: “We’re not going to hang too much together after I get famous. I’m gonna hang more with Leo and guys like that.”
“I was like, ‘What the hell are you talking about?’” Strom says.
At one point, Wiik sketched out a detailed plan in which he anticipated that his role in the Kane franchise would earn him tens of millions of dollars in backend participation, acting fees, endorsements and merchandising revenue.
Some investors began to think that Wiik was living a Hollywood lifestyle at their expense — that he was getting too far above his station.
“He acts like a Norwegian prince, but he is from a modest background,” says Jonny Martinsen, a bathroom tile installer who says he was duped into investing hundreds of thousands of dollars. “We have of course been naive,” Martinsen says, “but we at least thought he had good intentions.”
Wiik’s ouster from WR Entertainment began in late 2015, when he met Tasmin Lucia-Khan, a former BBC news presenter, at SkyBar in West Hollywood. They struck up a conversation, and soon he was pouring out all his fears and anxieties. At the time, he was struggling to raise money and had decided to take the company public in Oslo.
“I desperately needed help,” he says. “I felt protected by her, and I believed her, and I fell for her.”
Initially, he planned to put Lucia-Khan on the board to satisfy a Norwegian securities rule that requires that 40% of directors be women. She might also handle PR. But he says he was lonely and worn out after years of fundraising, and looking for someone to take charge. Soon she was named CEO. Later, he would claim that she had seduced him.
“Her having an intimate relationship with me obviously gave her some leverage over me,” he says.
After the IPO, Lucia-Khan began to meet with the Norwegian stockholders. Wiik believes they conspired behind his back to force him out of the lead role in Morgan Kane.
Wiik had been preparing for the role for years, working with a horse trainer and taking acting classes. Lucia-Khan urged the trainer to rough him up to make him seem more masculine.
“There was this constant gay-bashing going on,” says the trainer, Ardeshir Radpour.
“I have this anger toward my home country. I do feel a sense of betrayal.” – Ryan Wiik
Michael Lewis for Variety
Wiik says he worked tenaciously to make sure he was the best person for the role, and resents the insinuations about his sexuality. “Whether gay, straight or bi has nothing to do with stealing this company,” he says. “There’s enough labels.”
In the summer of 2016, Lucia-Khan proposed that he take a screen test, and Wiik agreed. He believes that he was set up to fail. He says he was given new script pages only days before the test. In the scene, Kane is playing cards in a saloon and mumbling drunkenly about Plato and Socrates.
“It clearly did not work,” says Mike Marvin, a producer friend of Wiik’s. “He’s a green actor.”
Wiik was on vacation in Indonesia when he was informed that he would not get the part. Already under intense pressure, he now felt betrayed and isolated. He felt a decade of effort going to waste and his future in doubt. As he stood on the balcony of his hotel, he contemplated suicide.
Instead, he says he decided to fight. Feeling outnumbered within the company, he resigned. In March, he filed suit against Lucia-Khan, accusing her of breaching his acting contract and deceiving him in order to throw him out of the company. His goal is to wrest back control of Morgan Kane.
In June, the company filed its own lawsuit, accusing Wiik of defrauding investors. The suit also alleged that Wiik billed the company for makeup, haircuts, men’s and women’s clothing, restaurants, nightclubs and gay bars.
Wiik says his expenses were appropriate, and takes issue with the homophobic nature of the attacks.
In a statement to Variety, Lucia-Khan says she is “astonished by the scope of his misconduct.” “He is still claiming he is somehow a victim, when he spent years living off other people’s money,” she says.
She adds that it was clear that Wiik could not play Kane. “The presence was missing,” she says. “Men are supposed to fear him. That didn’t happen. Women are supposed to be falling over him, and that didn’t happen either.”
Investors say that Wiik is now a pariah in Norway. “All people that look at this … here in Norway look at him as a con man,” Loken says. “He can no longer take millions of dollars from the Norwegian people and pretend he is a big star from Hollywood.”
Wiik says he was always transparent with his investors, and badly misjudged Lucia-Khan. Facing withering attacks from former friends, he felt like the crab being dragged back into the bucket.
“His intent was never to defraud anybody,” says Marvin, his producer friend.“His intent was to get his passion project made, and along the way he made some very bad decisions.”
Ryan Wiik once felt so isolated in Norway that he had to escape into a cowboy fantasy. Now he was being shunned and cast out from the community.
“I have this anger toward my home country. I do feel a sense of betrayal,” he acknowledges at the end of an interview at the Chateau Marmont. “Did I con them? It’s crazy. Where is the con?”Two Islamists have been jailed for circulating Isis propaganda material in London’s busiest shopping street in an effort to drum up support for the terrorist group.
Ibrahim Anderson, 38, and Shah Jahan Khan, 63, were part of a group who peddled the ideology from a stall outside Topshop’s flagship branch in Oxford Street.
The pair, both from Luton, denied inviting support for a proscribed organisation but a jury convicted them last week following eight hours of deliberation at the Old Bailey.
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.
Anderson had also denied possessing information likely to be useful to a terrorist after instructions on travelling to Syria were found at his home.
Judge Stephen Kramer QC jailed Anderson for three years and Khan for two today, saying their activities could have caused young people to be “lured” to their deaths in Iraq and Syria.
Mark Seymour, speaking for the prosecution, told jurors the men spent hours speaking to passers-by and distributing a leaflet on the “Caliphate” in August 2014.
When two passers-by, a doctor and her sister, challenged their extremist views and took photos to pass on to police they were told to “go and die”, the court heard.
Asmaa and Reem Al-Jufaisha were dismissed as “kuffar”, meaning disbelievers, after saying they were Shia Muslims from Iraq but they stood their ground and their evidence later helped secure the convictions.
Photos of the leaflets circulated on social media showed them declaring the "dawn of a new era" and calling on Muslims to pledge allegiance and migrate to the new so-called Islamic State.
Anderson, a mechanic with five children, has previous convictions for assault and possession an imitation firearm.
Born as Andrew Anderson, he converted to Islam while serving a jail sentence for robbery in the 1990s, and represented himself as a “devoted father to my family” in court.
He claimed he only wanted to practise his religion and exercise his freedom of speech, adding: “I have been brave enough to come and fight my corner because I know I am innocent and have done nothing wrong.”
Khan, a driving instructor, was previously of good character, the court heard.
Additional reporting by PA
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe nowOAKLAND — Forty California residents are suing chemical giant Monsanto, alleging that exposure to the company’s Roundup weed killer caused them to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The complaint, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, seeks compensatory and punitive damages from defendants Monsanto Co. and Willbur Ellis Company, LLC., for wrongful death and personal injuries.
In the lawsuit, which was filed by consumer attorney firm Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman and environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the plaintiffs allege that Monsanto promoted false data and attacked legitimate research that showed the danger of glyphosate, an ingredient in its popular weed killer.
The lawsuit comes as part of a slew of complaints against Monsanto over the health risk of glyphosate. According to a news release from Baum Hedlund, Monsanto is facing more than 700 individual claims filed in state and federal courts throughout the country.
Last week, a federal judge in San Francisco unsealed documents that suggest that Monsanto employees had ghostwritten studies later attributed to academics that U.S. regulators used to determine glyphosate is not a cause of cancer. The documents also indicated that a former senior employee at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency worked with the company to suppress reviews of the ingredient.
Missouri-based Monsanto began marketing the glyphosate-based herbicide in 1974 under the brand name Roundup. California-based Wilbur Ellis, the other defendant in the suit, sold and distributed Roundup in California.
The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2015 determined that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic” to humans. The herbicide has also been linked to other health issues and environmental impacts.
Monsanto argues against that research.
“Regulators around the world, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the relevant bodies in Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada and the state of California itself, have determined that glyphosate is safe to use and does not cause cancer,” said Scott Partridge, vice president of global strategy at Monsanto, in a statement emailed to this news organization. “While we empathize with anyone facing these terrible illnesses, there is no evidence that glyphosate is the cause. The very long and well-established history of safe glyphosate use – over 40 years in more than 160 countries – shows clearly that these claims are supported neither by the science nor the facts.”
Monsanto’s glyphosate products are registered in 130 countries and approved to use on more than 100 crops.
“Monsanto’s newly released documents expose a culture corrupt enough to shock the company’s most jaded critics,” said Kennedy, Jr., who is working with the law firm on the Roundup litigation, in a statement from the firm.“Those papers show sociopathic company officials ghostwriting scientific studies to conceal Roundup’s risks from Monsanto’s regulators and customers, including food consumers, farmers and the public. One wonders about the perverse morality that incentivizes executives to lie so easily and to put profits before human life. All humanity will benefit when a jury sees this scheme and gives this behemoth a new set of incentives.”The Nebraska vs Indiana game was one helluva rollercoaster that took Husker fans through the gambit of college football fandom. A reasonably fast start, a few gaffes, a pesky opponent whose defense was damn adamant about shutting down the Huskers’ bread & butter, the inside zone running game, and lastly, the gritty refusal to lose that has become as synonymous with the Huskers this season as the N on the side of the helmet.
In watching the game live and subsequently re-watching the game twice since Saturday, I began to feel much more at ease with our performance against Indiana, although extremely cognizant of the various facets of the game that will need to be addressed to prevent some issues from rearing their head later in the season when the stakes get exponentially higher. To some, this post-game breakdown may feel eerily similar to the Nebraska vs Northwestern breakdown with the emphasis of the breakdown pertaining to the inside zone running game for the Huskers.
Before we delve into the X’s and O’s, I’d like to say that although we have not always been pretty this season in our wins, I could not be happier with the culture that is developing more and more with every game that shows the grit and resolve that helps make up the difference between the late game tribulations of 2015 and the late game triumphs of the 2016 season. Football coaches often state that culture will win you more games than scheme will, so that is a very encouraging development to see in year 2 of the Mike Riley era.
In this game against Indiana, the Hoosier defense, particularly their two linebackers in their 4-2-5 scheme, #44 Marcus Oliver and #8 Tegray Scales, were very active in the middle trying to stymie the Husker run game. Almost every successful Husker run up the middle came when the Hoosier duo were not shooting gaps on a run blitz or anticipating the play. On the plays that were less than favorable for the Husker ground game, those two were almost always moving around just before the snap before knifing through a gap to take down Terrell Newby near the line of scrimmage.
Remember in the movie "Hoosiers" when Coach Norman Dale told the Hickory Huskers in no uncertain terms that they should not be standing around watching the paint dry? These two linebackers did exactly what Gene Hackman said in their effort to disrupt the inside running game. By actively shooting gaps on timely blitzes that Hoosier DC Tom Allen called even in run situations, the interior of the Nebraska offensive line had no answer for them because the linebackers did not allow the Sam Hahn-Dylan Utter-Tanner Farmer interior to secure the first level of the defense before climbing up to the linebackers.
One thing to be cognizant of is the fact that when the linebackers are at a deeper depth off of the line of scrimmage, they generally will not be shooting any gaps because they will be reading the backfield for their defensive keys. On plays where they are lined up less than generally 4 yards off the line of scrimmage, they will be reading the OL for their keys and will look to shoot gaps as quickly as possible and not allow the OL adequate time to climb to the second level after securing the first level of the defensive line.
The Hoosier duo at linebacker did not stop the interior run all game long, as there were moments in the game where it was touch and go of who got the better of who on each play. There were a few wrinkles that Danny Langsdorf switched to in order to help the running game, with a few fly sweeps and the simple presence of fly sweep motion, orbit motion, and an RPO built off of the inside zone run game. The screen game was also utilized to slow up the Hoosier rush, but often times the timing was disrupted on the play by defensive pressure.
Since much of this write-up will center around the inside zone run, I hope to have a write-up at some point that goes more into detail on the technique of the inside zone run game, which will clarify a few things technique wise and give you all a more comprehensive understanding of the concept. The biggest problem I thought Nebraska had in this game was the interior offensive line not getting their 2nd step, the power step, down on the ground quickly enough after the snap.
Against aggressive defensive fronts, the 2nd step has to be made ASAP because contact from the defender will generally occur just before the 2nd step comes down or during the step. Without having the 2nd step on the ground as quickly as possible, the offensive linemen will be off-balance and will not have the wide base necessary to either hold their ground or gain vertical displacement on the defensive linemen. The emphasis on getting the 2nd step on the ground very quickly will become extremely important against Wisconsin, when center Dylan Utter will have a 0 technique (nose guard) lined up directly over him who will make contact almost immediately after the snap of the football.
Terrell Newby touchdown run, Inside Zone Dive, 4:51 1st Quarter
On this play Nebraska comes out in a shotgun formation with Newby to Armstrong’s right and a tight end trips formation to the strength of the formation. At the snap, TA immediately gives to Newby, as this is a called give to the tailback and not a zone read. You will see that the linebackers are aligned at a depth of 4 yards and do not show any pre-snap movement. This gives the Husker offensive line the needed time to secure the interior defensive tackles for the Hoosiers will a pair of combination blocks before one of them in the Hahn-Utter and Farmer-Conrad cooperatives come off of the block to block the linebackers. Even though Tommy was not reading anyone on the play, the mere threat of the quarterback run game caused the over-hang or "Spur" defender aligned in the flat to stay disciplined on the edge and gave Nebraska a 7 on 6 numbers advantage in the box; 6 blockers, 1 ball-carrier against 6 Hoosier defenders. Terrell Newby takes it up the gut on the Hoosiers and gives Nebraska the early 10-0 lead.
1st and 10, 7:17 2nd Quarter
The Huskers came out in what is becoming one of our base formations for inside zone run, the shotgun formation with a tight bunch formation as the strength of the formation with two tight ends and a one wide receiver, sometimes with the wide receiver motioning into the bunch like on this play. Indiana came out with a wide front with their linebackers or second-level hybrid players spread out from the middle, with Marcus Oliver shading towards the bunch side of the formation at a depth of 4 yards.
This play was a standard issue inside zone run to Terrell Newby who broke for a nice gain on the play, aided greatly by Oliver effectively taking himself out of the play with his deep alignment. The blocking to the playside wasn’t great, with Dylan Utter losing contact with his defender as the play was still developing, although Newby had already gotten a crease to get through the first level. The left side of the offensive line did a good enough job to wall-off the defensive front to that side away from the play. As you can see with this particular play, the success lied within the fact that Oliver was slow to get to the aiming point of the play because of his aforementioned deep alignment. Indiana’s linebackers played extremely disciplined and on the next play of this breakdown you will see why.
3rd Quarter 1:46-Fake Orbit Slip Screen to Terrell Newby
After what could have been a potential momentum seizing stand by the Blackshirts by stopping Diamont on a zone read keeper on 4th & 3, Nebraska regains possession of the football and immediately opts to take advantage of the aggressive play by the Indiana linebackers. The Huskers come out in a formation we haven’t shown too many times up until the Indiana game this year, with an H-Back in Trey Foster lined up in almost off-set fullback role and tight end Sam Cotton lined up further away from his usual spot of being an in-line tight end. Before the snap, De’Mornay Pierson-El goes in motion closer to the formation before arcing behind the backfield, which is called ‘Orbit’ motion, because it Orbits around the backfield like Earth orbiting around the sun.
At the snap, Tommy Armstrong fakes the inside zone run to Terrell Newby before flashing a quick fake end around to DPE. The Hoosiers aren’t fooled as their pressure is ferocious and the interior offensive linemen who are releasing downfield to build the "sidewalk" for the screen play have already vacated to move downfield. The vacation by the interior OL does not present the problem on this play, rather Marcus Oliver had already anticipated the snap and shot through a gap, eluding any protection, and had already began to bear down on Tommy Armstrong. Additionally, the SAM linebacker lined up over Sam Cotton applied pressure on Armstrong, which threw off the required timing necessary for the slip screen to Newby to work. Cole Conrad, at right tackle, got bull-rushed by the Hoosier defensive end and was deep in the backfield as well, giving TA little choice but to get rid of the football as soon as possible.
Normally, the screen pass would work to counter the anticipation by the Hoosier pass rush, but this play got thrown off by the two blitzing linebackers and the defensive end who bulled Conrad into the backfield. Indiana’s ferocity on this play speaks to the game preparation done by Hoosier defensive coordinator Tom Allen, who will be in high demand as a defensive coordinator at upper-echelon Power 5 conference schools.
4th Quarter-11:33, Inside Zone H Dump RPO to Sam Cotton
After the Hoosier linebacking corps had made things exceedingly and painfully interesting for the Husker offense, OC Danny Langsdorf brought out a play that we had not shown to date this season, an RPO off the inside zone run that takes advantage of linebacker pursuit to the inside run. A bit of a back story to this play, I was at the Nebraska Spring Football Coaches Clinic when Clay Patterson from Northeast Oklahoma A&M Junior College presented this play as a part of his clinic presentation. By attaching the dump route to the inside zone play, the offense can take advantage of the pre-snap alignment of the safeties or linebackers.
On this play, Tegray Scales #8, cheats towards the line of scrimmage pre-snap to be in position to shut down the run. Tommy Armstrong sees this pre-snap and throws the dump-off to Sam Cotton who is in the area vacated by Scales. Stanley Morgan, playing the slot receiver role on this play, runs a bubble route to stretch defensive coverage away from the area that Cotton is running his route and not allowing the defender in coverage to recover to the dump route and make a play on the ball or Cotton.
This was a perfect call by Langsdorf to counter the Indiana pursuit in the run game and to move the chains. RPO’s are all about putting a defender in conflict by forcing him to play either run or pass and making the defender wrong in their resolution by moving the football opposite of where he is going. I’m really looking forward to seeing this play coming down the stretch this season with a healthy Cethan Carter, as #11 presents an opportunity to really burn defenses with this play.
If you pay attention to the personnel and formation that Nebraska uses on this play, you will see that Trey Foster is aligned as the in-line tight end on the right side of the formation. By presenting two tight ends to the defense, with one in-line and the other aligned off the line of scrimmage where he can go into motion and move around the formation to out-leverage the defense into favorable match-ups for the offense. I’m not going to say that next year’s Nebraska team with Tanner Lee at QB is going to be the New England Patriots, but they do use the same personnel and formation quite a bit with Gronkowski and Bennett to present alignment and match-up problems for the defense. However, I will say that with a more natural thrower like Tanner Lee in 2017, that this personnel grouping and formation could be something worth noting for next year, although a replacement for Cethan Carter will need to be found.
2:53 4th Quarter, 2nd & 10, Inside Zone to Newby
After 9 straight runs to start the Husker drive of aggression that has become NU’s calling card in salting games away, the Huskers faced a 2nd down and 10 and decided to make it 10 runs in a row by running inside zone left to Terrell Newby. On this play, Nebraska is in their shotgun bunch formation that is quickly becoming synonymous with Langsdorf’s proclivities in calling inside zone runs and Indiana has their defensive front aligned wider, with Tegray Scales lined up out wider, a few yards off of Nick Gates.
Just before the snap, Marcus Oliver cheats up toward the line of scrimmage and Scales starts moving back to his left and at the snap, Oliver takes on center Dylan Utter in an attempt to hold up a blocker so he can free up TegrayScales on the Cross A Gap Blitz, which is a noted inside zone killer. Newby gets the ball going left, but quickly cuts back when he sees the mass of humanity that is inhabiting the aiming point of the play and even though Oliver holds up Utter, Scales cannot make the play because he is effectively "blocked" by the combination block on the Hoosier 1 technique defensive tackle by Tanner Farmer and Cole Conrad, which ultimately results in a pancake block by the right side of the Husker OL. With Scales out of the play, Newby is able to knife through the Hoosier defense to pick up a 13 yard gain and another first down to grind down the clock.
Another thing that bears mentioning on this play is that the Hoosier defensive line lined up over Gates and Hahn look like they execute a gap exchange upon first glance, but ultimately the Hoosier defensive end was just trying to get back into the play after he read that the play was going inside. Both Gates and Hahn do a fantastic job of reacting to this by simply playing their assigned zone that is dictated by the blocking scheme and not chasing either defender out of their assigned zones. All in all, this was the most exotic that Indiana got on scheming to stop the inside running game and the Husker offensive line, much maligned on the day, did a great job of picking up defenders and not letting anyone have a free path to the football to make a play, although the "blocking" of Scales wasn’t anything by design. But hey, if you’ve got a linebacker who’s been killing you on the run all game long and he suddenly can’t get to the football because of a pancake block at the line of scrimmage, you’ll hear no complaints from me.
This game was an odd one, to say the least. While it may be easy for some to say that the play-calling left some to be desired, I would have assert that it is damn difficult to call the correct play every time when the interior offensive line is under barrage by the interior defensive line and linebackers. That’s not so much a scheme issue as it is an execution issue (I just puked in my mouth; I sound way too much like Bo Pelini there). All told, I think that the onus does not lie in entirety on the interior of the Husker offensive line, as you have to remember that the opponent’s players are on scholarship and the opponent’s coaches are paid handsomely as well. Things need to be fixed in practice as we head down the stretch of the final six games, but I’ll trust in these players and this staff that they will continue to improve every facet of the game that they can to have Nebraska in the best position to be successful in every game. We’re 6-0for the first time since 2001. Let’s enjoy it. GBR.That’s a wrap on all things Google. In case you missed the keynote, here’s a recap of all the highlights you may have missed.
Android M
Kicking off the keynote, Google Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai announced that HBO Now is officially on the Play Store before bringing VP of Engineering (Android) Dave Burke to talk Android M.
Permissions
The first new feature is “App permissions,” simplifying what data users allow apps to access. In this new model, apps on Android M will no longer ask for a lengthy permissions list upon installation, but instead prompt the user for permission when the app needs to use a feature (i.e. camera or microphone).
Linking
Chrome Custom Tabs allows developers to add custom features that overlays on top of apps. For example, the Pinterest app can add custom transition animation to link to the Web, directly within the app. There’s also a new app linking feature that will allow apps to verify links to switch from app to app quickly.
Battery
A new “dozing” feature is designed to help save battery life when the device’s motion sensor is stagnant. Alarms and notifications will still push to the phone in this state, however. Meanwhile, Google also said USB Type C is coming to Android devices “soon.”
Google says apps will now also learn your sharing behavior to see who you share content with the most based on which app you’re using.
Android M Developer preview is available today for Nexus 5, 6, 9, and Player.
➤ Google unveils Android M
➤ Game of Thrones to-go? HBO Now headed to Google Play
Android Pay
Google says in its keynote that it will expand Android Pay by partnering with mobile providers to pre-install the feature on new devices. Partners include T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T. To authenticate payments, you can use your fingerprint to verify your identity.
➤ Google announces Android Pay
➤ Google adds native fingerprint functionality for Android M launch
Android Wear
Some new Android Wear updates will include an “Always On” feature to keep apps on the screen so information is always glanceable in a low power black and white mode. Users no longer need to tap the screen to wake up the app.
New wrist gestures, such as flicking up and down to scroll, is added to help in case your hands are full. You can also draw emojis on an Android Wear watch now as well… if you’re feeling adventurous with your artistic skills.
At this time, Google says there are approximately 4,000 apps designed for Android Wear.
➤ Here’s the next big update to Android Wear
Internet of Things
Google is fully using its Nest acquisition to step into the Internet of Things market by announcing Project Brillo, its own operating system for IoT devices. Brillo is derived from Android to provide low power, wireless solution that can be easily scalable to all types of Android devices.
It’s also using its own language named Weave to communicate between the Brillo OS, a device and the cloud. Weave is available cross-platform.
Brillo will launch in developer preview in Quarter 3; Weave will come out in Q4.
➤ Brillo is Google’s operating system for the Internet of Things
Google Now’s “Now on Tap”
To make your smartphone more “smart,” Google says it is working to make Google Now even more contextual by learning your behaviors, habits and lifestyle. To assist you in your daily life, Google Now wants to provide proactive answers – such as estimating how long ride lines are when you arrive to Disneyland or where you parked your car.
To do so, Google Now teased a “Now on Tap” feature that will gain context based on what you’re looking at on your screen. For example, if Google Now knows you are traveling to San Francisco, it can provide your boarding pass upon your arrival to the airport, give you an option to order an Uber when you’ve landed or give you an option to order groceries when you’re en route.
In another example, you can listen to Skrillex on Google Music and pause to ask Google “What is his real name,” and it will know you mean to ask about the artist you’re currently listening to.
The final demo includes a text on Viber that mentions dinner at a restaurant, and Google Now opening OpenTable with the page of said restaurant open and ready for reservation. You can also ask to see what a menu item looks like in case you’re curious, and Google Now will know what dish you’re referring to based on what’s on your OpenTable screen.
➤ Google ‘Now on Tap’ makes it easy to get contextual answers from anywhere on Android M
Google Photos
We all take way too many photos, says Google, so its solution is Google Photos. The app will help back up your photos (unlimited and free!) and allow you to browse photos across a timeline. Additionally, it can also sort your photos based on People and Places without needing the user to add tags.
Finally, you can use Google Photos to make videos and collages based on suggestions the app gives according to location and date. It can also auto-create a movie based on recent content as well (of course, you can edit the content before you share).
A neat little gesture feature: You can also tap and drag to highlight photos you want to share instead of selecting each image one by one.
Google Photos is available today on Android, iOS and Web.
➤ Google launches Google Photos, a new service independent of Google+
Offline connectivity
Because Android is available in so many parts of the world, Google talked about its efforts to make its apps available in countries where internet is limited. For example, it launched YouTube Offline in developing countries in the past few months, as well as offline support for Chrome.
Today, Google also introduced Offline Maps, allowing you to access Google Maps location search and directions without requiring an internet connection. It can also aggregate reviews so you can access this information entirely offline.
Offline Maps will be available “later this year.”
➤ Google announces offline Maps support, including navigation and reviews
Developer tools
Google quickly moved back to talking about developer stuff, introducing Android Studio 1.3 preview and Polymer 1.0. Android Studio offers full editing and debugging support for C++, and developers can access various SDKs via CocoaPods.
Additionally, Google will launch Cloud Test Lab to help automate app testing across 20 devices to provide crash reports.
Google will also launch Cloud Messaging to iOS, allowing users to subscribe to topics so they will receive only updates that are relevant to them. There are also a ton of new AdMob tools to help measure engagement and app install ads – including data like where your most valuable users come from. You can also test out your Play Store listing to see which graphics or copy works best.
Speaking of Play Store, Google is also reorganizing the way it displays search results. For example, searching for “shopping” no longer brings up the most popular shopping apps, but relevant sections such as “Coupons” and “Fashion.”
For parents, they can also look for a Family Star badge to find content that’s kid-friendly. They can even look for popular children entertainment characters and search for related content.
➤ Google is embracing CocoaPods to bring its services to iOS developers
➤ Google launches Universal App Campaigns for AdWords, updates Analytics and AdMob
➤ Google is making it easier to find family-friendly content on the Play Store
Android Nanodegree
Google announced a partnership with Udacity to offer a six-month course that teaches them all-things-Android. The course costs $200 per semester to obtain what’s called an “Android Nanodegree.”
➤ Android developer nanodegree now available from Google and Udacity
Virtual Reality
Announced during last year’s conference, Google announced that the Google Cardboard SDK for Unity will now support iOS. It’s got an improved viewer as well, and is overall easier to assemble.
There’s also a new “Expeditions” VR program that lets teachers control virtual field trip destinations from a tablet and allow students to explore new places from a Google Cardboard VR system.
Finally, Google announced “Jump,” a camera rig system that will allow anyone to record VR video. Essentially, it puts a camera – any camera you’d like – in a ring to record in 360 degree.
Google also partnered with GoPro to sell a jump-ready camera rig this year. YouTube will support Jump videos, with non-stereoscopic videos available to try this summer.
➤ The new Google Cardboard will fit your giant phone
➤ Google is bringing virtual field trips to classrooms with Cardboard Expeditions
Update: Here are some of the highlights unveiled on the second day of Google I/O 2015:
➤ Google’s Chromecast is about to get a lot better for gaming, dual-screen apps and binge-watching shows
➤ Google unveils Project Soli, a radar-based wearable to control anything
➤ Google is partnering with Levi’s for its Project Jacquard smart fabric
➤ With Project Vault, Google wants to make you the password
Thanks for following along with us – let us know what you’re looking forward to the most following this I/O conference!
[ |
issue has been how severe the discipline should be,” he said in the release. “We believe strongly that Mr. Bueno gave up the privilege of being a Des Plaines police officer when he violated the city's use of force policy, failed to report his use of force on more than one occasion, and then fabricated a story when questioned about these incidents.”
In a 60-plus-page decision, the arbitrator ruled in May that Bueno used excessive force in two incidents, and was “untruthful” about one of them while being questioned under oath during a city investigation conducted in late 2011.
The most documented incident in the arbitration decision involves Bueno and another officer driving to Elmhurst in August of 2010 to pick up a suspect whom Des Plaines officers, including Bueno, had tried to arrest several months earlier in a drug-buy sting.
The suspect had driven off before police could make the arrest, nearly hitting a member of Bueno's undercover narcotics unit, the ruling states.
After picking him up in Elmhurst, Bueno and the other officer drove the suspect — handcuffed in the backseat — to the Des Plaines police station. About 100 feet from the station's rear door, Bueno stopped the car, opened the back door and punched the man in the face, according to the arbitrator's ruling.
Bueno claimed in testimony that he delivered the blow to “distract” the man because he believed the suspect was trying to free himself, the ruling said.
The arbitrator found that explanation “not remotely credible,” and said it was “highly plausible” that Bueno acted in retaliation for the suspect nearly hitting another officer with his car, the arbitrator wrote.
Despite affirming the city’s findings about some of Bueno’s conduct, the arbitrator ruled that Bueno should be allowed to return to the department, saying the city lacked just cause to fire him because it didn't investigate until a year after the last reported incident.
The arbitrator also stated that multiple members of the police department's command staff were aware of Bueno's actions and failed to investigate them.
Those actions, the arbitrator stated, “sent (Bueno) a message that his use of force would not be penalized. As a result, the department command staff is partly at fault for (Bueno's) misconduct.”
City officials had immediately vowed to fight the arbitrator’s decision in court.
“This ruling sends the right message to those we serve,” police Chief Bill Kushner said in today’s release. “Officers that exceed our expectations deserve our praise. At the same time, we need to be decisive and firm in cases where officers fall short of the high standards we set for them.”
Neither Bueno nor his attorney could immediately be reached for comment.
Bueno filed a federal lawsuit against the city earlier this year in which he claimed a superior harassed and discriminated against him based on his Mexican heritage, a charge the city denies.
jbullington@tribune.comThe internet is on fire with the dumbest rumor ever today – the Gucci Mane we see is actually a clone. The rumor seemed to stem from a fake report on a Boosie interview with Breakfast Club that never happened, but it's become swept up in the public's feeling that Gucci sounds like a totally changed man since coming home from prison. Others cite the conspicuous absence of certain tattoos as another example of how we aren't seeing the real LaFlare.
Today on Snapchat, Guwop addressed the rumors. "I'm hearing that Gucci is a clone. I will neither support nor deny those accusations," he said in his affected accent. But isn't that what a clone would say?
The rumors, obviously specious as a motherfucker, are a broader implication of how surprised people are with Gucci's speech pattern. His Snapchat is full of conversations with his girlfriend Keyshia Ka'oir where he speaks in this faux-dainty accent that sounds like what people do when they make fun of prissy white people, and though he's used the voice on mixtapes in the past, it'd be funnier if it wasn't so disconcerting to Gucci fans who aren't used to this style of speaking.
In a separate viral clip you can see below, Gucci describes the glasses he's wearing as "mindblowing," and people on social media are eating that shit up. Let's hope this doesn't mean people want to treat the Trap God like a meme, because he sounds dead serious on this new track with Zaytoven.Re: AIDS
From:kbmord@yahoo.com To: john.podesta@gmail.com Date: 2016-03-16 18:11 Subject: Re: AIDS
Dear John, I was forwarded Secretary Clinton's official full length response to her apology two days ago. I was profoundly touched by what she did. (I even felt a subtle salute to us long-term survivors and our continuing challenges in PTSD, employment, housing, and mental health.) The statement hasn't gotten a lot of mainstream coverage, whether that's good or bad is undecided. It's a wonderful example of turning a lump of coal into a diamond. I was moved... and even more inspired to continue my personal volunteer work with POZ people and Lifegroup LA. I've kept our discourse confidential except sharing with my Mother, who seems to enjoy my writing "skills" (I write from the heart with my brain in tow). I forwarded Hillary's official response to her as well and she reminded me, after asking a few history questions about the long battle with AIDS that Hillary's path has always been supportive regardless if the one little mistake. Also in saying how deeply moved she was by Hillary's response, I heard her making personal amends in a metaphorical way through Hillary's situation (Crying as I write this). Most profoundly, however, it inspired a woman, who has been mostly alone on her journey fearing for the life of her son this past 31 years to write this - "Well done, Keith. You were definitely heard. That has to give you a sense of satisfaction. While I don't write as beautifully as you, and I don't respond online to these types of things,if I did, I would write something like: 'My HIV positive son has long championed the rights of those who share his disease, and as his mother, while you initial inaccurate remarks were upsetting, I want to thank you for having the courage to acknowledge your mistake and offer such an eloquent and meaningful apology and message. I truly hope that all people will recognize the important significance of your willingness to clarify this situation, accept your explanation and move on. There is a lot of work that needs to be done on many fronts, and yours is the kind of leadership, guidance and courage our country needs. You have my support. Stay strong.'" It may appear simple but it means a lot. I wasn't supposed to share it with anyone ("shhh!") however from one Mother to another Mother it carries immense power of healing and support for each of them. Also, you (and Hillary!) need your nourishment of the "GOOD" during this challenging journey. So I wanted to give back. With Faith fully restored, I say thank you for all you do. An amazing policy platform has been laid out (unheard of I believe till now) for those with HIV/AIDS and those that love them. Apology accepted. Onto kicking ass in November. Our lives are quite literally in the balance. Until next time, dig deep, love large, live fully, dream big, and make it happen! My best, always, Keith B Molter > On Mar 12, 2016, at 5:06 PM, John Podesta <john.podesta@gmail.com> wrote: > > Thanks. Very helpful suggestions. And I feel really badly that we are in this place since I think there is no one whose heart would be more committed to tackle HIV/AIDS and be a partner to the community living with the consequences of the disease than Hillary. Thanks for your candor. > >> On Saturday, March 12, 2016, Keith Molter <kbmord@yahoo.comeb> wrote: >> John, >> I would really love to believe you. We've (my long-term HIV friend and I) just been discussing it. The consensus was either one of two things: she's tired or she got caught pandering. >> I would like to believe the tired part, to be honest. It's a tough spot. You're not allowed to be tired or it's shows weakness to some. That sucks. I don't envy you. >> >> Maybe taking a breath and publicly calling for some of the long time national leaders of AIDS together (after letting the grave dust settle on Nancy- a week?) to meet. Afterward make a public apology directly to their faces, thereby exhibiting the vulnerability and truthfulness behind it. It has to be seen. >> And then hopefully garnering the support of everybody in the room as a result of that. >> >> Heck She could even say, "to show that I am sorry and truthful to my word, I'm announcing now the commitment to a creation of a national policy for long-term HIV survivors- I'm committed to their continued struggle in the future, the PTSD, and all that goes along with their survival. Without them there never would've been a national dialogue on AIDS! They helped to save our nation." >> >> Of course those are my words because that is what I believe. But bottom line- piggybacking an action to a public apology as example of conviction is what I'm going for here. Just a suggestion. >> >> I take the time because I TRULY care. I know you are a busy busy... busy man. >> >> Keith Molter >> >> >>> On Mar 12, 2016, at 2:02 PM, John Podesta <john.podesta@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> Keith, >>> I can't explain this other than sheer exhaustion. I know it was deeply hurtful and we are trying to make it right. I also know as First Lady, Senator and Secretary she has always tried to do everything she could to eradicate the disease for good. So I ask you to consider that and balance that in judging what was a terrible mistake. >>> John >>> >>>> On Saturday, March 12, 2016, Keith Molter <kbmord@yahoo.com> wrote: >>>> Dear Mr Podesta, >>>> >>>> With all due respect, please consider: >>>> If Hillary was truly ignorant, it is shameful. If not and she said what she said regardless, WHY?! >>>> I've been positive for 31 years. There's over a half a million of us over 50 living with this virus. I personally work with the PTSD and issues of Longterm Survivors (theLifegroupIa.org) and even believe I sent you my story about Hillary at the quilt and what it meant; which makes it nearly if not impossible for her NOT to have known about AIDS silence with the Reagan's! >>>> I'm considering changing my vote and possibly party (Kasich) as a result of her statement. Own up quick. >>>> "Misspoke"?! >>>> Come on guys. What does THAT mean?! >>>> >>>> Devastated, disgusted, and absolutely heartbroken, >>>> >>>> Keith B Molter >>>> >>>> PS. She was one of my heroes. >>>> >>>> PPS. Here was the published story of my Quilt experience, which now seemingly is fraudulent: >>>> >>>> "She was there. She was instrumental. She was not afraid. I know. I saw it. I saw her, in front of me, go to the AIDS Quilt, with then President Clinton, to see her friend's panel. No First Family had ever even acknowledged it before. >>>> It was if for the first time all the death, ACT(ing) UP, pain, loss, fight, and hurt were validated. It was stone silent on the vast Washington Mall. No fanfare. No hoopla. They simply went and we had stumbled upon it. >>>> Silence. Stillness. They got out of their motorcade hand in hand and walked through the Quilt. It was THE first time it was ever acknowledged by anyone of any higher level in government. >>>> They stood. They prayed. They looked at a few other panels. They wiped tears. We were 100 feet away. As they turned to leave, the still silence was broken by a squelching sound, like an animal in deep pain. It was me. I screaming "Thank you!" through my sobs, my voice cracking. They both turned. He put his hand up in a still wave and nodded his head -his mouth doing that mouth/chin thing he does. They turned and left. >>>> I was there. They were there....maybe too late for some we lost. But they got there first... as soon as they could... once the country elected two people who actually cared. Let's do it again. Hillary always."Official figures show those arrested came from deprived backgrounds, striking a blow to theory that tackling gang culture is key to preventing repeat of disturbances
Gangs did not play a pivotal role in the August riots, according to the latest official analysis of those arrested during the disturbances.
Official figures show that 13% of those arrested in the riots have been identified as gang members, rising to 19% in London. But even where police identified gang members being present, most forces believe they did not play a pivotal role.
The finding by senior Whitehall officials is a blow to the principal response to the riots being pushed strongly by the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith – that tackling gang culture is key to preventing any repeat of the disturbances.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and Home Office background analysis shows that those arrested during the riots mainly came from deprived areas and had the poorest educational backgrounds. More than two thirds of the young people involved were classed as having special educational needs and one third had been excluded from school in the past year. More than 42% received free school meals.
The analysis of the ethnic backgrounds of those brought before the courts for riot-related offences varied significantly from the local population, with 42% of defendants white and 46% black. Only 7% were Asian.
The ethnic composition of court defendants was particularly different from the local area profile in three places: Haringey in north London, where 55% of defendants were black compared with 17% of young people locally; Nottingham, where 62% of defendants were black compared with 9% locally; and Birmingham, where 46% of defendants were black compared with 9% of young people locally.
The Home Office figures were based on 5,175 crimes recorded across 19 police forces – the vast majority in London, Manchester and Birmingham. More than 40% happened in town or city centres and 20% in shopping malls or other "defined retail cores". Half the crimes were committed against commercial premises. A total of 2,584 shops and other commercial premises were targeted in the riots.
The MoJ figures confirm that 90% of those arrested in the riots were male. More than half were under 20. They also confirm the more punitive nature of the courts, with 42% of those tried in magistrates courts sent to prison, compared with only 12% normally.
The analysis of arrests says that 13% or 417 individuals were identified as being affiliated to a gang by the 10 police forces who suffered the most extensive disorder.
"Outside London, the majority of forces identified fewer than 10% of all arrestees as gang members, and only two non-London forces estimated figures in excess of this – West Yorkshire (19%) and Nottinghamshire (17%). For these two forces, these percentages only represent relatively small numbers of arrestees (13 and 20 respectively)," says the Home Office report.
"In London, police reported that 19% of arrestees – 337 suspects drawn from 169 different gangs – were identified as gang members," the report adds. "However, even in London, the great majority of arrestees (81%) were not identified as being members of gangs." Home Office statisticians acknowledge that the way the 10 different forces identified gang members was not completely consistent but add: "Most forces perceived that where gangs were involved, they generally did not play a pivotal role."
The report says some incidents suggested "orchestrated offending related to gang activity", but stresses that clear examples of this were "few in number". They included targeting high-value property in Manchester and "diversion tactics". Gang members were also involved in a handful of more serious incidents including the shooting incident in Birmingham.
This analysis contrasts sharply with the picture presented to the Conservative party conference by Duncan Smith, when he said gangs played "a significant part" in the riots. An anti-riots tsar, Louise Casey, has been appointed to lead the drive against gang culture.
Instead, the MoJ analysis stresses the poor educational and socio-economic background of those arrested in the riots. "It is clear that compared to population averages, those brought before the courts were more likely to be in receipt of free school meals or benefits, were more likely to have had special educational needs and be absent from school, and are more likely to have some form of criminal history. This pattern held across all areas looked at," it says.AQABA, Jordan (AP) — Water-poor Jordan on Thursday launched a project using seawater to produce crops with clean energy.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, which contributed most of the $3.7 million cost, inaugurated the facility in the kingdom’s Red Sea port city of Aqaba.
Haakon told reporters he was “impressed by the way innovative ideas have been translated into a plant the size of four football fields.”
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The facility, part of the Sahara Forest Project (SFP), produces “energy, freshwater and food and all this in an arid desert,” he said.
The facility, surrounded by rocky desert, uses seawater to cool greenhouses. A solar-powered plant then desalinates the water for irrigation.
Inside the greenhouses, pesticide-free cucumbers flourish.
The project is set to produce 130 tons of vegetables a year and 10,000 liters of freshwater a day.
“This is just the start,” said Joakim Hauge, head of SFP. He said the organization selected Jordan because it has the required abundance of sunlight and seawater.
Last month, a report by Stanford University suggested that Jordan, one of the world’s driest countries, could face more severe droughts unless new technologies are applied in farming and other sectors.
“Future adaptation to extreme droughts in Jordan will be an immense challenge,” said the report by the university’s School of Earth Science. “The projected negative impacts of more severe droughts of greater duration calls for essential alternatives.”Ice and Rock Grades, A Review and Perspective
Date: 7th February 2017
As climbers we love grades. The bigger the number the better, the closer to the line of personally possible/not possible the better, and the harder we have to fight to succeed the better we feel. And we often set our challenges based on climbing grades. This is where things get weird – I’ve thrown an all-in wobbler when I failed to onsight a route I felt I should have. I felt ripped off when I onsighted my first 7c+ because it felt too easy, and I was sure I was on the wrong route. The route and grade was what it was, it was me that was all wound up. To understand ice grades it’s worth looking at rock grades first.
With time and work rock grades generally make sense to me, as long as a few basic ideas are understood. First, older routes and those graded under about 5.10 tend to be based on the onsight grade, while more modern and harder routes are usually based on the redpoint grade. A blind-dyno 12c will be a very very difficult onsight, but it’s still 12c on the redpoint. I like onsight climbing better than redpoint climbing, and routes with super-blind moves are usually where I get frustrated when I fall off onsighting. The redpoint feels like the right grade usually. I resisted this idea for years as I think onsight climbing is way cooler than redpoint climbing, but my resistance did not change the grading system or the stone. There is a lesson in there I’m still learning.
A 12a in France is going to feel roughly like a 12a in North America. But if a climber bred on granite cracks and crimps tries a French limestone pocket fest he’s going to get slapped down fast, and vice versa. But give someone a month or two of full-time work on a new type of stone and he or she will be back at the same level, and finding the edge of possible. A 13a crack is far more painful and mentally damaging than a 13a sport route, but technically they aren’t far off with equal levels of practice and skill. And the routes tend to stay the same; bullshit grades usually eventually get adjusted to fit the stone and consensus. I’m good with rock grades in general, except that fucking 11d I fell off in Smith Rocks in 1993, I’m still bitter about that one. And, while some areas have “soft” grades and others “hard,” overall I’m pretty good with rock grades, and trust the community to sort them out over time. There has been a lot of grade “creep” over the last 30 years, but it’s still a relatively believable system across different stone and geography.
Ice Grades
Ice climbing grades are another story. With the passage of each climbing team “fat” ice generally gets easier. The pick holes literally get pounded into the ice, and due to the increasing ice climbing traffic there are fewer and fewer routes that don’t have left-over pick holes. A “picked out” WI grade six will often be a lot easier than a fresh WI 4 on a cold day, and vice versa. This is very different than rock climbing; imagine if a route was 5.8 one day and 5.11 the next week based on number of ascents, temperature, refreezing, and how the rock formed that year. The spread is massive on ice routes, and if we approach ice routes searching for difficulty based on grade problems may result…
Ice grades developed in an era when most ice climbs didn’t see a ton of traffic, and they were based on having to swing into fresh ice hundreds of times on a pitch with radically inferior tools. Hanging onto your tools on a steep piece of fresh ice, locking off and swinging each time for one to five swings, is fucking physical, and the physical load spikes fast as the angle increases. Historic ice grades are therefore based primarily on angle, because it had an exponential effect on how hard it was to climb fresh ice. The difference between 80 and 90 degree fresh ice is massive when having to swing and lock off endlessly to build placements and clean fresh icicles. On a fresh, unclimbed “WI 6″ pitch of vertical ice with a lot of hanging icicles it often takes me close to an hour to lead it safely. But the same route with a hoard of ascents is a ten-minute romp. Steep juggy fun 5.9 vs. loose physical 5.11, often with bad gear, give or take.
Many people today climb a lot of steep terrain on rock, and if the holds are pounded in on ice then it’s not a lot different to climb 80 or 90 degree ice to the person used to much steeper terrain. Footholds also tend to get a lot better with repeat ascents, further easing the experience. The older ice climbers who lack steep rock climbing experience or power tend to view steeper as disproportionately harder, which further weights angle in the grading system.
So historic ice grades were often based primarily on angle, with ice quality part of that but not generally as big a factor as most climbs would require hard work to make placements for tools and feet. The work of putting in holds was an assumption inherent in the grade. Some routes with notoriously weird ice (Riptide, Curtain Call, Bridalveil in Colorado early season) did get a higher grade for the weird ice, but even with poor ice quality it’s usually a lot easier with the holes already in. With very thin or bad ice “head damage” also came into play in ice grades. Very thin pillars that could fall down were given WI7 or something, even though they often weren’t that much harder, just more dangerous. In the 80s and 90s we all spent time climbing ever-thinner pillars if we wanted “harder” ice routes.
Modern gear has also had a disproportionate effect on the ice climbing experience compared to gear in rock climbing. Modern tools, screws, gloves and ropes have all made things a lot more fun, but less difficult. The biggest difference in perceived grade I’ve ever experienced on rock was doing Supercrack, a classic 5.10 handcrack I first climbed in the 80s, on hexes and one cam the first time I led it vs. loading up with a triple set of cams and plugging at will as I did ten years later. That difference is meaningful, but relatively minor compared to ice climbing in the 80s where you had to crank screws in with a third tool while hanging on a POS tool with picks shorter than the screws you were trying to crank on. Interestingly, the modern gear often climbs relatively better on steeper angles than the old gear did, so again climbing angle was much much more important with the gear used when WI grades were defined. Flick a Cobra into vertical ice is very different than struggling to get an early-80s Stubai into the ice…
So we have fitter climbers (steep gym and rock trained) on well-travelled routes (so many more climbers) with far superior gear. I can take a solid 5.11+ rock climber and give them a half-day of instruction and they can follow pretty much any ice climb I can lead. But to safely lead a fresh, steep ice climb still takes a tremendous amount of knowledge, knowledge that is increasingly difficult to gain because there is less fresh ice to gain it on. This is part of the reason I’ve seen a rash of bad accidents this season in the Rockies: Today the challenge of ice climbing often isn’t defined by the grade or angle, but the nature of the ice, and how well the leader understands ice climbing. The grade and angle are both less relevant today than they were when the grading system was created, but the quantity of ascents far more relevant.
There is no longer any remotely consensus grade on ice routes as they simply aren’t the same difficulty for the first and last climber. This is all OK and I’m very stoked on ice climbing, but it causes problems for rock climbers coming at ice climbs with the same mindset they use on rock. If a rock climber hikes a well-traveled “WI 5″ in Ouray then the assumption might be that a WI4 in Canada might pose no issues. But if the WI 4 in Canada has seen little traffic, has some bad ice due to the big temperature fluctuations, and is in avalanche terrain… Some adaption is going to be called for or it will be handed out by the climb.
Some here in Canada have taken to giving routes, “picked out grades.” I think this is often more about the ego of the person wanting to climb “Real Grade Six!” than actual useful information sharing, so I don’t use this system, nor do I think it’s relevant. Even WI 6–for a competent ice climber–when it’s super fresh is more a game of patience and burning calories while using craftsman-level skills than pure technical difficulty, so looking for “hard” on ice is silly. I look for “hard” on rock climbs where it make sense, and search for competency, craftsmanship the endless amazing positions and joy I find on ice climbs. Rad wild mushrooms and features are just cool to climb, like surfing a wave or deep powder skiing. Love it.
The bigger point is that questing after absolute grades and defining the challenge of ice climbing by the grade is like defining the experience of skiing solely by the angle of the slope. If a slope is very steep then that is useful information, but it doesn’t tell you shit about how the skiing is going to be. A WI6 was probably rated for the angle in the 80s, and is simply an indicator of likely steeper climbing. Yes, there are exceptions, but big picture here.
So here’s my 2017 view of ice grades: they are increasingly based on irrelevant information, and seldom reflect technical difficulty or the climbing experience in the same way rock grades do. River grades as a number are also increasingly irrelevant today. The description and photos of rivers and ice climbs is more useful: Length, number of pitches, angle, avalanche hazard, exposure to sun, recent conditions reports. These are all far more relevant pieces for successful ice climbing than just the grade.
Mixed Grades
These are in a worse mess than ice climbing grades, I’ll deal with that in the future…
Posted in: Blog
CommentsPepe the Frog is a cartoon character that has become a popular Internet meme (often referred to as the "sad frog meme" by people unfamiliar with the name of the character). The character first appeared in 2005 in the on-line cartoon Boy's Club. In that appearance, the character also first used its catchphrase, "feels good, man."
The Pepe the Frog character did not originally have racist or anti-Semitic connotations. Internet users appropriated the character and turned him into a meme, placing the frog in a variety of circumstances and saying many different things. Many variations of the meme became rather esoteric, resulting in the phenomenon of so-called "rare Pepes."
The majority of uses of Pepe the Frog have been, and continue to be, non-bigoted. However, it was inevitable that, as the meme proliferated in on-line venues such as 4chan, 8chan, and Reddit, which have many users who delight in creating racist memes and imagery, a subset of Pepe memes would come into existence that centered on racist, anti-Semitic or other bigoted themes.
In recent years, with the growth of the "alt right" segment of the white supremacist movement, a segment that draws some of its support from some of the above-mentioned Internet sites, the number of "alt right" Pepe memes has grown, a tendency exacerbated by the controversial and contentious 2016 presidential election. Though Pepe memes have many defenders, the use of racist and bigoted versions of Pepe memes seems to be increasing, not decreasing.
However, because so many Pepe the Frog memes are not bigoted in nature, it is important to examine use of the meme only in context. The mere fact of posting a Pepe meme does not mean that someone is racist or white supremacist. However, if the meme itself is racist or anti-Semitic in nature, or if it appears in a context containing bigoted or offensive language or symbols, then it may have been used for hateful purposes.
In the fall of 2016, the ADL teamed with Pepe creator Matt Furie to form a #SavePepe campaign to reclaim the symbol from those who use it with hateful intentions.Activism isn't always accessible — and the Women's March on Washington is no exception.
For people who might not have the physical ability or stamina to join Saturday's massive public protest, disability activists created the Disability March — an online movement that allows people with disabilities and chronic illnesses to participate virtually in the event.
The Disability March organizers invite people living with disabilities to submit their names, photos and a statement on why they want to "march." The images and text will be uploaded to the website in time for the Women's March on Jan. 21, creating a virtual archive of people showing solidarity with the main event in Washington, D.C.
"I began to wonder about other ways to be visible, especially for our community, besides marching"
Sonya Huber, one of the organizers, was inspired to create the online movement after she realized attending the Women's March wouldn't be the best idea for her health. A disability rights activist and professor at Fairfield University in Connecticut, Huber lives with a few autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid disease and Hashimoto's disease. She also experiences some mobility problems.
"The march, combined with the drive, would have done a number on my immune system at the beginning of a busy semester," she told Mashable.
But Huber knew she wasn't alone, and she wanted to do something to help broaden access to the march for her community.
"I began to wonder about other ways to be visible, especially for our community, besides marching — even though the march will of course include many disabled people," she said. "Since the disabled community is going to be so impacted by the Republican agenda, it seemed that giving people a platform to tell their individual stories was most appropriate."
Image: Disability March
The Disability March is an all-volunteer effort, made for the disability community, by the disability community. It's also an official co-sponsor of the Women's March on Washington.
Huber said about 50 online "marchers" have signed up to participate in the virtual march so far, and she expects more people to submit their stories throughout the week.
Some images and testimonies of Disability March participants are already live on the movement's website, but the bulk of photos and statements will be uploaded Friday and Saturday to coincide with the main march.
Here's my entry in the online #disabilitymarch. Please join us: all it takes is an email to disability@gmail.com... https://t.co/dXb1u4joTB — Sonya Huber (@sonyahuber) January 13, 2017
Disability March organizers are also coming up with activist-oriented tasks for participants, designed with various levels of ability and comfort in mind. While still in planning stages, the goal is to offer tangible actions for people to still make an impact.
"In keeping our whole community in mind, our vision for a just society will be more inclusive — and our activism will be more effective."
Huber hopes the online march will draw attention to the faces and stories of people who will be heavily affected by the Trump administration, especially the potential repeal of the Affordable Care Act and attacks on Medicaid.
"I hope that this small effort — which rides the wave of so much other disability activism — can help get the word out about the large number of people with invisible and visible disabilities who need an outlet for sharing their stories and who want to be active," she said.
The Disability March also challenges other activist efforts to take inclusivity — and different types of participation in social movements — seriously.
"We are not a peripheral community," Huber said. "In keeping our whole community in mind, our vision for a just society will be more inclusive — and our activism will be more effective."
If you want to join the Disability March, you can fill out the short online form here. The deadline for submissions is Friday, Jan. 20.Elon Musk’s plan to whisk travelers in pods floating in magnetic tubes is a long way off, if it ever sees the light of day. That doesn’t mean that progress isn’t happening with the futuristic transit idea that could eventually carry people between L.A. and San Francisco in 35 minutes.
First off, one of the two L.A. startups working to make Hyperloop a reality is raking in cash. Playa Vista’s Hyperloop Transportation Technologies reported $109 million in recent investments, which includes millions in land-rights and “donated man hours and services.” It’s not clear what they’ll use the bucks for—their competitor, the similarly-named Hyperloop One, used some of their funding for a demonstration of the magnet train in the Nevada desert.
Musk’s company SpaceX is also partnering with India to possibly set up a Hyperloop system between Mumbai and Nagpur, with the Indian government aiding in land acquisition. That’s an issue that Hyperloop is currently struggling with—how do they obtain the space to accommodate tens of thousands of pylons needed to operate the pods?
The problem will bedevil a California iteration of Hyperloop. The California High-Speed Rail Authority is still determining how to route the bullet trains to Los Angeles without blowing up their budget by buying up houses and buildings. While CHSRA will run partially underground and at surface level, Hyperloop will have to buy up its right-of-way and placate folks who would rather not stare at giant tubes from their kitchen window.
Some Reddit posters are batting around the idea of L.A.’s Hyperloop station, should it ever become a reality. DTLA makes the most sense for our local stop, as it’s already the hub of the county’s transit system. Connecting to Union Station would be an option, possibly adding the tubes atop a nearby freeway like the 5 or 101. But since Hyperloop has always been viewed as city-to-city transportation, it would be more practical to drop off and pick up passengers in the heart of the city, closer to the Financial District and the popular 7th/Metro station. That would require burying the Hyperloop tubes underground, if that’s even possible. If having the tubes above ground are a necessity, the Arts District could be a good alternative; close by to the heart of downtown, with lots of low-slung, underutilized buildings that could make way for a new transit center—with San Francisco a half-hour away, think of the artisanal coffee options!The 40th Annecy International Animation Film Festival announced on April 27 that The Red Turtle, the latest work by award-winning Dutch animator and director Michael Dudok de Wit ("The Monk and the Fish," "Father & Daughter" animated shorts), will open the festival. Studio Ghibli is co-producing the film with French film production and distribution company Wild Bunch. Studio Ghibli director Isao Takahata served as artistic director on the film. The film is also screening at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
The festival also announced that it will screen the Gamba: Gamba to Nakama-tachi CG-animated film and The Anthem of the Heart anime film outside of competition. No Japanese feature films are screening in competition this year.
Additionally, Koji Yamamura's animated short film "'Parade' de Satie" and Ryo Orikasa's "Suijungenten" clay short film will screen in competition in the short films category. No Japanese short films will screen out of competition.
Keisuke Matsumoto's "Into the Pocket" episode for the Super Short Comics series is screening in competition in the TV Films category, and Makino Atsushi's music video for Sasanomaly's "The Synthesesia Ghost" song and Masanobu Hiraoka's Japanese- and French-produced music video for Ez3Kiel's "L'Œil du cyclone" song are screening in competition in the Commissioned Films category.
The Graduation Films category will see three Japanese films in competition: Eri Okazaki's "Feed," Keigo Ito's "Nanimo-minakuteii," and |
investigation of Russia’s intervention in the U.S. Election. There is too much at stake at home and abroad to not take this step," he said.
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"There is so much conflicting information from many sources; Americans deserve the opportunity to learn the truth. As stated before, I continue to support any efforts done by the House Intelligence Committee and join many of my colleagues in supporting the assignment of a special prosecutor to take over the ongoing FBI investigation."
Last week, Rep. Justin Amash Justin AmashHouse to push back at Trump on border Ex-GOP lawmakers urge Republicans to block Trump's emergency declaration This week: Congress, Trump set for showdown on emergency declaration MORE (R-Mich.), tweeted that he was "reviewing legislation to establish an independent commission on Russia.” On Friday, he was joined by Sen. Dean Heller Dean Arthur HellerTrump suggests Heller lost reelection bid because he was 'hostile' during 2016 presidential campaign Trump picks ex-oil lobbyist David Bernhardt for Interior secretary Oregon Dem top recipient of 2018 marijuana industry money, study finds MORE (R-Nev.), who said that a special prosecutor to investigate Trump's ties to Russia was "on the table."
Knight won reelection in California’s 25th District with 53 percent support in November, but Democrat Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE defeated Trump in the district, 50 to 44 percent.GRAND RAPIDS - Tyler Bertuzzi, who wasn't even counted on to be with the Grand Rapids Griffins this season, has become a highly-anticipated arrival in what has been a goal-starved start to the season.
The Griffins could use a productive forward. They have five goals in a current four-game winless streak that includes a 3-1 loss Wednesday against Tucson.
Penalties downfall of Griffins as winless streak reaches four Griffins allow 10 power play opportunities to Tucson as they fall two games below.500.
Bertuzzi, the 22-year-old MVP of last season's Calder Cup championship run, has yet to play this season. He has been sidelined with a tendon inflammation to his wrist that derailed chances of making the Detroit Red Wings in camp.
But he's close. Bertuzzi has practiced with the team beginning Tuesday and could be ready in a just over a week.
"We're shooting at next weekend with him," coach Todd Nelson said. "He looks good out there. He's shooting the puck now, and he wasn't doing that before (in workouts after practices)."
Last season, Bertuzzi had 37 points (12-25-37) in 48 games with the Griffins, and appeared in seven games for the Red Wings without a point before a high-ankle sprain sidelined him in late November.
He tore up the postseason with nine goals and 19 points in 19 games.
Bertuzzi is waiver exempt, so the Red Wings have options on his use this season.
The Griffins also hope to get back Matt Lorito, who has missed the past three games. Nelson said a possible" return is Friday.
Blueline adjustments
The Griffins are in a transition period defensively. They changed their look this season as they let captain Nathan Paetsch depart and brought in physical Dylan McIlrath, and made a commitment to younger players. That includes bigger roles for second-year players Joe Hicketts, Robbie Russo and Dan Renouf.
In the boarder picture, the Griffins want to see what Filip Hronek and Vili Saarijarvi can do. Hronek, 19, has played the past three games (no points and minus-1) since Ryan Sproul was dealt away. Saarijarvi, 20. was recalled Sunday but was not active Wednesday.
"We have a lot of young, up-and-coming guys coming in that have a lot of skills, are good players and I'll try and be there as much as I can," said Lashoff, an alternative captain and elder statesman of the blueline. "I remember guys like Doug Janik and Greg Amadio when I was first coming into pro and they helped turn me into a good pro, and I think if I can do the same thing for them, then they'll have long careers."
Familiar faces
On Friday, the Griffins host the Chicago Wolves who have changed NHL affiliation this season to the expansion Vegas Knights. The Wolves feature former Griffin Teemu Pulkkinen, who is tied for second in in scoring (4-7-11 in six games).
The Griffins have already been bitten by a former player this season. Tomas Jurco scored the shootout winner last Friday for Rockford in a 3-2 decision.
Griff's IceHouse West
The Griffins will host an open practice 3:30-5:30 p.m. Sunday at the grand reopening of Griff's IceHouse West in Holland. The free event for fans includes autographs from players and coaches and an open skate from 4-5:30 p.m. The Calder Cup Trophy will also be on display.The fact that the modern State is the organizational form of an authority founded upon arbitrariness and violence in the social life of toilers is independent of whether it may be "bourgeois" or "proletarian." It relies upon oppressive centralism, arising out of the direct violence of a minority deployed against the majority. In order to enforce and impose the legality of its system, the State resorts not only to the gun and money, but also to potent weapons of psychological pressure. With the aide of such weapons, a tiny group of politicians enforces psychological repression of an entire society, and, in particular, of the toiling masses, conditioning them in such a way as to divert their attention from the slavery instituted by the State.
So it must be clear that if we are to combat the organized violence of the modern State, we have to deploy powerful weapons, appropriate to the magnitude of the task.
Thus far, the methods of social action employed by the revolutionary working class against the power of the oppressors and exploiters - the State and Capital - in conformity with libertarian ideas, were insufficient to lead the toilers on to complete victory.
It has come to pass in History that the workers have defeated Capital, but the victory then slipped from their grasp, because some State power emerged, amalgamating the interests of private capital and those of State capitalism for the sake of success over the toilers.
The experience of the Russian revolution has blatantly exposed our shortcomings in this regard. We must not forget that, but should rather apply ourselves to identifying those shortcomings plainly.
We may acknowledge that our struggle against the State in the Russian revolution was remarkable, despite the disorganization by which our ranks were afflicted: remarkable above all insofar as the destruction of that odious institution is concerned.
But, by contrast, our struggle was insignificant in the realm of construction of the free society of toilers and its social structures, which might have ensure that it prospered beyond reach of the tutelage of the State and its repressive institutions.
The fact that we libertarian communists or anarcho-syndicalists failed to anticipate the sequel to the Russian revolution and that we failed to make haste to devise new forms of social activity in time, led many of our groups and organizations to dither yet again in their political and socio-strategic policy on the fighting front of the Revolution.
If we are to avert a future relapse into these same errors, when a revolutionary situation comes about, and in order to retain the cohesion and coherence of our organizational line, we must first of all amalgamate all of our forces into one active collective, then without further ado, define our constructive conception of economic, social, local and territorial units, so that they are outlined in detail (free soviets), and in particular describe in broad outline their basic revolutionary mission in the struggle against the State. Contemporary life and the Russian revolution require that.
Those who have blended in with the very ranks of the worker and peasant masses, participating actively in the victories and defeats of their campaign, must without doubt come to our own conclusions, and more specifically to an appreciation that our struggle against the State must be carried on until the State has been utterly eradicated: they will also acknowledge that the toughest role in that struggle is the role of the revolutionary armed force.
It is essential that the action of the Revolution's armed forces be linked with the social and economic unit, wherein the laboring people will organize itself from the earliest days of the revolution onwards, so that total self-organization of life may be introduced, out of reach of all statist structures.
From this moment forth, anarchists must focus their attention upon that aspect of the Revolution. They have to be convinced that, if the revolution's armed forces are organized into huge armies or into lots of local armed detachments, they cannot but overcome the State's incumbents and defenders, and thereby bring about the conditions needed by the toiling populace supporting the revolution, so that it may cut all ties with the past and look to the final detail of the process of constructing a new socioeconomic existence.
The State will, though, be able to cling to a few local enclaves and try to place multifarious obstacles in the path of the toilers' new life, slowing the pace of growth and harmonious development of new relationships founded on the complete emancipation of man.
The final and utter liquidation of the State can only come to pass when the struggle of the toilers is oriented along the most libertarian lines possible, when the toilers will themselves determine the structures of their social action. These structures should assume the form of organs of social and economic self-direction, the form of free "anti-authoritarian" soviets. The revolutionary workers and their vanguard - the anarchists - must analyze the nature and structure of these soviets and specify their revolutionary functions in advance. It is upon that, chiefly, that the positive evolution and development of anarchist ideas in the ranks of those who will accomplish the liquidation of the State on their own account in order to build a free society, will be dependent.
Dyelo Truda No.17, October 1926, pp. 5-6Rooting for Shaun White
Cameron Spencer/Getty Images Shaun White, pictured here during pipe practice Monday, will attempt to claim his third straight Olympic halfpipe gold medal Tuesday.
Shaun White is not a snowboarder's snowboarder. In case this axiom has not been impressed upon you over the course of his competition and media blitz, which dates back to well before his 2006 Olympic gold in halfpipe, you can read all about it in a recent New York Times Magazine profile. If you need further convincing, click here, here or here.
You could also have checked the Twitter feeds of Olympic slopestyle favorites Sebastien Toutant and Max Parrot, except they deleted their tweets that taunted White for pulling out of the event because he was afraid he wouldn't win it. They had to delete those tweets, though, because in the insular community of professional snowboarding, calling out your fellow competitors goes against bro-code.
White, on the other hand, appears to have no problem calling out his fellow competitors. Exhibit A: Last month's interview with Snowboarder magazine's Pat Bridges. This lengthy exchange starts out as a pleasant enough discussion about White's new band, his various businesses and his generally stratospheric level of celebrity and success. But down toward the bottom, when Bridges brings up a few things that have clearly stuck in White's craw, the normally politic pro goes on blast.
White explains the nature of his dispute with snowboard organizing body Ticket To Ride (now World Snowboard Tour), which dates back to 2008, when -- according to White -- TTR officials tried to change the rules of how the overall title would be awarded so they could give it to Kevin Pearce at the U.S. Open of Snowboarding, rather than at the next event of the year, where there would be a far smaller media presence. The hitch was that all White needed to do to secure the title over Pearce was appear at that next event.
"The backlash from that was incredible," White said. "It was like, 'He is greedy, trying to screw Kevin over.' I couldn't figure out why people would think that. And for me to not do my best at an event, I was just like, 'F--- you.' Tiger Woods? Are you mad at Tiger Woods when he wins? Who is showing up to lose? That's what pisses me off the most about snowboarding. Everybody's bros, but they aren't. That mentality of 'Everybody's homies and we are all just at the contest and it doesn't matter who wins' is so fake."
To suggest that winning is the priority at a competition is anathema to received snowboarding wisdom, which states that everyone does it strictly for the love of the sport. Just ask 2010 Olympic halfpipe champion Torah Bright, who's bidding in an unprecedented three snowboard events at Sochi. "It's never been about winning for me," she told ESPN in an interview last week. "Contests aren't everything -- or even anything, necessarily."
White's not doing anything in Sochi for the love; all White wants to do is win, which is why he'll never be a snowboarder's snowboarder. But that is all fine, because there's another relevant axiom in this instance: Americans love winners.
Clive Mason/Getty Images Shaun White walked into the opening ceremony in Sochi on Friday with his coach, Bud Keene.
There's no one I'd rather spend a day shredding with than White's teammate, fun-loving, laid-back Danny Davis, but when it comes to the two weeks of world-class competition that is the Olympic Winter Games, I'm hitching myself to the Shaun White bandwagon. Let the core snowboard community whinge on about how a Davis gold would be a victory for "real snowboarders." The Olympics is where the world gathers to celebrate great competitors.
And White is the winningest champ in competitive snowboarding history -- the only other rider even in the conversation is his U.S. teammate Kelly Clark. People forget that White had a winter X Games four-peat in slopestyle (2003-06) before he had a six-peat in SuperPipe. Pearce, Davis and Louie Vito may have put up a fight during the last Olympic cycle with their halfpipe double corks, but they had to learn those double corks because of White. White's been responsible for nearly every bar-raising in halfpipe for eight straight years, and with the rumored triple cork still out there, he may well do it again in Sochi.
White's being pilloried for pulling out of slopestyle, in part, because doing so at the last minute meant the U.S. Team had no time to select a replacement rider. This may have been graceless, but as John Branch points out in the Times, who was going to replace him? Fifteen-year-old Kyle Mack? Brandon Davis? The U.S. Olympic Team is about fielding the strongest possible team with the best chance for medals, and the team proved last week that life goes on without White by earning gold medals in both the men's and women's competitions.
White measures himself against guys like Woods and Michael Jordan, and we're supposed to disapprove of that, why, exactly? When did we start dinging guys for aspiring to a level of greatness that transcends their particular sport? White often seems insincere and overly sensitive; by most accounts, Jordan and Woods weren't exactly guys you'd want to play a pickup game or shoot a round with, either. They're iconic because they embody grace under pressure, physical dominance and pure competitive guts.
In fact, they embody the Olympic motto: Faster, higher, stronger. That was chosen by Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, because, "Athletes need 'freedom of excess.' That is why we gave them this motto... a motto for people who dare to try and break records."
White's the winningest halfpipe snowboarder of all time, and a win in Sochi would make him just the sixth U.S. Olympian -- and only the second Winter Olympian -- to win the same event three times. That's almost a decade of dominance in a sport where progression happens overnight. If his peers don't want to root for him to join the ranks of Michael Phelps, Carl Lewis or Bonnie Blair, that's fine. I know a whole country that does.Part 1 of 3.
Part 3 of 3.
Jews and Moneylending: A Contemporary Case File
One of the standout stars of the online moneylending business is Al Goldstein, a Jew from Uzbekistan who arrived in America with his family in 1988. Goldstein is the co-founder and CEO of AvantCredit.com, one of America’s fastest growing online providers of consumer loans. After securing more than $1 billion in funding, AvantCredit was the most funded company in Chicago in 2014. The company has issued more than 100,000 loans operating in 46 U.S. states and in the United Kingdom where it has operated under the brand SpringCoin.co.uk. But these aren’t the only strands in Goldstein’s web. A major trait of these Jewish moneylending mega-operations is that they start off with a single company and then spawn innumerable new branches and brand names over time. In such ways, the ownership and liabilities for these companies quickly becomes obscured. For example, Goldstein was also co-founder, President and CEO of CashNetUSA, which then changed its name to Enova International, from 2004 until 2008. Enova trades under several more company names in Canada (Dollars Direct), Australia (Dollars Direct Australia), and Great Britain, where it operates as QuickQuid, Pounds to Pocket and also On Stride Financial. As for where Goldstein might put some of his “rainless crop,” I note that Goldstein is an “active member” of the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Unlike most White Americans, who look on with horror at the declining fortunes of the American middle class, Goldstein sees opportunity in it. In 2009 he started Pangea Properties in order buy thousands of foreclosing properties. This Uzbek Jew now owns more than 10,000 homes previously in the hands of debt-saddled Americans. Enova has been recorded boasting that “demand in the consumer segment we serve has been influenced by several demographic and socioeconomic trends, including an overall increase in the population and stagnant to declining growth in the household income for this segment.” It touts a recent National Bureau of Economic Research survey in which nearly half of U.S. consumers said they couldn’t come up with $2,000 in emergency funds even if they had a month to do so. They predict more and more citizens will be turning to them for financial “assistance,” and Goldstein’s operation has been described as “ideal” by Dan and Bob Wolfberg, the co-founders of another Chicago-based loan firm, PLS Financial Services Inc. Another increasingly influential player in the American online moneylending game is LendUp, founded in 2011 in San Francisco by Sasha Orloff and Jacob Rosenberg.
Online lending hasn’t just been pioneered by Jews in relation to small loans. One of the major contributing factors in the economic crash was the advent in 2000 of easy online mortgage loans. One of the biggest companies in this area of moneylending is Quicken Loans. Quicken is owned by Daniel Gilbert, whom Wikipedia describes as “born to a Jewish family in Detroit.” Quicken Loans was originally called Rock Financial Mortgage when it was founded in 1985 by Gilbert and his younger brother Gary, along with fellow co-ethnics Ron Berman and Lindsay Gross. Gilbert’s firm has done well out of the economic devastation that has befallen Detroit, and as of last year it remains America’s second biggest mortgage lender. Although Gilbert has been careful to try to maintain a clean image of his company, Quicken has attracted several federal lawsuits. In particular, CBS has reported that employees have come forward with information to the effect that the company was heavily involved in the kind of reckless, illegal lending that typified lending behavior in the run-up to the housing crash. Employees interviewed by federal authorities have accused the company of
using high-pressure salesmanship to target elderly and vulnerable homeowners, as well as misleading borrowers about their loans, and falsifying property appraisals and other information to push through bad deals. … A group of ex-employees, meanwhile, have gone to federal court to accuse Quicken of abusing workers and customers alike. In court papers, former salespeople claim Quicken executives managed by bullying and intimidation, pressuring them to falsify borrowers’ incomes on loan applications and to push overpriced deals on desperate or unwary homeowners.
A former loan salesman at Quicken has reported that senior figures in the company put employees under pressure to “lock the customer into a higher interest rate, even if they qualified for a lower rate, and roll hidden fees into the loan.” In 2010 a West Virginia court found Quicken guilty of fraud for misleading a mortgage borrower, gouging her on fees and wrongly inflating the value of her home. The judge overseeing the case described the company’s conduct in the case as “unconscionable.” Quicken appealed the decision, only to be hit with $3.5 million in punitive damages for continuing to avoid dealing fairly with the customer. Like Al Goldstein, Gilbert is generous when it comes to his fellow Jews. When not engaged in immoral lending practices, Gilbert is keenly involved in the US Friends of the Israeli Defense Force and sits on the Israeli and Overseas Committee of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.
But Quicken wasn’t even the worst of the sub-prime mortgage lenders. The consensus is that one of the most predatory was Ameriquest, founded in 1979 in California by Roland Arnall. Wikipedia states that Arnall was born in Paris, France in 1939 to “Eastern European Jews.” Ameriquest wasn’t the first thing founded by Arnall. Like Goldstein and Gilbert, Arnall was a pillar of the Jewish community. Two years before founding Ameriquest, Arnall, a “long-time supporter of Israel,” helped found the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. Arnall wasn’t so charitable or honest when it came to non-Jews using his company to buy a home. Arnall’s Wikipedia entry states that by the end of 2005 two of Arnall’s companies, Ameriquest and Argent, had funded almost $75 billion in bad subprime loans. A major factor in the development and growth of his companies was yet another Jewish credit “innovation”: Arnall is widely acknowledged as having originated the “stated income loan,” often called “liar loans,” because they were loans given without verification of income.
These loans were then bundled by major Wall St. financial firms, certified as investment-grade securities by companies like Standard and Poor’s, and then sold to investors who lost billions, resulting in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Recently Standard and Poor’s agreed to a fine of $1.37 billion because they were paid by companies whose securities they were rating. This means that the total paid out by American financial institutions for malfeasance leading up to the financial crisis is $40 billion — widely considered a slap on the wrist given the profits involved, the ongoing damage caused, and the fact that “not one top executive at S.&P., or any major Wall Street firm, was charged criminally for the misdeeds during the era.” Quite obviously, there can be no trust in our financial elites. As Matt Taibi noted (see here), “The real problem is that it doesn’t matter what regulations are in place if the people running the economy are rip-off artists. The system assumes a certain minimum level of ethical behavior and civic instinct over and above what is spelled out by the regulations. If those ethics are absent — well, this thing isn’t going to work, no matter what we do. ”
In Chain of Blame: How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis, Paul Muolo and Matthew Padilla state that at least thirty per cent of Arnall’s business was based on “stated-income or limited-documentation mortgages.”[1] A fellow financial predator was reported by the authors as stating: “[Arnall] plays by his own rules. He’s the guy who started stated-income loans, the guy who started no-documentation loans.”[2] By 2005 Ameriquest stood accused of misrepresenting and failing to disclose loan terms, charging excessive loan origination fees and inflating appraisals to qualify borrowers for loans. Despite costing the United States billions of dollars, playing an instrumental part in bringing the nation to its knees, and throwing untold numbers of hard-working American families into pits of despair, in early 2006 the company was permitted to pay just $325 million in a settlement with state attorneys general and law enforcement agencies and financial regulators in 49 states and the District of Columbia. This criminal, who brought so much damage to America, was then inexplicably made a US Ambassador to the Netherlands from 2006 until his death in 2008.
Or, perhaps, it’s more explicable than we might think given that Arnall was one of the biggest donors for pro-Israel neoconservative Republicans, and an especially lavish contributor to George W. Bush and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. As an example of the distance between the elite and the people, when challenged on Arnall’s funding, Schwarzenegger explained that the sources of Ameriquest’s ill-gotten gains “are not our area of concern” — which would best be translated as “ordinary Americans are not our area of concern.”
Like his fellow Jewish financial predators, Arnall spared no expense when it came to supporting Jewish interests with his “rainless crop ”(see also “The Sandlers and the Arnalls: The sub-prime meltdown funds Jewish political activism.”) According to Judaic Studies teacher Rabbi Aaron Parry, he gave tens of millions of dollars to charity every year, including to “every single Jewish educational organization in [Los Angeles], regardless of denomination.” Arnall was also instrumental in buying land and homes from Arabs near the Western Wall in Jerusalem, in order to sell them cheaply to Jews who wanted to live there. Utlimately it was a simple formula — take homes from Americans in the U.S., give them to Jews in Israel.
Returning to the thriving industry of small-scale, high-interest, online moneylending, the title of kingpin probably goes to multi-millionaire Jeffrey Weiss. Weiss, 71, is the chief executive of Dollar Financial or DFC Global Corp, a US-based payday lender which is expanding rapidly in Canada (where it operates under the name of Money Mart) and Britain, where it assumes several trading names. Britain has attracted these international Jewish lenders because for a long time the country, unlike increasing numbers of American states, had no limits on what interest rates could be charged. Looking at some articles from the UK, it’s clear that Dollar Financial owns The Money Shop, with 370 stores across the nation. It charges 1,311% annual interest on 30-day loans and made £33 million ($51 million) profits last year, up 21% from the previous year. Dollar Financial also owns online lenders Payday UK and Payday Express, which charges 1297% APR interest on loans of up to £800 ($1200). Profits at Payday Express more than tripled last year to £4.9 million ($7.5 million).
Because more and more US states were taking action on the interest rates charged by the companies operated by Dollar Financial, Weiss turned his attention overseas: “We have dramatically diversified out of the US where the regulatory environment … is at best unclear. We have diversified into geographies like Canada and the UK with relatively little competition where we can build a dominant market position.” Weiss calls his customers “Alice” — “asset-limited, income-constrained, employed.” “Because they are under skilled and undereducated, the opportunity for them to advance above that income bracket is very limited.” So he tempts them with easy but crippingly expensive cash.
Cash comes easier to Weiss, however. On top of his basic salary of $1 million annually, Dollar Financial also pays Weiss’s $34,000 country club membership last year and his $17,000 tax and legal bill. He also doesn’t need to worry about his company’s interest rates. In 2005, Dollar forgave Weiss $2.3 million in interest on a loan he had from the company, believed to be for more than $15 million. This comes on top of other benefits far too numerous to cite here, but available for the viewing of the curious.
America may be a net importer of goods and services, but the payday lending industry dominated is becoming one of the nation’s fastest growing exports. Payday lending, pioneered by Jewish financiers, has spread like a weed into most of the Western economies in the developed world. Weiss and DFC lead the way with subsidiaries in the U.S., the U.K., the Czech Republic, Spain, Poland, Scandinavia, and Canada. Not to be outdone, their rival EZCorp has stores in almost thirty countries. By far the most influential shareholder on the EZCorp board is Phillip Cohen. According to Wikipedia Cohen is an Australian private equity investor with a background at Kuhn Loeb and Oppenheimer & Co. After taking advice from fellow co-ethnics, and notorious fraudsters, Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky, Cohen founded Morgan Schiff & Co. Cohen then became majority and then exclusive shareholder of voting stock for EZCorp.
Among its American assets, Cohen’s EZCorp has a portfolio which includes EZ Pawn, Pawn Plus, Value Pawn and Jewelry, Premier Pawn and Jewelry, USA Pawn and Jewelry Company, Easy Cash Solutions, Jerry’s Pawn Shop, and CashMax Payday Loans. Internationally, it also owns Cash Amigo in Mexico, as well as the Cash Converters International Brand. EZ Corp has joined the U.K. feeding frenzy by offering the online payday lending “service” Cash Genie. As well as coming under criticism for charging annual interest rates of 2,986% on its loans, Cash Genie has been forced to repay money to its customers after the Financial Conduct Authority found that the company applied unauthorized charges to customer accounts and permitted customers to become indebted far beyond their means.
But the problems faced by Cohen’s U.K. customers are merely the tip of the iceberg. Newspaper reports suggest three-and-a-half million British adults are considering taking out an extortionate payday loan over the next six months as almost half the population struggle in the aftermath of a crisis instigated by the likes of Arnall and Gilbert. The number of people who run out of cash before the month is up has increased by seven percentage points since this time last year. Payday loan companies are now worth more than $3 billion a year, with some lenders charging interest rates of more than 4,000%, leaving borrowers drowning in debt.
As well as the intrusions of American Jews into the British loan market, the country also has a number of “home-grown” online moneylenders. They all have friendly names such as Wonga, Mr Lender, and Uncle Buck. Mr Lender styles himself “Your Friend Until Payday.” But who is Mr Lender? The founder and owner of the company is Adam Freeman, a member of the South West Essex and Settlement Reform Synagogue who was also selected for the U.K.’s version of The Apprentice. Even with new laws and restrictions, Mr Lender still charges 1,269.6% APR on his loans, so I’m pretty sure that come payday he really won’t be your friend any longer.
By far the most notorious “domestic” online moneylender in Britain is Wonga. It was the astonishing 5,853% rate on Wonga’s annual loans that finally prompted the British government to begin closing the loopholes which permitted the moneylender’s feeding frenzy on the British people. Wonga, which still charges annual interest rates of 1,509%, was founded by two South African Jews, Errol Damelin and Jonty Hurwitz. According to his Wikipedia entry, Damelin “grew up in a Jewish family where he attended the University of Cape Town. Following his graduation in 1992 he immigrated to Israel. He began his career working as a corporate finance banker at an Israeli bank that later merged into Israel Discount Bank.” He founded Wonga in 2007, with the company soon attracting criticism for “fraud and the exploitation of the most vulnerable in society.” Among the company’s practices was the forging of legal letters in order to terrorize customers into paying ever higher fees. Because such practices are completely illegal the company was later subject to a criminal investigation.
Like a rat deserting a sinking ship, Damelin stepped down from his leadership at Wonga (retaining shares) just two weeks before the company was due to be hit with new regulations from the Financial Conduct Authority as well as a $4 million compensation demand. As of November 2014, however, Wonga had yet to pay thousands of customers.
Damelin isn’t as tardy when it comes to supporting Jewish interests. He is active in supporting Jewish charities such as World Jewish Relief and Jewish Care, but when challenged by the press over the way in which his company treats British customers, he disclosed “that he felt no moral personal issues relating to Wonga’s much criticised trading ethics.”
Those finding themselves in the grasp of the online moneylenders are often forced to turn to those in another burgeoning but related industry — businesses built on consumer debt relief and debt consolidation. For example, you might turn to the services of Consolidated Credit Counseling Services Inc., one of America’s largest credit-counseling firms. In 2013 it generated $31 million in revenue. It’s more than a little interesting, however, that Consolidated is owned and operated by David Dvorkin, who also has financial interests in the very same payday lending companies that get his customers into trouble in the first place, thereby benefiting from both sides of the financial trap. Apparently this is no big deal to Dvorkin, who counters press enquiries on the matter with sob stories about his father dying the week before his bar mitzvah. My heart bleeds.
Some of the money funding the expansion of Jewish payday loan companies might come from surprising sources. For example, Bloomberg reports that money from Harvard University has been implicated in a number of suspect ventures (“Secret Network Connects Harvard Money to Payday Loans”). In 2007, Vector Capital, a fund operated by San Francisco Jewish financier Alex Slusky was tasked by Harvard and other investors with raising $1.2 billion to buy and turn around struggling software companies. Slusky instead worked with co-ethnics, and fellow Venture comrades, Robert and Daniel Ziff to build “a network of payday-lending websites, using corporations set up in Belize and the Virgin Islands that obscured their involvement and circumvented U.S. usury laws.” Employees connected to the scam claim that Slusky was behind “CashYes.com, CashJar.com and at least four other payday-loan websites.” Although Slusky refused to respond to e-mailed media enquiries, and actually hung up when called for comment, I note that the companies quickly disappeared after Bloomberg’s exposé.
As well as luring in the vulnerable with online mortgages and small loans, Jews have also been reaping the “rainless crop” via online gambling. One of the pioneers and biggest players in the online poker industry was Isai Scheinberg, an “Israeli-Canadian” former programmer for IBM. Scheinberg is the co-founder and former co-owner (with his son Mark Scheinberg) of PokerStars “the largest online poker cardroom in the world.” In United States v. Isai Scheinberg et al., federal authorities accused Scheinberg, along with associates and co-ethnics Howard Lederer and Rafael Furst, of extensive fraud and money laundering. The case concerned the fate of approximately $3 billion in assets; authorities sought prison terms for all the executives concerned, apart from Mark Scheinberg. One of the named executives, Ira Rubin, attempted to flee to Guatamala, but was arrested there on Monday, April 25, 2011. Rubin was subsequently sentenced to three years in prison, with the judge remarking: “You are an unreformed con man and fraudster.” Isai Scheinberg is still under indictment in the U.S., but has relocated himself and PokerStars to the Isle of Man, a self-governing British Crown dependency in the Irish Sea. He recently became a billionaire after selling the company to the Canada-based Amaya group. But some things never change, and the Chairman and CEO of gambling conglomerate Amaya is another co-ethnic, David Baazov. Baazov has been described by Jewish Business Week as the new “king of online gambling.”
Online gambling, like online moneylending, is currently one of the world’s largest growth markets. And given what we have discussed above, it is perhaps not all that surprising that Israel is emerging as a global center for online gambling companies. In fact, some commentators have credited Israel with “essentially creating the online gambling industry back in the 1990s.” Although Israelis are banned from targeting their own people with these websites, this has not prevented them from “catering” to gamblers abroad. Some of the biggest names in the online gambling industry are Israeli, such as Playtech, the world’s largest online gaming software supplier. Other well-known online gambling companies that maintain a sizeable presence in the Jewish State include 888, Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment, William Hill Online, Ladbrokes Digital, and Caesars Interactive Entertainment.
As online moneylending and gambling takes off, adding to the financial woes of consumers, more and more Americans, Europeans, Canadians and Australians will fall into the hands of the Jewish CEOs and companies I have listed. These citizens will descend into an inescapable spiral of debt. Across America, household debt is increasing at an alarming rate. It now approaches $12 trillion. Both Canada and Australia have household debt figures that are higher even than those in the United States. In the UK, household debt is predicted to grow three times faster than salaries over the next four years.
The flies are struggling in the web, but become only ever more fastened to it. I therefore contend that the Jewish CEOs and companies listed above, along with their “innovations,” fraudulent procedures, and practice of dual ethics represents a clear and present danger to the wealth, interests, and well-being of our societies.
End of Part 2 of 3.
Go to Part 3 of 3.
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[1] P. Muolo and M. Padilla, Chain of Blame: How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis (Wiley, 2010), 87.
[2] Ibid.
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Part 1 of 3.
END Part 2 of 3.
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a motorcycle -- which left his Rolls-Royce smashed up and the bike wedged into the front end... TMZ Sports has learned.
Here's what we know... it all went down around 6:30 PM on Monday in Atlanta. We've spoken with several people connected to the incident but don't know exactly who crashed into whom.
We're told the biker was injured in the wreck and was transported to a local hospital in serious condition.
Officials at the scene say the motorcycle was on fire and the ATL Fire Dept. responded to put out the flames.
As for Paul, all we know is he was in the Rolls-Royce at the time of the crash -- unclear if he was the driver or a passenger.
We've reached out to the Hawks -- a rep told us they were aware of the accident. We also reached out to Paul's rep, so far no word back.Super Rugby Power Rankings
The Super Rugby Franchises are halfway home, three Australian Franchises are in the running to crack the Top 6, and earn a chance at taking out the 2014 Super Rugby Trophy.
While the finals race for several teams is heating up, many teams (and fans) will be left in the dust, reflecting on what could have been ‘if only’ or ‘maybe if’.
Upon reflection, many teams in Super Rugby possess win/loss ratios that they might not deserve. Teams that either started slowly or lost close games, like the Crusaders and Reds respectively, are represented by a table that does not accurately portray their standings in the competition. So, which teams are better or worse than their record suggests? How would one go about finding out?
How the Super Rugby Power Rankings Work
To analyse this further, NBA Analyst John Hollinger from ESPN created a series of equations to mathematically calculate just how good each team really is. Hollinger used 9 separate variables in the equation, and weighted them in accordance to common sense. Hollinger’s formula places emphasis on the Strength of Schedule to ascertain the level of competition, the Average Points Margin per game to highlight their ability to compete against said competition, and the number of Home and Away games played- a factor that cannot be emphasised enough, as away teams have won just 16 of the 74 games played thus far. In order to objectively calculate a ‘Power Ranking’ that goes beyond wins and losses, or subjective wondering, all these variables have been taken in to account to summarise the real standings of each team. With some slight tinkering, the formula was manipulated to suit the shorter seasons of Super Rugby. The results make for some very interesting reading.
The Super Rugby Power Rankings
RATING = (((SOS-0.5)/0.037)*0.67) + (((SOSL5-0.5)/0.037)*0.33) + 100 + (0.67*(MARG+(((AWAY-HOME)*3.5)/(GAMES))) + (0.33*(MARGL5+(((AWAY5-HOME5)*3.5)/(10)))))
What does it all mean for Australian Rugby? Here are our POWER RANKINGS –
Queensland Reds – 92.75
If you needed mathematical proof to see that the Reds are having a down year, you’re not paying enough attention. They’re the worst Australian side in both the table and the GAGR Power Rankings.
The lack of impact players like a line bending forward or a barnstorming back to replace Scott Higginbotham (Rebels), Radike Samo (Kintesu Liners), and Digby Ioane (Stade Francais) for the Reds has been well documented, but they’ve still managed to keep the games at their former fortress Suncorp Stadium close. The Reds pulled off winning efforts against the Cheetahs and Stormers at home, whilst losing by 3 points to the Force and then the Brumbies. This has actually bumped up their ranking slightly, which should be some small consolation to frustrated Reds fans. However, the Reds struggles away from home have had the opposite effect in a major way, losing matches by an average 19.8 points.
The Reds’ Power Ranking has ultimately been hamstrung by winning less than one third of their total games, against opposition that averages out to a.512 win/loss ratio. The average scoreline of -7 points per game over 10 games is tied for the second-worst in all of Super Rugby.
It doesn’t get any easier for the Reds on the home stretch, with games against Power Rankings leaders the Crusaders, in addition to dangerous teams like Waratahs, the Highlanders, the Western Force, and two matches against the rising Melbourne Rebels. They are currently in the depths of a 4 game losing streak, their longest since May 2009.
Melbourne Rebels – 99.28
There isn’t a rugby fan in the Southern Hemisphere that doesn’t enjoy watching the Rebels when they’re on song. The ever-present underdog tag since the creation of the team in 2011 has been eradicated, and now the Melbourne Rebels are a threat to write off at your tipping peril. Under the leadership of Tony McGahan in combination with clever recruitment from the front office, the Rebels have taken huge steps in 2013, and hopefully will continue to build through the remainder of the season.
Despite playing the toughest schedule in all of Super Rugby at 0.586 and one less game than the Reds, the Rebels are ahead of the Queenslanders by a point – and sit two places higher on the ladder. Most impressive for Rebels is the fact that their last five matches were played against opposition with a win/loss ratio of 0.622 (Brumbies, Highlanders, Chiefs, Force, and Sharks), with an average scoring margin of -0.2 each game. This Rebels team, over the last 5 games, has taken the cream of the crop of Super Rugby to the wire whilst only sitting 11th on the table. For a franchise with so few capped Wallabies this is really something to celebrate.
The Rebels will finish their season off with matches against the Hurricanes, Reds, and Waratahs at home, but will travel to Queensland, Canberra, and South Africa to take on the Reds (for the second time), Brumbies, Lions and Bulls.
Ultimately, even if the Rebels go undefeated for the remainder of the season, this would take them to 10 wins – probably just short on earning a wild card spot in the face of other good competition. All the same, these Rebels are on the rise. Watch out in 2015.
ACT Brumbies – 100.82
After the run of bad form from the Brumbies that saw the side miss the finals each year from 2007-2012, it was a sight for the sore eyes of Australian Rugby when the coaching trio of Jake White, Stephen Larkham, and Laurie Fisher took the reins of the Brumbies. Though White left at the end of the 2013 season, the development of seemingly ordinary players like Tevita Kuridrani and Scott Fardy to Wallaby Stardom between 2011 and 2013 saw the Brumbies overtake the Reds as the Super Rugby Powerhouse of Australia.
Though the Brumbies lead the Australian conference, their Power Ranking is significantly lower than one might expect. Vindication for this controversial result lies in two key statistics in the formula; the Brumbies have played the competition’s easiest schedule thus far, with opponents registering a win/loss ratio of just 0.3889, in addition to a very uninspiring average margin per game of 3.6 points. In the eyes of the formula the Brumbies have not yet been tested by quality opposition, and have simply been scraping through to win their games.
This may seem odd, but to review the Brumbies matches thus far it becomes clear that their performance hasn’t been as stellar as many believed prior to the Crusaders towelling. An impressive 41-23 away victory against the Chiefs is tempered by narrow wins over the Reds, Rebels, Stormers, Waratahs, and Hurricanes, as well as embarrassing losses to the Reds, Rebels, and the Crusaders.
However, the Brumbies will have every chance to prove themselves over the weekend, as the Shorks visit the Nations Capital in a battle between first on the table and joint second in the Brumbies most difficult battle to date. The Ponies will get no reprieve afterwards as they fly to South Africa to challenge the Cheetahs and Bulls, dangerous sides with nothing to lose and an itch to bloody the nose of the Australian leaders. When the Brumbies return home they will be forced to fend off a Rebel team that knows how to beat them, before likely conference deciding match ups with Michael Cheika’s Waratahs and the Western Force.
Western Force – 101.75
For years the Force have struggled with coaching, player attraction and player retention, but under Coach Michael Foley the ship appears to have been righted. Foley has built a game plan that emphasises the defensive strengths of his players, and good recruitment has built the Force a team that could really progress in to the Finals. Season 2014 has seen the Force topple many long standing monkeys, nearly tripling their franchise record of consecutive wins.
The Force’s Power Ranking is higher than the Brumbies due to playing the second hardest schedule in the competition, despite being similar in most other areas. The factor pulling the Force’s ranking down to 7th overall in the Power Rankings is their low scoring margin per game of 1.11, evidence that the Force have kept their games tight.
Looking back over the fixtures this becomes even clearer. Matches against the Highlanders, Chiefs, Reds, Rebels and Bulls resulted in victories for the Force, but all these wins were by less than 7 points. The Force have been remarkably consistent in this respect, a positive sign leading up to their first ever tilt in the Super Rugby Finals.
The Force head to South Africa this week to take on the Cheetahs, and then the Stormers, giving the Force a very good chance to go undefeated against South African opposition in 2014. Before returning home the Force must first take on the Crusaders in New Zealand in what should be a good litmus test for the how the Force should go in the finals. To finish the regular season the Force will play host to the Blues and the Reds, before finishing their season in a match with the Brumbies.
NSW Waratahs – 103.46
The Waratah’s latest season yet again began with an avalanche of hype from the Sydney media. And why shouldn’t it have? The Waratahs are in the second year of fiery Coach Michael Cheika’s re-boot of the struggling franchise, with the arsenal of stars hitting their straps early. Despite some hiccups with skill execution, the Waratahs have the attacking firepower to go toe to toe with the best teams in the competition.
The Waratahs have competed against teams with an average 0.4908 win/loss ratio, with the third highest points margin per game at 5.3 (just 0.04 points per game off coming second). Recent form from the Tah’s hasn’t lived up to their sky high potential, with the margin per game in the last 5 matches falling to a meagre 1.4 points. Long winning streaks have avoided the New South Wales side, who have made a habit of dropping games every 2 or 3 weeks to opponents they probably should have beaten, case in point being matches against the Blues, the Force, and maybe even the Sharks.
The Waratahs play the Lions at home after a bye this weekend, before taking on the Rebels and the Chiefs on the road. The Waratahs will likely play season defining games against the Brumbies and the Highlanders at home before finishing their season on the road in Queensland.
It’s not the most difficult journey to the finals, and the Waratahs are my pick to finish up atop the Australian Conference.Paul Kelly's View 3:10 The Australian's Paul Kelly analyses the end of an era for Labor with a triumphant victory for Tony Abbott and the Liberal Party. Tony Abbott, with Nationals Leader Warren Truss and Deputy Liberal Leader Julie Bishop at a meeting in Parliament House. Picture: Kym Smith Tony Abbott arrives at Parliament House in Canberra for meetings with senior Coalition figures and key public servants. Picture: Kym Smith
TONY Abbott has warned the micro-parties and independents likely to hold the Senate balance of power that he expects his government's mandate to be respected.
After arriving in Canberra for further briefings with public service chiefs, the Prime Minister-elect has also declined to say whether he will live in The Lodge.
With up to seven minor party candidates on track to seize seats in the Senate - including some on a tiny fraction of the vote - the Coalition faces a new challenge to implement promises including the repeal of the carbon tax and the introduction of a paid parental leave scheme.
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Mr Abbott said he would be respectful and courteous towards all who managed to gain a seat.
“But in the end, I think they all need to respect the government of our nation has a mandate and the parliament should work with the government of the day to implement its mandate,” he told radio 2UE.
“I know it's a two-way street and respect has got to be earned, rather than merely demanded, but nevertheless, the people voted for change and change they will get. I am determined to ensure the parliament will give them the change they want.”
He said he would not rush parliament back for a “photo opportunity”, and it was likely to be recalled in October or November.
“As soon as the substance of the work is there to do, it will come back, and with calm expedition we will get the work done,' Mr Abbott said.
The PM-elect will receive briefings from key members of the bureaucracy today, and lead a meeting of the Coalition leadership group. He has also scheduled telephone calls to state premiers.
He and his executive team are expected to be sworn in by the Governor-General next week.
Mr Abbott declined to say whether he would live in The Lodge or Kirribilli House.
He said he accepted for security reasons he would have to live in one of the official residences, rather than his home in Forestville, on Sydney's northern beaches.
“My understanding is that The Lodge is under renovation and I will be taking the advice of the officials before I make a final decision,” he said.
The Australian Sports Party may pick up a seat in Western Australia after securing less than 0.02 per cent of the vote, while the Australian Motoring Enthusiasts Party's Ricky Muir could secure a Senate spot in Victoria on about 0.5 per cent of the vote.
Clive Palmer's party is likely to pick up two spots, in Queensland and Tasmania, while the Liberal Democratic Party is on track to have David Leyonhjlem - a libertarian who believes in the right to carry guns for self-defence - elected as a senator in NSW.
The Greens are likely to pick up a seat in Victoria, while Family First's Bob Day also appears to have claimed a seat in the state.
Greens leader Christine Milne said there was a “delicious irony” in the fact Mr Abbott would have to negotiate his legislation through the Senate.
“Tony Abbott is going to have to do exactly what he condemned Julia Gillard for doing,” she told reporters in Canberra.
“To negotiate on a daily basis with a group of people who have no policy platform in most cases.
“Some of them are extreme conservatives, right off the map in terms of extreme.
“Who knows where they stand on anything?”
However Coalition frontbencher Christopher Pyne said he expected right-leaving micro-parties to be easier to negotiate with than Labor or the Greens.
“I think it will be much easier in fact for a Coalition government to deal with a crossbench dominated by centre-right parties or individuals than Greens or Labor,” he told the ABC.
South Australia Senator Nick Xenophon, who emphatically retained his seat, called for changes to voting rules to prevent such a situation arising again.
“There are some minor groups that get together that say... `We've got common interests, if we don't get up, if we don't get enough votes, we send our preferences to someone that's got similar views',” he told Fairfax radio.
“That's why you could get 0.2 per cent of the vote and end up with a Senate seat quota.”
Mr Abbott said possible reforms would be considered after the usual parliamentary review of the election result.EDITOR’S NOTICE: One of these women has been found, she was actually found early on but her name was not taken off the list. Problem is I can’t find the message telling me which one it is. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause
Who is killing everyone on or around Highway 2?
This is a list of people of interest in Government and Law Enforcement who are suspect or simply doing nothing at all
*** Editor’s note: We have been given 3 addtl names but it is unknown how they are connected to this, a Lon Turner & oddly enough 2 officers suspected in the botched investigations of Patti Berry and Tracey Brazzel former officers Padilla and Beatie. It should be noted those girls came up missing from south SnoCo not north one was never found though.
Gold Bar Mayor Joe Beavers
Gold Bar Police Chief David Casey
Granite Falls Police Chief (former)Tony Domish
Mayor Haroon Saleem
Monroe Police spokeswoman Debbie Willis
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Rebecca Hover
Skagit County sheriff’s Deputy Brad Holmes
Snohomish County Sheriff’s Bureau Chief Kevin Prentiss
Snohomish County Sheriff’s Sgt. Danny Wikstrom
Sultan Police Chief(former) Fred Walser
Pat Slack Snohomish County Drug Task Force
Mark Ericks former US Marshall, and Snohomish Deputy Marshall
Chief Criminal Deputy Will Reichardt
Deputy John Hendrickson
Officer Pruit
Sergeant Stemme
According to Crimewiseusa.com there are many more then we have heard about
Since January 2013 six additional persons have been found in the past six months in rural campsites with a single, small caliber bullet would in the head in Snohomish County, Washington State as of August 15, 2013.
These murders all have the same people involved and they have all been all but ignored by law enforcement.
Keith Anderson,
Brock Holmes,
Patti Kreiger,
Lynda Taylor,
Angela Marie Gilbert,
Colt Lee White
There are many cases of missing persons that get no attention from local media or police. Some are killed together, some in sleeping bags, some may seem to have no connection but according to my sources they are connected. These are just a fraction of the unsolved cases, there are literally 100’s more of unsolved homicides in North Snohomish County and close to 200 in Central and South Snohomish County. Here are just 33 of these cases.
Galina Brown
Greg Keller
Heather M. Hemmer
Patti Berry & Tracey Brazzel
Summer Francis Smith
Thom McCoy
Shannon Ross
Sherry Harlan
David Boyle
Lisa Noel Sledge
Sharon Christine Anderson
Jeremy Imrie
Anthony John Frigard
Jack LaMont
Brien Rosenquist
Angela Beery
Robyn Kenworthy
Cynthia L. Rearden
Kyle Von Rotz
Rory Shoemaker
Tira Snyder
Susanna Stodden & Mary Cooper
Hazel Anne Gelnett
Jennifer Burnetto
Christopher Porter
Kevin Moyen
Frank Rattie
Kathleen Stewart
Michelle Koski
Reuben Lewis
Molly Purdin Clary & Dianne Robbins
Kelly Sarsten
Shelby Wright
Then there are just the random bodies found, with no follow up, or identification that show up in the news on occasion
Snohomish County has 65 cold cases that they are currently working on & created a deck of playing cards that are supposed to go to the inmates but don’t. Some of the names above are from the deck because there was no news coverage of the deaths or even disappearances.
How could so many deaths just go unnoticed? Why hasn’t there been a public outcry? None of the victims were well connected, most had petty crime records but they were all still human beings worthy of protection, and they have all been miserably failed
In 1990 – 1991 there were 12 bodies found, with only 3 news stories about them, so this is a very long term situation. There are many more questionable murders which will take time to investigate, and we will report any new findings as soon as we get them.What is sixtyforce?
sixtyforce is an emulator that runs Nintendo 64 games. It does this by dynamically translating the code that a Nintendo 64 uses into something your Mac understands. Nearly every part of a Nintendo 64 has been painstakingly recreated entirely out of software to pull off such an amazing feat. Download sixtyforce and try it yourself!
Latest News
October 8, 2018 sixtyforce 1.0.3 has been released!
This new version has been updated for macOS Mojave, including support for Dark Mode (which looks great!) and the new hardened runtime. It also includes the usual round of bug and compatibility fixes. Check out the full release notes for more details. (Note: This version requires macOS 10.9 Mavericks.)
September 5, 2018 sixtyforce 1.0.2 has been released
This new version has a lot of graphics bug fixes plus some bonus tweaks (like cursors are automatically hidden while the emulator is running). Check out the full release notes for more detail. (Note: This version requires macOS 10.8 Mountain Lion and a 64-bit capable Mac.)
Click here for older news.
Download the latest version of sixtyforceBy Austin Bay
Since January 1, the great gas price war has rocked Mexico. The turmoil involves the four core problems Mexico confronts in the 21st century: economic adjustment, systemic political change, crime and national distrust.
The ostensible match that lit this conflagration was the Mexican government's December 27 announcement that gasoline and diesel prices would increase from 14 percent to 20 percent during 2017. Economic adjustment -- check, and one long overdue.
Demonstrations have occurred in 28 of Mexico's 32 states. Numerous gasoline stations have gone up in flames. So far, six people have died in protest-related violence. Some 1,500 have been arrested for various crimes, to include rioting and looting.
A Mexican retail group reported that 350 businesses in 10 states had been "sacked" by thieves. Several thousand other businesses have closed, fearing assault by protestors.
Crime -- check. Looters have included municipal policemen. A viral YouTube video shows crooked cops loading a squad car with stolen goods. National distrust of crooked institutions -- another check, but more on that later.
Mexico's energy market is largely government-owned as well as government regulated. The state oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), has nationalist political roots. Formed in 1938 in the midst of an oil worker strike, the government used expropriated foreign oil company assets to create Pemex. Many of the companies that lost assets were American.
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The government portrayed nationalization as a blow against U.S. imperialism.
Until this year, Pemex had no competition. Pemex has been losing a lot of money and has debts of around $100 billion. Since 2004, its crude oil production has declined. Its equipment has deteriorated. It needs capital to modernize and re-organize.
But economically adjusting a national oil company required political change. President Enrique Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the center-right National Action Party (PAN) favored legislation that would open Mexico's energy market to competition and allow for Pemex to strike deals with private investors. The government wants a revived, profitable, internationally competitive Pemex that is producing more energy.
However, economic adjustment and systemic political change is often painful. The legislature voted to begin reducing subsidies that keep gas prices artificially low. Pena called it a "necessary measure."
Some privately-owned gas stations have now opened. The government is taking other steps to establish market-based energy pricing.
However, Mexico's political left steadfastly refuses to accept energy market liberalization. Leftist leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has cloaked himself in old time Mexican nationalism and accused Pena, the PRI and the PAN of a "corrupt and cynical" sellout of Mexico. Lopez Obrador (also known as AMLO) hopes the gas price protests ignite a national movement that will make him president in 2018.
AMLO is an old left-wing insider, but now he's cast himself as the man outside the system. He vows to end neoliberal economics and fight American imperialism. He doesn't explain how these policies will revive Mexico's energy sector.
There is evidence that left-wing activists had used the gas price hikes to provoke violence and stir popular anger. Several groups associated with AMLO's National Regeneration Movement took the lead in initial protests, to include transportation workers and other labor groups.
Economic adjustment and political change are hard to achieve, but made more difficult when key political leaders and institutions are mistrusted.
Scandals plague Pena and his family. Though the president has promoted new anti-corruption laws, trust in his leadership has deteriorated.
The gas price hikes have fed the extant national anger at "impunity," the deep injustice within Mexico's governing institutions and society, which is linked to endemic corruption. A study published in 2016 suggested that only 4.46 percent of reported crimes in Mexico resulted in convictions. Investigators concluded that police and judicial branches were unresponsive to average citizens. Citizens lacked faith in these authorities -- another way of saying they lacked faith in government leadership.
President Pena has become the face of impunity. Now he finds himself without the moral authority to take "necessary measures" to modernize.Note: The Obama administration today released final plans for ending or cutting back hundreds of regulations. It also indicated that White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley ordered Cabinet members to take a new approach to rulemaking and enforcement. Responses from Coalition for Sensible Safeguards (CSS) member organizations follow.
From Robert Weissman, president, Public Citizen:
Everyone agrees that outdated rules that no longer serve a purpose should be stricken from the books. But the administration’s overemphasis on needless rules – which no one supports and obviously should be eliminated – reinforces the U.S. Chamber of Commerce duplicitous narrative about regulation damaging the national economy and impeding job growth.
Even more worrisome are the new instructions to Cabinet members from White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley. The administration should be clear about what its new approach to regulation will entail. If that new approach subordinates health, safety, environmental, financial and other regulatory protections to commercial considerations, the nation will be weaker.
The Chamber and its allies are spending millions of dollars to propagate the fiction that the jobs crisis is due to excessive regulation. Instead of buttressing that fable, the administration should be emphasizing the need for stronger public protections – particularly because it was regulatory failures in the financial sector that helped throw the economy into a tailspin and put 8 million Americans out of work.
From Heather C. McGhee, director of the Washington office of Dēmos:
Citizens and advocates for the public interest will need to read the proposals closely and make their voices heard, to ensure that agencies don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Unfortunately, as corporate special interest influence has grown in our politics over the past few decades, underregulation, not overregulation has been the name of the game in Washington. Even today, organized big business is pushing radical anti-rules legislation like the REINS Act, which would wreak havoc on our economy and erode Americans’ quality of life. Government-bashing rhetoric may be popular right now, but the truth is that the economic benefits of regulations far outweigh the costs. Safeguards and standards actually protect the American people – and our economy – from “job-killing” disasters big and small, from tainted food to a Wall Street meltdown.
Hopefully, these lookbacks will free up agencies’ capacity to focus on areas where America’s small businesses and families will benefit from new rules of the road, such as stopping health insurance abuses, ensuring safety on the job, keeping our air and water clean and promoting fair lending.
Dēmos has issued reports highlighting the costs of under regulation and the benefits of rules that have improved our lives: “Cost of Regulatory Delay”, “Good Rules”, and “Commonsense Regulation Saves Money and Protects Jobs”.
The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards is an alliance of consumer, labor, scientific, research, good government, faith, community, health, environmental, and public interest groups, as well as concerned individuals, joined in the belief that our country’s system of regulatory safeguards provides a stable framework that secures our quality of life and paves the way for a sound economy that benefits us all. For more information about the coalition, see http://www.sensiblesafeguards.org/about_us.Kestrel Status Active (as of 2267 Affiliation Earth Alliance Class Atmospheric Shuttle Length [1] 25.59m Crew 3 (Pilot, co-pilot & navigator)
At least 6 passengers Engines [2][3]
(Max Linear Thrust: 1Kps/ps)[3] 3 particle thrust ion engines(Max Linear Thrust: 1Kps/ps) Jump Capable No Gravity No Weapons None
The Kestrel Class Atmospheric Shuttles were the most common medium atmospheric shuttle used by the Earth Alliance.
Originally incepted by Mitchell-Hyundyne in 2241[3], by 2262 KarmaTech had become the design's primary manufacturer.[2] A notably versatile craft, the Kestrel was easily operated by a single pilot and would have been most often used to ferry cargo and personnel between surface and orbital facilities. They could also be outfitted for scientific survey missions and were carried aboard most Earthforce starships and space stations.[4][5][6]
Known Shuttles Edit
Shuttle 1: Shuttle 1 was the callsign for an Atmospheric Shuttle attached to Babylon 5.
Shuttle 2: Callsign for a shuttle owned by IPX. It was destroyed by a detachment of Drakh soldiers on Ceti IV in 2267.[4]
Appearances Edit
References EditIn one of today’s features for our Guardians of the Galaxy Month here at Multiversity to benefit to Bill Mantlo (which you can read more about here and here), we continue our chats with various people behind the current iteration of “Guardians of the Galaxy.” And, as part of a continued look back at the run that inspired the upcoming film, today we’ll be chatting with one of the writers behind the run, Andy Lanning.
Part of the duo that helmed the cosmic books in the wake of “Annihilation,” Lanning co-wrote every cosmic book post-“Conquest” alongside fellow collaborator Dan Abnett. Together they spun the characters and interpretations that would influence and inform the film, all the while revitalizing a forgotten section of Marvel’s line with new life and importance that continues to thrive today.
Read on as we talk about all things “Guardians”, the trials and tribulations of the run, the origin of “I am Groot,” and whether or not Rocket was ever actually supposed to be British.
I know it’s been a while, but your Cosmic work began before there was a “Guardians” ongoing, so can you recall how you came to start working in Cosmic with “Annihilation” and everything that came from that?
Andy Lanning: It stems back even before the “Annihilation” stuff. Andy Schmidt, the editor at the time at Marvel, an associate editor, he had asked Dan and I if we wanted to pitch a “Nova” ongoing series with Chris Batista. Chris had just come off working on “Spaceknights,” I believe he’d been working on that with Andy, and basically Andy was a big fan of the Cosmic stuff and wanted to try to develop some more Cosmic books. We worked up a whole “Nova” idea with Chris, with Chris re-designing the uniforms and the different gradings and rankings of the Nova Corps, but it didn’t come to anything at the time unfortunately.
But Andy was a great proponent and supporter of the Cosmic stuff, he managed to pitch “Annihilation” event with Keith Giffen. He brought Dan and I back to work on the “Nova” mini-series that was part of that “Annihilation” event, and Keith — who I’ve been a massive fan of ever since I was a kid, reading his “Rocket Raccoon” back in the day and his “Legion of Super Heroes” — Keith said, “He’s where I want Nova at the beginning, here’s what has happened, and here’s where I want him at the end. What you do with him in between is entirely up to you.” So we started with him on Xandar after the Annihilation Wave had hit, and ended up with him basically in place for the climax of the series, and Dan and I came up with the whole range of Xandar stuff that happened for “Annihilation,” we put the World Mind inside Rich’s helmet and made him the last custodian of the Nova Corps, becoming Nova Prime.
On the back of the “Annihilation” series, it was a big enough success that we got a “Nova” ongoing book. We basically started writing that regularly, and then were asked to develop the next “Annihilation” event; it was successful enough that they wanted to do another one the next year. That’s when we came up with “Conquest,” where we got to return the favor to Keith. We said to Keith that we had a book of the same format, that there was an over-arching series which had the main story in it and there were several minis along the way that developed other characters and stories. Keith developed a Star-Lord series in that which put together the early version of what would then become the Guardians of the Galaxy — it had Groot in there, Rocket Raccoon, Star-Lord, and it had Bug, Captain Universe and Mantis in there as well.
On the back of “Annihilation: Conquest,” they wanted to launch another regular cosmic book, so we pitched the idea of taking the name Guardians of the Galaxy and creating a new team out of the series that we’d just finished off. That’s how we started writing “Guardians.” That’s a long rambly way to getting to that, but that’s the way it happened. [Laughs]
What was your experience with these Cosmic characters? They go so, so far back, and with a team like the Guardians since your book was so different from the original, I imagine you must have fondness for the original iteration of the series?
Continued below
AL: Like I say, we were big fans of Cosmic stuff growing up, both Dan and I. We liked the same stuff. Major Jim Starlin fans, big fans of Captain Marvel. I think, from our point of view being over here in the UK, it kind of appealed to our sci-fi sensibilities because we’ve been brought up on “2000 AD” and those weekly comics that had very high-concept sci-fi quotas to them. Any books that came across as overtly cosmic-y or science fiction based seemed to appeal quite nicely to our sensibility. Books that you guys over there consider hard core superhero stuff, we actually looked at as really good science fiction romps that just happened to have superhero characters. I always say that I’m a massive fan of the Fantastic Four, and “Fantastic Four” to me is a nice hardcore science fiction book, really.
And, personally, “Nova” was one of the first books I bought issue #1 of. I discovered “Nova” at issue #1 at my local news agent on a spinner rack, and it was with book from the get go — though, it was quite difficult growing up in the UK and getting full continuity runs of comics. With the spinner racks, the guys at the news agents didn’t know what they were getting one month from the next; they got a pot-luck box of comics and you were lucky if you managed to get three or four consecutive issues of a comic, basically. [Laughs] But “Nova” was one of the books I got from issue #1, and I was lucky to get about five or six issues of “Nova” in a row before it dropped back for a bit and then came back again. Whenever it turned up it was one I picked up, so my connections with “Nova” go back quite a long way.
But I’ve always had a fascination with the science fiction and Cosmic for both Marvel and DC comics.
And you mentioned that you’d been a fan as well of Keith Giffen and Bill Mantlo’s “Rocket Raccoon” mini-series as well, but for a lot of people those characters were pretty new, pretty unique and fresh as the only take they’ve read on the character, so for a lot of fans this was the definitive take. When taking older characters, how did you find the challenge of updating them for the new, modern books? They spun out of the Keith Giffen mini-series, but they really took hold in that ongoing.
AL: Well, just to backtrack a bit, one of the other comics I found in that spinner rack was the original “Guardians of the Galaxy” as well, the Arnold Drake story drawn by Gene Colan. So I was a fan of that and I dipped in and out of the Jim Valentino run, which I was also a fan of. It was being aware of those characters and their history, which was something we wanted to dip in and out of. The whole idea of recreating the Guardians team was to use the name and have a current cosmic team running around with that name, though during the course of the story we wove Starhawk back into it and the original Guardians.
But, using those characters like Rocket and Star-Lord and getting to define them and representing them to a new audience, that was our remit for the whole thing, to take characters that no one really cared about. No one was using, no one was really doing much in the way of Cosmic books at the time, and it was quite well documented that Joe Quesada kept saying things like “I don’t get Cosmic books!” We eventually put Jack Flag in the book and actually had him say “I don’t Cosmic,” so he became our Joe Quesada. But the cool thing with Joe, though, was that he could see that there were people who do get Cosmic stuff and who really, really like that stuff, so he was quite happy to let us play with stuff that wasn’t getting much air time since people weren’t using those characters or playing in that arena at Marvel. We kept saying things like, can we use Adam Warlock? Fully expecting someone to say no, no, of course you can’t it’s Adam Warlock and he’s tied up in some other story, but it’d always come back as yeah, of |
of the fair coin must come up Tails, since it has been Heads on the previous seven tosses. Nevertheless, one ought not to accept that the next toss of a fair coin must come up Tails, or that the probability that it will is greater than one-half. Acceptance, we should remember, unlike believing, is an action that is under our direct control.
If one accepts a proposition, then one can also act upon the proposition. Acting upon a proposition is behaving as though it were true. The two-step regimen of accepting a proposition and then acting upon it is a common way of generating belief in that proposition. And, importantly, there is no hint of self-deception tainting the process.
One might object that employing a belief-inducing technology at all, whether low or high tech, is enough to entangle one in issues implicating the rationality of the belief induced (see, for instance, Garber, 2009). A friend of the pragmatic, however, might argue that that this objection presupposes Strong Evidentialism, and arguments found in William James, the Duty argument, the Equal Treatment argument, have already provided a dispositive ruling on that issue.
While not as common as theistic arguments, there have been atheistic pragmatic arguments offered from time to time. These arguments often arise within the context of a purported naturalistic explanation of the occurrence of religious belief and practice. Perhaps the earliest proponent of an atheistic pragmatic argument was David Hume (1711–1776). In chapter X of his 1757 The Natural History of Religion, Hume wrote:
Where the deity is presented as infinitely superior to mankind, this belief... is apt, when joined with superstitious terrors, to sink the human mind into the lowest submission and abasement …
The idea of Hume’s argument here and elsewhere in his writings (see for instance Dialogue XII of his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, and appendix IV of the second Enquiry) is that theism, or at least theism of the popular sort—that conjoined with “superstitious terrors,” degrades individual morality, thereby devaluing human existence. Theistic belief, Hume contended, inculcates the “monkish virtues of mortification, penance, humility, and passive suffering, as the only qualities which are acceptable…” But not only does theistic belief harm individual morality, according to Hume, it also harms public morality. In chapter IX, Hume suggested that theism (again he qualifies by writing of the “corruptions of theism”) leads to intolerance and persecution.
Another atheistic pragmatic argument is that of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), who in The Future of an Illusion (1927) contends that religious belief perpetuates psychological immaturity among individuals, and cultural immaturity on the social level. To make sense of Freud’s argument requires knowing that he employed the term “illusion” in an idiosyncratic way. An illusion in the Freudian sense is a belief that is caused by and in turn satisfies a deep psychological need or longing. Illusions are not held rationally. Illusions stick even in the absence of any supporting evidence. Indeed, according to Freud, they stick even in the face of strong contra-evidence. An illusion could be true, but often they are not. Delusions are false illusions. Religious belief Freud thought was an illusion. While it may have been a beneficial illusion at an earlier time, it no longer is. The religious illusion now, Freud asserted, inhibits scientific progress, and causes psychological neuroses, among its other pernicious effects.
Another atheistic pragmatic argument is Richard Dawkin’s contention that religious belief is a “virus of the mind” (Dawkins 1993). One is religious, according to Dawkins, because one has been infected by a faith meme. A meme is Dawkins’s imaginative construct, which he describes as a bit of information, manifested in behavior, and which can be copied from one person to another. Like genes, memes are self-replicating vehicles, jumping from mind to mind. One catches a meme by exposure to another who is infected. Dawkins claims that the faith meme has the following traits:
M1. The faith meme seems to the person as true, or right, or virtuous, though this conviction in fact owes nothing to evidence or reason. M2. The faith meme makes a virtue out of believing in spite of there being no evidence. M3. The faith meme encourages intolerant behavior towards those who possess rival faiths. M4. The faith meme arises not because of evidence but because of epidemiology; typically, if one has a faith, it is the same as one’s parents and as one’s grandparents.
Dawkins’s meme idea, and his dismissal of faith as a virus of the mind, is both a purported naturalistic explanation of religious belief and a pragmatic dismissal of it as a harmful phenomenon.
A contemporary atheistic pragmatic argument is that the existence of God would make the world far worse in some respects than would be the case if God did not exist, even if it did not make the world worse overall (Kahane 2011). As Kahane notes, if God were to exist, then a full understanding of reality by humans, may in-principle be unachievable. Additionally, if God were to exist, moral autonomy may be limited, since humans, as creatures, might be subordinate to God’s demands, including demands for worship, obedience, and allegiance. Finally, if God were to exist, complete privacy may be lost, as an omnsicient being could, presumably, know one’s thoughts and attitudes.
Kahane’s intricate argument is counter to the conventional view that God’s existence is something that all should hope for, since this world would, arguably, be the best or among the best of all possible worlds if God were to exist. Even so, Kahane argues that one could rationally prefer that God not exist. The argument invovles a distinction between evaluations from an impersonal viewpoint, and from a personal viewpoint. It is the latter, which proves the most promising for the argument as Kahane contends that the existence of God could undermine the meaning generating life-projects of some. If his argument is sound, Kahane has provided a kind of athiestic pragmatic argument that one could prefer that God not exist, even if God’s existence would render the world better overall than it otherwise would be.
Much of Kahane’s argument consists of comparisons between possible worlds in which God exists (“Godly worlds”), and those in which God does not exist (“Godless worlds”). The modal reliability of these comparisons is far from obvious, since God is standardly seen as a necessarily existing being. For a critical examination of Kahane’s arguments, see Kraay 2013.RBI board member Peter Lennkh told Austrian newspaper Die Presse on Tuesday that even prior to the removal of international sanctions against the Islamic Republic, the bank has held good talks with Iran central bank officials on opening a branch in Iran and would like to be back in business with the country again.
“Following the implementation of the nuclear deal we wish to have easier banking transactions with Iran, and for this reason we want to offer our customers the opportunity to expand their trade and economic cooperation with Iran,” he said.
“The nuclear deal has created a great opportunity for extensive cooperation with the Islamic Republic and we are making every effort to make the best of it,” he stressed.
In mid-January, the European Union and the US lifted their economic sanctions against Iran after the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Iran’s compliance with the nuclear accord.
The end of sanctions period has opened a new chapter in Iran’s interactions with the world.
MS/IRN81947007Show full PR text
Kodak Receives Court Approval of Financing Agreement
Court's Decision is Major Step toward Emergence
ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In a significant step toward its emergence from Chapter 11, Eastman Kodak Company today received approval from U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Allan Gropper of the Southern District of New York for the company's previously announced commitment from the Steering Committee of the Second Lien Noteholders Committee for interim and exit financing. This financing, which authorizes Kodak to borrow up to $844 million, strengthens Kodak's position to successfully execute its remaining reorganization objectives, finalize its Plan of Reorganization, and emerge from Chapter 11 in mid-2013.
"Taken together, these accomplishments, along with other recent developments, such as the resolution of certain of our legacy liabilities, demonstrate the tangible and meaningful progress Kodak is making as it moves through the final phase of its restructuring."
"The Court's approval of this financing commitment puts Kodak in a strong position to emerge from Chapter 11. This agreement, in conjunction with the recently approved sale and licensing of our digital imaging patent portfolio, lays the financial foundation for our Plan of Reorganization and a successful emergence from Chapter 11 as a profitable and sustainable company," said Antonio M. Perez, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Taken together, these accomplishments, along with other recent developments, such as the resolution of certain of our legacy liabilities, demonstrate the tangible and meaningful progress Kodak is making as it moves through the final phase of its restructuring."
The previously announced financing includes new money term loans of $455 million, as well as term loans of up to $375 million issued to holders of senior secured notes participating in the new money term loans in a dollar-for-dollar exchange for amounts outstanding under the company's pre-petition second lien notes. The financing is predicated on certain conditions, including the successful completion of the sale of Kodak's digital imaging patent portfolio for no less than $500 million. The Bankruptcy Court recently approved the sale of this portfolio for $527 million, and the completion of this sale is expected in February 2013.
Upon meeting certain additional conditions, the approved financing also provides Kodak the option of converting up to $644 million of the loans into exit financing due five years after emergence. The additional conditions include the consummation of a Plan of Reorganization by September 30, 2013, the resolution of the company's U.K. pension obligations, and the successful completion of all or a portion of the sales of Kodak's Document Imaging and Personalized Imaging businesses, as detailed in the agreement. Kodak continues to make progress toward these objectives.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SAFE HARBOR PROVISIONS OF THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995
This document includes "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning the Company's plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events, future revenue or performance, capital expenditures, financing needs, plans or business trends, and other information that is not historical information. When used in this document, the words "estimates," "expects," "anticipates," "projects," "plans," "intends," "believes," "forecasts," or future or conditional verbs, such as "will," "should," "could," or "may," and variations of such words or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, management's examination of historical operating trends and data are based upon the Company's expectations and various assumptions. Future events or results may differ from those anticipated or expressed in these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include, among others, the risks and uncertainties described under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K under Item 1A of Part 1, in the Company's most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q under Item 1A of Part II and those described in filings made by the Company with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York and in other filings the Company makes with the SEC from time to time, as well as the following: the Company's ability to successfully emerge from chapter 11 as a profitable sustainable company, the ability of the Company to continue as a going concern, the Company's ability to obtain Bankruptcy Court approval with respect to motions in the chapter 11 cases, the ability of the Company and its subsidiaries to prosecute, develop and consummate one or more plans of reorganization with respect to the chapter 11 cases, Bankruptcy Court rulings in the chapter 11 cases and the outcome of the cases in general, the length of time the Company will operate under the chapter 11 cases, risks associated with third party motions in the chapter 11 cases, which may interfere with the Company's ability to develop and consummate one or more plans of reorganization once such plans are developed, the potential adverse effects of the chapter 11 proceedings on the Company's liquidity, results of operations, brand or business prospects, the ability to execute the Company's business and restructuring plan, increased legal costs related to the Bankruptcy Filing and other litigation, our ability to raise sufficient proceeds from the sale of non-core assets and the monetization of our digital imaging patent portfolios within our plan, the Company's ability to generate or raise cash and maintain a cash balance sufficient to fund continued investments, capital needs, restructuring payments and service its debt and financing arrangements, the Company's ability to manage contracts that are critical to its operation, to obtain and maintain appropriate terms with customers, suppliers and service providers, to maintain product reliability and quality, to effectively anticipate technology trends and develop and market new products, solutions and technologies, to retain key executives, managers and employees, our ability to successfully license and enforce our intellectual property rights and the ability of the Company's non-U.S. subsidiaries to continue to operate their businesses in the normal course and without court supervision. There may be other factors that may cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf apply only as of the date of this document and are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements included in this report. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.This past week economist and financial advisor Peter Schiff announced his Republican candidacy for the Connecticut senate seat currently held by Democrat Chris Dodd. Baring any manipulations from the Republican establishment, Schiff's entry into the race guarantees that important issues that are often ignored by establishment candidates will be addressed. Once addressed, Connecticut voters will come to the conclusion that Schiff is the only candidate capable of cleaning up the financial mess produced during Dodd's 5 terms in the Senate.
“What America has succeeded in creating is not an economy impervious to shocks, but merely one which enables their consequences to be postponed to a later date.” – Peter Schiff
No politician of either party will admit this. But Peter Schiff is absolutely right. What has been built during Dodd's close to thirty years in the Senate is an economic system that is prone to booms and busts due mostly to the easy money policies of the Federal Reserve. So, we have a boom in the dot com sector fueled by low interest rates and then the bottom falls out and what does the Fed do but lower rates to one percent to stimulate the economy. This in turn causes the next boom in housing. What does the Fed do again? You got it – lower rates practically to zero. Once recessions set in the politicians turn to the central bank to pump in more money in to ease the pain. This approach has worked so far to delay the inevitable but in the end all we will have is a huge national debt and a calamitous financial meltdown the proportions of which have never been seen in modern history.
It is issues like this that are ignored by the establishment candidates in our political contests. Another issue that Schiff is focused on that the Washington establishment is ignoring is the current reserve crisis at the Federal Housing Administration. Reserves at the agency have fallen to $30 billion while the total amount of mortgage debt insured by the agency has risen to over $1 trillion. Schiff asks correctly, “Didn't we learn anything?” from the most recent crisis. How will the agency insure so much debt with so little reserves? Again, as long as the printing presses are rolling at the Fed, official Washington will sweep this bad news under the rug. But, Schiff has rightly pointed out that the day of reckoning will come when the dollar has lost so much of its value that foreigners will no longer buy our debt and our standard of living will be in the dumper.
America needs leaders with the integrity and intelligence of Peter Schiff. He was one of the very few people in America who predicted the current financial crisis as long ago as the early 2000s. Mocked and ridiculed by political pundits for his comments that the U.S. economy was being built on false notions of wealth his position has since been vindicated by falling asset prices in the housing and stock markets. Currently, his patriotism has come under attack for his belief that the current recession/depression is necessary to liquidate the bad economic decisions that were made during the government induced boom of the last decade. He is the only candidate for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut that is telling the truth regardless of the consequences and standing against the establishment position that winning elections is more important than doing what's right for the country.
When he is elected to the Senate, Schiff will fight for fiscal responsibility, sound money, and restoring the federal government to its constitutional limits. As the candidate who is tied to no special interests including the Republican establishment, Schiff is uniquely qualified to propose and fight for policies that benefit all Americans not just the large corporate bosses and big bankers. For the first time in a long time, Connecticut voters have an opportunity to bring real change to America.
Kenn Jacobine teaches internationally and maintains a summer residence in Haywood County, North Carolina. Visit his blog site online at: The View from Abroad.Look, He Made A Hat: Sondheim Talks Sondheim
Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of the author Courtesy of the author
In Finishing the Hat, a compendium of Stephen Sondheim lyrics written between 1954 and 1981, the titan of the American musical theater reveals the stories behind some of his most famous numbers -- including songs from Company, Follies, Sweeney Todd, Gypsy, West Side Story and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
In addition to examining his own lyrics, Sondheim discusses his collaborations with Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents, Ethel Merman and Angela Lansbury, as well as his relationship with his mentor Oscar Hammerstein II.
Sondheim tells Terry Gross that he wanted to examine the works of other musical-theater writers in order to put his own lyrics in context.
"I thought, 'I can't just criticize myself,'" he explains. "So I looked very carefully at the dozen best musical writers in the American musical theater who preceded me, and looked at their work and talked about it a little bit.... I go into a little detail on what I think are the flaws or weaknesses or lazinesses of some of those people, and then [I talk about] the people, the bulk of whose work is solid and skillful and pointed."
Among the lyrical heresies that bother Sondheim, he explains, are mis-stressed syllables, misplaced regional accents, purple prose, lyrics that are "too full of themselves" and words that mean absolutely nothing.
He points to a verse from Hammerstein's "All the Things You Are," written for the musical Very Warm for May, as an example of a "lyrical cardinal sin:"
You are the promised kiss of springtime
That makes the lonely winter seem long
You are the breathless hush of evening
That trembles on the brink of a lovely song.
Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes
By Stephen Sondheim
Hardcover, 480 pages
Knopf
List price: $39.95 Read An Excerpt
"Those are all very pretty words, but what do they mean?" Sondheim asks. "Take a look at those images. I don't know what they mean. I also don't know how they apply personally to anybody. I just think they are poesy" -- in the sense of forced, sentimentalized poetic writing -- "and not poetry. Oscar did a lot of poetic writing, which I would call poesy, using images that are not germane to what's going on. I think that's just a writer trying to be poetic."
But Hammerstein, says Sondheim, could also be genuinely poetic. Take, for example, the opening lines to Oklahoma's "Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'":
Oh, what a beautiful mornin',
Oh, what a beautiful day.
I got a beautiful feelin'
Ev'rythin's goin' my way!
Sondheim says that though that lyrics don't sound exciting on paper, they soar when set to Richard Rodgers' score.
"This is a lyric that doesn't look interesting, but it's thrilling," he says. "It's made for music."
Sondheim won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for Sunday in the Park With George. He has also received seven Tonys, seven Grammys, an Oscar and a Kennedy Center Honor.
Interview Highlights
On collaborative moments
"If you're talking about Aha! moments, that comes with any collaboration. You sit in a room and you're talking to someone and your collaborator says 'X, Y, Z' and you say 'Wait a minute, that's a great idea for this song.' I had that with Jerry Robbins. He happened to use the phrase 'Let me entertain you' as a sort of dummy phrase for what we thought the song should be about, and I said 'That's perfect, that's exactly the right phrase.' Because it can be 'Let me entertain you' [sung] by kids, and then, when Gypsy becomes a stripper, it can have the sexy, sultry undertone or overtone to it, because 'entertain' can be seen and heard as a double entendre."
Enlarge this image toggle caption AP AP
On using slang in the Jets' song from West Side Story
"I was just imitating Arthur Laurents' style. He wrote the book, and he made up a style, a kind of street talk that never existed, because he knew that if he used actual street argot, it would date so quickly that by the time the show got on [stage] a year or two later, it would be old-fashioned. One of the very few pieces of actual street argot we used was the word 'cool,' which still meant the same thing back in 1957 that it had meant to jazz musicians earlier. And that's a word that has stayed, pretty much in the language meaning approximately the same thing, although it changes a little bit. Now of course it just means OK, but 'cool' meant 'better than OK' before, so we kept that."
On using profanity in West Side Story
The song "Gee, Officer Krupke" ends with the cast singing "Gee, Officer Krupke, What are we to do? / Gee, Officer Krupke -- Krup You!"
"I wanted this to be the first musical to use f--k. In fact, I first used it in 'Krupke.' I wanted the last line in 'Krupke' to be 'Gee Officer Krupke, f--k you.' And we played the song for a record company, Columbia Records, who was going to do the album and also for a lady who was raising money for the producer at the time, and she blanched visibly and clearly was upset by it. She didn't complain. She was just sort of shocked and unhappy. But then Goddard [Lieberson, the president of Columbia Records] told us that if we used that word, we couldn't ship the show across state lines because it would be in violation of the obscenity laws. So we changed it to 'Krup you.'"
On writing for Ethel Merman in Gypsy
"We assumed that she couldn't act because she had played all of her life just low comedy and brassy songs, and [Gypsy] would require her to act, particularly at the end of the first act, where she discovers that her daughter has left her and she's going to make the other daughter fill the younger daughter's shoes and make her into a star. And so I thought, 'If she can't act at that moment -- because it's a huge moment -- the way to do it is to give Ethel a kind of song that she's sung all her life: a big, brassy number like "Blow, Gabriel Blow." And then let... her lover and Louise, her daughter who she's focusing on, react as if they were in front of a cobra -- just completely terrified and motionless and cowering, and then the effect would be made. Ethel wouldn't have to act, but you'd get the idea of, 'This express-train woman is now going to run over her other daughter.' And to our surprise and delight, Ethel could act. But the song we wrote, "Everything's Coming Up Roses," is an imitation of "Blow, Gabriel Blow" that Cole Porter or Irving Berlin or any of those brassy [things] that they wrote for Ethel to sing."
On experimentation with musical form
"I never take an overview of myself or what I've done. I do know that if you look at an overview of the stuff that was written before my generation, what you get is [Oscar] Hammerstein as an experimental playwright and his big experiment, which would have broken things open had it been a success, was the third show he wrote with Rodgers, called Allegro, which was an attempt to really try something new with the form. But because it was a failure, nobody picked up on it. Then it was up to my generation to start experimenting [with] the form."I've previously looked at the ups and downs of tracking everything in my life, finding that the data helps provide a little guidance but is certainly nothing to live by. What I couldn't tell, however, is how accurate that data actually was. Rachel Feltman, writer for Quartz, decided to wear four fitness trackers at once to find out.
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As you can see above, the trackers all had very different estimates of calories burned in a day. Some were more optimistic than others, but clearly you shouldn't rely on these devices to tell you this information. That said, step counts offered a better picture:
When it comes to fitness trackers, you don't want to just spend a bunch of money on a glorified pedometer. The other data they provide should be reliable. That said, we're only looking at two metrics here. Unless you really need to count on estimated calories burned numbers your tracker provides, you might find what you're looking for in the current available offerings.
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If you need more accurate data, or at least enough features to overlook the current inaccuracies, just wait a bit. A fresh new batch of wearables is on the way this year so you'll have plenty to choose from in no time.
Fitness trackers are no good at counting calories, and other lessons from wearing four at once | QuartzRepublican presidential candidate Ted Cruz‘s Cuban-born dad was caught on camera in New Orleans — alongside Lee Harvey Oswald — just three months before the assassin blew President John F. Kennedy‘s brains out.
That’s the sensational — and world exclusive — revelation about to be published in the latest issue of The National ENQUIRER, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
It’s understood the magazine has obtained compelling photographic evidence that had been buried in secret U.S. government files that appears to place Rafael Cruz, 77, in the orbit of the man who murdered America’s 35th president.
PHOTOS: Total ‘Breakdown!’ Former Governor Rod Blagojevich’s Hair Turns White, Mind Goes Loopy Behind Bars — 8 Jailhouse Photos Of ‘Paranoid’ Politico
The magazine told Radar that a “host of leading authorities rendered positive judgment that the man in the photograph is indeed Rafael,” in an implication that could have chilling consequences.
Shortly before Oswald assassinated the President in Texas, he and Rafael are pictured handing out pro-communist Fidel Castro flyers in New Orleans.
PHOTOS: Putting Her Best Face Forward! Hillary Clinton Had Plastic Surgery Makeover For White House Run, Top Surgeons Reveal
Speaking to The ENQUIRER, former U.S. Navy lieutenant and National Security Agency consultant-turned-investigative journalist Wayne Madsen noted the troubling photos suggest Rafael worked directly with Oswald before he fired the fatal shots from the Texas School Book Depository in downtown Dallas that killed Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963.
Ted Cruz’s father did not return calls seeking comment on the photo.
For more on the evidence and other explosive details uncovered in the in-depth investigation on Rafael and Oswald, the new issue of The National ENQUIRER is on newsstands Wednesday.Former Test star Michael Hussey has warned the India-bound Australia cricket team for a four-Test tour not to antagoniseVirat Kohli, saying sledging the India cricket team captain may boomerang on the visitors.
Calling Virat Kohli “a real competitor”, the 41-year-old Hussey, who played 79 Tests before retiring in 2013, said engaging in a verbal spat with the Indian skipper will only fire him up which will benefit the hosts in the matches.
Read more | Hot shot David Warner happy to rest before tough test when Australia tour India
“I wouldn’t try and fire him up. I think he thrives on that and he’s a real competitor. He loves being in the fight and loves the contest out in the middle,” Hussey was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
Kohli, who has not lost a single series at home and did not lose a single Test in the 2016 season, has a wonderful record against Australia. In 12 Tests, he has 1276 runs at an average of over 60 with six centuries. In the last series between these two countries Down Under, he hit 692 runs at an average of 86.5 with four centuries.
“I’d make sure we have some very clear plans and we try and stick to them as best as we possibly can. There’s no need to get involved in that sort of verbal barrage because I think that fires him up even more.”
Read more | Kevin Pietersen’s warning to Australia, ‘Learn to play spin or don’t go to India’
Hussey has instead asked Steve Smith’s men to back their skills and focus on the game rather than engaging in on-field antics during the tough tour of the subcontinent.
“You don’t want to get carried away with too much talk and lose your concentration of what’s important, which is executing your skills.
“The team that wins will be the one that can execute their skills at the highest quality and for the longest period of time. It’s not going to be the team that’s the most verbal or the most aggressive,” said Hussey, who averaged more on Asian soil than any other Australia batsman to have played five Tests or more in those conditions.
The first of the four-match Test rubber will be played from February 23 in Pune.
Australia have endured a tough time in Asia, having lost nine consecutive Tests since 2013. In India, they have not won a Test match since 2004 while they have lost seven Tests in a row, including a 4-0 whitewash in 2013.
First Published: Feb 03, 2017 14:03 ISTThe video will start in 8 Cancel
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A plane carrying a South American football team has crashed in Colombia - killing 76 of the 81 people on board.
The plane was carrying the Brazilian side Chapecoense to Medellin airport when it fell from the sky after suffering electrical problems.
The jet split in two when it crashed in mountains shortly at around 10pm local time (3am UK time), shortly before it was due to land.
The hero pilot is reported to have opened a fuel door to release fuel and prevent a huge explosion.
There were 72 passengers and nine crew on board the charter plane, which was taking the 22-man squad to their match against Atletico Nacional.
Police commander José Acevedo told local media 75 people died at the scene and one person on their way to hospital.
There were just six survivors - one of whom was found alive in the wreckage by rescue crews.
Former Atletico Madrid midfielder Cléber Santana was the first player confirmed to have died by authorities.
The 35-year-old played 37 times for the La Liga giants between 2007 and 2010.
Santana also played for Spanish side Real Mallorca and signed for Chapecoense last year.
(Image: Cleber Santana/Instagram)
(Image: Getty Images)
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Earlier, Mayor of Medellin Federico Gutierrez said: "This is a tragedy. we have pictures of the plane, which broke in two.
"We thank God the plane did not fall in an urban area because it could have been an even greater tragedy."
Defender Alan Ruschel and goalkeepers Danilo Padilha and Jakson Follmann were reported to be three of the survivors taken to hospital.
But around nine hours after the crash, the club confirmed Danilo Padilha has died in hospital.
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Ruschel - who suffered a broken hip and head injuries - was heard asking medics to look after his wedding ring as he arrived at hospital.
It is understood 21 journalists were also among those travelling on board.
The aircraft, registered CP2933 and belonging to the airline Lamia Bolivia, was used by Argentina and Barcelona stars Lionel Messi and Javier Mascherano just three weeks ago.
(Image: Twitter)
(Image: Facebook/Aviación Comercial en Colombia)
A video shared on Twitter claimed to show the moment the plane disappeared from view on flight radar at around 10.15pm local time.
The pilot declared an emergency around 10pm local time citing electrical failure.
The team are believed to have had to change their flight and board the plane that crashed after Brazilian aviation authorities prevented them from taking a charter flight to Medellin.
(Image: EPA)
(Image: PAY)
A haunting video of players laughing and joking just before the crash emerged after being posted on Instagram.
After a victory against Argentina’s San Lorenzo, the team were looking forward to playing in the final of the Copa Sudamericana - South America’s second most important club competition.
Defender Alan Ruschel and goalkeeper Danilo Padilha look happy and relaxed as they proudly announce they will soon be in Colombia.
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Ruschel says: "In not long, we’ll be arriving in Colombia. We’re coming Colombia."
Colombia has been hit by heavy storms which are hampering rescue efforts.
"The site of the accident is only accessible by land due to climatic conditions and low visibility," a statement from the airport said.
(Image: Alan Ruschel/Instagram)
(Image: Twitter)
(Image: Getty)
"The Colombian Air Force deployed a search and rescue helicopter which had to cancel the mission due to the adverse conditions.
"According to the authorities the police are mobilising all possible help since they are reporting six survivors."
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(Image: Alamy Stock Photo)
(Image: Reuters)
Colombian news website Noticias Caracol tweeted what is purported to be the first pictures of the wreckage.
Chapecoense had reached the finals of the Copa Sudamericana by beating Argentina's San Lorenzo over two legs in the semi-finals, which concluded last week.
Earlier in the day, the Chapocoense football team’s official Facebook page posted a video of the players waiting to board the flight at Viru Viru International Airport in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.
A picture of the team on board a plane has been tweeted but it is unclear whether it was taken before the doomed flight.
The team, from the city of Chapeco, were promoted to Brazil’s first division in 2014 and reached the final of South America’s second most important club competition last week after a victory against Argentina’s San Lorenzo.
2014 was the first time the club had competed in Brazil’s top division since the 1970s.
Haunting video shows Chapecoense players before boarding doomed flight
In a statement on its website the club said it was still unsure how many of its players and staff had survived.
A spokesman said: “Given the conflicting reports emerging from different journalistic sources concerning the crash of the plane carrying the Chapecoense players, the Chapecoense football association through it vice-president, Ivan Tozzo, is refraining from comment and awaiting official announcements from the Colombian air authorities.
Chapecoense players celebrate reaching Copa Sudamericana final
"May God be with our athletes, leaders, journalists and the other guests who are with the delegation.”
Clubs and players from across the world tweeted their condolences to Chapecoense following the crash.
England captain Wayne Rooney tweeted: "Sad news to wake up to today. Thoughts are with @ChapecoenseReal and their family and friends."
Spanish side Sevilla said: "Sevilla FC shows is shows its condolences for the plane crash involving Chapecoense. Hard times for football."
The Brazilian Football Confederation said: "The CBF expressed its dismay at the news coming from Colombia, realizing an accident with the plane carrying the delegation the Chapecoense, journalists and guests, the way the first game of the final of the Copa Sudamericana.
"We are in contact with the Conmebol, local representatives and clubs in search of more information authorities before any possible measures on the progress of Brazilian football.
"Already, we express our solidarity and we direct our prayers to the passengers and crew of the flight.
As a mark of respect, CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body has suspended football on the continent until further notice.
The Brazilian government has announced three days of mourning across the country.It seems that DIRECTV NOW has updated the list of apps they support this weekend. Now if you download the BBC America App or you go to the BBC America website you can now use your DIRECTV NOW login to access on demand content from BBC America.
Update: AMC and IFC are now also support DIRECTV NOW login.
Update #2: AT&T has confirmed to Cord Cutters News that the following apps have been added AMC, BBCAmerica, IFC, Sundance and WE.
Here are the apps it already had access to with DIRECTV NOW login:
ABC
BTN2GO(Big Ten)
Bravo Now
Disney
Disney Jr.
Disney XD
|
BP 1.44 Isosafrole glycol 2.24 N-formyl-MDA 5.77 N-formyl-MDMA 6.45 GC was performed using a glass column
(2 m x 6 mm o.d.) packed with 3% OV17
coated on GasChromQ (Phase Sep.,
Queensferry, UK) with a N 2 carrier gas
flow rate of 30 ml/min. The Philips
PU4500 gas chromatograph was fitted
with a flame ionization detector. The
oven temp was 200°C isothermal,
injector temp was 200°C and the
detector temp was 280°C.
Table 1
Data From 13C-NMR Spectra of MDMA·HCl Chemical shift
(BBPD, Fig. 2a) Multiplicity
(SFORD, Fig. 2b) Assignment 15.4 quartet C-2 30.2 quartet C-1 39.1 triplet C-4 57.3 doublet C-3 101.2 triplet C-9 108.7 doublet C-11 109.6 doublet C-7 122.6 doublet C-6 129.8 singlet C-5 146.9 singlet C-8 148.1 singlet C-10
Table 3
TLC Data for MDMA and Related Compounds Compound Relative Retention Value MDMA 0.27 DMMDA 0.38 N-formyl-MDA 0.75 N-formyl-MDMA 0.78 TLC was carried out on glass plates coated
with Kieselguhr 60 F254 (Merck TLC plates,
BDH Ltd., Poole, UK) that had been dipped
in a methanolic solution of 0.01 M sodium
hydroxide16. The plates were developed
in a methanol/acetone (3:1) solvent system,
visualised in ultraviolet light (254 nm) and
sprayed with acidified iodoplatinate solution.
Table 2
XRD Pattern of MDMA·HClWhere Does The GOP Race Stand Now?
Enlarge this image toggle caption Charles Dharapak/AP Charles Dharapak/AP
The Republicans settled their Minnesota sweepstakes over the weekend, but the argument over Iowa goes on.
The small Midwestern state once again claimed the national spotlight for itself and dominated the news media. But whether the latest round of fundraising and polling there amounts to a real watershed for the Republican field is highly debatable.
It is likely the entry into the field of Texas Gov. Rick Perry this weekend, a deed carried out in the rival early-voting state of South Carolina, will look more important in hindsight.
Of course, with her decisive victory over former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty in the Ames straw poll, Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) established herself as the woman to beat in the Iowa caucuses next winter -– the event that begins the 2012 nominating process. Surely she will be the most formidable candidate who was born in Iowa and now lives in a neighboring state.
(If you think her Iowa connection less than important, go back and count the number of times Bachmann mentioned it in her brief speech at the Ames event.)
But there was little surprise in any of this. Bachmann has been running laps around the faltering Pawlenty campaign since announcing her candidacy June 13. That was also the night Pawlenty dealt his own prospects a fatal blow in a debate in New Hampshire.
Three times Pawlenty was asked to repeat his critique of front-runner Mitt Romney's health care law in Massachusetts, which Pawlenty had been deriding as "Obamneycare." After his third demurral, you could hear the air escaping his dirigible at every seam. He was falling back just as Bachmann strode forward.
If there was any real eyebrow raising in Ames this weekend it was caused by another House Republican, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. The three-time candidate who favors legalizing drugs and bringing all U.S. troops home from everywhere, turned out enough of his fan base to finish a close second. A very close second: less than one percentage point behind.
Give the man that one extra percentage point and the accounts being written about this weekend would have been far different. And Iowa could boast of shaking up the contest for real (if it still felt so inclined).
But if Bachmann escaped losing her headlines to one Texan, she still had to share them with another. And that imposition will matter more in the months ahed.
The record-setting Perry, governor of Texas longer than anyone in history, is now officially in and going straight at Bachmann's voters. We have heard these voters described many ways, and they are already being labeled "Tea-vangelists" for their roots in both Tea Party fiscal revolt and religion-based social conservatism.
Whatever one calls them, they are the main source of heat and fuel in the Republican resurgence that began in 2009. And they are demanding more than just a voice in the 2012 presidential cacophony. They want to name the winner, and probably the running mate too.
This is the movement Pawlenty tried to harness by switching his conventional-cum-moderate persona for that of a populist firebrand. It didn't work, largely because his in-state rival Bachmann is so much more convincing in the role. Perry is more convincing too, and he has assets Bachmann does not.
Principally, Perry has Texas. And that means the most populous red state in the nation and the support of its enormously lucrative and politically potent oil and gas industry. He can point to an economy far better and more robust than the rest of the country has seen in some time. And he combines the business orientation Romney personifies with the religious fervor now propelling Bachmann.
The people who follow presidential campaigns are always looking for a two-person race to promote, and the 2012 renewal has been dull so far because no other contestant seemed to be in Romney's weight class. That's why so many were so eager to overmatch Pawlenty against him.
If Perry fulfills expectations in fundraising and polling in the next few months, he will automatically slide into the Main Challenger role. To get there, he will need to supplant Bachmann (much as she supplanted Pawlenty). And that will leave the Ames straw poll looking rather pallid well before the actual delegate-choosing events begin early in 2012.
And by the way, the other candidates betting heavily on this weekend's event in Ames –- including former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and some others facing even longer odds — came away empty handed. It is hard to see what any of them gained other than another round of speaking opportunities and more face time on C-SPAN.Flickr/j.o.h.n. walker For decades, stereotypes about gender and sex were bolstered by surveys in which men reported far more sexual partners than women.
But a 2003 paper in the Journal of Sex Research found that if study participants thought they were hooked up to a lie detector, men and women would report the same number of sexual partners on average.
The results suggested women were the ones lying when they thought they could get away with it, likely being coy about how many people they'd had sex with to avoid being seen as promiscuous.
Apparently, not much has changed in the past decade. Even as many stereotypes fade, both men and women still feel pressure to meet gender expectations when it comes to sex, a new study shows. [Busted! 6 Gender Myths in the Bedroom & Beyond]
Nearly 300 college students participated in the research, completing a questionnaire that asked how often they engaged in 124 different behaviors. A previous study determined which of those habits were thought of as stereotypically masculine — for example, wearing dirty clothes and telling dirty jokes — and which were believed to be more common among women, including writing poetry and fibbing about body weight.
When some of the students filled out the questionnaire, they were hooked up to a polygraph machine or lie detector. Unbeknownst to those participants, the lie detector wasn't actually working.
For non-sexual behaviors, the participants didn't seem to feel pressured to report what they did in a way that conformed to conventional gender roles. For instance, women attached to the fake lie detector were just as likely as the polygraph-free women to say they took part in stereotypical male activities like lifting weights, the researchers said.
But for the questions about sexual experience, a gap emerged.
"There is something unique about sexuality that led people to care more about matching the stereotypes for their gender," said researcher Terri Fisher, an Ohio State University professor of psychology who also authored the 2003 study.
Men reported fewer sexual partners when they were hooked up to the lie detector, whereas women reported more partners when they were attached to the polygraph, Fisher and colleagues found.
"Men and women had different answers about their sexual behavior when they thought they had to be truthful," Fisher added in a statement. "Sexuality seemed to be the one area where people felt some concern if they didn't meet the stereotypes of a typical man or a typical woman."
The research was detailed in a recent issue of the journal Sex Roles.
Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook&Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.Software::Security
BlueBorne: Bluetooth-Sicherheitslücken in vielen Systemen
Die Sicherheitsfirma Armis hat acht weit verbreitete Sicherheitslücken in der Bluetooth-Implementation von Android, Linux, iOS und MS Windows gefunden. Insbesondere für Android sind die Lücken kritisch. Der September-Patch von Google behebt sie, aber viele Benutzer, die Updates von ihrem Gerätehersteller erhalten, dürften immer noch auf die Korrektur warten.
Amris
Die in diesem Jahr gegründete Sicherheitsfirma Amris, Anbieter eines netzwerkbasierten Einbruchserkennungssystem, hat schwerwiegende Sicherheitslücken in der Implementierung der Bluetooth-Protokolle gefunden. Im schlimmsten Fall können diese Lücken zur kompletten Übernahme des Systems aus der Ferne (innerhalb der begrenzten Reichweite von Bluetooth) führen. Dazu muss weder eine Verbindung bestehen noch das Gerät entdeckbar sein. Auch die Benutzer sind nicht involviert. Insbesondere Android-Nutzer sollten wohl Bluetooth erst einmal komplett abgeschaltet lassen, bis sie sicher sein können, dass die Probleme behoben sind.
Insgesamt wurden acht Lücken beschrieben. Amris nannte diese Lücken in ihrer Gesamtheit BlueBorne, ein Kofferwort aus Bluetooth und Airborne. Es handelt sich um Lücken, die über Funk angegriffen werden und daher von üblichen Schutzmaßnahmen und Firewalls nicht gestoppt werden können. Ein Whitepaper beschreibt die Lücken genauer.
Nach eigenen Angaben entdeckte Amris die Lücken früher im Jahr und benachrichtigte Google und Microsoft am 19. April. Apple wurde am 9. August kontaktiert, weil nur in älteren Versionen von iOS ein Problem gefunden wurde. Samsung, das sowohl Android- als auch Linux (Tizen)-Geräte herstellt, wurde im April, Mai und Juni dreimal kontaktiert und es gab keinerlei Reaktion. Die Linux-Kernel-Entwickler wurden im August benachrichtigt und erhielten erst eine Woche vor der Bekanntgabe der Probleme genauere Informationen.
Android enthält demnach vier Sicherheitslücken. CVE-2017-0785 ermöglicht es, Speicher auszulesen und ist laut Armis mit Heartbleed vergleichbar. Das Problem steckt im Service Discovery Protocol (SDP)-Server. CVE-2017-0781 und CVE-2017-0782 ermöglichen durch Überschreiben von Speicher die komplette Übernahme des Systems. Ersteres ist ein Problem im Bluetooth Network Encapsulation Protocol (BNEP)-Dienst, das zweite im eine Ebene höher angesiedelten Personal Area Networking (PAN)-Profil. CVE-2017-0783 ermöglicht einen Man in The Middle-Angriff, benötigt aber spezielle Hardware beim Angreifer. Bis auf die erste Lücke sind alle Angriffe komplett unsichtbar für die Benutzer. Google hat die Lücken im September-Update für alle Android-Versionen seit 4.4 geschlossen.
In Linux wurden zwei Lücken entdeckt, die wohl seit Version 3.3 bestehen. Es handelt sich dabei um ein Problem im SDP-Server ähnlich wie bei Android (CVE-2017-1000250) und um einen Stack-Überlauf im L2CAP-Protokoll, der zu einer kompletten Übernahme des Systems führen kann (CVE-2017-1000251). Über die Verfügbarkeit von Updates liegen noch keine Informationen vor.
In MS Windows wurde die Lücke CVE-2017-8628 entdeckt, die wie bei Android den SDP-Dienst betrifft. Patches für Windows 10 sollen seit gestern verfügbar sein. Auch in iOS existiert eine Lücke, die zu einer kompletten Übernahme des Systems führen kann. Dabei handelt es sich um ein Apple-spezifisches Problem im Low Energy Audio Protocol (LEAP). Das aktuelle iOS 10 soll nicht betroffen sein, für frühere Versionen dürfte es Updates geben.Understanding Survivors
Does this kind of abuse actually happen? I haven't heard much about it.
Yes, this abuse does actually happen AND occurs more than most people realize. Logically, there is nothing about a woman or a mother that would automatically make her unable to commit such an act. Please keep in mind that the vast majority of mothers DO NOT sexually abuse their daughters, but it DOES happen.
In the U.S., sexual abuse was once thought to be a one in a million phenomenon. However, it is commonly believed that as many as one in four girls are victims of sexual abuse and various estimates report that between 1-10% of girls are victims of female-female sexual abuse. It is important to note that accurate statistics regarding mother-daughter sexual abuse are difficult to report because the crime is grossly underreported and most states and countries do not fully break down the type and number of perpetrators and victims by gender and relationship to victim.
Regardless, biological mothers are identified as perpetrators in about 5% of documented cases of sexual abuse in Canada. In a 2010 report released by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, 8% of sexual perpetrators were identified as having a maternal relationship with their victims (male or female) in cases of documented harm. This is significant because this number only includes cases identified by CPS and the overwhelming majority of mother-daughter sexual abuse survivors report that their abuse was not identified or reported.
If you have not heard much about this form of sexual abuse, it is not surprising. The sexual abuse of children in general has been a difficult concept to for society to grasp. It is a scary, unsettling topic. Accepting that mothers, the one group of people who are supposed to love and protect their children unconditionally, are capable of sexually abusing their own daughters, can be shocking and uncomfortable.
If you do not believe that it actually happens, then please ask yourself why you feel that way, and what may convince you otherwise. There are many phenomenons that are part of human existence that not everyone knows about or with which they are familiar. It doesn't mean that they don't exist.
What is it like to have been sexually abused by your mother? I am trying hard to understand.
There is no easy answer to this question. Bear in mind that growing up, survivors of mother-daughter sexual abuse probably heard as little about this form of abuse as you did as a child. This can be very confusing and isolating for a child, who may not be able to even recognize her experiences as abusive or inappropriate. Even if she does have a feeling that something is wrong, it is difficult for her to know who to turn to when her own mother is sexually abusing her. Research has suggested that fathers engage in very little intervention, and are largely absent, uninvolved or unaware. As unimaginable as it may be for you to think about your own mother sexually abusing you, it is even more horrific and just as unimaginable when it actually happens.
As an adult, mother-daughter sexual abuse remains a taboo topic, even in sexual abuse survivor circles. Sometimes the experiences of mother-daughter sexual abuse survivors are not believed by survivors of male-female abuse, or are seen as "less than" because a mother was the perpetrator, and some believe that the abuse must have been gentle or just a misunderstanding. Realistically, there is a wide range of violence associated with mother-daughter sexual abuse, as with any other form of abuse.
In general, there is very little validation and support for this form of abuse, and the difficult process of healing is compounded by friends, family members, other sexual abuse survivors, and even therapists, being unaware of the problem and/or unwilling to listen to or believe the survivor.
How does mother-daughter sexual abuse affect the survivor? Does it affect the survivor differently than if she were abused by a male?
Mother-daughter sexual abuse affects the daughter in many of the same ways that other forms of sexual abuse affects individuals. It can negatively affect her self-esteem, her ability to express her feelings, her body image, her basic trust, her sexuality, etc.
However, when a female is sexually abused by her mother, there are additional repercussions.
The overwhelming majority of MDSA members have also been abused by males and/or other females. Despite this, survivors of mother-daughter sexual abuse report that the sexual abuse by their mothers often stands out as the hardest to accept and heal from, and the last abuse experiences to be remembered (this is also corroborated by recent research). The impact of this statement cannot be overlooked, and speaks to the horrific nature of this form of abuse.
Mother-daughter sexual abuse extremely hinders the healthy development of the mother-daughter bond. The daughter's boundaries are severely violated, and the mother and daughter often reverse roles in terms of the mother's needs taking precedence over her daughter's. The daughter lacks a healthy mother with which to identify and develop a sense of normal female development, roles, and sexuality. If the daughter had a sexual response to the abuse (which is a normal biological reaction), she may feel especially ashamed and/or become confused about her sexual identity. This is not meant to suggest that mother-daughter sexual abuse causes homosexuality, but rather emphasizes the point that it is especially confusing and overwhelming for a child to have sexual feelings encouraged by her mother's touch or actions. Mother-daughter sexual abuse is not about homosexuality, but rather a mother's distortions about herself and her daughter. Finally, having the complete opposite of a mother's protection, love, encouragement, support, etc. is obviously very devastating.
How can I help a survivor of mother-daughter sexual abuse? I'm not sure what to say or what she needs.
To understand what helps, let's first examine what kinds of responses do NOT help.
REALLY?!?!?!? Does that kind of thing happen?!? Why would she do that to you??
Initial surprise when someone discloses to you that they were sexually abused is not an uncommon reaction. When you have never heard of mother-daughter sexual abuse before, your reaction may be one of disbelief or shock. You may want to know right away how something like that could have happened. To ask such a question immediately may seem like you think that there was something that the survivor did to cause the abuse. This is generally not a helpful response. The survivor often feels that she is abnormal or defective because of her experiences. Keeping the focus on the survivor by being surprised and showing empathy because someone would hurt your partner or friend whom you care about is a better response.
What exactly happened?
You may want to ask the survivor this question as a way of understanding what she experienced or to determine for yourself what qualifies as mother-daughter sexual abuse. She may view this as your attempt to see if her experiences are valid, i.e. she may feel that you don't believe her. Remember that you do not have to have the details of her experiences in order to believe or support her. She may even be more willing to talk to you about her abuse experiences if she doesn't feel pressured to and feels in control of the disclosure.
But your mother's so nice and normal.
Adults who sexually abuse children are not necessarily going to look creepy and abuse occurs in what appear to be "good families". Appearing perfect to the world is often important in some abusive families, and they are often successful in convincing the world that they are. Mothers who sexually abuse their daughters may very well seem nice and normal. They may be active in their communities, on PTA and in the church. Remember that the daughter is the real expert on who her mother is and what her mother has done to her. The daughter is often very aware that her mother seems normal to the majority of the world. This sometimes contributes to the survivor's unwillingness to talk about her experiences. If her mother is nice and normal, then she must be the "crazy" one!
Oh, I have problems with my mother too.
This is perhaps one of the most unhelpful responses. Some women may say this to demonstrate that they understand or can commiserate, but it can actually be a very hurtful and dismissing comment. Mother-daughter relationships are not without problems and conflict, but when the relationship is abusive, the problems exist on a different plane, and the effects can be severe. It is similar to telling someone with a painful chronic illness that you understand how she is feeling because you have a headache. Of course you are feeling ill and deserve some empathy, but your condition is just not comparable.
You should be nicer to your mother. She is your mother after all.
Yes, the woman is her mother, but she is also her abuser. Her mother forfeited her rights to participate in a mutually kind and giving relationship with her daughter when she abused her. The survivor often needs to understand her right to live independently of her mother and to attend to her needs first. She also needs to express anger, grief and sadness over her relationship with her mother and the losses she suffered because of the abuse. The survivor often feels guilty or uneasy to have negative feelings toward her mother or to not take care of her mother because of earlier role reversal. The way in which she regards her mother may not seem appropriate, but she is feeling this way about her abuser and is responding to the extreme violation that was imposed on her by her abuser. Please note: You may want to step in if she is being directly abusive toward her mother or directs her anger at you. You both have a right to be angry at the abuser, but to keep that energy focused in the right direction and to do so safely.
What DOES help survivors
1) ask her what she needs. This may seem incredibly simple, but a survivor has often had people in her life who assumed that they knew what she needed or wanted, or just didn't care. Even if she does not know what she needs at the moment, you have at least shown respect for her wishes and offered yourself to her as someone who cares.
2) accept that mother-daughter sexual abuse does happen and that it is never the victim's fault. This is the basic truth. If you cannot accept this fact, then you will not be a good support person.
3) accept that you will not fully understand her experiences. This may sound harsh, but if you have not been sexually abused by your mother you, then you will not FULLY understand what a survivor has experienced. You can greatly enhance your understanding of the topic, her experiences, and its effects, but you will never fully understand.
4) accept that she will probably require the support of a psychotherapist or self-help/support group. Survivors need people knowledgeable about abuse, therapy and the healing process to aid and support them. In a most simple sense, individual therapy allows a person to explore feelings and past experiences in a safe environment that focuses on his or her needs. Psychotherapists are specially trained professionals, and therapy is much more than "just talking", as most people who have gone through successful therapy can tell you. Speaking with other survivors is important because it validates experiences, decreases feelings of isolation, reduces shame, gives new insight, builds relationships, and gives survivors the opportunity to receive help and to help others. Of course, survivors also need friends, family and other supportive people in their lives just as someone who goes for surgery not only needs the doctors and nurses, but is greatly helped and comforted by the support of their family and friends as well. For some survivors with partners and children, couples or family therapy may also be helpful.
5) educate yourself about this topic and get support if necessary. Educating yourself about mother-daughter sexual abuse is a great idea. It will help you to understand survivors better, and reduce some of the confusion you may be feeling, especially if you are a friend of a survivor. There are also self-help/support groups for friends and family of survivors of abuse. The issues that you face as a support person cannot be overlooked, and self-help/support groups can provide you with many of the same benefits that it offers to survivors.
6) keep your promises. Try to only offer the support that you are capable of giving. This varies tremendously among individuals. It is often better to be honest about how much you can do for someone up front, rather than to make a promise that you can't keep. That may have negative consequences for both you and the survivor.
7) try to support her decisions regarding contact with her mother and family of origin. This is a difficult topic for survivors who are often torn between their loyalty to their family and a growing acknowledgement of their abuse and their own rights. Try to remember that survivors of abuse have a right to as little or as much contact with their families as they wish, depending on their own needs and comfort level. If the survivor is still being abused in some way by her family, then your gentle encouragement, as well as that of a therapist, can gradually help her to break abusive ties.
8) keep her safe. If anyone is suicidal, do NOT take it lightly. Get help. Call your friend's therapist, a local emergency room or hotline. If the survivor is injuring herself (cutting, scratching, biting, etc.), this is a common but serious phenomenon among abuse survivors. It is best if the survivor's therapist knows about this issue and that you confront it with empathy and not threats or force. Helping her find other activities or other ways to express/cope with her emotional pain is often helpful. If you are worried about serious physical harm, seek professional help for your friend.
9) take care of yourself. Amid all of the survivor's issues, it is important to remember to take care of your needs first. It is similar to when you are on an airplane, and are instructed to put on your oxygen mask before helping a child with his or hers. This is not to compare a survivor to a child, but to point out that it is difficult to help another person if you are gasping for oxygen yourself. You deserve to take care of your needs.
10) be patient. It can be very hard to be patient, especially when you see someone you care about in so much pain and dealing with intense emotion and confusion. If she is actively in the healing process, she may seem worse than before she started to confront her past abuse, and your relationship may suffer, and you may wonder if her healing is really worth it. It is worth it! In one way, psychotherapy can be compared to chemotherapy - sometimes you feel worse before you feel better. If she is committed to healing, and is seeking good support, areas both within and outside of herself will get better little by little. Healing is a long and individualized process, and the survivor is often frustrated by how painfully slow it seems to go at times. Sometimes it is hard for a survivor to see the small improvements that she has made, so it is especially helpful for those around her to try to be aware of them and to help her to acknowledge the good work that she's doing and its positive effects.
* artwork on this page was created by "pinks," MDSA MemberSynopsis
Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and his fellow Guardians (Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper) are hired by a powerful alien race, the Sovereign, led by High Priestess Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), to protect their precious batteries from invaders. When it is discovered that Rocket has stolen the items they were sent to guard, the Sovereign dispatch their armada to search for vengeance. As the Guardians try to escape, the group are taken in by Ego (Kurt Russell), an ancient being who reveals himself to be Peter’s biological father.
Review
Back when “Guardians of the Galaxy” was released, there were concerns that the film would be too obscure to attract a mainstream audience. Especially since it starred a group of characters that even the most seasoned comic readers hadn’t heard of — a foul-mouthed raccoon that could shoot guns and a tall walking tree with a limited vocabulary. It was believed this would be Marvel Studios’ first flop. In spite of these worries, not only was the film critically successful upon release, but became one of the highest grossing films of 2014.
Part of what made “Guardians” so refreshing was that it was a fun standalone story that could explore the crazy cosmic world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but never lost track of its unique characters and style. How do you follow up such an unusual comic book film? “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” does what a good sequel should do, give the film a bigger sense of scale and action, but also evolve the characters. Writer and director James Gunn (“Slither”) takes the live-action Saturday morning cartoon vibe that the original film had and amplifies it. The action scenes with Baby Groot and Rocket Racoon are cartoony with the way they can move around their environment and fight enemies. The color palette is more vibrant, as places like Xandar in the first film are less lively in comparison to Ego’s Planet, which has a vast variety of alien plants and landscapes that pop out of the screen. These visual aesthetics are made even better in the glorious IMAX 3D presentation.
Gunn’s unorthodox decisions allow him to craft some memorable moments, such as the film’s humorous opening credits sequence which follows Baby Groot dancing to Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mr. Blue Sky” in the foreground as the Guardians fight an interdimensional beast in the background.
The main characters, and even some of the side characters, are given more depth than one would typically expect from a film of this nature. We get to see a more vulnerable side of Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) as he meets his biological father, Ego (Kurt Russell). He becomes so eager to bond with his bloodline that he drifts away from his dysfunctional, yet loyal, friends. Characters like Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Yondu (Michael Rooker) are given more background making them even more sympathetic. These elements that give the film a surprising emotional weight by exploring the theme of family in a sci-fi superhero setting.
Another thing that works well in this film is the main antagonist. The MCU has had an issue with spending so much time with the heros of the narrative that they forget to develop the villains. Without giving too much away, Gunn succeeded in breaking this tradition.
With a film that is as populated as this, there are bound to be some characters that fall flat. The primary example would be the secondary antagonistic alien race, known as the Sovereign — led by the High Priestess, Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki). This group slows down the pace of the film and aren’t very interesting to watch. There’s also the side character of Mantis (Pom Klementieff), who only exists for Drax (Dave Bautista) to explain his relationship with his deceased family and adds nothing to the dynamic of the Guardians. Since this character is expected to return for future “Guardians” films and “Avengers: Infinity War,” we can only hope that her character gets a chance to be more fleshed out.
As did the first film, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” has a fantastic soundtrack that will take you down memory lane. While the score by Tyler Bates is serviceable, it’s the classic tracks selected by Gunn that steal the show. Songs like “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac and “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” by Looking Glass are used to great effect. Not only are they catchy, but they are also used during important plot points. It’s a guarantee that viewers will either buy the soundtrack or create a playlist on Spotify upon leaving the theater.
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” is the first great sequel in the MCU in a long time that doesn’t get distracted with setting up an “Avengers” film, but develops the characters and makes you eager to see more of their unique adventures. As always, stay seated during the credits for some fun post-credit scenes. This time around, there are five mid-credit sequences for fans to admire.Did you know that in two states not paying your student loans could mean your driver’s license can be revoked?
That’s the harsh reality for those who have had to borrow to pay for college in both Montana and Iowa, where there are laws that allow the state to take away your driver’s license for failure to pay back your student loans. For many working class families, losing the ability to drive can have dire consequences on employment, childcare and other core pieces of their daily lives. Both states have had these laws on the books for years, with hundreds of workers who have lost their ability to drive and earn a living, but they’ve largely gone unnoticed.
The Montana Department of Justice defines the sanction for borrowers who default on their student loans as an “indefinite suspension until student loan association notifies Motor Vehicle Division of compliance.” Iowa’s Department of Motor Vehicles says much the same, requiring the state “to suspend a person’s driver’s license upon receiving a certificate of noncompliance from the College Student Aid Commission in regard to the person’s default on an obligation owed to or collected by the commission.”
This isn’t the first time in recent history that the inability to pay off a student loan has haunted borrowers long after finishing school. In October 2010, 42 nurses in Tennessee had their licenses suspended for falling behind on their student loans. The Tennessee Department of Health claimed the suspensions marked a renewed effort to uphold a statute passed in 1999, which states that license penalties can be implemented in the event of defaults on loans. A troubling number of states, more than 15, have similar laws that allow states to suspend, revoke or refuse to certify professional or vocational licenses and, in some cases, impose a fine, when a worker defaults on student loans. These state laws can impact a wide range of workers, from teachers to attorneys.
These state laws are especially troubling in light of the December 2014 report by the Department of Education’s Inspector General, which found that the agency doesn’t have a comprehensive plan to prevent student loan defaults. In fact, they might be punishing debtors who otherwise didn’t know about loan repayment alternatives. The report indicated that the department “may have missed opportunities to identify risks, communicate with servicers, streamline activities and be more transparent,” among other shortcomings.
The irony, of course, is that punishing borrowers who get behind on their payments by revoking their ability to drive or preform their job just makes it harder for them to find full-time work or explore other debt solution options. The punishment actually makes it more difficult for borrowers to pay back their loans, perpetuating a cycle of poverty that could become impossible to escape.
If more states were to adopt laws like these, millions of student debtors could find themselves trapped. There are currently more than 40 million student loan borrowers, and more than 7 million of them are in default on their student loans (or 17.5 percent of all student debtors). It is now more imperative than ever that the Department of Education, and its servicers, find a way to curb student loan defaults as student debtors pay the price for their inaction.
This type of punishment is essentially creating modern debtors’ prisons for those who simply borrowed money to afford an education. Instead of offering retribution, our federal and state governments should be helping student debtors who are struggling with their debt burden find repayment options that prevent defaults that could cost them their livelihoods.Google Struggling To Deal With Right To Be Forgotten Requests -- Will Now Delete Wikipedia Page From Search Results
from the but,-uh,-it's-editable dept
We generally have to rely on the requester for information, without assurance beyond the requester’s own assertions as to its accuracy. Some requests turn out to have been made with false and inaccurate information. Even if requesters provide us with accurate information, they understandably may avoid presenting facts that are not in their favour. As such, we may not become aware of relevant context that would speak in favour of preserving the accessibility of a search result. An example would be a request to remove an old article about a person being convicted of a number of crimes in their teenage years, which omits that the old article has its relevance renewed due to a recent article about that person being convicted for similar crimes as an adult. Or a requester may not disclose a role they play in public life, for which their previous reported activities or political positions are highly relevant. We have also seen examples of data subjects who indiscriminately submit many URLs that are displayed as search results for their name, even though some URLs are actually about another person with the same name.
Late last week, Google responded to the concerns raised by some EU regulators regarding how it is implementing the new "right to be forgotten" rules. Google's full response is well worth reading going into a fair bit of detail, highlighting how there are a lot of non-trivial decisions to be made in this process -- brought on by a ridiculous European Court of Justice ruling. As part of it, Google notes that the process is entirely one-sided and they only get information from the person wishing to delete information from search engines:As if to highlight the difficulty, Google is apparently now set to disappear a Wikipedia page from its index due to a right to be forgotten request. But, of course, Wikipedia pages are open and constantly editable, so it seems weird to order that the page be removed entirely from the search engine when someone could just edit it instead. And, if the edit gets reverted, well, perhaps it's because it's factual information that is perfectly fine to include in Wikipediain Google.The article does not reveal the particular Wikipedia page or any further information, but highlights just what a ridiculous ruling the original ECJ ruling was. Google is a search engine. Its entire purpose |
a seven-digit phone number, you might use:
9. ^\d{3}-\d{4}$ Validate a seven-digit phone number
This is the same as example (5), but forced to fill the whole text string, with nothing else before or after the matched text. By setting the "Multiline" option in.NET, " ^ " and " $ " change their meaning to match the beginning and end of a single line of text, rather than the entire text string. The Expresso example uses this option.
Escaped characters
A problem occurs if you actually want to match one of the special characters, like " ^ " or " $ ". Use the backslash to remove the special meaning. Thus, " \^ ", " \. ", and " \\ ", match the literal characters " ^ ", ". ", and " \ ", respectively.
Repetitions
You've seen that " {3} " and " * " can be used to indicate repetition of a single character. Later, you'll see how the same syntax can be used to repeat entire subexpressions. There are several other ways to specify a repetition, as shown in this table:
* Repeat any number of times + Repeat one or more times? Repeat zero or one time { n } Repeat n times { n, m } Repeat at least n, but no more than m times { n,} Repeat at least n times
Table 2. Commonly used quantifiers
Let's try a few more examples:
10. \b\w{5,6}\b Find all five and six letter words
11. \b\d{3}\s\d{3}-\d{4} Find ten digit phone numbers
12. \d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4} Social security number
13. ^\w* The first word in the line or in the text
Try the last example with and without setting the "Multiline" option, which changes the meaning of " ^ ".
Character Classes
It is simple to find alphanumerics, digits, and whitespace, but what if we want to find anything from some other set of characters? This is easily done by listing the desired characters within square brackets. Thus, " [aeiou] " matches any vowel and " [.?!] " matches the punctuation at the end of a sentence. In this example, notice that the ". " And "? " lose their special meanings within square brackets and are interpreted literally. We can also specify a range of characters, so " [a-z0-9] " means, "match any lowercase letter of the alphabet, or any digit".
Let's try a more complicated expression that searches for telephone numbers.
14. \(?\d{3}[) ]\s?\d{3}[- ]\d{4} A ten digit phone number
This expression will find phone numbers in several formats, like "(800) 325-3535" or "650 555 1212". The " \(? " searches for zero or one left parentheses, " [) ] " searches for a right parenthesis or a space. The "\s?" searches for zero or one whitespace characters. Unfortunately, it will also find cases like "650) 555-1212" in which the parenthesis is not balanced. Below, you'll see how to use alternatives to eliminate this problem.
Negation
Sometimes we need to search for a character that is NOT a member of an easily defined class of characters. The following table shows how this can be specified.
\W Match any character that is NOT alphanumeric \S Match any character that is NOT whitespace \D Match any character that is NOT a digit \B Match a position that is NOT the beginning or end of a word [^x] Match any character that is NOT x [^aeiou] Match any character that is NOT one of the characters aeiou
Table 3. How to specify what you don't want
15. \S+ All strings that do not contain whitespace characters
Later, we'll see how to use "lookahead" and "lookbehind" to search for the absence of more complex patterns.
Alternatives
To select between several alternatives, allowing a match if either one is satisfied, use the pipe " | " symbol to separate the alternatives. For example, Zip Codes come in two flavors, one with 5 digits, the other with 9 digits and a hyphen. We can find either with this expression:
16. \b\d{5}-\d{4}\b|\b\d{5}\b Five and nine digit Zip Codes
When using alternatives, the order is important since the matching algorithm will attempt to match the leftmost alternative first. If the order is reversed in this example, the expression will only find the 5 digit Zip Codes and fail to find the 9 digit ones. We can use alternatives to improve the expression for ten digit phone numbers, allowing the area code to appear either delimited by whitespace or parenthesis:
17. (\(\d{3}\)|\d{3})\s?\d{3}[- ]\d{4} Ten digit phone numbers, a better way
Grouping
Parentheses may be used to delimit a subexpression to allow repetition or other special treatment. For example:
18. (\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3} A simple IP address finder
The first part of the expression searches for a one to three digit number followed by a literal period " \. ". This is enclosed in parentheses and repeated three times using the " {3} " quantifier, followed by the same expression without the trailing period.
Unfortunately, this example allows IP addresses with arbitrary one, two, or three digit numbers separated by periods even though a valid IP address cannot have numbers larger than 255. It would be nice to arithmetically compare a captured number N to enforce N<256, but this is not possible with regular expressions alone. The next example tests various alternatives based on the starting digits to guarantee the limited range of numbers by pattern matching. This shows that an expression can become cumbersome even when looking for a pattern that is simple to describe.
19. ((2[0-4]\d|25[0-5]|[01]?\d\d?)\.){3}(2[0-4]\d|25[0-5]|[01]?\d\d?) IP finder
Expresso Analyzer View
Figure 2. Expresso's analyzer view showing example 17
Expresso has a feature that diagrams expressions in a Tree structure, explaining what each piece means. When debugging an expression, this can help zoom in on the part that is causing trouble. Try this by selecting example (17) and then using the Analyze button. Select nodes in the tree and expand them to explore the structure of this regular expression as shown in the figure. After highlighting a node, you can also use the Partial Match or Exclude Match buttons to run a match using just the highlighted portion of the regular expression or using the regular expression with the highlighted portion excluded.
When subexpressions are grouped with parentheses, the text that matches the subexpression is available for further processing in a computer program or within the regular expression itself. By default, groups are numbered sequentially as encountered in reading from left to right, starting with 1. This automatic numbering can be seen in Expresso's skeleton view or in the results shown after a successful match.
A "backreference" is used to search for a recurrence of previously matched text that has been captured by a group. For example, " \1 " means, "match the text that was captured by group 1". Here is an example:
20. \b(\w+)\b\s*\1\b Find repeated words
This works by capturing a string of at least one alphanumeric character within group 1 " (\w+) ", but only if it begins and ends a word. It then looks for any amount of whitespace " \s* " followed by a repetition of the captured text " \1 " ending at the end of a word.
It is possible to override the automatic numbering of groups by specifying an explicit name or number. In the above example, instead of writing the group as " (\w+) ", we can write it as " (?<Word>\w+) " to name this capture group " Word ". A backreference to this group is written " \k<Word> ". Try this example:
21. \b(?<Word>\w+)\b\s*\k<Word>\b Capture repeated word in a named group
Test this in Expresso and expand the match results to see the contents of the named group.
Using parentheses, there are many special purpose syntax elements available. Some of the most common are summarized in this table:
Captures ( exp ) Match exp and capture it in an automatically numbered group (?< name > exp ) Match exp and capture it in a group named name (?: exp ) Match exp, but do not capture it Lookarounds (?= exp ) Match any position preceding a suffix exp (?<= exp ) Match any position following a prefix exp (?! exp ) Match any position after which the suffix exp is not found (?<! exp ) Match any position before which the prefix exp is not found Comment (?# comment ) Comment
Table 4. Commonly used Group Constructs
We've already talked about the first two. The third " (?: exp ) " does not alter the matching behavior, it just doesn't capture it in a named or numbered group like the first two.
Positive Lookaround
The next four are so-called lookahead or lookbehind assertions. They look for things that go before or after the current match without including them in the match. It is important to understand that these expressions match a position like " ^ " or " \b " and never match any text. For this reason, they are known as "zero-width assertions". They are best illustrated by example:
" (?= exp ) " is the "zero-width positive lookahead assertion". It matches a position in the text that precedes a given suffix, but doesn't include the suffix in the match:
22. \b\w+(?=ing\b) The beginning of words ending with "ing"
" (?<= exp ) " is the "zero-width positive lookbehind assertion". It matches the position following a prefix, but doesn't include the prefix in the match:
23. (?<=\bre)\w+\b The end of words starting with "re"
Here is an example that could be used repeatedly to insert commas into numbers in groups of three digits:
24. (?<=\d)\d{3}\b Three digits at the end of a word, preceded by a digit
Here is an example that looks for both a prefix and a suffix:
25. (?<=\s)\w+(?=\s) Alphanumeric strings bounded by whitespace
Negative Lookaround
Earlier, I showed how to search for a character that is not a specific character or the member of a character class. What if we simply want to verify that a character is not present, but don't want to match anything? For example, what if we are searching for words in which the letter "q" is not followed by the letter "u"? We could try:
26. \b\w*q[^u]\w*\b Words with "q" followed by NOT "u"
Run the example and you will see that it fails when "q" is the last letter of a word, as in "Iraq". This is because "[^q]" always matches a character. If "q" is the last character of the word, it will match the whitespace character that follows, so in the example the expression ends up matching two whole words. Negative lookaround solves this problem because it matches a position and does not consume any text. As with positive lookaround, it can also be used to match the position of an arbitrarily complex subexpression, rather than just a single character. We can now do a better job:
27. \b\w*q(?!u)\w*\b Search for words with "q" not followed by "u"
We used the "zero-width negative lookahead assertion", "(?!exp)", which succeeds only if the suffix "exp" is not present. Here is another example:
28. \d{3}(?!\d) Three digits not followed by another digit
Similarly, we can use " (?<! exp )", the "zero-width negative lookbehind assertion", to search for a position in the text at which the prefix "exp" is not present:
29. (?<![a-z ])\w{7} Strings of 7 alphanumerics not preceded by a letter or space
Here is one more example using lookaround:
30. (?<=<(\w+)>).*(?=<\/\1>) Text between HTML tags
This searches for an HTML tag using lookbehind and the corresponding closing tag using lookahead, thus capturing the intervening text but excluding both tags.
Comments please
Another use of parentheses is to include comments using the "(?#comment)" syntax. A better method is to set the "Ignore Pattern Whitespace" option, which allows whitespace to be inserted in the expression and then ignored when the expression is used. With this option set, anything following a number sign "#" at the end of each line of text is ignored. For example, we can format the preceding example like this:
31. Text between HTML tags, with comments
(?<= # Search for a prefix, but exclude it<br /> <(\w+)> # Match a tag of alphanumerics within angle brackets<br />) # End the prefix
.* # Match any text
(?= # Search for a suffix, but exclude it<br /> <\/\1> # Match the previously captured tag preceded by "/"<br />) # End the suffix
Greedy and Lazy
When a regular expression has a quantifier that can accept a range of repetitions (like ".* "), the normal behavior is to match as many characters as possible. Consider the following regular expression:
32. a.*b The longest string starting with a and ending with b
If this is used to search the string "aabab", it will match the entire string "aabab". This is called "greedy" matching. Sometimes, we prefer "lazy" matching in which a match using the minimum number of repetitions is found. All the quantifiers in Table 2 can be turned into "lazy" quantifiers by adding a question mark "? ". Thus " *? " means "match any number of repetitions, but use the smallest number of repetitions that still leads to a successful match". Now let's try the lazy version of example (32):
33. a.*?b The shortest string starting with a and ending with b
If we apply this to the same string "aabab" it will first match "aab" and then "ab".
*? Repeat any number of times, but as few as possible +? Repeat one or more times, but as few as possible?? Repeat zero or one time, but as few as possible { n, m }? Repeat at least n, but no more than m times, but as few as possible { n,}? Repeat at least n times, but as few as possible
Table 5. Lazy quantifiers
What did we leave out?
I've described a rich set of elements with which to begin building regular expressions; but I left out a few things that are summarized in the following table. Many of these are illustrated with additional examples in the project file. The example number is shown in the left-hand column of this table.
# Syntax Description \a Bell character \b Normally a word boundary, but within a character class it means backspace \t Tab 34 \r Carriage return \v Vertical tab \f Form feed 35
New line \e Escape 36 \ nnn Character whose ASCII octal code is nnn 37 \x nn Character whose hexadecimal code is nn 38 \u nnnn Character whose Unicode is nnnn 39 \c N Control N character, for example carriage return (Ctrl-M) is \cM 40 \A Beginning of a string (like ^ but does not depend on the multiline option) 41 \Z End of string or before
at end of string (ignores multiline) \z End of string (ignores multiline) 42 \G Beginning of the current search 43 \p{ name } Any character from the Unicode class named name, for example \p{IsGreek} (?> exp ) Greedy subexpression, also known as a non-backtracking subexpression. This is matched only once and then does not participate in backtracking. 44 (?< x >-< y > exp ) or (?-< y > exp ) Balancing group. This is complicated but powerful. It allows named capture groups to be manipulated on a push down/pop up stack and can be used, for example, to search for matching parentheses, which is otherwise not possible with regular expressions. See the example in the project file. 45 (?im-nsx: exp ) Change the regular expression options for the subexpression exp 46 (?im-nsx) Change the regular expression options for the rest of the enclosing group (?( exp ) yes | no ) The subexpression exp is treated as a zero-width positive lookahead. If it matches at this point, the subexpression yes becomes the next match, otherwise no is used. (?( exp ) yes ) Same as above but with an empty no expression (?( name ) yes | no ) This is the same syntax as the preceding case. If name is a valid group name, the yes expression is matched if the named group had a successful match, otherwise the no expression is matched. 47 (?( name )yes) Same as above but with an empty no expression
Table 6. Everything we left out. The left-hand column shows the number of an example in the project file that illustrates this construct.
Conclusion
We've given many examples to illustrate the essential features of.NET regular expressions, emphasizing the use of a tool like Expresso to test, experiment, and learn by example. If you get hooked, there are many online resources available to help you go further. You can start your search at the Ultrapico web site. If you want to read a book, I suggest the latest edition of Mastering Regular Expressions, by Jeffrey Friedl.
There are also a number of nice articles on The Code Project including the following tutorials:President-elect Donald Trump has an unusually small pool of candidates to serve in high-level positions within his administration. Whether because there are fewer people willing to work for him, or because he is only willing to work with fewer people, or some combination thereof, is unclear. But what is becoming apparent is that loyalty is the only qualification he values.
Donald Trump tweeted that he is now considering retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
I am seriously considering Dr. Ben Carson as the head of HUD. I've gotten to know him well–he's a greatly talented person who loves people! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
This announcement comes exactly one week after Carson’s business manager and close friend Armstrong Williams told The Hill that he was not interested in serving as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, because “Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience, he’s never run a federal agency.”
The same article noted Carson’s name was also being floated as a candidate for Secretary of Education. Williams said that no specific position had been offered to Carson, “but everything was open to him.”
And evidently remains so, despite Carson’s reported assertion that he is unqualified for these roles — roles which each require wildly disparate areas of expertise. The person who would be qualified to run the HHS, the Department of Education, and HUD would be a unique person indeed.
Carson is not the only person in Trump’s circle who has been floated for multiple roles. Rudy Giuliani, for example, has been alternately said to be in the running for Attorney General, Secretary of State, and Director of National Intelligence.
Trump is signaling that relevant experience is totally irrelevant to him. The only qualification he values is fealty.
And that is very concerning indeed, for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that a government run on sycophantic cronyism rather than competence is a government that serves the president’s power, not the people’s needs.
This also puts paid the lie, oft-repeated during the campaign, that Trump’s inexperience in public office would be offset by surrounding himself with experienced, competent people. Experienced, competent people are not in the running, in part because many of them want nothing to do with his administration.
After exchange w Trump transition team, changed my recommendation: stay away. They're angry, arrogant, screaming "you LOST!" Will be ugly. — Eliot A Cohen (@EliotACohen) November 15, 2016
And in part because Trump clearly prioritizes loyalty over experience and competence, perhaps because he does not totally grasp how important experience and competence are.
As my colleague Matthew Chapman previously noted: Trump’s team were reportedly “unaware that the entire presidential staff working in the West Wing had to be replaced at the end of Mr. Obama’s term” — a shocking gap in knowledge about the most basic parts of executive administration.
Many of Trump’s supporters voted for him specifically because he is not a career politician. But I fear they — and all the rest of us — are about to discover why the presidency should not be treated as an entry-level position.
And why there are significantly more important qualifications than loyalty.Four days after a 55-year-old woman was found raped and murdered on the Andheri-Ghatkopar Link Road, the Pant Nagar police have arrested three ragpickers who have confessed to the crime
Four days after a 55-year-old woman was found raped and murdered on the Andheri-Ghatkopar Link Road, the Pant Nagar police have arrested three ragpickers who have confessed to the crime
The Pant Nagar police on Saturday claimed to have solved the gangrape and murder case of a 55-year-old woman, by arresting three men. The woman’s body was found on Andheri-Ghatkopar Link Road on January 1. While the cops had initially reported it as a case of accidental death, a post mortem revealed she was raped before being murdered.
On Saturday, the police arrested three men identified as Asif Shaikh (21), Raju Jaiswal (21) and Milind Tayde (22). The cops claim the three accused were working as rag pickers along with the deceased’s son.
An officer from Pant Nagar police station said, “A team was formed by the deputy commissioner of Zone 7 and since the last few days we have been questioning all rag pickers in the Pant Nagar area because we received information that the woman had been in a few quarrels with rag pickers of the area. But we didn’t have their identities.”
According to their confession, Shaikh, Jaiswal and Tayde had dinner and consumed alcohol in one Rasika bar on Link Road after which they roamed the streets looking for a target.
An investigating officer told SUNDAY Mid Day, “As they were returning, they chanced upon the woman on Andheri-GhatkoparLink Road. In their confession the trio said after assaulting the woman, they realised she may have recognised them and would surely inform the cops.
This scared them and forced them to kill her by smashing her head with a stone and then strangulating her.” They then left the body near a bus depot on Andheri-Ghatkopar Link Road and escaped. Later during the questioning of all ragpickers in the area, the cops learnt about these three, who were picked up on Saturday from PG Wines at Ghatkopar. They then confessed the crime and were arrested.
The three accused have been booked under Sections 376 (G) (gangrape), 377 (unnatural offence) and 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code and have been remanded to police custody.favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite
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- May 26, 2018An unpaid review that reads like a paid review.Google
Think of it as Google's annoying horsefly detector, where the irritating insect is one of your dozens of tabs streaming audio.
A new feature in Tuesday's update to Google Chrome brings to the masses a tab indicator to tell you when a site is streaming audio. The feature will add a speaker icon to tabs streaming audio, a red record button when a tab is using your Webcam, and a Google Cast icon when you're sending a tab to your Chromecast.
Google Chrome 32 brings to the fore other new features worth mentioning. It calls out potentially malicious downloads in a more visible way, so you know when the browser is blocking you from downloading something dangerous. To the Windows 8 Metro mode, it brings the Chrome OS desktop launcher, making it easier to see Chrome Apps. However, there are several known bugs in Windows 8 Metro, including problems with the keyboard, profile switching and support on legacy computers that don't have hardware acceleration. These problems do not affect the desktop mode.
Chrome 32 also offers an interesting option called Supervised Users, which allows the main Chrome account to offer sub-accounts. A supervised user can have his or her Web access restricted by site, and browsing activity can be monitored through a control panel.
Google
Chrome 32's security fixes included one fix that stops an unprompted sync with an attacker's Google account, and another one that prevents address bar spoofing in Chrome for Android.
Chrome 32 has an unresolved conflict with Symantec's Norton security software, including its toolbar.
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Finally, after the fourth attempt, he just sort of joins in with a group of girls his age who are singing Jackson 5’s “ABC” and doing a hand jive. Charlie immerses himself in the group and blends in for a bit. I hear him giggling and contributing to the conversation a few times. I go back to my people-watching, trying to find some inspiration for the next topic I might write about. But my thoughts are once again interrupted by waves of laughter and screaming.
I jerk my head back to see the group of girls my son is hanging out with, just in time to hear one of them say, “Charlie? Your name is Charlie? Are you a boy?!” They have a boisterous laugh, which eventually trails off into the breeze as they resume singing. But the damage is done. “Where are their parents?” I think to myself. “Why don’t they pay attention and hear how their children are treating others?” It takes all my might not to walk over there and fend for him. But I’m trying not to. He has to learn to advocate for himself. If it happens again, though, I will intervene, I reassure myself.
Charlie walks away and finds another group, but this time he doesn’t join in. He just sort of casually observes. I can tell that at one point those kids are saying something to him, but I can’t hear what. It looks like Charlie is not responding. He suddenly runs off pretending to be a Minecraft Wither Storm, and then loops his way back over toward me, where he whispers, “I’m having fun and all, but I just hate it when they ask the question.”
“You mean, ‘Are you a boy or a girl?'” I ask, knowing that’s exactly what he means.
“Yes,” he answers, contemplating the ground beneath his shoes.
“What did you say?” I wonder out loud, knowing full well that I just saw him not reply with anything at all. I guess it is wishful thinking on my part. I so badly want him to respond with one of the many, many answers to this question that we’ve role-played before.
He doesn’t answer me. He just keeps staring at the ground.
“You could say, ‘Does it matter? I’m a kid who likes to have fun, that’s who I am,’” I suggest.
Charlie responds, “I’ve said before, ‘Does it matter?’ but they always say, ‘yes.’” And with that, he runs off with a steely resilience and tries to integrate himself into play mode again.
I sit there watching him, feeling my heart sink lower. With my older two (cisgender) kids, I could release them at the park and only have to glance up occasionally, just to make sure nobody was gushing blood or being abducted. I didn’t give a flying flip who they were playing with, as long as everyone was having a good time, using good judgment, and being safe.
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With Charlie, though, I don’t have the luxury of relaxing like that. I find myself watching him almost the whole time. Watching the kids he approaches, holding my breath as I watch how they respond to him. Watching the looks they give him when he turns around and walks away. Watching the way they reject him, paying careful attention to hear which words they decide to use this time.
Sometimes, I find myself watching that one kid who doesn’t bat an eyelash and is nice and just plays with Charlie, no questions asked. Those are the times I look away. Not because I feel like he’s finally safe, but because if I keep watching, I will cry. I will cry because seeing that type of accepting reaction is not the norm. I want to go over to the sweet kids who naturally do that, kneel down, look them in the eye, and just say, “Thank you. Thank you for being such a beautiful human being. Don’t ever change.” But I never do, because I’d be bawling by that point, and I guess that would be creepy.
It would be so nice if kids could just see a friendly, sweet kid, who looks interesting and fun to play with, without having to decipher their gender first. What would the world look like without “expected” stereotypical gender expression? What would the world look like, if after a woman has a baby, the first question is automatically, “How are the mother and baby doing?” as opposed to, “Is it a boy or a girl?” Why are we so preoccupied with such a boring, bland binary world?
The picture of what it looks like when you’re pretending to be happily busy, but your eyes give away your loneliness.
As I am thinking about this boring, bland, binary world of ours, I look over at Charlie one last time. I think about what excuse I’ll use to say that “time is up.” But this time, I look over and see that he is swinging, way up high, in perfect tandem with a little girl who looks about the same age. She is looking right at him, with a relaxed face and kind smile, not batting an eyelash, as they happily discuss the finer points of Minecraft one command block. Suddenly I feel warm and relaxed. I smile and exhale a long, slow, happy sigh of relief.
It’s going to be a good afternoon at the park, after all.Doughnut Day Downer: Palm Oil In Pastries Drives Deforestation
Enlarge this image toggle caption Meredith Rizzo/NPR Meredith Rizzo/NPR
On National Doughnut Day, it's hard to imagine how our love of doughnuts might be contributing to deforestation halfway around the globe.
But here's the connection: You know that oily smudge left on your fingers after you polish off a doughnut? That's not just sugar. It's also palm oil.
The major doughnut retailers — from Dunkin' Donuts to Tim Hortons and Krispy Kreme — fry their sweet treats in palm oil, or in blends of oil that include palm oil.
And a new report, "Deforestation Doughnuts," by a rain forest protection coalition called Forest Heroes, concludes that leading doughnut companies are sourcing some of their palm oil from suppliers who are clear-cutting rain forests and destroying wildlife habitat and carbon-rich peatlands.
"The doughnut industrial complex is lagging behind," campaign director Glenn Hurowitz tells us.
He points to many big companies such as Kellogg, Mars and Hershey, which have meanwhile "taken steps to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains."
As we've reported, Kellogg made a splash earlier this year when it leaned on its palm oil supplier, Wilmar, to move forward with a No Deforestation, No Exploitation palm oil production policy.
We reached out to three leading doughnut retailers — Dunkin' Donuts, Krispy Kreme and Tim Hortons — who were named in the Forest Heroes report. And all of them told us that they are moving toward deforestation-free sourcing of palm oil.
"We are actively working on this issue," Olga Petrycki of Tim Hortons writes in an email. "And, ultimately, our goal is to purchase 100 percent of palm oil from verified sustainable sources."
Dunkin' Donuts, as we've reported, has already pledged to use 100 percent sustainable palm oil. In an email, Lindsay Harrington of Dunkin' Donuts says, "We are in the process of drafting a formal palm oil policy" that will be available by the end of 2014.
Krispy Kreme weighed in as well.
"We recognize the growing social and environmental concerns over palm oil production," Lafeea Watson of Krispy Kreme tells us, also by email. And she says the company has a "commitment to only source [palm oil] products for our U.S. locations from suppliers who are certified members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, and those who can guarantee compliance with all the sustainable palm oil production methods as defined in the guidelines."
The RSPO was created to promote sustainable palm oil, and it describes itself as having the world's toughest standards for producing palm oil. (Its principles and criteria for sustainable palm oil production are listed here.)
But recently, the RSPO has been criticized for having weak standards. And there are now efforts underway by nonprofit groups, including the World Wildlife Fund and Rainforest Action Network, and a few palm oil producing companies, to raise the bar on sustainability and push for more innovation. They call themselves the Palm Oil Innovation Group.
In its launch statement, that group says the current RSPO standards do "not go far enough to adequately address the most critical issues facing the industry today."
Among those issues, according to the Palm Oil Innovation Group, is the practice of clearing peatlands for new palm plantations. According to Greenpeace, one of the POIG members, clearing forests and draining and burning peatlands to grow palm oil release more greenhouse gas emissions than burning fossil fuels. POIG also mandates in its charter that all plantations already on peatlands maintain them to prevent additional emissions.- Advertisement -
Amy Sancetta, Associated Press
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The repeal of a bill limiting collective bargaining rights of public workers in Ohio was the big news in the off year elections held yesterday across the country.
It was significant because the voters overturned it by a 62% to 38% margin of victory; a landslide.
Well so much for the Republican |
dedicated and eager to ensure the highest levels of service and integrity. But prurient criticism, bloviating protests, and violent attacks cause them to close ranks to protect their honor and their lives.
We need to shove the angry professional instigators out of the limelight and off the screen so the adults can start talking about ways to actually help people.
Education or vocational training are the surest path to a better life, that’s why we must start by fixing broken schools. We must liberate schools from the iron grip of unions that have controlled them for half a century, and give parents and communities more choice.
We’ve seen power of education innovative at schools like Downtown College Prep in San Jose, an inner city school that now helps send a majority of students to college rather than to jail.
Owning a small business and/or buying a home – and passing either on to your children – are time-tested ways to build capital that also make communities better. But it is getting harder to do either.
President Obama recently announced his plan to increase taxes on homes, and California Legislators are talking about reducing Prop 13 protections that keep homeownership affordable.
High taxes, confusing tax codes, burdensome regulations, and expanding mandates are strangling small businesses. Big corporations and unions can absorb – or get exempted – from costly mandates that simply crush small businesses.
Escalating crime and growing distrust of police in inner-city neighborhoods were not caused by police. They are a byproduct of the absence of opportunity and self-worth. The death of any young person is a tragedy. But it’s a tragedy that will be repeated with greater frequency unless the adults take control away from the professional demagogues, and start working to restore hope and opportunity.Today i will show you and give you some input how to make a web and websocket server with Tornado, which is currently my favorite when i need “mockup” service so i can show it to someone. Anyway this article will mostly cover websockets then “standard” web.
Tornado is a scalable, non-blocking web server and web application framework written in Python. It was developed for use by FriendFeed; the company was acquired by Facebook in 2009 and Tornado was open-sourced soon after.
For installing Tornado on our machine we need Python first, anyhow, Python is installed on most Linux distros possibly because most Gnome and KDE apps using Python 2.5+ interpreters. For installing Python on Windows machine you can check it out here.
After we have Python in place we should continue installing Tornado with easy_install tornado command which will install latest stable version. For running easy_install from Windows command prompt you can google a bit because this is covered on a lot of blogs. Also, i’m using Eclipse for Python development but you can use whatever you like.
Now let’s get to the real, simple example. Let’s create a file called server.py :
import tornado.ioloop import tornado.web from tornado.options import define, options, parse_command_line define("port", default=8888, help="run on the given port", type=int) class IndexHandler(tornado.web.RequestHandler): @tornado.web.asynchronous def get(self): self.write("This is your response") self.finish() app = tornado.web.Application([ (r'/', IndexHandler), ]) if __name__ == '__main__': parse_command_line() app.listen(options.port) tornado.ioloop.IOLoop.instance().start()
We can see our example for simple response without rendering any html (this will be part II). Also, we can start this example with additional option port which is by default on 8888. For changing port we can start it by./server.py --port=9999.
Notice that we put decorator @tornado.web.asynchronous before get method, and this will prevent the RequestHandler from automatically calling self.finish() eg. it means that server will hold connection until we execute finish.
Now, let’s go to our browser and write in address bar http://localhost:8888/ or eventually click on this link.
Because this is mostly websocket oriented post we should continue with modifying/extending our simple example:
import tornado.ioloop import tornado.web import tornado.websocket from tornado.options import define, options, parse_command_line define("port", default=8888, help="run on the given port", type=int) # we gonna store clients in dictionary.. clients = dict() class IndexHandler(tornado.web.RequestHandler): @tornado.web.asynchronous def get(self): self.write("This is your response") self.finish() class WebSocketHandler(tornado.websocket.WebSocketHandler): def open(self, *args): self.id = self.get_argument("Id") self.stream.set_nodelay(True) clients[self.id] = {"id": self.id, "object": self} def on_message(self, message): """ when we receive some message we want some message handler.. for this example i will just print message to console """ print "Client %s received a message : %s" % (self.id, message) def on_close(self): if self.id in clients: del clients[self.id] app = tornado.web.Application([ (r'/', IndexHandler), (r'/', WebSocketHandler), ]) if __name__ == '__main__': parse_command_line() app.listen(options.port) tornado.ioloop.IOLoop.instance().start()
With upper extended simple example, we done nothing yet because we actually need some client to connect with. If we go again and refresh localhost link in our browser we should get same message as last time. Also we can see that we didn’t change route to websocket handler, they can both work on same route, but what is different is that when we want to connect to websocket there is ws:// insted http:// and Tornado knows how to handle those routes.
For simple client we can use index handler with html rendering so let’s change server.py a bit:
class IndexHandler(tornado.web.RequestHandler): @tornado.web.asynchronous def get(self): #self.write("This is your response") self.render("index.html") #we don't need self.finish() because self.render() is fallowed by self.finish() inside tornado #self.finish()
Now we need index.html, so let’s create one..
<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <script type="text/javascript"> var messageContainer = document.getElementById("messages"); function WebSocketTest() { if ("WebSocket" in window) { messageContainer.innerHTML = "WebSocket is supported by your Browser!"; var ws = new WebSocket("ws://localhost:8888/?Id=123456789"); ws.onopen = function() { ws.send("Message to send"); }; ws.onmessage = function (evt) { var received_msg = evt.data; messageContainer.innerHTML = "Message is received..."; }; ws.onclose = function() { messageContainer.innerHTML = "Connection is closed..."; }; } else { messageContainer.innerHTML = "WebSocket NOT supported by your Browser!"; } } </script> </head> <body> <a href="javascript:WebSocketTest()">Run WebSocket</a> <div id="messages" style="height:200px;background:black;color:white;"></div> </body> </html>
And this is it.. we can now run our Tornado server and ho to http://localhost:8888/ we will see index.html rendered in browser, also if we click on link “Run WebSocket” it should start connecting on our websocket and we should see messages in container.
This is it for now, my next few post will hold few modification on server side and i will make small and simple client side library for handling websocket connections and messages.
Happy Hacking!The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first significant overhaul of telecommunications law in more than sixty years, amending the Communications Act of 1934. The Act, signed by President Bill Clinton, represented a major change in American telecommunication law, since it was the first time that the Internet was included in broadcasting and spectrum allotment.[1]
One of the most controversial titles was Title 3 ("Cable Services"), which allowed for media cross-ownership.[1] According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the goal of the law was to "let anyone enter any communications business – to let any communications business compete in any market against any other."[2] The legislation's primary goal was deregulation of the converging broadcasting and telecommunications markets.[3] However, the law's regulatory policies have been questioned, including the effects of dualistic re-regulation of the communications market.[4][5]
Background [ edit ]
Prior regime [ edit ]
Previously, the Communications Act of 1934 ("1934 Act") was the statutory framework for U.S. communications policy, covering telecommunications and broadcasting. The 1934 Act created the FCC, the agency formed to implement and administer the economic regulation of the interstate activities of the telephone monopolies and the licensing of spectrum used for broadcast and other purposes. The Act left most regulation of intrastate telephone services to the states.
In the 1970s and 1980s, a combination of technological change, court decisions, and changes in U.S. policy permitted competitive entry into some telecommunications and broadcast markets. In this context, the 1996 Telecommunications Act was designed to allow fewer, but larger corporations, to operate more media enterprises within a sector (such as Clear Channel's dominance in radio), and to expand across media sectors (through relaxation of cross-ownership rules), thus enabling massive and historic consolidation of media in the United States. These changes amounted to a near-total rollback of New Deal market regulation.
Stated objective [ edit ]
The 1996 Act's stated objective was to open up markets to competition by removing regulatory barriers to entry: The conference report refers to the bill "to provide for a pro-competitive, de-regulatory national policy framework designed to accelerate rapidly private sector deployment of advanced information technologies and services to all Americans by opening all telecommunications markets to competition".[6]
Enactment [ edit ]
The Act was approved by the 104th Congress on January 3, 1996, and was signed into law on February 8, 1996, by President Bill Clinton. It was the first bill signed at the Library of Congress.[7]
Framework [ edit ]
A purpose of the 1996 Act was to foster competition among companies that use similar underlying network technologies (e.g., circuit-switched telephone networks) to provide a single type of service (e.g., voice). For example, it creates separate regulatory regimes for carriers providing voice telephone service and providers of cable television, and a third for information services.
Preemption. One key provision allowed the FCC to preempt state or local legal requirements that acted as a barrier to entry in the provision of interstate or intrastate telecommunications service.[8]
Interconnectedness. Since communications services exhibit network effects and positive externalities, new entrants would face barriers to entry if they could not interconnect their networks with those of the incumbent carriers. Thus, another key provision of the 1996 Act sets obligations for incumbent carriers and new entrants to interconnect their networks with one another, imposing additional requirements on the incumbents because they might desire to restrict competitive entry by denying such interconnection or by setting terms, conditions, and rates that could undermine the ability of the new entrants to compete.[9]
Intercarrier compensation. Under these conditions, many calls will arise between parties on different networks. While it might be possible to have the calling party pay its carrier and the called party pay its carrier, for various reasons it has been traditional in the United States for the calling party's carrier to pay the called party's carrier for completing the call — this is called intercarrier compensation—and, in turn, recover those costs in the rates charged to its subscribers.[10] The 1996 Act requires that intercarrier compensation rates among competing local exchange carriers (CLECs) be based on the "additional costs of terminating such calls".[11] However, the framework created by the 1996 Act set different intercarrier compensation rates for services that were not competing at that time but do compete today.
RBOCs may enter long distance. To foster competition in both the long distance and local markets, the 1996 Act created a process by which the Regional Bell Operating Companies ("RBOCs") would be free to offer long distance service (which was not permitted under one of the terms of the 1982 Modified Final Judgement settling the government's antitrust case against the former Bell System monopoly)[12] once they made a showing that their local markets had been opened up to competition.[13] The list of Bell Operating Companies in the bill are: Bell Telephone Company of Nevada, Illinois Bell Telephone Company, Indiana Bell Telephone Company, Incorporated, Michigan Bell Telephone Company, New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, New Jersey Bell Telephone Company, New York Telephone Company, U S West Communications Company, South Central Bell Telephone Company, Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company, Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania, The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Maryland, The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Virginia, The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia, The Diamond State Telephone Company, The Ohio Bell Telephone Company, The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, or Wisconsin Telephone Company[14]
Wholesale access to incumbents' networks. To allow new entrants enough time to fully build out their own networks, the Act requires the incumbent local exchange carriers to make available to entrants, at cost-based wholesale rates, those elements of their network to which entrants needed access in order not to be impaired in their ability to offer telecommunications services.[15]
Universal service support made explicit. Prior to enactment of the Act, universal service had been funded through implicit subsidies, levied as above-cost business rates, urban rates, and above-cost rates for the "access charges" that long distance carriers paid as intercarrier compensation to local telephone companies for originating and terminating their subscribers' long-distance calls. Recognizing that new entrants would target those services that had above-cost rates, and thus erode universal service support, Congress included in the 1996 Act a provision requiring universal service support to be explicit, rather than hidden in above-cost rates.[16] This requirement has only been partially implemented, however, and therefore significant implicit universal services subsidies still remain in above-cost rates for certain services.[17]
Policy considerations of new environment [ edit ]
The regulatory framework created by the 1996 Act was intended to foster "intramodal" competition within distinct markets, i.e., among companies that used the same underlying technology to provide service. For example, competition was envisioned between the incumbent local and long distance wireline carriers plus new competitive local exchange carriers, all of which used circuit-switched networks to offer voice services.
It did not envision the intermodal competition that has subsequently developed, such as wireless service competing with both local and long distance wireline service, VoIP competing with wireline and wireless telephony, IP video competing with cable television. Providers from separate regulatory regimes have been brought into competition with one another as a result of subsequent deployment of digital broadband technologies in telephone and cable networks. Voice and video services can now be provided using Internet protocol and thus might be classified as unregulated information services, but these services compete directly with regulated traditional voice and video services. Moreover, these digital technologies do not recognize national borders, much less state boundaries.[18]
Given the focus on intramodal competition and the lack of intermodal competition, there was little concern about statutory or regulatory language that set different regulatory burdens for different technology modes. As a result, the current statutory and regulatory framework may be inconsistent with, or unresponsive to, current market conditions in several ways:[19]
Service providers that are in direct competition with one another sometimes may be subject to different regulatory rules because they use different technologies. Some examples are:
For certain long distance calls, if the caller uses a wireless telephone number, the caller's wireless carrier is subject to a cost-based "reciprocal compensation" intercarrier compensation charge for the termination of that call. But if the caller made an identical call, from the same location to the same called party, using a wireline telephone (and hence a wireline long distance carrier), that carrier would be subject to above cost "access charges" for the completion of the call.
When a long distance call is made to a called party's wireline telephone, that party's wireline local exchange carrier can charge the calling party's long distance carrier an above-cost access charge for terminating the call; but if an identical long distance call were made to ths same called party, from and to the same physical location, but to the called party's wireless telephone, the called party's wireless carrier is not allowed to charge the calling party's long distance carrier any access charge for terminating the call. Indeed, the average intercarrier compensation rate ranges from 0.1 cents per minute for traffic bound to an information service provider ("ISP") to 5.1 cents per minute for intrastate traffic bound to a subscriber of a small (rural) incumbent local exchange carrier; individual rates can be as low as zero and as high as 35.9 cents per minute — even though in each case basically the same transport and switching functions are provided. (See CRS Report RL32889, Intercarrier Compensation: One Component of Telecom Reform, at pp. 2-5.)
the Federal Universal Service Fund is funded through an assessment on interstate telecommunications service revenues that exceeds 10% (the exact assessment rate varies from quarter to quarter); information services, even if they compete directly with the interstate telecommunications services, are not assessed.
Economic regulations intended to protect against monopoly power may not be fully taking into account intermodal competition.
The framework may not effectively address interconnection, access, and social policy issues for an IP architecture in which multiple applications ride on top of the physical (transmission) network layer.
Generally speaking, the number of broadband networks is limited by cost constraint up-front, fixed costs—which do not apply to applications providers. In this new environment, there will be three broad categories of competition:[18]
1. intermodal competition among a small number of broadband network providers that offer a suite of voice, data, video, and other services primarily for the mass market; 2. intramodal competition among a small number of wireline broadband providers that serve multi-locational business customers who tend to be located in business districts; and 3. competition between these few broadband network providers and a multitude of independent applications service providers. (In addition, there will continue to be niche providers that offer consumers users competitive options for specific services.)
These three areas of competition will all be affected by a common factor: will there be entry by a third broadband network to compete with the broadband networks of the local telephone company and the local cable operator?
There are four general approaches to the regulation of broadband network providers vis-a-vis independent applications providers (At present, the FCC follows the last two approaches):
structural regulation, such as open access; ex ante non-discrimination rules; ex post adjudication of abuses of market power, as they arise, on a case-by-case basis; and reliance on antitrust law and non-mandatory principles as the basis for self-regulation.
There is consensus[20] that the current universal service and intercarrier compensation mechanisms need to be modified to accommodate the new market conditions. For example, the current universal service funding mechanism is assessed only on telecommunications services, and carriers can receive universal service funding only in support of telecommunications services. Thus, if services that had been classified as telecommunications services are re-classified as information services, as recently occurred for high-speed digital subscriber line ("DSL") services, then the universal service assessment base will decline and carriers that depend on universal service funding may see a decline in support. It therefore may be timely to consider whether the scope of universal service should be expanded to include universal access to a broadband network at affordable rates, not just to basic telephone service.
Major provisions [ edit ]
The 1996 Telecommunications Act is divided into seven Titles:
Title I, "Telecommunications Service": Helps to outline the general duties of the telecommunication carriers as well as the obligations of all local exchange carriers (LECs) and the additional obligations of incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs).
Sec. 102. Eligible telecommunications carriers. Sec. 103. Exempt telecommunications companies Sec. 104. Nondiscrimination principle. Sec. 151. Bell operating company provisions.
Title II, "Broadcast Services": Outlines the granting and licensing of broadcast spectrum by the government, including a provision to issue licenses to current television stations to commence digital television broadcasting, the use of the revenues generated by such licensing, the terms of broadcast licenses, the process of renewing broadcast licenses, direct broadcast satellite services, automated ship distress and safety systems, and restrictions on over-the-air reception devices
Sec. 201. Broadcast spectrum flexibility. Sec. 202. Broadcast ownership. Sec. 203. Term of licenses. Sec. 204. Broadcast license renewal procedures. Sec. 205. Direct broadcast satellite service. Sec. 206. Automated ship distress and safety systems. Sec. 207. Restrictions on over-the-air reception devices.
Title III, "Cable Services": Outlines the Cable Act reform, cable services provided by telephone companies, the preemption of franchising authority regulation of telecommunication services, VHS home video programming accessibility, and competitive availability of navigation devices.
Sec. 301. Cable Act reform. Sec. 302. Cable service provided by telephone companies. Sec. 303. Preemption of franchising authority regulation of telecommunications services. Sec. 304. Competitive availability of navigation devices. Sec. 305. Video programming accessibility.
Title IV, "Regulatory Reform": Outlines regulatory forbearance, a biennial review of regulations, regulatory relief, and the elimination of unnecessary Commission regulations and functions.
Sec. 401. Regulatory forbearance. Sec. 402. Biennial review of regulations; regulatory relief. Sec. 403. Elimination of unnecessary Commission regulations and functions.
Title V, "Obscenity and Violence":
Outlines regulations regarding obscene programming on cable television, the scrambling of cable channels for nonsubscribers, the scrambling of sexually explicit adult video service programming, the cable operators' refusal to carry certain programs, coercion and enticement of minors, and online family empowerment, including a requirement for the manufacture of televisions that block programs using V-chip technology. Title V also gives a clarification of the current laws regarding communication of obscene materials through the use of a computer.
Sec. 501. Short title. Sec. 502. Obscene or harassing use of telecommunications facilities under the Communications Act of 1934. Sec. 503. Obscene programming on cable television. Sec. 504. Scrambling of cable channels for nonsubscribers. Sec. 505. Scrambling of sexually explicit adult video service programming. Sec. 506. Cable operator refusal to carry certain programs. Sec. 507. Clarification of current laws regarding communication of obscene materials through the use of computers. Sec. 508. Coercion and enticement of minors. Sec. 509. Online family empowerment. Sec. 551. Parental choice in television programming. Sec. 552. Technology fund. Sec. 561. Expedited review.
Title VI, "Effect on Other Laws" : Outlines the applicability of consent decrees and other laws and the preemption of local taxation with respect to direct-to-home sales.
Sec. 601. Applicability of consent decrees and other law. Sec. 602. Preemption of local taxation with respect to direct-to-home services.
Title VII, "Miscellaneous Provisions" : Outlines provisions relating to the prevention of unfair billing practices for information or services provided over toll-free telephone calls, privacy of consumer information, pole attachments, facilities siting, radio frequency emission standards, mobile services direct access to long distance carriers, advanced telecommunications incentives, the telecommunications development fund, the National Education Technology Funding Corporation, a report on the use of advance telecommunications services for medical purposes, and outlines the authorization of appropriations.
Sec. 701. Prevention of unfair billing practices for information or services provided over toll-free telephone calls. Sec. 702. Privacy of customer information. Sec. 703. Pole attachments. Sec. 704. Facilities siting; radio frequency emission standards. Sec. 705. Mobile services direct access to long distance carriers. Sec. 706. Advanced telecommunications incentives. Sec. 707. Telecommunications Development Fund. Sec. 708. National Education Technology Funding Corporation. Sec. 709. Report on the use of advanced telecommunications services for medical purposes. Sec. 710. Authorization of appropriations.[21]
The Act makes a significant distinction between providers of telecommunications services and information services. The term 'telecommunications service' means the offering of telecommunications for a fee directly to the public, or to such classes of users as to be effectively available directly to the public, regardless of the facilities used.' On the other hand, the term 'information service' means the offering of a capability for generating, acquiring, storing, transforming, processing, retrieving, utilizing, or making available information via telecommunications, and includes electronic publishing, but does not include any use of any such capability for the management, control, or operation of a telecommunications system or the management of a telecommunications service. The distinction comes into play when a carrier provides information services. A carrier providing information services is not a 'telecommunications carrier' under the act. For example, a carrier is not a 'telecommunications carrier' when it is selling broadband Internet access. This distinction becomes particularly important because the act enforces specific regulations against 'telecommunications carriers' but not against carriers providing information services. With the convergence of telephone, cable, and internet providers, this distinction has created much controversy.
The Act both deregulated and created new regulations. Congress forced local telephone companies to share their lines with competitors at regulated rates if "the failure to provide access to such network elements would impair the ability of the telecommunications carrier seeking access to provide the services that it seeks to offer" (Section 251(3)(2)(B)). This led to the creation of a new group of telephone companies, "Competitive Local Exchange Carriers" (CLECs), that compete with "ILECs" or incumbent local exchange carriers.
Most media ownership regulations were eased, and the cap on radio station ownership was eliminated.
Title V of the 1996 Act is the Communications Decency Act, aimed at regulating Internet indecency and obscenity, but was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court for violating the First Amendment. Portions of Title V remain, including the Good Samaritan Act, which protects ISPs from liability for third-party content on their services, and legal definitions of the Internet.
The Act codified the concept of universal service and led to creation of the Universal Service Fund and E-rate. The Act employs the following terms of art: "Information service" which is defined as:
The offering of a capability for generating, acquiring, storing, transforming, processing, retrieving, utilizing, or making available information via telecommunications — Title I, Section 3(20) of the 1934 Act
Claims made in opposition to the Act [ edit ]
When the smaller CLECs faced financial problems, the trend toward competition slowed, turning into a decade of reconsolidation. [Marcus] The two largest CLECs, Teleport Communications Group (TCG) and Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS) were acquired by AT&T and MCI/WorldCom.
Looking back five years after the bill was passed, the Consumers Union reported that wire to wire competition, the reason that sold the bill, had not succeeded as legislators had hoped. CLECs had captured just under seven percent of total lines in the country, and only three percent of homes and small businesses. Wire to wire competition accounted for only one percent of total lines nationwide.
The Consumers Union also raises one other major point. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 did not foster competition among ILECs as the bill had hoped. Instead, of ILECs encroaching on each other, the opposite occurred – mergers. Before the 1996 Act was passed, the largest four ILECs owned less than half of all the lines in the country while, five years later, the largest four local telephone companies owned about 85% of all the lines in the country.[22]
Robert Crandall has argued that the forced-access provisions of the 1996 Act have had little economic value, and that the primary, sustainable competitive forces in phone and related, non-'radio', telecommunications are the wireline telephone companies, the cable companies, and the wireless companies.
The Act was claimed to foster competition. Instead, it continued the historic industry consolidation reducing the number of major media companies from around 50 in 1983 to 10 in 1996[23] and 6 in 2005.[24] An FCC study found that the Act had led to a drastic decline in the number of radio station owners, even as the actual number of commercial stations in the United States had increased.[25] This decline in owners and increase in stations has reportedly had the effect of Radio homogenization, where programming has become similar across formats.
Consumer activist Ralph Nader argued that the Act was an example of corporate welfare spawned by political corruption, because it gave away to incumbent broadcasters valuable licenses for broadcasting digital signals on the public airwaves.[26] There was a requirement in the Act that the FCC not auction off the public spectrum which the FCC itself valued at $11–$70 billion.
It had been specifically named in the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace as an act "which repudiates your own [i.e. American] Constitution and insults the dreams of Jefferson, Washington, Mill, Madison, DeToqueville, and Brandeis".[27]
Later criticism [ edit ]
In later years, criticism of the Telecommunications Act continued. One commentator, Warren J. Sirota criticized the media's coverage of the bill and noted one provision that hadn't been covered.[28] He wrote that: "Rightfully, this major change [the Telecommunications Act] in the nation's regulatory structure is receiving considerable media and press attention. Unfortunately...most of the attention is going to the wrong issue, the Decency Act." He described this provision as "blatantly unconstitutional" and noted that the balance of the Act would "shape our future" by eliminating "barriers between the industry's segments, e.g., local and long-distance services, broadcast and cable television, etc."
The Kill Your Television website that advocated people turn off their television sets, had a criticism of the law as well.[29] They wrote:
thanks to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the business is about to get bigger...Mergers, takeovers and acquisitions are becoming the norm in the television industry. The new law has stripped down the television ownership rules so much, that big media players can and will be more aggressive in buying out smaller stations...A new legislative fight is brewing on the horizon as the broadcast industry gears up for the introduction of digital television...The Telecommunications Act['s]...highlights include: Deregulation of most cable TV rates by 1999...End [of] the FCC partial ban on broadcast networks owning cable systems...Extends TV and radio station license terms to eight years...Eases one-to-a-market rule to allow ownership of TV and radio combos...in the top 50 markets.[30]
In the 2003 edition of his book, A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn wrote about alternative media, community newspapers and the creation of street newspapers trying the break the corporate control of information. On that topic, he talked about the Telecommunications Act of 1996:
the Telecommunications Act of 1996...enabled the handful of corporations dominating the airwaves to expand their power further. Mergers enabled tighter control of information...The Latin American writer Eduardo Galeano commented..."Never have so many been held incommunicado by so few."[31]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]The debate over which bathrooms transgender students should use continues.Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange is encouraging all schools in Alabama to ignore an order from President Barack Obama. That order instructs every school district in the nation to allow transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with.Dexter Hancock, an independent voter in Tuscaloosa, feels school leaders should have the final say when it comes to this issue."I sort of think that both the Obama administration and the state of Alabama should just stay out of it and let the school districts figure it out for themselves," Hancock said.Georgia, Tennessee, and Louisiana are just a few of the 11 states taking part in the transgender bathroom lawsuit. Texas was first to file suit.The Magic City Acceptance Center said a victory against President Obama will only make things worse for transgender kids."20% of youth in Alabama that are LGBTQ-identified actually report physical assault in restrooms," said Amanda Keller with The Magic City Acceptance Center. "Even a higher percentage report physical harassment."Attorney General Strange said the directive is a disturbing attempt to transform classrooms into laboratories for the Obama administration's social experiments."I think it's just embarrassing for the state of Alabama that everything they get into, federal government, then they try to defy people's rights," Hancock added.Some who oppose the President's order said they are concerned it will open a new door for sexual predators. The Magic City Acceptance Center said transgender students are typically the ones being harmed.
The debate over which bathrooms transgender students should use continues.
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange is encouraging all schools in Alabama to ignore an order from President Barack Obama. That order instructs every school district in the nation to allow transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with.
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Dexter Hancock, an independent voter in Tuscaloosa, feels school leaders should have the final say when it comes to this issue.
"I sort of think that both the Obama administration and the state of Alabama should just stay out of it and let the school districts figure it out for themselves," Hancock said.
Georgia, Tennessee, and Louisiana are just a few of the 11 states taking part in the transgender bathroom lawsuit. Texas was first to file suit.
The Magic City Acceptance Center said a victory against President Obama will only make things worse for transgender kids.
"20% of youth in Alabama that are LGBTQ-identified actually report physical assault in restrooms," said Amanda Keller with The Magic City Acceptance Center. "Even a higher percentage report physical harassment."
Attorney General Strange said the directive is a disturbing attempt to transform classrooms into laboratories for the Obama administration's social experiments.
"I think it's just embarrassing for the state of Alabama that everything they get into, federal government, then they try to defy people's rights," Hancock added.
Some who oppose the President's order said they are concerned it will open a new door for sexual predators. The Magic City Acceptance Center said transgender students are typically the ones being harmed.
AlertMeLAS VEGAS – Microsoft's excitable CEO Steve
Ballmer showed off Windows 7 – the slick, fast, user-friendly successor to the much-maligned Windows Vista – and said it will be available as a public beta on Friday.
Unveiled by an intense Ballmer during his keynote address on the eve of CES 2009, Windows 7 will offer better performance on underpowered machines such as netbooks, support for multitouch interfaces, and simplified home networking.
Ballmer said that this would be the "best version of Windows ever" and pointed out features that implicitly acknowledged the problems with Windows Vista.
"We are putting in all the right ingredients – simplicity, reliability and speed – and working hard to get it right and to get it ready," said Ballmer.
Ballmer's keynote is his first at the big, prestigious CES show since the departure of Microsoft founder Bill Gates a year ago. He showed no signs of stage fright, bounding onstage in a maroon pullover, rubbing his hands together and grinning eagerly.
Microsoft is also eager to get Windows 7 into people's hands given the negative reaction to Windows Vista, which was widely panned. Released in 2007, Vista annoyed many customers with its hunger for computing resources and its seemingly incessant security notifications. Those notifications were such a defining characteristic of Vista that they were even satirized in Apple commercials. Despite the criticisms, Microsoft sold 20 million copies of Vista in the first month, and there are now an estimated 300 million users of Vista worldwide.
According to Ballmer, Windows 7 will be available to developers immediately, and to the general public on Friday, January 9. It will be a free download from Microsoft's site.
Windows 7 has been widely anticipated since developers got the first glimpse of it at a Microsoft conference earlier this year. Microsoft promises that the new OS will have faster startup and shutdown times, fewer security alerts, and will provide better power management leading to improved battery life on laptops.
Microsoft showed off Windows 7's support for multitouch interfaces, simplified home networking, and easier management of peripheral devices such as cell phones and digital cameras.
In addition, the OS will have an updated Taskbar, new animated desktop effects, context-sensitive menus and a smarter desktop search tool. And it will be svelte enough to run on a netbook with as little as 1GB of RAM and a 1GHz processor, Microsoft has promised.
This is the only public beta of Windows 7, a company spokesperson confirmed. The company did not announce the exact date of Windows 7's commercial release.
Windows 7 is only one part of Microsoft's three-pronged strategy to provide software for what Ballmer called the "three screens" – PCs, phones and TVs.
"I believe windows will remain at the center of people's technological solar system," Ballmer said, touting the company's efforts in the mobile, online, and home entertainment markets.
For instance, Ballmer announced that its online software suite, Windows Live Essentials, will be coming out of beta as of tomorrow.
The company announced several Windows Live partnerships, including one with Facebook, which will allow Facebook users to share content that they've uploaded into their Facebook accounts with their Windows Live accounts. Similar interconnectivity already exists between Windows Live and Flickr.
Also, Dell will be preloading Windows Live Essentials on its computers, replacing the Google Toolbar.
Ballmer promised a new version of Microsoft's OS for smartphones, Windows Mobile, to come in the first quarter of 2009. This OS will include support for Adobe Flash-based apps, including the video players used on many sites, such as YouTube.
After Ballmer, Microsoft's Robbie Bach took the stage to tout the company's Xbox 360 and Xbox Live products. According to Bach, 28 million Xbox consoles have been sold to date, and there are 17 million active users of the Xbox Live service.
The company will also be releasing two new Halo games in 2009, including Halo Wars, a strategy game that will ship on March 3, and Halo 3: Orbital Drop Shock Trooper.
Wrapping up the keynote, Ballmer and another Microsoft executive gave a demo of a futuristic multitouch application for students that made use of many technologies from the company's R&D labs, including automatic document summarizing and highlighting of key points, organizing notes along topical timelines, and collaborating with other students on a Microsoft Surface-type touch-sensitive table. They also showed what they said was a prototype flexible display, although the image shown on the bendable plastic did not seem particularly dynamic.
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A bit of history |
foundation of [capitalist] production...[and] is given in capitalist production' (ibid.). For Marx, this separation comprises a world's history. 'Commodity and money are transformed into capital because the worker... is compelled to sell his labour itself (to sell directly his labour power) as a commodity to the owner of the objective conditions of labour. This separation is the prerequisite for the relationship of capital and wage labour in the same way as it is the prerequisite for the transformation of money (or of the commodity by which it is represented) into capital' (ibid., p. 89). The constitution of human purposful activity as relations between the things themselves is based on this separation and, once established, obtains as the constitutive presupposition of capitalist social relations (see Krahl, 1971, p. 223).
The divorce of labour from her conditions is the precondition of their existence as capital. The conditions of work confront labour 'as alien capital' (Marx, 1972, p. 422) because the conditions of 'production are lost to [the labourer] and have assumed the shape of alien property' (ibid.). The divorce, then, of human purposful practice from her conditions and their transformation into an independent force, i.e. capital, transforms the product of labour into a commodity and makes the commodity appear as 'a product of capital' (Marx, 1966, p. 880). This entails 'the materialisation of the social features of production and the personification of the material foundations of production' (ibid.). Thus, the capitalist and wage-labourer 'are as such merely embodiments, personifications of capital and wage-labour; definite social characteristics stamped upon individuals by the process of social production' (ibid.). In this way, primitive accumulation appears suspended (aufgehoben) in the commodity form. Yet, however suspended, it is the constitutive condition of capitalist social relations as relations between things. The presuppositions of capital, 'which originally appeared as conditions of its becoming - and hence could not spring from its action as capital - now appear as results of its own realization, reality, as posited by it - not as conditions of its arising, but as results of its presence' (Marx, 1973, p. 460). In short, primitive accumulation is not just an historical epoch which pre-dates capitalist social relations and from which capital emerged. It entails, fundamentally, the constitutive presupposition through which the class antagonism between capital and labour subsists - primitive accumulation is the 'foundation of capitalist reproduction' (Marx, 1983, p. 585).
Primitive accumulation is the centrifugal point around which resolves the specific capitalist mode of existence of labour power, the determination of human purposeful activity in the form of a labouring commodity. While the capitalist production and exchange relations subsist through the commodity form, primitive accumulation is the secrete history of the determination of human purpusful practice in the form of wage-labour. The commodity form subsists through this determination, presupposes it and, through its form, denies it in the name of abstract equality and freedom. This insight is focused in Marx's critique of fetishism: 'The sum total of the labour of all these private individuals and private groups makes up the aggregate of social labour. Since the producers do not come into social contact which each other until they exchange their products, the specific social character of each producer's labour does not show itself except in the act of exchange. In other words, the labour of the individual asserts itself as a part of the labour of society, only by means of the relations which the act of exchange establishes directly between the products, and indirectly, through them, between producers. To the latter, therefore, the relations connecting the labour of one individual with that of the rest appear, not as direct social relations between individuals at work, but as what they really are, material relations between persons and social relations between things' (Marx, 1983, pp. 77-8). The social individual, then, subsists as such an individual not in an 'immediate' sense but in a'mediated' sense: it is mediated and so subsists through the commodity form. This form represents the social relationships between people as attributes that belong to things. The separation of human activity from its conditions is thus not only the real generation process of capital but, also, once constituted, the'real' process of the commodity form. In other words, primitive accumulation is suspended in the commodity form as its'subterranean' condition, constitutive presupposition, and historical basis.
The 'logic of separation' (cf. Negri, 1984) entails that the individual capitalist has constantly to expand 'his capital, in order to preserve it, but extend it he cannot, except by means of progressive accumulation' (Marx, 1983, p. 555). The risk is bankruptcy. Thus, mediated through competition, personified capital is spurred into action. 'Fanatically bent on making value expand itself, [the personified capitalist] ruthlessly forces the human race to produce for production's sake', increasing 'the mass of human beings exploited by him' (ibid.). The positing of the results of human labour as a force over and above the social individual, including both the capitalist and the wage labourer, and the 'fanatic' bent to make workers work for the sake of work, is founded on the separation of labour from its means. 'The means of production become capital only in so far as they have become separated from labourer and confront labour as an independent power' (Marx, 1963, p. 408). In short, the freedom of labour from her conditions and their transformation into private property entails the capitalist property right to preserve abstract wealth through the'sacrifice of "human machines" on the pyramids of accumulation' (Gambino, 1996, p. 55). The law of private property entails that 'labour capacity has appropriated for itself only the subjective conditions of necessary labour - the means of subsistence for actively producing labour capacity, i.e. for its reproduction as mere labour capacity separated from the conditions of its realization - and it has posited these conditions themselves as things, values, which confront it in an alien, commanding personification' (Marx, 1973, pp. 452-53). The logic of separation is the'real process of capital' (Marx, 1972, p. 422). Indeed, as Marx argues, capital is 'the separation of the conditions of production from the labourer' (ibid.).
In sum, Marx does not conceive of capital as a thing in-itself which, endowed with its own objective logic, exchanges itself with itself and that, by doing so, generates profit. Rather, it is conceived as a social relationship between labour and the conditions of labour which are'rendered independent in relation' to labour (ibid. 422). 'The loss of the conditions of labour by the workers is expressed in the fact that these conditions of labour become independent as capital or as things at the disposal of the capitalist' (ibid. p. 271). Primitive accumulation, then, is not just a 'period' from which capitalist social relations emerged. Rather, it is the historical 'act' that constitutes the capitalist social relations as a whole. As Marx put it, this separation 'forms [bildet] the conception [Begriff] of capital' (Marx, 1966, p. 246). The separation of labour from its conditions and the concentration of these in the hands of 'non-workers' (Marx, 1978, p. 116) posits capital as a perverted form of human social practice where the 'process of production has mastery over man, instead of being controlled by him' (Marx, 1983, p. 85).
IV Perverted Social Categories and Social Constitution
The previous section argued that the class struggle that freed master from serf and serf from master is constitutive of the relation between capital and labour. Class struggle is 'the fundamental premise of class' (Gunn, 1987, p. 16). Primitive accumulation, then, persists, within the capital relation, as its constitutive pre-positing action (vorausetzendes Tun). This Tun lies at the heart of capital's reproduction: the pre-positing action of the separation of labour from her means is not the historical result of capital but its presupposition, a presupposition which renders capital a social production relation based on the divorce of labour's social productive force from her conditions, and even more pronounced, confers on these conditions the power of applying labour as a human factor of production.
The systematic character of primitive accumulation subsists, then, in suspended form through the constituted relations of capital. The separation is not the result of capital but its genesis and it is now posited as the presupposition of capital. It no longer 'figures' as the condition of its historical emergence but, rather, as the constitutive presupposition of its fanatic bent on reproducing human relations as relations between commodity owners and that is as social categories of capitalist reproduction. In short, the separation 'begins with primitive accumulation, appears as a permanent process in the accumulation and concentration of capital, and expresses itself finally as centralisation of existing capitals in a few hands and a deprivation of many of their capital (to which expropriation is now changed)' (Marx, 1966, p. 246).
The terror of separation, of capitalism's original beginning, weights like a nightmare on the social practice of human purposeful activity. The commodification of social practice in terms of the category of wage labour confronts its conditions as alien conditions, as conditions of exploitation, and as conditions which appear, and so exist contradictorily, as relations between things. 'Man is confronted by things, labour is confronted by its own materialised conditions as alien, independent, self-contained subjects, personifications, in short, as someone else's property and, in this form, as "employers" and "commanders" of labour itself, which they appropriate instead of being appropriated by it. The fact that value - whether it exists as money or as commodities - and in the further development the conditions of labour confront the worker as the property of other people, as independent properties, means simply that they confront him as the property of the non-worker or, at any rate, that, as a capitalist, he confronts them [the conditions of labour] not as a worker but as the owner of value, etc., as the subject in which these things possess their own will, belong to themselves and are personified as independent forces' (Marx, 1972, pp. 475-76). Capital presupposes labour as wage labour and wage labour presupposes capital as capital. Each is the precondition of the other. 'Every pre-condition of the social reproduction process is at the same time its result, and every one of its results appears simultaneously as its pre-condition. All the production relations within which the process moves are therefore just as much its products as they are its conditions. The more one examines its nature as it really is, [the more one sees] that in the last form it becomes increasingly consolidated, so that independently of the process these conditions appear to determine it, and their own relations appear to those competing in the process as objective conditions, objective forces, aspects of things, the more so as in the capitalist process, every element, even the simplest, the commodity for example, is already an inversion and causes relations between people to appear as attributes of things and as relations of people to the social attributes of things' (Marx, 1972, pp. 507-8). The perverted form of value presents, in other words, the mode of existence of human purposeful activity the form of impersonal relations, conferring on the human being the indignity of an existence [Dasein] as a personification of things. Thus, concerning the capital-labour relation, 'the workers produces himself as labour capacity, as well as the capital confronting him'. At the same time, 'the capitalist reproduces himself as capital as well as the living labour capacity confronting him' (Marx, 1973, p. 458). 'Each reproduces itself, by reproducing the other, its negation. The capitalist produces labour as alien; labour produces the product as alien' (ibid.).
Once the logic of separation is taken for granted, i.e. once its constitutive presupposition is merely assumed as a historical past, the logic of separation can be understood merely in terms of the constituted fetish of capital as the subject that structures the actions of human agents. Orthodox accounts feed on this seperation between (capitalist) structure and (human) agency. Their derivation of the sociological elements [Daseinsformen] inscribed in this separation such as class position, class location, class characteristic, class structure and so forth, take for granted what needs to be explained. In other words, the outward appearance of reality is accepted as a given, and then it is in the light of this outward appearance that economic and political class categories are assessed in terms of their ascribed class characteristics and'strategic opportunities' (cf. Jessop, 1991). This outward appearance is none other than the'material' emphasised by positivist thought: raw sense data. It is, however, only 'in the last, most derivative forms that the various aspects of capital appear as the real agencies and direct representatives of production. Interest-bearing capital is personified in the moneyed capitalist, industrial capital in the industrial capitalist, rent-bearing capital in the landlord as the owner of land, and lastly, labour in the wage-worker' (Marx, 1972, p. 514). These enter into competition as 'independent personalities that appear at the same time to be mere representatives of personified things' (ibid.). In the context of competition, the social relationship between capital and labour becomes externalised (see ibid., pp. 514-15) and labour's social productive force becomes 'invisible' (ibid., p. 467); just as Adam Smith's notion of the invisible hand reports. The externalisation of capital and labour as distinct groups defined by their revenue characterises the 'bewitched world' (ibid., p. 514) of capitalist production: labour no longer appears as a social productive force but, rather, as an appendix to, a human factor of, capitalist production. It is this appearance that the Marxist sociology of'structure and agency' seeks to render intelligible through schemes of classification.
Approaches, whether Marxist or not, premised on the dualism between constitution and existence (Dasein) can, of course, provide an analysis of labour. But they can do so only in terms of labour as a human agency, and in terms of value as embodied labour. This theory of value merely shows that 'the development of social labour produces either a process of accumulation of value or a complex norm of distribution' (Negri, 1992, p. 70). In this view, the perverted existence of human relations as relations between things is assumed to be true in practice. Such assumptions merely confirm that'myth' is not a condition merely of former times but, rather, that it continuous to exercise its domination over thought itself. Hence Marx's insistence on demystification: Neither 'nations' nor 'history' nor capital have made war. 'History does nothing, does not "possess vast wealth", does not "fight battles"! It is Man, rather, the real, living Man who does all that, who does possess and fight, it is not "history" that uses Man as a means to pursue its ends, as if it were a person apart. History is nothing but the activity of Man pursuing its ends' (Marx/Engels, 1980, p. 98). History has been the record of battles and exploitation because all history has been a history where society's laws of motion have been 'abstracting from its individual subjects, degrading them to mere executors, mere partners in social wealth and social struggle. The debasement was as real as the fact that on the other hand there would be nothing without individuals and their spontaneities' (Adorno, 1990, p. 304). The positing of the presuppositions of capitalist social relations shows the real 'basis' of capitalist society: labour's purposeful activity as commodified activity, as abstract labour in action. In short, and as Marcuse reports, 'the constitution of the world occurs behind the backs of the individuals, yet it is their work' (1988, p. 151).
Without an understanding of the social constitution of the perverted world of capital, there could be no critique of capital without, at the same time, espousing it as as performing a useful economic function. This, then, would lead to the view of capital as 'the subject' that embodies the logic of an abstract market structure whose empirical reality is mediated by class struggle (Bidet, 1985). Against this theoretical rationalisation of capital as an extra-human force, it is only on the basis of an understanding of the logic of separation that a critique of capital can be supplied: this critique breaks into the understanding of capitalist exploitation and accumulation as a constituted form and 'unhinges this constitution and marks the singularity and the dynamics of the antagonism which the law of labour comprehends' (Negri, 1992, p. 70). The capital relation is the historical product of labour's alienation from itself: Capital is the separation of labour from the means of production and capital's existence rests not just on the exploitation of labour but, rather, on the continuous accumulation of capital through the progressive exploitation of labour (Marx, 1983, p. 555). Labour's 'natural power' to maintain value and to create new value (cf. ibid., p. 568) is commanded by capital in the production process which is, at the same time, the consumption process of living labour. It is the labourer who 'constantly produces material, objective wealth, but in the form of capital, of an alien power that dominates and exploits [the labourer]: and the capitalist as constantly produces labour-power, but in the form of a subjective source of wealth, separated from the objects in and by which it can alone be realised; in short he process the labourer, but as a wage-labourer. This incessant reproduction, this perpetuation of the labourer, is the sine qua non of capitalist production' (ibid., pp. 535-36). Thus, the contention that capitalist accumulation is not just based on the results of primitive accumulation but, instead, that primitive accumulation is the constitutive presupposition of the class antagonism between capital and labour. As Marx put it, capitalist 'accumulation merely presents as a continuous process what in primitive accumulation, appears as a distinct historical process, as the process of the emergence of capital' (Marx, 1972 p. 272; see also Marx, 1983, p. 688). There would be no capitalist accumulation without the reproduction of labour as 'object-less free labour' (Marx, 1973, p. 507). Human social practice is rendered perverted in and through the divorce of labour from her conditions.
The presupposition of capitalist social reproduction is the freedom of labour from her condition; this presupposition informs and in-forms the real movement of capitalist social relations. Marx conceived of this movement as the movement of communism and that is of the social cooperation of the social individual. The social reproduction of capital and labour, then, acquires its livelihood in and through the negation of communism, a negation that the commodity form presents. Social cooperation obtains in the perverted form of capital (see Marx, 1983, Ch. 13) and that is as a cooperation that seems to be established by the things themselves. This negation rests on the reproduction of human social practice in the mode of being denied, that is as a commodified activity. Capital, 'fanatically bent on making value expand itself' (ibid., p. 555) can do no other than to intensify the division of labour so as to increase its productive power. There is no doubt that 'the subdivision of labour is the assassination of a people' (Urquhart, quoted in Marx, 1983, p. 343); yet it merely consolidates the 'original' separation of labour from its conditions through further and further fragmentations of the social labour process, dismembering Man [Mensch] (cf. Marx, 1977, p. 155). Still, however much social labour is fragmented, divided and subdivided, human cooperation remains 'the fundamental form of the capitalist mode of production' (Marx, 1983, p. 317). This cooperation exists against itself in the commodity-form that integrates the 'assassination of a people' with the respectful forms of equal and free exchange relations.
Labour 'is and remains the presupposition' of capital (Marx, 1973, p. 399). Capital cannot liberate itself from labour; it depends on the imposition of necessary labour, the constituent side of surplus labour, upon the world's working classes. It has to posit necessary labour at the same time as which it has to reduce necessary labour to the utmost in order to increase surplus value. This reduction develops labour's productive power and, at the same time, the real possibility of the realm of freedom. The circumstance that less and less socially necessary labour time is required to produce, for want of a better expression, the necessities of life, limits the realm of necessity and so allows the blossoming of what Marx characterised as the realm of freedom. Within capitalist society, this contradiction can be contained only through force (Gewalt), including not only the destruction of productive capacities, unemployment, worsening conditions, and widespread poverty, but also the desruction of human life through war and ecological disaster. In other words, the value form represents not just an abstraction from the real social individual. It is an abstraction that is 'true in practice' (Marx, 1973, p. 105). The violence of capital's original beginning is thus posed as the foundation of its constituted existence where the pleasant norms of equality and freedom obtain as the rights of private property. Benjamin's (1965) critique of violence reports nothing less. In short, primitive accumulation is a constantly reproduced accumulation, be it in terms of the renewed separation of new populations from the means of production and subsistence, or in terms of the reproduction of the wage relation in the 'established' relations of capital. The former seeks to bring new workers under the command of capital (Dalla Costa, 1995; Caffentzis, 1995) and the latter to contain them there as social categories 'freed' from their conditions.
IV Conclusion
'Class' is a critical concept. The class antagonism between capital and labour presupposes the class struggle that led to the emergence of capitalist social relations. This presupposition has constantly to be posited in the process of capitalist reproduction. Capitalist reproduction without the separation of labour from its conditions would clearly be no-thing and thus impossible. In short, class struggle is the 'logical and historical presupposition for the existence of individual capitalists and workers' and 'the basis on which exploitation' rests (Clarke, 1982, p. 80). Were one to espouse capitalist social relations without theorising their constitutive relations of separation, the working class could only be affirmed uncritically as a productive force that deserves a better, a new deal. The category class makes sense only as a critical concept that denotes the perverted existence of human relations. These relations suffuse and contradict the existence of the working class as a labouring commodity. Equally, the concept 'class antagonism' does not connote an economic relationship. Rather, it denotes a social relationship which is independent from individuals while obtaining only in and through them. The critique of wage labour as a fetish category entails at the same time that the line of class antagonism falls not merely between but, also and importantly, through the social individuals.
The uncritical endorsement of the working class turns Marx's critique of the fetishism of the value-form, and of economic categories as perversions of human social relations, against itself. Within the orthodox tradition, all depends, in the last instance, on economic development. In this way, Marx's critique of economic categories stands transformed into an endorsement of economic categories, and his critique of Ricardo's labour theory of value into endorsing a productivist view where only industrial labour is deemed to be of social value. Of course, Marx accepted these views because capital amounts to the constituted existence human social practice in precisely this productivist and constrained way. It is indeed the case that human beings exist as a resource for the accumulation of abstract wealth for accumulation's sake. This is their forsaken existence (Dasein). However, his acceptance did not entail endorsement. Rather, the reduction of human social practice to a commodified activity and that is, an exploitable resource was criticised in toto. Marx's critique of political economy does not project a different sort of economy, a centrally planned economy of a workers' republic, a republic of labour. In the light of Marx's writing, such an understanding of his critique confuses the capitalist existence (Dasein) of human purposeful social practice as a labouring machine with Marx's critique of the perverted existence of capital and therewith the perverted existence of the working class as a class in-itself (and as such an 'in-itself', a thing).
Marx's work is emphasised by the critique of the value-form as a fetish which appears to possess extra-human powers. His critique of fetishism supplies an understanding of 'value' in terms of its human content, that is, as a perverted form through which social relations subsist contradictorily as relations between things (Backhaus, 1997; Holloway, 1992). The critique of economic categories shows that economic relations are, in fact, perversions of human relations. In other words, in capitalism, the social character of human social practice has to be realised in and through the categories of political economy. These categories are adequate insofar as they posit the constituted existence of perverted social relations. In this way, the category 'working class' exists in practice and thus is defined by its 'position', 'location' and 'function' within capitalist social relations. However, the acceptance of the notion 'class in-itself' is uncritical. It simply shows the human being as a mere economic thing or personification, and affirms it as a structure-producting agency. In contrast, the critique of political economy shows that the reality in which the social individual moves day in and day out has no invariant character, that is, something which exists independently from it. Thus, the critique of political economy amounts to the conceptualisation of the totality of social praxis (begriffene Praxis) (Schmidt, 1974, p. 207) which constitutes, suffuses and contradicts the perverted world of things. The espousal of the world of things merely comprehends the constituted totality of capitalist social relations and it confers on this totality an objectivity in abstraction from its real movement and constitution, and that is, for Marx, the social practice of the real human being - however perverted this practice might be (see: Backhaus, 1997). In short, 'the separation beween in-itself and for-itself, the substance of the subject, is abstract mysticism' (Marx, 1981, p. 265).
The chapter has emphasised human practice. There is no hidden attempt here to introduce a Marxist ontology. The concept of human practice disavows the bourgeois concepts of humanity and rationality. The critique of fetishism reveals that the constituted forms of capital are, in fact, the forms in and through which human practice 'exists': 'in-itself' as relations between things whose constituted form is the separation of social practice from its condition and 'for-itself' because the relations between things presuppose the pre-positing action of separation that is reproduced by 'active humanity' in and through her class-divided social practice. Neither do things exchange themselves with themselves nor is labour exploited by the objective laws of capital. It follows that human practice subsists also 'against-itself' as, on the one hand, a perverted social category and, on the other, as a power that makes history. Capitalist society obtains through exploitation and subsists through class struggle. The constitution of this struggle is the pre-positing action of separation whose constituted form is the reified world of capital. As Adorno (1975, p. 25) argues,'reification finds its limitation in reified Man [Mensch]' so that reification entails, at the same time, its negation. There would be no reified world without human social practice and transformative power. Human practice, then, exists in-itself, for-itself and against-itself. This understanding is not thrown into relief by the circumstance that human purposful practice has so far only managed to make history look like a grotesque and bloody grimace.
The understanding of the constituted forms of capital can not be based on a priori notions of the capitalist laws of development. Rather, it rests on their genesis and, from within an understanding of their genesis, its established existence. The 'established existence' of the working class and capital can not be taken as a starting point for the analysis of class struggle. Rather, their established existence can only be understood in and through the conceptualisation of their genesis, that is in and through the historical constitution of their established existence. It is this historical constitution - that of separation - that the class struggle is about. Its central category is that of necessary labour. It shows the dependence of capital upon labour; entails the continuous attempt to increase the exploitation of labour, and the associated crises of capitalist accumulation; and establishes an understanding of the real movement of communism. The reduction of necessary labour time that capital is ever eager to achieve, poses the real possibility of human emancipation for which the'shortening of the working day is the basic prerequisite' (Marx, 1966, p. 820). Paraphrasing Adorno (1975, p. 44), full-employment makes sense in a society where labour is no longer the measure of all things. In other words, then, the category of necessary labour is not an economic abstraction but a critical concept. It denotes the possibility of human cooperation liberated from its antagonistic link to the relations of capital and that is, from its perverted existence in and through the commodity form. Within its capitalist form, cooperation is a contradictory productive force. 'Not only have we here an increase in the productive power of the individual, by means of cooperation, but the creation of a new power, namely, the collective power of the masses' (Marx, 1983, p. 309). It is of course the case that the critique of political economy can be made manifest in practice only when it has seized the masses; when, in other words, the masses are seized by the understanding that it is their own labour, their social practice, that produces a world that oppresses them (cf. Marx, 1975b, p. 182).
For the human beings to enter into relationship with one another not as personifications where 'the person objectifies himself in production; the thing subjectivies itself in the person' (Marx, 1973, p. 89) but as social individuals, as human dignities who, no longer separated from their means, are in control of their social existence, the'mastery of capitalist production over man' has to be abolished so that man's social reproduction is 'controlled by him' (cf. Marx, 1983, p. 85). Human emancipation, then, entails the transformation of the means of production into means of human emancipation. In other words, full employment makes sense in 'the society of the free and equal' (cf. Agnoli, 2000) where humanity exists not as an exploitable resource but as a purpose.
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from almost anywhere they've got cell service. But what makes it different — and also controversial — is the fact that LTE-U will share the same radio frequencies as WiFi routers and Bluetooth headphones.
For the first time, cellphone signals will soon be occupying the same channels as those common technologies. Customers of T-Mobile and other carriers may find that the additional bandwidth increases their data speeds.
The Federal Communications Commission gave the green light Wednesday to equipment makers such as Nokia and Ericsson to begin deploying LTE-U devices, saying industry testing had proved that LTE-U and WiFi can coexist peacefully.
“This heralds a technical breakthrough in the many shared uses of this spectrum,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.
Minutes later, T-Mobile announced that thanks to the decision, it will begin rolling out LTE-U devices within a matter of months.
“The addition of LTE-U will only extend [our] lead and further improve the Un-carrier’s blazing-fast speeds,” T-Mobile said in a release.
The FCC's decision comes after months of debate among regulators, policy analysts and industry lobbyists over what could happen to WiFi in an LTE-U world. In particular, the fight has pitted cable companies — whose customers rely on WiFi routers to connect to the Internet — against cellular carriers whose users are consuming an ever growing amount of mobile data. Critics of the technology point to potential pitfalls should the smartphone signals conflict with existing users of the airwaves, which aren't limited to WiFi and Bluetooth and include garage door openers, baby monitors and key fobs for cars. The debate also roped in consumer advocates and even the city of New York, which sent a letter to the FCC and international standards authorities saying LTE-U threatened the city's network of free WiFi hotspots.
“Whether LTE-U proves to be helpful or harmful to consumers remains to be seen,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the New America Foundation's Wireless Future Program. “Consumer advocates are very concerned that the FCC has accepted an industry compromise that requires mobile carriers to share fairly with WiFi only where WiFi signals are strong.”Hundreds of Puerto Rico’s residents qualified for federal disability benefits in recent years because they lacked fluency in English, according to government auditors.
The Social Security Administration’s inspector general questioned the policy this month in light of the fact that Spanish is the predominant language in the U.S. territory.
Under Social Security regulations, individuals are considered less employable in the United States if they can’t speak English, regardless of their work experience or level of education.
A Puerto Rican national flag in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (Ricardo Arduengo/AP)
In a report this month, the independent watchdog suggested that a more appropriate standard might be to consider local conditions when making benefits decisions.
According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, 95 percent of Puerto Rico residents above age 5 speak Spanish at home, and about 84 percent say they do not speak English “very well.”
The inspector general noted that a nurse in Puerto Rico who speaks only Spanish could be considered “unskilled” under current Social Security standards.
“A claimant’s inability to communicate in English can lessen the relevance of work experience and education, potentially making it more likely the claimant will receive disability benefits,” the report said.
Individuals born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens, making them eligible to apply for Social Security benefits. However, they do not automatically qualify for disability payments.
Nonetheless, auditors identified 218 cases between 2011 and 2013 in which the the Social Security Administration granted disability status to Puerto Rico residents because of the existing guidelines.
The inspector general recommended that the agency evaluate whether the rules are appropriate and determine the number of beneficiaries who have received disability status based on their inability to communicate in English.
The Social Security Administration agreed with the proposals and said it is making preparations for a potential rule change, including by gathering research and taking input from federal experts and the public.Shavarsh Karapetyan trained his eyes on the asphalt as he rounded the corner. He had 45 pounds of sand strapped to his back, facing the final push on a 13-mile run fueled by the fury he’d been nursing ever since Soviet coaches dropped him from the national swim team. Karapetyan, after all, had captured eight European swimming titles and notched numerous world records for the USSR. And at 23 years old, he hadn’t yet reached his athletic prime. Who knows what political maneuvering had kept him off the team that competed in the world championship weeks earlier? Maybe the higher-ups in Moscow wanted to deepen their reserves of elite athletes by developing younger swimmers. Maybe they resented Karapetyan’s dominance because he was Armenian, from the fringes of the empire. Karapetyan was raised during the height of the Cold War and cherished competing for the hammer and sickle. But for now, all he could do was train and wait for an opportunity to win back his spot. So he kept running as the sun set over Armenia’s capital of Yerevan on September 16, 1976.
Just as Karapetyan reached the bridge, the sound of metal smashing against concrete tore through the cool evening air. He looked toward the commotion, through the blizzard of dust that had kicked up from the hillside below, and saw a trolleybus disappear below the surface of Lake Yerevan. Its two electric trolley poles poked up from the water like antennae. If Karapetyan gave any thought to his next move, he doesn’t remember it. He sprinted down the hill, ditched the weighted backpack, stripped to his skivvies, and dove into the lake.
Armenia is not a nation of swimmers. Tucked among Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, this landlocked country, with a population of 3 million and an area smaller than Maryland, spent centuries under the dominion of foreign empires before it declared independence in 1991. It has not had a maritime border since the 14th century, when the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia controlled a swath of Mediterranean coastline in what is now Turkey before being sacked by Egyptian invaders. The country is home to just a handful of public pools, and few of Armenia’s lakes and rivers are suitable for swimming. Igor Safaryan, president of the Armenian Swimming Federation, estimates that only 30 percent of the population knows how to swim — a figure he says has changed little since Soviet times. “And I’m not counting the elderly or young children,” he said.
Like neighboring highland peoples of the Caucasus Mountains, Armenians traditionally excel in rugged sports like wrestling, weightlifting, and boxing. But during a brief window in the 1970s, the republic became an unlikely source of dozens of gold medals for the Soviet Union in finswimming, a niche sport in which competitors propel themselves forward using rubber fins strapped to their feet. And the most prolific Soviet finswimmer of this era was Shavarsh Karapetyan.
Karapetyan was raised in a one-story house in Kirovakan, a northern Armenian city now called Vanadzor, where his father, Vladimir, was determined to make athletes out of Shavarsh and his younger brothers Kamo and Anatoly. When the family moved to Yerevan in 1966, Vladimir enrolled Shavarsh in a gymnastics academy run by former Olympian Albert Azaryan. Karapetyan impressed the gymnastics coaches with his commanding build, quick reflexes, and relentless ambition, but they said he had started too late to become a champion. One coach suggested Karapetyan take up swimming. The sport clicked for him, and over the next several years he excelled in the backstroke and freestyle events as a top junior prospect in Armenia.
But Karapetyan hit his ceiling in classical swimming as well. “He had a lot of deficiencies in his technique, and he didn’t have the required flexibility,” said Safaryan, who coached top Armenian swimmers at the time.
When Karapetyan was dropped from the Armenian select team at age 17, he was crushed.
Large air bubbles were rising from below and bursting at the surface. The passengers can breathe down there, Karapetyan thought, but not for long. He contemplated his next move as he treaded water 80 feet from the shore.
Karapetyan’s brother Kamo had also been running by the lake when the trolleybus crashed into the water. An accomplished swimmer himself, Kamo dove in after his brother and joined him above the sunken vehicle. Using the trolley poles as guideposts, they descended 15 feet underwater to explore the position of the bus, whose bumper was buried in the lake bed. They circled the vehicle, searching for an open door or window that could serve as an escape hatch, but came up empty. Shavarsh decided he would have to break a window.
Shavarsh had followed the bus into the water almost on instinct, but he considered his own fate as he prepared to dive. He instructed Kamo to stay on the surface not only to retrieve the passengers that Shavarsh planned to haul up, but also in case he needed to be rescued himself.
Shavarsh dove and located the back window of the trolleybus. He brought his legs to his chest and thrust his left leg through the window with what he described to me as a “karate kick.” Shards of glass shredded his leg when he pulled it back through the opening, but the cold water helped stem the bleeding. His kick had dislodged the 6-foot-wide window from the rubber lining that held it in place. When he gripped the jagged edges and pulled, the window came out completely.
A hurricane of silt from the lake bed made it almost impossible to see inside the bus. He tossed the windowpane to the side and groped around for anything that felt human.
The day that 17-year-old Shavarsh Karapetyan was informed he had no future as a classical swimmer, he met a hard-drinking lifeguard named Liparit Almasakyan. Although neither of them knew it at the time, their association would determine the fate of Karapetyan and dozens of others on that September evening in 1976.
Known to friends as “Lipo,” Almasakyan helped pioneer Armenia’s underwater sports program, including finswimming. Karapetyan knew Lipo from swimming circles, and the two went to a nearby watering hole to pound beer and vodka while Karapetyan lamented the abrupt end of his athletic career. Lipo had been recruiting athletes for a finswimming team, and he told Karapetyan he’d like to train him. They began later that day.
“I took a taxi home, rested up a bit, and came back for my first workout,” Karapetyan recalled.
Much of the training took place out of water, colossal strength work that became legendary in Armenian sports circles. He would run 12 to 18 miles a day, often loaded down with a sand-filled backpack. There were rowing workouts on manmade Lake Yerevan, which was forged a decade earlier and had already become so inundated with industrial runoff that only the drunk or the indifferent dared swim in it. Lipo also concocted experimental exercises for his pupil: He affixed planks of wood to cross-country ski boots and made Karapetyan jog in them to improve his foot strength. Karapetyan would carry a fellow swimmer on his shoulders while running hills along the shore of Lake Yerevan, or he’d climb those same hills on his hands while a teammate held his legs, wheelbarrow-style.
Finswimmers race underwater using either snorkels or scuba tanks for longer distances; for shorter events they simply hold their breath. Lipo got his start in subaquatic sports by training himself to hold his breath for minutes — until survival instincts kicked in — and he taught his athletes to do the same. The key was to intentionally hyperventilate with five deep breaths. That would blunt the sensation of needing to breathe by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood, thus allowing them to remain underwater for longer periods of time.
Whatever Karapetyan’s physical limitations in classical swimming events, they became irrelevant when he strapped on the giant monofin that was popular in finswimming at the time. Resembling a dolphin’s tail, the device harnessed the kinetic energy from Karapetyan’s explosive core and leg muscles and transformed him into a torpedo. At the 1972 European championship in Moscow, Karapetyan, then 19 years old, captured gold medals in the 50- and 100-meter sprints. His performance was chronicled in national newsreels and the Soviet magazine Underwater Athlete, which gushed, “It’s safe to say we’ll see this young athlete from Armenia at many more major championships.”
In the three European championships from 1972 to 1975, Karpetyan obliterated a bevy of world records and grabbed eight gold medals. Then, in 1976, just when Karapetyan was preparing to continue his reign at the inaugural finswimming world championship, he was dropped from the team. He had fallen ill a few months earlier but had fully recovered, and he believes Soviet sports officials wanted to feature other athletes at the worldwide meet. Karapetyan was only 23 years old; he had a lot of gold left to win. On the day of the crash, Shavarsh Karapetyan was ratcheting up his workouts to show those sports federation bastards the grave error they’d committed.
Some 90 passengers were onboard the no. 15 trolleybus when it rumbled onto the bridge during the evening rush hour: factory workers, schoolchildren, university students, housewives, pensioners. Many were knocked unconscious when the bus veered sharply to the right, sailed over an embankment, and nose-dived into a stretch of concrete at the edge of Lake Yerevan before rolling into the water. Precisely what caused the accident remains unclear. An internal government report faulted the driver for speeding. But witnesses said later that the driver had refused to stop the bus to let a pickpocket escape. According to those witnesses, the thief then clocked him over the head with a metal bar and caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle.
In the blackness below, passengers frantically searched for a loose door or an open window to escape from, but maneuvering through the crowded vehicle proved nearly impossible. Some found refuge in a pocket of air toward the back of the trolleybus. Among them was Zhanna Avetisyan, a 17-year-old vocational school student on her way to inquire about enrolling in a nursing program. “I understood that I was dying and remembered my mother, father, brothers and sisters,” she said years later in an interview with Russian journalist Vadim Leibovsky. Avetisyan lost consciousness, and when she came to, she felt someone grasp her from behind. “I didn’t see the person who saved me because he held me from behind when he dragged me up,” she said. “But I remember his hand well — a strong, muscular hand. I could feel I was being pulled somewhere, and then I blacked out again.”
Karapetyan had already dragged one or two passengers to safety when he grabbed Avetisyan. He had established a rhythm for his rescue mission: After snatching a passenger, he would swim to the top of the trolleybus, plant his feet on the roof, and rocket to the surface. There he would hand his human cargo off to Kamo, who would carry the passenger to kayaks and rescue boats that had arrived on the scene. Then, Shavarsh would dive again.
News of the accident spread quickly through the city. The brothers’ father, Vladimir, was at work less than two miles away when someone pulled up in a car and informed him that a trolleybus had fallen into Lake Yerevan. Vladimir knew that Shavarsh and Kamo were training near the reservoir, and he feared they had taken the bus home.
“I thought to myself, It’s a good thing I made sure they learned to swim,” Vladimir said in a recent interview with Grantland.
He jumped into his car and sped to the scene, where hundreds of people had gathered behind a police cordon to watch the tragedy unfold. When Vladimir reached the edge of the bridge, he saw Shavarsh rising to the surface to pass the drowning passengers to Kamo.
On the concrete dam, medics revived passengers who were brought to shore by the kayaks, and officials from the city prosecutor’s office questioned witnesses. At the edge of the lake, the screams of a middle-aged woman whom Karapetyan had pulled out of the trolleybus drifted over the water. Her 20-year-old daughter remained trapped, and medics restrained her as she tried to jump in and retrieve her child. The daughter would not survive.
At one point during the rescue, Shavarsh failed to surface after a minute, and the onlookers, unaware of his lung capacity, began to fear the worst. “When he finally came up,” Vladimir said, “there was a massive communal sigh of relief.”
Shavarsh continued to dive. There was no time to determine whether passengers were alive or dead as he pulled them from the trolleybus. And at some point near the middle of the operation, he made a mistake that haunts him to this day.
Shavarsh’s years as an elite underwater swimmer had soldered his hyperventilation technique to his brain. After lifting each passenger, the routine kicked in like clockwork: five deep breaths, then back down. But then, in the rush to save as many lives as possible, Shavarsh betrayed his training. One time, when he surfaced and sensed he was running out of time, Shavarsh took one deep breath — not five — and proceeded to descend.
As he fished around inside the trolleybus, the urge to breathe became unbearable. Shavarsh grabbed the first object that drifted by and bolted back to the surface. Kamo was perplexed when he saw his brother emerge with a large, rectangular padded bus seat in his clutches. Shavarsh had mistaken it for a passenger.
“That cost one life,” Shavarsh told me. “I should have taken five breaths.”
Another person who first learned of Karapetyan’s heroics from the Soviet media was his wife, Nelli. During and after their courtship, he had never mentioned his role in the rescue. “She asked me why I never told her,” Karapetyan recalled. “I said, ‘We need to make babies, not tell stories.’”
Shavarsh Karapetyan’s rescue mission had lasted longer than 20 minutes when emergency workers told him to stop diving. Anyone else left inside the bus would already be dead. “They said, ‘Don’t kill yourself for nothing,’” Karapetyan recalled. The brothers estimate he dragged 30 to 35 passengers out of the water, several of whom were no longer alive by the time they were placed in the boats.
But Karapetyan’s work wasn’t done yet. Two cranes arrived at the scene to lift the trolleybus from the lake. A police official instructed Shavarsh and Kamo to fasten the cranes’ cables to the trolley poles so the bus could be dragged from the lake. On Shavarsh’s first attempt, the cables wouldn’t stay attached to the poles, so he took a crowbar from one of the rescue boats and dove again.
He smashed one of the vehicle’s side windows and then swam to the opposite side and shattered another. After several more dives, Shavarsh had threaded the cables through the broken windows. When he surfaced for the last time, he passed the cables to Kamo, who took them to shore in a motorboat and handed them to the authorities. As the crane operators hoisted the trolleybus from the lake, water drained from the windows and bystanders were able to see inside, where more than 40 bodies were scattered across the floor and seats. Less than 45 minutes after crashing into the water, the bus was back on dry ground.
According to a classified report by the Armenian Communist Party, which the Yerevan news agency Mediamax obtained from Soviet-era archives and provided to Grantland, 46 people died while 20 others were saved and received medical attention. Shavarsh and Kamo both insist they saved more than 20, but that a number of passengers simply left the scene after being brought ashore. Several more had managed to escape before the vehicle reached the bottom of the lake.
As Shavarsh, finally onshore, watched the cranes haul the trolleybus from the water, his legs began to wobble. “It felt as if I was losing consciousness,” he told me. His father took off his own shirt and wrapped it around the gashes on Shavarsh’s lower left leg. “There’s nothing left for you to do here,” Vladimir told his son.
Shavarsh’s temperature spiked after he returned home that evening. His body had been ravaged by the prolonged exposure to Lake Yerevan’s cold, polluted water, and his family said he was mumbling incoherently. “He was delirious,” Kamo recalled.
A physician and family friend named Edouard Nazaretyan visited the Karapetyans’ apartment the next day to examine Shavarsh. The doctor found him with a 104-degree fever, muttering to himself, and suffering from convulsions. Nazaretyan diagnosed him with pneumonia in both lungs, a condition exacerbated by the contaminated water of Lake Yerevan. Shavarsh was brought to the hospital, where doctors pumped him full of antibiotics. After about three weeks in bed, he managed to walk on his own.
“To be honest, I was surprised that we were able to save his life from that infection,” Nazaretyan told me in a recent interview. “It was the healthy system of an athlete that fought. And after he fought for the lives of others, God now gave him the strength to fight for his own life.”
Three weeks after Karapetyan got out of the hospital, he was back in the pool. But he found that he wasn’t the athlete he used to be — his respiratory system had suffered irreversible damage from his time in the toxic lake and the resulting pneumonia.
“When I started heavy training, I couldn’t handle it,” he told me. “Mucus was coming up from my lungs. I was coughing all the time. We use a mouthpiece to breathe from the scuba tank. The mucus would get caught in the breathing valve, and when you inhaled, it would come right back. You started coughing again — trying to spit it out, taking off the mouthpiece.”
He also encountered a new psychological barrier. “It wasn’t that I was scared of the water,” he said. “I just hated it.” Karapetyan, however, persisted through his newfound handicaps. He forced himself to run and swim as he choked on the mucus that seeped up from his lungs. Day after day, for several months, he lowered himself into the pool with all the joy of a man jumping into a tank filled with piranhas.
By the time the USSR championship rolled around the following spring, Karapetyan sought to reclaim his perch atop the finswimming world. The event was held in Baku, the capital of Soviet Azerbaijan, and Karapetyan’s entire family traveled to watch his return. Karapetyan was slated for the third heat in the 400-meter event. One of his opponents had set a world record in the first heat; that mark was then eclipsed by a swimmer in the second heat. When Karapetyan leapt from his platform in the final heat, he “swam to the death.”
“I had never raced so angry before,” Karapetyan told me.
His lungs burned as he worked the monofin with his legs, his arms extended in front of him as he grasped the scuba tank. Kamo paced on the deck of the pool, watching for signs that his brother’s body might give out on him. When Shavarsh touched the wall far ahead of everyone, Kamo saw that his brother was too weak to make it out of the pool by himself. He jumped into the water and unfurled a fraternal bear hug. Shavarsh Karapetyan’s time — 3:06.2 — was his 11th and final world record.
“I proved myself,” Karapetyan said, “and then shut my mouth about how difficult and painful it was.”
Later that year, Karapetyan captured three silver medals and a gold at the European championship in Hungary. It was a remarkable return to the pinnacle of his sport less than a year after he nearly killed himself trying to pull survivors from the sunken trolleybus.
Few knew how remarkable.
Karapetyan’s opponents in the years after the bus crash had no idea of the trauma that half-hour in Lake Yerevan had wrought on his body and mind. In fact, outside of a handful of people — witnesses, government officials, and Karapetyan’s friends and family — hardly anyone in Armenia or the rest of the Soviet Union knew of his heroics.
That’s because Soviet authorities hushed up the accident. “Their ideological rationale was that a Soviet trolleybus could not fall in the water,” explained Pushkin Serobyan, a former Armenian sports official who worked for the Yerevan city prosecutor’s office at the time of the accident. This was not unusual. Soviet authorities were loath to publicize news of nuclear accidents, plane crashes, terrorist attacks — anything that might alarm the public or reveal weaknesses in the communist state. The public was shielded either completely from such events or offered the barest of details in remote corners of state-run newspapers.
The classified government report on the accident makes no mention of Karapetyan’s name. Two days after the tragedy, the official newspaper of the central committee in Armenia, Kommunist, published three small items informing readers that there had been a fatal trolleybus accident and expressing condolences. Together, the notices totaled fewer than 100 words.
Karapetyan remained taciturn about the accident in the years that followed. A modest, soft-spoken man, his voice took an edge when I asked him about his silence. “Why talk about it?” he said. “Tell it to whom? What’s the point of talking about it? To make a name for myself? I’d already done that.”
Local officials did recognize Shavarsh and Kamo for participating in the rescue operation, albeit quietly. Kamo said both brothers received certificates and a financial reward of 38 rubles and change, about a quarter of the average Soviet worker’s monthly wage at the time. “My father returned the money and the certificates,” Kamo told me. “He said, ‘My sons didn’t do this for the money.’”
Six years after the accident, the Soviet public learned of Karapetyan’s deed thanks to an article Sergei Leskov published in the Soviet newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. Leskov had learned of the tragedy from one of Karapetyan’s coaches while covering a finswimming competition in Moscow, and his editor immediately dispatched him to Yerevan to unearth the story.
It’s unclear why local authorities decided to hand over documents about the accident to Leskov after keeping quiet for so long. Perhaps they feared repercussions from Moscow if they stonewalled a leading national newspaper’s attempt to publish an ideologically sound lionization of a Soviet athlete. The article ran October 12, 1982, under the headline, “A Champion’s Underwater Battle.” It masked the tragic aspect of the story: Readers were told that Karapetyan rescued 20 people, but there was no mention of the fatalities.
The following year, Literaturnaya Gazeta, arguably the most prestigious newspaper in the Soviet Union, published a full-page article by Gennady Bocharov about Karapetyan’s heroism. A month later, the Soviet government awarded Karapetyan the Order of the Badge of Honor, a civil award far lower on the prestige ladder than the highest Soviet honorary title, Hero of the Soviet Union. Afterward, Bocharov spent decades lobbying officials in Moscow — without success — to formally confer hero status on Karapetyan.
Zhanna Avetisyan, the aspiring nurse whom Karapetyan rescued from the trolleybus, first learned the identity of her savior amid this wave of publicity. She told Leibovsky, the Russian journalist, that a few months after the accident a suitor who knew she had survived the tragedy showed up at her door claiming to be the man who saved her. The young man asked for her hand in marriage, but his own hands betrayed the ruse. “I looked closely at the guy and said, ‘That’s not him,’” Avetisyan told Leibovsky. “[Karapetyan] had the kind of hand that I would never confuse with another.”
Another person who first learned of Karapetyan’s heroics from the Soviet media was his wife, Nelli. The two had met in 1981 and married shortly thereafter. During and after their courtship, he had never mentioned his role in the rescue. “She asked me why I never told her,” Karapetyan recalled. “I said, ‘We need to make babies, not tell stories.’”
Karapetyan remains a legend throughout the former Soviet Union, so it made sense when organizers of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi tapped him to carry the Olympic torch into the Kremlin. Karapetyan’s leg of the relay last October might have gone largely unnoticed by global media if not for a fickle torch and his quick thinking in front of the cameras.
After jogging through the Kremlin gates, a white ski outfit hugging his round frame, Karapetyan glanced at the torch and saw that the Olympic flame had gone out. He quickly grabbed the attention of a plainclothes security guard and presented the torch for the guard to rekindle with something resembling a Zippo lighter. Karapetyan resumed his jog, apparently unfazed by the mishap, and waved joyously at onlookers as he trotted along. The Olympic flame died numerous times during the Sochi torch relay, but the image of Karapetyan bumming a light for the torch became a symbol of the logistical problems encountered by the Russian hosts, who spent a reported $51 billion to stage the Games amid allegations of rampant corruption.
When I met Karapetyan in southwest Moscow, where he’s lived since the late 1980s, he chuckled and cracked self-deprecating jokes about his recent return to the international sports limelight. “I was chosen to carry the Olympic flame into the Kremlin,” he said. “They trusted an Armenian with the job, and it went out.”
After moving to Moscow, Karapetyan opened a shoe-repair shop in a storefront provided by a local benefactor and sports enthusiast. (Armenians may not be swimmers, but they are renowned across the former Soviet Union as skilled cobblers.) His business continued to grow, and he now owns restaurants and shops selling clothes and groceries.
The decades have eroded the vibrant face and dark Armenian locks of the 23-year-old who fearlessly plunged into Lake Yerevan almost 40 years ago. A paunch now accentuates his once powerful frame, and he wheezes and coughs occasionally in conversation — a respiratory leitmotif signaling the trauma his lungs have endured.
“There was no other choice,” Karapetyan said, looking back on the night that forever changed his life. “I knew that it wouldn’t be right if the world’s fastest underwater swimmer was there and didn’t even try to help. Nature and humanity would have judged me. God probably would have judged me.”
In February, I met Kamo, Shavarsh’s brother, in Yerevan, at the spot on the bridge where the trolleybus flew over the embankment. It was a bright winter morning, and he had agreed to show me where the tragedy had occurred. The no. 15 route still runs along the bridge, and the trolleys carrying midmorning passengers rolled by in roughly 10-minute intervals. He pointed to the area near the dam where the bus careered off the road and sank to the bottom of Lake Yerevan.
“It’s the deepest part,” Kamo said.
We gazed out over the water, where empty bags of chips and other debris lay trapped in patches of thin ice. A fog had descended into the valley, obscuring the view of Mount Ararat behind us. The scene reminded me of a well-known Armenian fable. It tells of twin brothers who arrive at a lake in search of a mythical, fiery horse that lives beneath the surface. One brother dives in, discovers he can walk and breathe underwater as if on land, and proceeds to tame the beast. His twin remains onshore, too afraid to follow his brother into the abyss.
Kamo’s nerves proved stronger than the skittish twin’s — when Shavarsh Karapetyan plunged into the lake after the runaway trolleybus, Kamo dove in too. But one question has always nagged at Kamo: “To this day, I ask myself, ‘If I had sprinted to the scene and hadn’t seen Shavarsh in the water, would I have jumped in?’
“The answer is always the same: fifty-fifty.”
Carl Schreck (@CarlSchreck) is a senior correspondent with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Washington, D.C. He has written for Sports Illustrated, Details, The Nation, and Foreign Policy, among other publications.
Photographs courtesy of the Karapetyan family and Photolure
GIFs generated from the 2012 Russian documentary The SwimmerGalveston County Galveston Historical Foundation News Release
GALVESTON HISTORICAL FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES "HARBOR CITY AMBITION" PROGRAMMING Galveston Island, Texas- Ambition drove people of all occupations to the barren island of Galveston in the 1800s. Starting businesses, schools and churches, early Galveston settlers staked their futures on the uncertain success of the port. For the next eight months, Galveston Historical Foundation will examine the founding of Galveston by the Galveston City Company and the first two decades of the city's existence with "Harbor City Ambition; Life in Galveston from 1838-1859". Using personal stories of individuals who lived and visited the city during those formative years, this new program will feature numerous GHF properties and events while showcasing the cities incredible early history. Tickets and more information can be found online at www.galvestonhistory.org/harborcityambition. SCHEDULE OF EVENTS June 12 - Book club discussion of Galveston Island or a Few Months off the Coast of Texas; The Journal of Francis Sheridan 1839-1840 at 1838 Menard House
June 18 - History on Tap onboard 1877 Tall Ship ELISSA and Meat Biscuit Tasting
June 26 - Texas Seaport Museum lecture with Andrew Coleman on the Galveston City Company
July 9 - Harbor City Tycoons Tournament at Hendley Green's "Games at The Green"
July 24 - Book Club discussion of Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands at 1838 Menard House
August 6 - Sacred Places Tour and Galveston Heritage Festival
September 17 - History on Tap at 1838 Menard House featuring live music and Tremont Whiskey Punch
September 25 - Menard Hall lecture on African American genealogy
October 5 - Bishop's Palace Gallery Talk with Renee Tallent, Manager of Historic Collections
October 15 - Broadway Cemetery Tour with Kathleen Maca, author of Galveston's Broadway Cemeteries
October 16 - Free Day at Bishop's Palace and Nicholas J. Clayton Day Celebration
November 13 - Menard Hall lecture with Andrew Torget, author of Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands
December 2 - Oyster Bake Dinner at the 43rd Annual Dickens on The Strand Books involved in the book club are available for purchase at The Shop At The Palace, 1402 Broadway. "Our newest project brings together some fascinating information on the formation of modern Galveston. The lectures and activities we offer as part of this programming will bring life to new information and a broader view of our history," explains Dwayne Jones, Chief Executive Officer of Galveston Historical Foundation. "We are excited to be able to offer this new programming and connect our members and supporters with the fascinating story behind the formation of the City of Galveston. The next few months will broaden your knowledge of the island city as it grew from a barren coastal site to a modern city in the 19th century." ABOUT THE 1838 MENARD HOUSE Many of the program's events take place at the 1838 Menard House. Gifted to GHF in 2016, the house is the oldest residence in Galveston and was the home of Michel B. Menard, one of the founders of the City of Galveston. Menard arrived in Texas in 1829. He was born near Montreal in 1805 and entered the fur trading company of John Jacob Astor at the age of 14. Menard arrived in Nacogdoches in the 1830s and began speculating in Texas land. Because land was only granted to Mexican-born Texans at that time, many of Menard's land deals were made by Juan Seguin, a Mexican citizen who eventually fought under Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto. Seguin purchased 4,600 acres at the eastern end of Galveston Island on behalf of Menard in December 1836. With this claim, Menard formed the Galveston City Company with Samuel May Williams and other prominent Texas businessmen in 1838. Galveston was incorporated a year later. The Menard House is a significant Greek Revival residence, built in 1838. Michel Menard died in 1856 and his descendants occupied the house until 1879. For more information, please contact Will Wright, Director of Communications and Special Events at 409-765-3431 or will.wright@galvestonhistory.org.So the Obama budget is out, Social Security cuts and all. Why is this happening?
Well, it’s all about the positioning. Ezra Klein gets at what I hear from the WH too (and what’s obvious in any case):
Today’s budget is the White House’s effort to reach the bedrock of the fiscal debate. Half of its purpose is showing what they’re willing to do. They want a budget compromise, and this budget proves it. There are now liberals protesting on the White House lawn. But the other half is revealing what the GOP is — or, more to the point, isn’t — willing to do. Republicans don’t want a budget compromise, and this budget is likely to prove that, too.
The question is, to whom are these things being “proved” |
take the battery out, or use the BlackPhone.
And don’t forget to opt out of ad tracking, too. It’s different on each phone, so check out this article on the basics of smartphone privacy Smartphone Privacy Settings You Need To Activate Today Smartphone Privacy Settings You Need To Activate Today Smartphones ship with plenty of default settings that could be leaking your info. Let's dive in and tweak them. Read More.
Keeping Your Social Life Private
Using secure browsing and messaging techniques will keep most of your social networking data from falling into the hands of the government (unless, of course, a social network gives in and hands your data over to the NSA, which is certainly possible). However, social networks—especially Facebook—are doing a lot of surveillance on their own. While they may not be collecting data to see if you’re a potential threat to national security, they can make a lot of money with it What Does Facebook Selling Your Data Mean For Privacy? What Does Facebook Selling Your Data Mean For Privacy? Read More. (You can make money selling your own data I Make $2000 A Year Selling My Personal Information, You Can Too I Make $2000 A Year Selling My Personal Information, You Can Too Don't be one of those suckers that sells their information for nothing! Read More, too, but that counteracts quite a bit of the advice in this guide.)
The amount of data collected by Facebook is staggering—they collect so much that they can create “shadow profiles Facebook Shadow Profiles: You Probably Have One Too [Weekly Facebook Tips] Facebook Shadow Profiles: You Probably Have One Too [Weekly Facebook Tips] You think you're not on Facebook? Think again. Facebook no doubt has a shadow profile made just for you. You may recall recently that Facebook found a bug exposing personal details of 6 million user... Read More ” of people who don’t even have Facebook accounts just by collating information from other users’ contacts. Other sites that are linked to Facebook send your information back to their servers (though you can use tools like Facebook Disconnect to prevent that). And let’s not forget about the fact that other companies can gather mass amounts of public Facebook data Should You Be Concerned About Your Facebook Data Being Scraped? Should You Be Concerned About Your Facebook Data Being Scraped? How would you feel if you discovered your picture on a website, where people rank the picture as to whether or not you look like a jerk? Well, it's a true story. Read More, too.
While you might feel like your privacy is being violated—even to the degree where it might be illegal in some cases—there’s not much you can do about it. The terms of service of major online services, from Facebook and Twitter to Google and Dropbox, almost always require that you give up at least a good portion of your rights to privacy to use the service. Even your Facebook chats could be scanned.
Even more unnervingly, Facebook can figure out when its ads have influenced your offline purchase decisions. There are very few places where you’re not being surveilled by the social giant. Remember that Facebook isn’t the only culprit here—it’s just the biggest one. Twitter tracks the apps you have on your phone Stop Twitter Tracking Your Apps, GoPro Is Developing Drones, & More... [Tech News Digest] Stop Twitter Tracking Your Apps, GoPro Is Developing Drones, & More... [Tech News Digest] Also, Obama signs the E-Label Act, 100 free music albums, get Torchlight for free, and a Keyboard Waffle Iron comes to Kickstarter. Read More, and we recently published an article on ten social networks 10 Social Mobile Apps That Breach Your Teenager's Privacy 10 Social Mobile Apps That Breach Your Teenager's Privacy Your children have become proto-adults, beginning to grow up. Like their friends, they spend a lot of time using smartphones, tablets and computers in a way you could only dream of. Read More that are pretty bad when it comes to privacy.
If you’ve signed up for a social network, they’re almost certainly collecting some data about you. App.net Everything You Need To Know About App.net - The "Other" Social Network Everything You Need To Know About App.net - The "Other" Social Network App.net was born out of frustration with the status quo. How much do you know about it? Read More is a social network that isn’t funded by ads, so you can probably feel safe that your data, even though some if it’s being collected (as can be seen in their privacy policy), won’t be sold to advertisers.
However, you can take steps to limit the amount of data that’s being collected. One of our Facebook Weekly Tips from 2013 dealt specifically with limiting the amount of tracking How To Stop Facebook From Tracking Everything You Do [Facebook Weekly Tips] How To Stop Facebook From Tracking Everything You Do [Facebook Weekly Tips] Facebook has basically made a business out of knowing as much as they can possibly find out about everyone. So, tracking your behaviour online and offline makes perfect sense to them. However, it might not... Read More Facebook can do. You can also opt out of sharing data with Facebook How to Stop Facebook From Selling Your Browsing Data How to Stop Facebook From Selling Your Browsing Data Did you plan on sharing your browser history with advertisers? Because if you have been sharing your browsing history with Facebook then that's exactly what's going to happen. Read More through the Digital Advertising Alliance (though the efficacy of that is debated). It’s a good idea to take these steps, as a lot of social networks, as well as other online companies, may be able to bypass your browser’s security settings Make Your Browsing Safer with These 7 Simple Tips Make Your Browsing Safer with These 7 Simple Tips Safe browsing is more of an ongoing task than a set-it-and-forget-it affair. That's why we have come up with seven essential starter tips to help you browse more safely. Read More.
Unfortunately, the best way to avoid being surveilled by social networks is to not use them... and limit the amount of contact that you have with people who do.
Take Privacy Into Your Own Hands
As you can see, avoiding Internet surveillance isn’t easy. In fact, completely avoiding it is nearly impossible. And taking all of the steps above will cost you quite a bit of time, effort, and money. But is it worth it? That all depends on how you feel about your privacy.
We know that “nothing to hide, nothing to fear” just isn’t a viable argument when it comes to online privacy. We are being pervasively watched by governments, companies, and service providers around the clock, while we’re on our computers, phones, and tablets. We’re even being watched by social networks when we’re away from our computers—and often when we don’t even have accounts.
As I mentioned earlier, all of this, for the most part, doesn’t really affect our daily lives (other than creating an information filter bubble How Do You Feel About Being In Facebook's Psych Experiment? [Weekly Facebook Tips] How Do You Feel About Being In Facebook's Psych Experiment? [Weekly Facebook Tips] You've probably heard about the latest scandal from the Facebook world: Facebook has been experimenting on users and playing with their emotions. Yes, really. Read More ). But if history has shown us anything, it’s that the status quo can be changed at any time, often when we least expect it. And beyond practical safety concerns, what about our right to privacy? Don’t we have a right to have a private life that’s truly private? That can’t be seen by people who are suspicious of our actions or those who are using us to make copious amounts of money?
It’s time to take your online privacy into your own hands. Use the strategies outlined above and share them with others—the more we fight back against pervasive Internet surveillance, the more likely we are to retain our privacy and online freedom.
What steps do you take to ensure that you’re not being surveilled online? Do you feel like your privacy is being violated by companies and governments? Or do you feel that it’s not worth the effort? Share your thoughts below!
Image credits: Beautiful business woman secretly texting (edited) via Shutterstock; Laura Poitras via Wikimedia Commons; Safety concept: pixelated Key, Security concept: Lock on digital screen, Two businessperson shaking hands, Pretty young business woman, Secretive Couple with Smart Phones via Shutterstock; See-Ming Lee via flickr; smartphone hand using, View of three nurses in hospital canteen via Shutterstock; Maria Elena via flickr, Projecting The Future via Shutterstock.We live in an era where not only does every adult own a smartphone, but most teenagers and even young kids do as well. My ten year-old has been asking for one for at least two years and many of his friends, including those younger than him, come to play, smartphone in tow. They’re asked to place it on the kitchen counter and can grab it again when they go home.
On the one hand, who can blame my son for wanting one, too? According to this Time magazine article, “We Need to Talk About Kids and Smartphones,” ten years old is the average age kids receive phones. On the other hand, despite pressure from other parents, him, and his friends, I’m not giving him one—at least not yet. Here’s why.
Anecdotal and Clinical Research Are on My Side
Mothers have an intuition. I can’t speak for fathers, but I’m sure many do as well. Ever since my son’s friends started coming over to play at six years old with an Android, iPhone Touch, or any other battery-powered thing, I didn’t like it.
Now, I’m not an old-fashioned parent, although I do homeschool. I’m a millennial, and I appreciate technology. But I could see right away 1) there was simply no need for my young son to have a phone yet and 2) it would only serve as a huge distraction. How do I know? I’m a grownup and my own phone is a distraction from the daily tasks of regular life.
Fast-forward a few years later and loads of anecdotal and clinical research have only proved this mama’s intuition right. I didn’t need it, but data backs me up and only affirms the gut feeling I had and the choice I made to hold off on giving him a phone until there was a pressing need.
In an article in The Atlantic, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation,” author and psychologist Jean M. Twenge writes she has been studying “generational differences” for 25 years and notes smartphones have adversely affected young people in a way few predicted: “Psychologically, however, they are more vulnerable than Millennials were: Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011. It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones.”
Phones Distract from Intimate Connection
Another reason I don’t think my son needs a phone yet is because smartphones are distracting. They encourage lack of focus and self control, not only on the present moment but on real people. How do I know? They distract me and my friends. Have I mentioned yet we’re grownups?
Think about how many times you scroll Facebook while at the grocery store or see a driver checking his or her phone while at a stop light (or driving!). If grown-ups find phones distracting, and sometimes prefer to scroll Twitter than text a friend back because it requires less effort and thought, how much more will young people?
Time reported, “Parents, teens and researchers agree smartphones are having a profound impact on the way adolescents today communicate with one another and spend their free time. And while some experts say it’s too soon to ring alarm bells about smartphones, others argue we understand enough about young people’s emotional and developmental vulnerabilities to recommend restricting kids’ escalating phone habit.”
In the same article, high school guidance counselor Colleen Nisbet tells the reporter about how phones distract from real people and intimate connections: “Lunch was always a very social time when students were interacting and letting out some energy. Now they sit with their phones out and barely talk to each other.”
Experts have long linked isolation to depression. Quality time with other people can improve a person’s mood and well-being. As Brian Primack, director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Research on Media, Technology, and Health, said, “If smartphones are getting between an adolescent and her ability to engage in and enjoy face-to-face interaction—and some studies suggest that’s happening—that’s a big deal.”
Smartphones Accelerate Our Temptation to Compare
The Time author features Nina Langton, a teen who has it all but still struggles with depression, to the point of attempting suicide. The culprit? Doctors and her parents pinpointed her smartphone’s access to social media that allowed her to compare herself to the beautiful, no-doubt-filtered photos of models on social media. Who can blame her? I’ve closed a Kardashian Instagram feed feeling kinda bummed, too.
Adults reading this have two things going for them that “tweens” and teenagers today don’t: They neither grew up with instant access to “other” worlds via social media and smartphones, nor do they (typically) lack the ability to understand the facade of those things. Adults know Instagram isn’t exactly real life and typically can make peace with it if they’re grounded and mentally healthy.
For teenagers, I suspect it’s more like living in “The Truman Show”: They’ve grown up looking at Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat so much that it is real to them. This is dangerous and a breeding ground for depression, loneliness, and other problems.
Not All Kids Need Phones, Either
Finally, I haven’t given my son a smartphone yet because he doesn’t need it. Really. Does any 10-year-old? Grant it, my son is homeschooled, so he’s around home a little more than other kids are, but he is a member of three instructional co-ops and multiple extracurricular activities, including a baseball league that has two practices and a game once a week.
We have an emergency cell phone at the house if I skip out for a few minutes, so he can call if he needs. Still, I don’t see a pressing logistical need. His desire to be just like his friends, while important, doesn’t outweigh my other concerns. If you think your tween really needs a smartphone, ask yourself: How did you survive your childhood without one?
Is my son old-fashioned? Am I? Am I setting him up to be unprepared and nerdy? Perhaps. He’s not a perfect kid, but he’s also kind, enthusiastic, well-adjusted, and hilarious. This may or may not be due to the fact that he lacks a smartphone, but with the tsunami of choices ahead when he does get one, regarding apps, social media, videogames and more, I’m not prone to welcoming a device that might upset that balance just yet. Particularly when the only pressing reason to do so is just to be like everyone else.RR continued today with the North American Group Stages. You can watch live at twitch.tv/Rocketleaguecentral
Group A- IBuyPower, No Clue, Lucky Bounce, October Sky
Group A featured the top NA team with iBP looking to continue their good form in Royale. iBP started well with a 4-1 win over October Sky while Lucky Bounce moved past No Clue 3-2. iBP continued with another 4-1 this time over No Clue, while October Sky bounced back with a 4-1 over Lucky Bounce. iBuyPower assured their advancement from the group with a 3-2 win over Lucky Bounce while No Clue battered October Sky 4-1 to make their way into the Knockout stages on thursday.
Group B- Kings of Urban, Vexx, Checkmate, Aspire
Group B showcased two top 8 teams from last week's RR, Kings of Urban and Vexx. Kings of Urban started with a sweep of Aspire while Vexx edged our Checkmate 3-2. Kings beat Checkmate by the same 3-2 scoreline, Vexx beating Aspire in identical fashion. Going into the final match, there was only one important match with Vexx vs Kings of Urban deciding seeding coming out of the group. Kings of Urban bested Vexx 4-1 to go out on top of the group, Aspire also beat Checkmate 4-1 to finish in third in the group.
Group C- Mockit NA, Phoenix Infinity, Genesis, Gibblets.
Group C featured Mockit NA looking to come back strong after they didn’t participate in last week's Royale. Mockit and Genesis start with 4-1 wins over Phoenix Infinity and Gibblets, respectively. With the favorites comfortable at the top going into round 2 you can already see the theme in this group. Mockit and Genesis went on to both win 3-2 switching opponents this time. Mockit then won the group decider 3-2 over Genesis with both teams easily advancing while Phoenix Infinity beat Gibblets 4-1.
Group D- Orbit, Onslaught, Vision, Knidergarden
Group D exhibited two top teams in Orbit and Onslaught both favorites to progress from this group. The day started as expected with Orbit picking up a 3-2 win over Vision while Onslaught moved past kindergarden 4-1. Orbit then swept kindergarden while Vision upset Onslaught 4-1 to move into second place in the group. Despite Onslaught beating Orbit 3-2 they still failed to progress as Vision beat Kindergarden 4-1.
Guest Prediction Show!
Last episode I predicted Onslaught would drop less than 4 games while Badger had the same thoughts for iBP, needless to say he won and has grabbed all 10 points for the guests. This episode Vicegold has predicted a WDG win of the EU qualifiers while I have predicted for Flipside.
Frostbite 0-10 Guests(Nairobi) – Members of Burundi ruling party’s youth league, the Imbonerakure, have repeatedly gang-raped women since a wave of political protests began in 2015. Many of the rapes appear to have been aimed at family members of perceived government opponents. Policemen or men wearing police uniforms have also committed rape.
Expand Burundian refugees gather on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Kagunga village, Kigoma, in western Tanzania on May 17, 2015. © 2015 Reuters
In a pattern of abuse in many locations and in several provinces, men armed with guns, sticks, or knives have raped women during attacks on their homes, most often at night. Male family members, some of them members of opposition parties, were also targeted and some killed or abducted. Survivors reported both immediate injuries and longer-term consequences, including sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies, anxiety, and depression. Women have not been safe from rape in refugee camps, and services to assist them are inadequate and need to be better funded. Tanzanian police working in the camp should ensure they fully investigate all rape cases.
“Attackers from Burundi’s ruling party youth league tied up, brutally beat, and gang-raped women, often with their children nearby,” said Skye Wheeler, women’s rights emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Many of the women have suffered long-term physical and psychological consequences.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 70 rape victims in May 2016, in the Nduta refugee camp in western Tanzania. Nduta is one of three Tanzanian camps sheltering 140,000 Burundian refugees.
Dozens of women said they were raped in or close to their homes. Fourteen said they recognized at least one of the attackers as an Imbonerakure. In some other cases, they said the rapists wore police uniforms. In other cases, they could not determine who the attackers were.
Attackers from Burundi’s ruling party youth league tied up, brutally beat, and gang-raped women, often with their children nearby. Many of the women have suffered long-term physical and psychological consequences.
A 36-year-old woman said she was raped in the Mutakura neighborhood of Bujumbura, the capital, in October 2015: “I was held by the arms and legs. [An attacker] said: ‘Let’s kill her, she is an [opposition National Liberation Forces] FNL wife’ as they raped me.”
Three Imbonerakure raped her, she said, one of whom she said she recognized from his patrols in the neighborhood. Imbonerakure had verbally harassed her husband, an FNL member, during visits to their home on several occasions before the attack during which the men took him away. His body was found in a nearby ditch the following day. Like many others Human Rights Watch interviewed, the victim said she still has trouble sleeping and has flashbacks of the attack.
In some cases, rape appeared to be used to try to deter people from fleeing Burundi. Six women said they were raped on the Burundian side of the Tanzanian border by people they believed to be Imbonerakure or knew to be Burundian police, between mid-2015 and early 2016. The attackers ordered the victims to return home, or verbally harassed them for attempting to leave. Sixteen others who tried to leave reported extortion, beatings, verbal harassment, or detention by Imbonerakure or police. Other rapes may have been opportunistic.
Human Rights Watch wrote to the president of the ruling party, Pascal Nyabenda, on July 12, 2016, seeking his response to allegations of rape by Imbonerakure, but did not receive a reply.
Many women fled Burundi immediately after they were raped, before they were able to get emergency medical services. Human Rights Watch found that in many cases women were not identified as rape victims when they arrived at humanitarian transit camps on the Tanzanian side of the border and so did not get emergency care for HIV exposure or emergency contraception, which are among World Health Organization minimum standards for post-rape care.
One woman who did not receive such emergency care became pregnant from the rape. Another found out later she was HIV positive. Both said there was no obvious way to report the rapes at the transit camps. Humanitarians told Human Rights Watch that they were continuing to train staff at the border points, had stockpiled drugs at the border, and were trying to increase the number of female staff there, to encourage women to report sexual violence.
People who fled to Tanzania are not safe from sexual violence in refugee camps, where the numbers of rapes are alarmingly high, including of children. Women and girls have been raped both inside the camps and in areas outside where they collect firewood or goods for market, often as many as three or four cases a week. Women said the attackers included both other Burundian refugees and Tanzanians. Humanitarians told Human Rights Watch they are concerned about high numbers of rapes of children.
Victims said that aid groups providing services in the camps do not provide adequate psychological services and trauma care. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that donor countries have provided less than 40 percent of funds requested in aid to Burundi refugees in Tanzania.
From May through September 2015, 323 (264 women and 59 girls) reported cases of rape or sexual assault that occurred in Burundi, including as they were trying to flee, to humanitarians in Nyaragusu, the first and biggest refugee Tanzanian camp hosting Burundians, according to UNHCR. UNHCR said that of all incidents reported from June to October 2015, according to the women, 16 were allegedly perpetrated by the police and 177 were allegedly perpetrated by other members of the security forces or Imbonerakure.
Over 170 people have reported rapes in Burundi or during their flight to humanitarians in the two newest Tanzanian camps, Nduta and Mtendeli, since they opened late last year, according to UNHCR. It is possible that some women may have reported rapes twice if they moved from Nyaragusu to the newer camps. Reported rape cases may only represent a percentage of the total. Medical staff of aid organizations told Human Rights Watch they believe many women do not report rape unless they seek treatment for continuing medical problems.
Some women interviewed described tense relations between Tutsis and Hutus in the camp and often between or within families. Some said they feared possible attacks from Imbonerakure whom they claimed were in Nduta to target and harass people. Human Rights Watch did not verify these claims.
UNHCR funds Tanzanian police in the refugee camps. The police station in Nduta camp is staffed by least three female police who work at a “gender desk” that encourages women to report abuse. Several interviewees said they appreciated efforts by Tanzanian police, including detaining alleged perpetrators, although sometimes only for short periods.
In other cases, however, women said the Tanzanian police did not seem interested in finding those responsible if the women had been attacked outside Nduta camp, or had not seriously tried to arrest attackers in the camp. A legal assistance organization, the Women’s Legal Aid Center (WILAC), which works in Nduta, said that five people have been officially charged with rape since Nduta opened in October. Four were found not guilty, and one case was ongoing in late May. There have been two convictions for domestic violence.
Abortion services are only legally available in Tanzania to save a woman’s life. This highly restrictive law means that women pregnant as a result of rape are forced to have the children. Medical service providers should use the ban’s exception to the greatest extent possible and should consider whether a woman choosing a dangerous illegal abortion or committing suicide as a result presents a risk to life. The Tanzanian government should change its laws to make abortion available to all women, or at a minimum, to rape victims.
In 2015 and 2016, Human Rights Watch documented how the Burundian police and intelligence services, along with Imbonerakure, targeted perceived opponents with killings, disappearances, torture, and arbitrary arrests. President Pierre Nkurunziza should publicly denounce security force and Imbonerakure abuses and ensure that rapists and other abusers are held to account.
The UN Security Council should authorize a strong international police force for Burundi, including women officers, to deter abuses, including rape. The UN and countries that provide police should ensure that they have training and expertise in investigating these crimes, and that providing security and support to survivors of sexual violence is among their priorities.
The UN Security Council should urgently set up an independent, international commission of inquiry with judicial, forensic, and medical expertise, as well as expertise in investigating torture and sexual violence. The commission should produce a timely public report that includes recommendations on accountability, possible financial reparations for victims, and improved access to health services. The commission would build on the work of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights and other UN and African Union initiatives in Burundi, and could contribute to the International Criminal Court’s preliminary examination of the situation in Burundi.
Identification of victims of sexual violence at Tanzanian transit camps should be improved, including by increasing female staff and ensuring victims have a safe and confidential place to report rape. Rape victims should have access to post-rape care that meets World Health Organization standards, including, if needed, emergency HIV prophylaxis and contraception.
“More and more people globally are living in displacement, or as refugees, for increasingly long periods,” Wheeler said. “In Tanzania, as elsewhere, aid groups, host governments, and wealthier donor countries need to ramp up services provision to meet their obligations to protect the health and safety of rape victims and to ensure that their most basic rights are met.”
Crisis in Burundi
In April 2015, President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi announced that he would run for a third term, setting off a political and human rights crisis. Police violently repressed demonstrations and the government cracked down on perceived opponents and critics. Targeted killings and attacks by government forces and armed opposition groups escalated. By December, several hundred people had been killed. Serious abuses in Burundi, including torture and enforced disappearances, have continued throughout the first half of 2016.
Hundreds of thousands of Burundians fled to surrounding countries, most to Tanzania, where three refugee camps were set up, but also to Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Human Rights Watch has not conducted research into rape of Burundian refugees in these other countries.
Rape by Imbonerakure
Burundi has a long history of rape, including during periods of conflict or political crisis. There are indications there may be high rates of this crime even in times of relative stability. In June 2015, for example, Centre Seruka, a Burundian organization that helps victims of sexual violence, said that between 120 and 130 victims of sexual violence sought help at their facilities each month. The majority were children.
The survivors interviewed said that in some cases, they had been raped by men they knew to be Imbonerakure, who sometimes worked with the police. Many could not identify their rapist by name, but believed they were raped because of a family member’s link to an opposition party or a grievance against their husband. The Imbonerakure, who are the members of the youth league of the ruling party, the Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), are organized across Burundi, down to the local level, and have long been used to target government opponents. Their role in the repression has increased since April 2015.
More than 10 women interviewed said that local Imbonerakure had harassed them even before April 2015, although this worsened after Nzurunziza’s announcement that he would run again. Several women said that Imbonerakure had started carrying weapons and had taken on a more prominent security role in their villages or towns.
Imbonerakure known to victims, men in police uniforms, and unidentified armed men, some of whom accused the victims of supporting an opposition party or being married to an opposition supporter, were among those responsible for rapes or gang-rapes of 38 women interviewed by Human Rights Watch. In two cases, girls were gang-raped during attacks in or near their homes. The attacks, almost always at night, were by a group of men with guns, sticks, grenades, or knives. In the majority of cases, more than one man raped the victim.
In 23 cases, the victims did not recognize the people who attacked them, but said some of the men were dressed in ruling party T-shirts or police uniforms, which Imbonerakure sometimes wear. The victims said that Imbonerakure either had previously threatened family members, or that the attackers had attacked or asked for male relatives and made derogatory comments about their political beliefs.
Some women also said they believed their attackers were Imbonerakure because the group controlled the victims’ neighborhoods and there were no other armed groups in their area. In one case, the attackers took a mobile phone, and in two other cases, they extorted money from the women, but robbery did not appear to be their main motivation.
In several attacks the women described, the attackers either killed a male family member or took him away. In three cases, the attackers beat a husband or other male relative. In four cases, the male relative fled at the beginning of the attack.
A group of Imbonerakure raped O.P.’s 8-year-old daughter after they attacked her family home, in Karusi province, in late April 2015. O.P. saw a local Imbonerakure leader enter the house with other men before she ran away, leaving her daughter behind. She returned to find her daughter sitting in bloody sheets. O.P.’s daughter told her that four men had raped her. O.P.’s husband left the country the following day because he feared the attack was directed at him. He had already been arrested twice and detained for short periods by local Imbonerakure for not joining the ruling party, O.P. said.
Several rapes reported to Human Rights Watch took place at the end of 2015, when human rights abuses escalated in Burundi, especially in Bujumbura.
N.B.’s husband, a policeman and member of the FNL, was shot dead while on duty. On December 13, 2015, N.B., 22, said, a group of Imbonerakure forced their way into her home, beat her with sticks, and two of them raped her. She said that men, who had told her they were Imbonerakure, had repeatedly forced their way into her home in the three months prior to the attack looking for her husband, verbally harassing her and accusing her of hiding him. In five cases, the women interviewed said the dead bodies of men who were abducted were found dumped near the site of the attack.
Others did not know the whereabouts of family members for many weeks. Seventeen-year-old S.W. did not know where her father was for months after her family was attacked in August 2015, in Bujumbura’s Kinama neighborhood. Four Imbonerakure, dressed in ruling party T-shirts, dragged her to a banana grove near her house and raped her after other men in their group took away her father, a member of the opposition Movement for Solidarity and Democracy (MSD). A neighbor who was an Imbonerakure eventually told the family her father had been killed.
Women said that if the man wanted by the attackers was not there, they would demand to know his whereabouts and would sometimes tell the victim that they were raping her because they could not find the man. In nine cases, women said the men had fled before the rape took place, or had begun habitually sleeping elsewhere because of threats.
M.N.’s husband, she said, had been harassed for his membership in an opposition party since his family returned to Muyinga province in Burundi in 2012, from exile in Tanzania, and had begun sleeping in friends’ houses for safety. In December 2015, a group of Imbonerakure told her neighbors to stay indoors and forced their way into her house. Two of them picked M.N. up from her bed, threw her on the ground, and raped her, she said. She recognized one of them as an Imbonerakure.
In three other cases, the rape took place weeks or months after a husband or other male relative had been killed or disappeared in an earlier attack.
In many cases, known Imbonerakure had threatened or attacked the targeted male member before the attack, often during daytime house visits. Women often continued to receive threats after a male relative was attacked and sometimes after the woman had been raped.
Eleven of the reported cases of rapes and other abuses took place in Bujumbura, mostly in Mutakura, Cibitoke, and Musaga neighborhoods, where police had clashed with protesters over President Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term. However, similar attacks were reported in other locations. Many women in the refugee camps were from border areas such as Makamba, Ruyigi, and Muyinga provinces.
In some cases, the attackers’ comments during the attacks, as well as harassment before and afterward, would appear to indicate that the leading motivation behind the abuses was political, connected to the victim’s relatives being members of opposition parties. However, there may have been other motivations. Many of the women who had been attacked had returned to Burundi between 2010 and 2012, after living in Tanzania for many years. Many found themselves embroiled in land conflicts when they returned, with neighbors or other family members occupying their homes. In several cases, women said that the attacks by Imbonerakure appeared to be connected to long-standing disputes over land in their communities.
Some women believed ethnicity may have been a factor. Two Tutsi women said the attackers made ethnic slurs during the attack. Others believed the ethnic dimension was a more prominent factor in communities with few Tutsi families. Human Rights Watch did not ask interviewees for their ethnicity.
Some attacks may also have been linked to personal disputes or grievances. In July 2015, two men raped 33-year-old J.N. in Muyinga province, she said, while three Imbonerakure watched, including a local leader whose face she recognized. The men beat her husband and then took him from the house during the attack. She said that she believes she was raped because she and her husband were FNL members, but also because her husband, a local neighborhood leader, reported carousing at a prostitute’s house by some local men to the police and some of the men were arrested. J.N. reported that the men who attacked her said, “he stopped us from using their prostitute, so we’re [having sex with] you instead.”
Rape by Security Forces
In several cases, groups of men who attacked homes included one or more men in police or army uniforms. These may have been members of security forces or Imbonerakure, who often dress in police or military uniform. Members of the police or army have also attacked and raped women. Human Rights Watch documented several cases in which police raped women.
A group of policemen, all in blue police uniform, visited and harassed 28-year-old F.P., she said, at her house in the town of Nyanza Lac three times – in April, July, and September 2015, when two of them raped her. In April, the policemen took some of her belongings and in July, they stole bank account documents that had belonged to her husband, who had been a soldier and peacekeeper in Somalia before he died there in 2014. Local Imbonerakure also harassed her frequently, saying her husband had only managed to get rich by bribing his way into peacekeeping posts.
Two women said they were raped in police detention. A 26-year-old local leader of an opposition party was detained for a night in a police station in late February 2016, after she was accused of holding political meetings and refusing to join the CNDD-FDD. A senior policeman working in the detention center raped her, she said.
Few women feel safe reporting rapes or other abuses to the police, especially in view of the close relationship between some Imbonerakure and the police. Many of those interviewed said they feared they would have been killed had they done so. Fear of further attacks as well as the desire to leave the country quickly also prevented women from seeking emergency health care in Burundi, including emergency contraception and post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV infections.
Four soldiers took 27-year-old M.D. from her house in Kamenge, in Bujumbura, after they failed to find her husband, a MSD member who had been detained several times, in mid-December 2015. They held her for a day in the barracks in Kamenge, where two of the soldiers raped and beat her.
Rape, Harassment During Flight
Women have been raped on both sides of the border as they fled to Tanzania, part of a broader pattern of harassment and extortion of people trying to leave Bur |
customer? And does it complement our customer's interesting life?" Mary Beech, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Kate Spade, told CNNMoney. "We don't introduce technology for technology's sake."
Related: Fitbit unveils two new fitness trackers -- including one you can take in the pool
In May 2015, Kate Spade introduced a handbag with a built-in iPhone charger. Earlier this year, it welcomed a fitness tracker bracelet.
Meanwhile, Emporio Armani's new hybrid watches embrace a sleek minimalist aesthetic and let you control music directly via the device.
The strategy
Watch makers have worried for years that smartphones might replace traditional timepieces. But the tech wearables market is projected to hit $34 billion by 2020, so it makes sense that Fossil -- as well as other iconic watch companies like TAG Heuer and Timex -- would want a larger slice of the pie.
The new hybrid smartwatches will appear in stores soon, positioned next to traditional analog watches. Prices range from $160 for the Chaps hybrid smartwatch to $395 for Armani's connection edition.
Earlier this year, Fossil announced it would introduce 100 wearables in 2016. The latest effort puts the company well over its target with 143. In addition to hyrbid smartwatches, the parent company has cranked out display smartwatches and activity trackers in previous months.
Fossil said it's pleased with how consumers are adopting the devices so far.
"Sales of wearables have been very strong since we launched [connected accessories] in late 2015," said Elliot.
While he declined to comment on specific numbers, Anderson said the flagship brand's Fossil's Q Founder smartwatch was its bestselling watch from its 2015 holiday lineup.
"Over half of the purchasers of Fossil Q were new customers, confirming consumers were looking for a smarter watch designed with their personal style in mind," she said.
While the wearables industry is still looking for footing, the debut of hybrid smartwatches from eight of the world's most recognizable fashion brands hints at the future of watchmaking -- and how tech brands have much more competition ahead.This video is no longer available
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F1 2006 - Chinese GP / Michael Schumacher's 91st & Final Victory
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The 2006 Chinese Grand Prix was the 16th race of the 2006 Formula One season. It was held on 1 October 2006 at Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai. The race was won by Michael Schumacher for Ferrari, and would turn out to be the 91st and last victory of his long and distinguished Formula One career. It was also his last podium finish until the 2012 European Grand Prix, during his comeback to the sport. Fernando Alonso, starting from pole, enjoyed a lead of over 25 seconds before the first round of pitstops. However, his Renault team and himself opted to keep the intermediate front tyres on and only replace the rear tires with fresh intermediates. Later on, this turned out to be a wrong decision as both teammate Fisichella and championship rival Schumacher were able to overtake him, after they both had pitted for fresh dry tires, as the track was drying up. After making a second pitstop for dries as well, Alonso was able to recover up to second position, after teammate Fisichella allowed him through. The damage was already done, however, as Schumacher nursed his Ferrari 248 F1 car home with a margin of just over 8 seconds in front of Alonso at the finish line (Wikipedia, 2017). Soundtrack: Coldplay - Fly On
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2,265poster="https://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201511/1836/1155968404_4594516852001_151103-Sanders-Still001.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Bernie Sanders responds to a new poll putting him behind Hillary Clinton on MSNBC. Sanders on Clinton's poll bump: I'm fine being the underdog
Hillary Clinton may be extending her lead in the polls, but once-surging Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says he enjoys his underdog status just fine.
“We are taking on the political establishment, we’re taking on the economic establishment,” Sanders told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Tuesday when asked about his lagging poll numbers in a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll out Tuesday. “We started as the underdog we are still the underdog. But the kind of enthusiasm that we are generating tells me that at the end of the day we are gonna win this election.”
Story Continued Below
Clinton has double Sanders’ numbers, 62 percent to his 31 percent in the poll released Tuesday. Her lead has gone up slightly from October when the former secretary of state had 58 percent and Sanders had 33 percent. Overall, Clinton's Real Clear Politics polling average lead over Sanders has jumped from 15 points on Oct. 3 to 24 points on Nov. 3. Clinton has also taken back the lead in some New Hampshire polls.
Mitchell asked Sanders what had gone wrong.
“I don’t think it’s a question of things going wrong, you know when we started this campaign we were at 3 or 4 percent in the polls. Since that point we have done extremely well in many states around this country,” Sanders replied.
He touted the large number of individual campaign contributors — Sanders has sworn off super PACs — and the large crowds who show up at his events.
In the interview, Mitchell also pointed to poll numbers that show people aren’t as concerned about the controversy regarding Clinton’s use of a private email account and server while she was secretary of state. In November, 42 percent believed it was an important factor, compared to 48 percent who didn’t see it as one. That number has decreased since October when 47 percent saw them as an issue and 44 percent saw it as unimportant.
“Are you sorry now that you basically took her off the hook — gave her a pass on that in the debate?” Mitchell asked, referring to Sanders' comment that Americans are sick of hearing about Clinton's "damn emails."
“No, I am not sorry at all,” Sanders said. “Let Hillary Clinton’s emails — let them go through that process — I want to focus on the real the issues.”
His comments come on the heels of a Yahoo Politics profile on his wife Jane O’Meara Driscoll Sanders that also alluded to an underdog role.
Yahoo’s Lisa Belkin writes “she thought the campaign would succeed in its actual goal — not necessarily winning, but pushing other candidates to talk about things like income inequality — she and Bernie were both surprised by how fast it became so big.”President Donald Trump's first trip to Asia began with a round of golf, a custom cap and a hamburger of American beef.
The president got a taste of home as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed him to Japan on Sunday with a display of friendship that will soon give way to high-stakes diplomacy. The two men have struck up an easy rapport.
The leaders played nine holes of golf at Japan's premiere course.
The low-key start was a prelude to the formal talks planned in Tokyo on Monday. Abe will be looking for a united front against North Korea and reassurances that the US will stand by its treaty obligations to defend Japan if attacked.
At Kasumigaseki Country Club, Abe rolled out little touches to make Trump feel welcome. He presented a hat that had a version of Trump's campaign theme, this time reading "Donald and Shinzo: Make Alliance Even Greater."
The two passed up the region's famed Kobe beef in favour of the American version, which is favoured by Trump, a famed picky eater.
Before the game, Trump delivered a speech in which he hailed Japan as a "crucial ally" and warned adversaries not to test America's resolve.
"Japan is a treasured partner and crucial ally of the United States and today we thank them for welcoming us and for decades of wonderful friendship between our two nations," Trump told American service members at Yokota Air Base on the outskirts of Tokyo.
Though Trump did not mention North Korea by name during the speech, the spectre of its weapons program will loom large throughout Trump's five-nation Asia trip. The president warned of the consequences of crossing what he called the "most fearsome fighting force in the history of our world".
"Together with our allies, America's warriors are prepared to defend our nation using the full range of our unmatched capabilities. No one - no dictator, no regime and no nation - should underestimate, ever, American resolve," he told the troops.
And while there is worry in the region about Trump's unpredictable response to the threat posed by Kim Jong Un, Trump made clear he did not intend to tone down his bellicose rhetoric - which included dubbing Kim Jong Un as "Little Rocket Man" - even while in an Asian capital within reach of the North Korea dictator's missiles.
"There's been 25 years of total weakness, so we are taking a very much different approach" in dealing with the renegade regime in Pyongyang, he said, speaking to reporters on Air Force One.A Few Thoughts on Trump's ISIS Comment - For What They Are Worth
From:Jeff.Bialos@sutherland.com To: john.podesta@gmail.com, johnpodesta@hillaryclinton.com, lrosenberger@hillaryclinton.com Date: 2016-01-03 18:25 Subject: A Few Thoughts on Trump's ISIS Comment - For What They Are Worth
Greetings and Happy New Year: I read with interest and some concern Trump’s latest assertion – namely, that the policies of President Obama and Hillary “created ISIS.” This appears to be part of a concerted recent effort to tag Hillary with something that sticks – along the lines of his successful assertion that Bush was “low energy,” which resonated because it appeared to have some degree of merit. While I’m sure you are all on top of this, I thought to mention a few points for what they are worth. While on one level Trump’s assertion is somewhat silly and superficial, on another its potentially clever because it could possibly lead to a new spate of articles on how ISIS came to be and the US role in it. Frankly, it also may resonate somewhat as well (especially with respect to Obama) because of the widely shared perception, rightly or wrongly, that the Obama Administration was slow to address ISIS and that its resulting strategy is limited in nature and ineffectual (witness terrorist incidents in Europe and the United States). I guess there are at least several options for inoculating Hillary on this theme (and its admittedly a matter of politics as well as policy): 1. Treat it lightly (almost as a joke – “you’ve got to be kidding me – did she create [x] too?”) and dismiss it as silly or largely ignore it; 2. Note that the Arab spring and civil war in Syria largely created the environment in which ISIS could emerge, not US policy. 3. Draw distinctions between Hillary and Obama, noting her support for continuing the Status of Forces Agreement in Iraq and the decision to arm the Syrian rebels several years ago (which Obama rejected and which arguably did play a role in causing ISIS). (This has been highlighted effectively in the past). 4. Respond by highlighting Hillary’s more robust anti-ISIS and anti-terrorist policies she recently laid out. I guess I’d vote for some combination of 1, 2 and 4. While “less” is generally “more” in these things, I don’t see how you can let this go entirely as it can have some legs. While there may be a time for the third point, I worry its too defensive and gets into a more complex discussion more useful for policy wonks than the general public. Best Regards, JPB Jeff Bialos | Partner Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP 700 Sixth Street, NW, Suite 700 | Washington, DC 20001-3980 202.383.0363 direct | 202.637.3593 facsimile jeff.bialos@sutherland.com<mailto:jeff.bialos@sutherland.com> | www.sutherland.com<http://www.sutherland.com> Biography<http://www.sutherland.com/People/Jeffrey-P-Bialos> | Download vCard<http://www.sutherland.com/webportal/perform.v?obj=ve_oid:poid:Z1tOl9NPl0LPoDtRkf3DsSZC&action=vCard> This e-mail message is intended only for the personal use of the recipient(s) named above. This message may be an attorney-client communication and as such privileged and confidential. If you are not an intended recipient, you may not review, copy, or distribute this message. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the original message.“They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do”. Most of us recognise the truth of Philip Larkin’s lines. But for Prince George of Cambridge, the infant formerly known as the Royal Baby, things are a little more complicated. He’s got his parents but he’s also got the rest of his family, the British establishment and the public to contend with. He’s not even two years old, but he has his own Wikipedia page and is already playing an important role for Brand Britain, a product that is preserved in Duchy Originals aspic, traditional and unchanging.
First official photographs of Princess Charlotte published by royal family Read more
Over the weekend, that brand got a new boost when Kensington Palace released photos of George and his month-old sister Charlotte. Each one, as Us Weekly put it, was “more awww-inducing than the last”. They were also perfectly, precisely on-message for the royal family. George, wearing knee-length, light-blue socks, smart shoes and a white and blue shirt with a naval feel to it, looked like a Victorian king-in-waiting.
The underlying theme was one of continuity: “One day, loyal subjects, I too will rule you”. The photos resembled those taken of Prince Charles and Princess Anne 65 years ago, which in turn resembled photos taken of their parents, and so on back to the arrival of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the United Kingdom in 1840.
“I don’t think there’s anything particularly novel or unusual about these pictures: the royals have been releasing photos of themselves for more than 100 years”, Stephen Bates, author of the forthcoming book Royalty Inc, told me. The trouble is, the royals have been releasing more or less the same photo for those 100+ years. As the fashion commentator Daryoush Haj-Najafi put it to me: “Is it not obvious that the royals do not know how to be modern? If they did, they would wear modern clothes”.
The world outside their palaces may change but the projection of tradition and continuity from the family remains the same. Infants across the land may be wearing tracksuits but young George looks ready to inspect the poop deck of HMS Victory. Continuity is key: the photos tell us that the royal family has, and always will, be with us. That, of course, is what the fans want. It’s reassuring. It’s nostalgic. The newspapers and magazines love it. It reminds their readers of a time and place they like to imagine existed. Of village greens, tea and the labourer doffing his cap to the local lord. If Prince George were kitted out like North West, there’d be an outcry.
We all dream of being a secret royal baby | Kathryn Hughes Read more
Last year, the People’s Daily, an official Chinese newspaper, wrote that Britain was an “old, declining empire” that resorted to “eccentric acts” to hide its embarrassment over its declining power. But these eccentric acts have become a huge part of Britain’s projection abroad. Britain is now an old place for new money, a place of pomp, circumstance and entrenched class structures. Brands such as Burberry trade heavily on this sense of Britain as a theme park from the past, a place in which children dressed for the 1850s are paraded before the cameras to reassure the public that nothing ever changes.
“I’m not very good at being a performing monkey”, Prince Charles once said. Sadly for him, this is what he has had to spend much of his life doing. As a royal, you are crucial to Britain’s soft power. You sell products and project the image of a country that is lost to the past but very much open for business. Prince George, not yet two, is already part of that process. With his side parting and puffy cheeks, he even looks a bit like David Cameron, a fellow member of the ruling class.
To adapt the words of The Simpsons’ Sideshow Bob, it would seem that while our guilty conscience might move us to vote Labour, deep down we long for a cold-hearted Conservative to lower taxes, slash benefits and rule us like a king. Maybe the government can produce a series of posters of Prince George, with a fitting message that can look down on us for the rest of time: “Keep calm and let us carry on”.With the review embargo up for Killer Instinct we now get to see the achievements for the first time. Below is the list of achievements for Killer Instinct. There are 94 achievements for a total of 1000 points. Gonna be a blast unlocking all of these!
Jago Novice – 20
Reach 30 fight titles with Jago
Battle-worn Jago – 10
Win 20 ranked matches with Jago
Stylish Jago – 10
Purchase a skin for Jago
Tiger’s Fury – 10
Healed 10 health points while in Instinct Mode with Jago
Supreme Jago – 10
Earn a supreme Victory in an online match as Jago
Jago’s Endurance – 10
Defeat 10 opponents in one Survival as Jago
Jago’s Matchups – 15
Defeat 6 different characters in online matches as Jago
Jago Chosen One – 10
Complete 2000 matches as Jago
Sparring Jago – 5
Win a versus match as Jago
Friendly Jago – 10
Win an exhibition match vs a friend as Jago
Survival Jago – 5
Win a survival match as Jago
General Novice – 10
Reach 10 General Fight Titles
General Apprentice – 10
Reach 30 General Fight Titles
General Master – 10
Reach 60 General Fight Titles
Triple Trials! – 10
Complete 3 Trials
Hyper Trials! – 10
Complete 20 Trials
Monster Trials! – 10
Complete 100 Trials
ULTRA TRIALS! – 10
Complete 200 Trials
White Belt – 10
Complete 5 Dojo lessons
Orange Belt – 10
Complete 16 Dojo Lessons
Black Belt – 10
Complete 32 Dojo Lessons
Sabrewulf Novice – 20
Reach 30 fight titles with Sabrewulf
Battle-worn Sabrewulf – 10
Win 20 ranked matches with Sabrewulf
Stylish Sabrewulf – 10
Purchase a skin for Sabrewulf
Sabrewulf’s Claws – 10
Perform 10 points of chip damage while in Instinct Mode with Sabrewulf
Supreme Sabrewulf – 10
Earn a supreme Victory in an online match as Sabrewulf
Sabrewulf’s Endurance – 10
Defeat 10 opponents in one Survival as Sabrewulf
Sabrewulf’s Matchups – 15
Defeat 6 different characters in online matches as Sabrewulf
Sabrewulf Chosen One – 10
Complete 2000 matches as Sabrewulf
Sparring Sabrewulf – 5
Win a versus match as Sabrewulf
Friendly Sabrewulf – 10
Win an exhibition match vs a friend as Sabrewulf
Survival Sabrewulf – 5
Win a survival match as Sabrewulf
Glacius Novice – 20
Reach 30 fight titles with Glacius
Battle-worn Glacius – 10
Win 20 ranked matches with Glacius
Stylish Glacius – 10
Purchase a skin for Glacius
Glacius’ Armor – 10
Absorb a hit with Glacius’ Ice armor while in Instinct Mode
Supreme Glacius – 10
Earn a supreme Victory in an online match as Glacius
Glacius’ Endurance – 10
Defeat 10 opponents in one Survival as Glacius
Glacius’ Matchups – 15
Defeat 6 different characters in online matches as Glacius
Glacius Chosen One – 10
Complete 2000 matches as Glacius
Sparring Glacius – 5
Win a versus match as Glacius
Friendly Glacius – 10
Win an exhibition match vs a friend as Glacius
Survival Glacius – 5
Win a survival match as Glacius
Battle-worn Thunder – 10
Win 20 ranked matches with Thunder
Thunder Novice – 20
Reach 30 fight titles with Thunder
Stylish Thunder – 10
Purchase a skin for Thunder
Thunder’s Spirit Dash – 10
Do a dash while in Instinct Mode with Thunder
Supreme Thunder – 10
Earn a supreme Victory in an online match as Thunder
Thunder’s Endurance – 10
Defeat 10 opponents in one Survival as Thunder
Thunder’s Matchups – 15
Defeat 6 different characters in online matches as Thunder
Thunder Chosen One – 10
Complete 2000 matches as Thunder
Sparring Thunder – 5
Win a versus match as Thunder
Friendly Thunder – 10
Win an exhibition match vs a friend as Thunder
Survival Thunder – 5
Win a survival match as Thunder
Sadira Novice – 20
Reach 30 fight titles with Sadira
Battle-worn Sadira – 10
Win 20 ranked matches with Sadira
Stylish Sadira – 10
Purchase a skin for Sadira
Sadira’s Web Trap – 10
Trap an opponent with a web trap while in Instinct Mode with Sadira
Supreme Sadira – 10
Earn a supreme Victory in an online match as Sadira
Sadira’s Endurance – 10
Defeat 10 opponents in one Survival as Sadira
Sadira’s Matchups – 15
Defeat 6 different characters in online matches as Sadira
Sadira Chosen One – 10
Complete 2000 matches as Sadira
Sparring Sadira – 5
Win a versus match as Sadira
Friendly Sadira – 10
Win an exhibition match vs a friend as Sadira
Survival Sadira – 5
Win a survival match as Sadira
Orchid Novice – 20
Reach 30 fight titles with Orchid
Battle-worn Orchid – 10
Win 20 ranked matches with Orchid
Stylish Orchid – 10
Purchase a skin for Orchid
Orchid’s Jaguar – 10
Hit an opponent with a Jaguar while in Instinct Mode with Orchid
Supreme Orchid – 10
Earn a supreme Victory in an online match as Orchid
Orchid’s Endurance – 10
Defeat 10 opponents in one Survival as Orchid
Orchid’s Matchups – 15
Defeat 6 different characters in online matches as Orchid
Orchid Chosen One – 10
Complete 2000 matches as Orchid
Sparring Orchid – 5
Win a versus match as Orchid
Friendly Orchid – 10
Win an exhibition match vs a friend as Orchid
Survival Orchid – 5
Win a survival match as Orchid
Jago Master – 10
Reach 150 Fight Titles with Jago
Sabrewulf Master – 10
Reach 150 Fight Titles with Sabrewulf
Glacius Master – 10
Reach 150 Fight Titles with Glacius
Thunder Master – 10
Reach 150 Fight Titles with Thunder
Sadira Master – 10
Reach 150 Fight Titles with Sadira
Orchid Master – 10
Reach 150 Fight Titles with Orchid
Jago Apprentice – 20
Reach 80 Fight Titles with Jago
Sabrewulf Apprentice – 20
Reach 80 Fight Titles with Sabrewulf
Glacius Apprentice – 20
Reach 80 Fight Titles with Glacius
Thunder Apprentice – 20
Reach 80 Fight Titles with Thunder
Sadira Apprentice – 20
Reach 80 Fight Titles with Sadira
Orchid Apprentice – 20
Reach 80 Fight Titles with Orchid
Competitive Jago – 5
Win a Ranked Match as Jago
Competitive Sabrewulf – 5
Win a Ranked Match as Sabrewulf
Competitive Glacius – 5
Win a Ranked Match as Glacius
Competitive Thunder – 5
Win a Ranked Match as Thunder
Competitive Sadira – 5
Win a Ranked Match as Sadira
Competitive Orchid – 5
Win a Ranked Match as Orchid
Like this: Like Loading...Some 50,000 Hindu pilgrims still stranded in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand with 34,000 rescued so far, home minister says
The death toll from monsoon flooding and landslides in mountainous northern India rose to nearly 600 on Friday with rescuers finding bodies in the Ganges and in the muddy, broken earth, officials said.
The air force dropped paratroopers, food and medicine for people trapped in up to 100 towns and villages cut off since Sunday in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand where thousands of people are stranded, many of them Hindu pilgrims who were visiting four shrines in the area.
The Uttarakhand state chief minister, Vijay Bahuguna, told CNN-IBN television channel on Friday that 556 bodies had been seen buried deep in mud and the army was trying to recover them. Rescuers also found 40 bodies floating in the Ganges near the pilgrimage site of Haridwar, said Rajiv Swaroop, a police officer.
Rakesh Sharma, another state official, said on Thursday that the death toll might reach the thousands, but the exact figure would not be known until the entire region had been checked.
Sushilkumar Shinde, the federal home minister, told reporters in Delhi that 34,000 people had been evacuated so far and 50,000 more were stranded in the region. Roads and bridges were washed away by the floods or blocked by debris.
A spokesman for Uttarakhand, Amit Chandola, said the rescue operation was centred on evacuating nearly 27,000 people trapped in the worst-hit Kedarnath temple area, one of the holiest Hindu sites dedicated to the god Shiva, located high in the Garhwal Himalayan range. The temple escaped major damage, but debris covered the area around it and television images showed the bodies of pilgrims strewn around the area.
Soldiers and other workers reopened dozens of roads by building makeshift bridges, accelerating the evacuation, Chandola said. More than 2,000 vehicles carrying stranded Hindu pilgrims had moved out of the area since late on Thursday and thousands of soldiers were continuing efforts to reach the worst-hit towns and villages, he said.
Thirty-six air force helicopters have been ferrying rescue workers, doctors, equipment, food and medicine to Kedarnath, the town closest to many of those stranded, said Priya Joshi, an air force spokeswoman. Seven aircraft carried paratroopers and fuel to the region.
Hundreds of people looking for relatives demonstrated in Dehradun, the Uttarakhand state capital, where flood survivors were taken by helicopter. They complained the government was taking too long to evacuate the survivors, with helicopters bringing in four to five people at a time.
Jasveer Kaur, a 50-year-old housewife, said she and her family survived by taking shelter in a Sikh shrine, which withstood the flood, located in Govind Dham.
"There was destruction all around," said Kaur after she was evacuated by an air force helicopter. "It was a nightmare."
Google has launched an application, Person Finder, to help trace missing people in Uttarakhand. The version is available in both Hindi and English versions.
The annual monsoon rains sustain India's agriculture but also cause flooding that claims hune numbers of lives and damages property. The neighbouring Uttar Pradesh state said 17 flood-related deaths had occurred there since the heavy rains on Sunday.Elon Musk's company SpaceX has a pretty lofty goal: get people to Mars and build a colony. To do that — or to do any other human exploration of space, really — in any kind of affordable way, the cost of spaceflight needs to come way down. So that's why SpaceX has been working on making its flagship Falcon 9 rocket reusable. If you can save a rocket's giant fuel tank and engines (known as the "first stage") instead of losing it after every launch, you can reduce the cost of a single flight by tens of millions of dollars.
Trying to land this first stage is tricky (read: explosive) business, so Musk has been testing landing it way out in the ocean on a drone ship. And on both attempts, the company came agonizingly close to succeeding.
Just be thankful that each explosion doesn't cost you $60 million
Now you can try to succeed where SpaceX has failed with the game SpaceX Falcon 9 Lander. It's a web-based game built with software born out of the MIT Media Lab, and it is definitely a challenge. I wouldn't go as far as saying it's as hard, or harder, than landing the real thing, but it will definitely take you a while to nail it.
All you have at your disposal are your arrow (or WASD) keys: pressing up kicks on the main thruster, while tapping left and right will help you aim for the drone ship. You also have a limited amount of fuel, as if the task of landing wasn't already hard enough.
The 8-bit style game is the perfect way for space geeks to kill a few minutes throughout their day, so go ahead and try it already. But don't get too excited if you stick the landing, because the rockets keep coming. After all, you've got a Martian colony to build, and it's not going to build itself.After the Carolina Panthers' ugly loss against the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier tonight, the Atlanta Falcons are tied for first place in the division.
Here's how the NFL determines divisional standings when two records are identical, albeit at the end of the season:
Head-to-head (best won-lost-tied percentage in games between the clubs). Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the division. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference. Strength of victory.
EDIT: Alert reader wiesengrund has pointed out that I did not correctly interpret the strength of victory tiebreaker. It is based on strength of victory by opponent, not by margin of victory, and therefore the Panthers still have the tiebreakers. It's every bit as much of a technicality as I thought the Falcons' lead was, but obviously less satisfying. I regret the error.
The Falcons and Panthers haven't played one another yet, and they have identical win-loss-tied in games played in the division (100%) and against common opponents (100% against Tampa Bay) and within the conference (100%). The difference is that the Falcons won two games in the division, while the Panthers have only won one. That doesn't matter, however,
That doesn't give the team a meaningful lead on Carolina, and it's worth noting that the Saints are lurking just a game behind. Nonetheless, it counts.
The trick now is earning first place for real, and then staying there.. Stay tuned on that one.This exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art reflects “a time when photography and political history intersected and inextricably fused,” Ken Johnson writes.
“A Burial Party, Cold Harbor, Virginia, April 1865” by John Reekie.
Mr. Johnson writes, “If this were a painted image, it could be an allegory of the end of slavery. That it is a photograph makes a big difference. The men, dead and alive, were certainly real, and so were the circumstances that brought them to this moment. Nevertheless the photographer has altered history. At least one man is posing in a way that he would be unlikely to have done otherwise. How much else was changed? Did Reekie find the skulls as they are in his picture, or was it his idea to arrange them thus to line up with a living man’s head? Did he instruct the men in the background to assume digging postures? How true to life is this picture after all? And if there is something true about it, what kind of truth does it offer its viewer?”Solar energy backers are supporting a "good enough" measure that would carry out a decision by voters to expand a renewable-energy tax break.
After the measure (SB 90) got unanimous support Wednesday from the House, the Senate is expected as early as Thursday to approve the bill, which outlines implementation of a constitutional amendment approved in August.
RELATED: Complete Florida Legislature coverage
If approved by the Senate, the bill would then go to Gov. Rick Scott.
The constitutional amendment, which received support from 72.6 percent of voters during the August primary elections, calls for extending a renewable-energy tax break to commercial and industrial properties.
The tax break would be in place for 20 years and is an extension of a break already provided to residential properties. A selling point of the constitutional amendment was that it said all renewable-energy equipment would be exempt from state tangible personal property taxes.
Some solar-energy backers initially were concerned about the House’s approach to carrying out the constitutional amendment and favored a proposal by Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg.
But the House and Senate moved closer on the issues, and House members voted Wednesday to approve the bill.
Rep. Lori Berman, a Lantana Democrat who helped sponsor last year’s constitutional amendment, said in a prepared statement that she has "serious concerns with some of the provisions" included in the bill approved Wednesday.
"I believe that Senator Brandes’ original conforming bill would have been a better solution, but I am not prepared to wait any longer for Floridians to have the ability to access solar," Berman said.
House Majority Leader Ray Rodrigues, an Estero Republican who has spearheaded the issue in the House, amended the bill on Tuesday to further define a number of "renewable energy source devices" and to require some industry "disclosure" language on leased residential panels when financed by installers.
The changes require the bill to return to the Senate, which voted 34-0 on April in support of its version.
To bring the House and Senate bills closer together, Brandes added a provision that would allow local governments to tax up to 20 percent of the property attributable to a renewable energy source device.
Brandes said allowing governments to collect any amount of taxes could help rural counties pursue large solar farms.
"It’s a lot more for these small communities, and they have an incentive to participate (in solar)," Brandes said. "The problem is, if you gave them zero (percent) then they had no incentive to go through the zoning changes and everything else."
Scott Thomasson, southeast director of the advocacy group Vote Solar, credited Rodrigues and Brandes for working with the solar industry on the bill.
"Most of the industry would have preferred the consumer protections to be handled separately and for 100 percent exemptions for rooftops," Thomasson said. "But this is a good enough bill where everybody can continue to build the market in Florida and we’re not going to miss a year."
Others have been saying the measure isn’t perfect but is a vast improvement on Rodrigues’ earlier proposal (HB 1351), which included a controversial provision that would have allowed the state Public Service Commission to set safety, performance and reliability standards.
Backers of the constitutional amendment expressed concern that the commission oversight would give the state’s energy giants, including Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy, some control of the solar industry.Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on 8 November that high value currency notes were being withdrawn from circulation. Today marks 100 days since the controversial measure was implemented. While many of the restrictions on using cash have been withdrawn, the outcomes of demonetisation remain fiercely debated.
Here is a curated list of what Mint editors, columnists and contributors have written on this controversial move.
Where are we, three months after Modi’s demonetisation move? (Roshan Kishore)
On 8 November 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the scrapping of Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes, which constituted 86% of the currency in circulation. Exactly three months later, where does the Indian economy stand today?
In an interview to Mint after the Union budget, economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das claimed that remonetisation process is nearly complete.
Latest data from the Reserve Bank of India, or RBI (for week ending 20 January, 2017) shows that cash with public is still 40% less than what it was a year ago. Read More
Has demonetisation’s impact been more severe on India’s non-farm jobs? (Roshan Kishore)
While demonetisation’s negative impact on the Indian economy is a widely accepted fact, there is not much clarity on how this has affected different sectors of the economy.
If first advanced estimates for Gross Value Added (GVA) at basic prices are to be believed, industry is going to suffer the biggest setback in terms of growth, while agriculture is likely to come out with flying colours. In fact, agriculture is the only sector, which is expected to improve its performance in the second half of the ongoing fiscal year over the first half. Read More
What Modi’s demonetisation push means for foreign investors (Komal Sri-Kumar)
On 8 November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi surprised investors and consumers by declaring that 86% of the nation’s money stock would no longer be a medium of exchange or store of value. In meetings in Mumbai and New Delhi recently, I learned that the move was intended to ferret out illegally garnered funds, and that the prime minister’s action took aim at the national pastime of avoiding income taxes. Large bills of Rs1,000 and Rs500 could only be exchanged at banks by providing documentation of how the wealth had been acquired.
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quality and consistency.
Crossbench Senator Derryn Hinch labelled the recording "shocking".
"This is unconscionable behaviour, you can't do it," senator Derryn Hinch told the Seven Network on Monday after hearing a recording of the meeting.
Deputy Queensland Premier Jackie Trad said authorities should investigate the recording.
"I think these revelations are startling, and I think Queenslanders should take notice of them," Ms Trad told reporters.
"Clearly if there are issues there in relation to whether electoral laws are being circumvented or they are being used in a way that they weren't intended to be used then that should be looked at."The most addicting reality show on television is back!
RuPaul's Drag Race is returning with its highly anticipated sixth season, and this time around, it's set to be a star-studded affair.
RELATED: 5 Things You Don't Know About RuPaul
Neil Patrick Harris -- who calls himself a "die hard fan" of the show -- Khloe Kardashian and Paula Abdul make some fashionable appearances in this exclusive supertrailer for season six, which will introduce 14 of the nation's fiercest drag queens who will compete for the crown to determine who will walk away with a $100,000 cash prize and the coveted title of "America's Next Drag Superstar."
"Our sixth season is rated 'BBB.' 'Bitches Better Beware!'" RuPaul says. "It's our most outrageous and sickening cast to date. And quite frankly, I'm scared of these queens."
Related: RuPaul Talks 'Drag Race' Hits -- and Misses!
RuPaul's Drag Race returns on February 24 at 9/8c on Logo TV.Butcher backlash after export horror revealed
Updated
Australian butchers say there has been a drop in sales as disturbed consumers turn away from beef in response to the ABC's revelations of horrific cattle slaughtering practices in Indonesian abattoirs.
The footage on ABC1's Four Corners last Monday showed Australian cattle being tortured in Indonesian slaughterhouses and led to a Government suspension on exports to 11 Indonesian facilities.
Butchers say the report has had a flow-on effect as disgusted consumers shun beef, despite their efforts to point out that beef sold in Australia is slaughtered humanely.
Some members of the Australian Meat Industry Council say sales are down and they are meeting with butchers this week to determine the impact from the report.
Craig Terry McGimpsey from Horizons Meat in Townsville says the revelations are not good for business.
"We've just been through a pretty tough time with the cyclones and so forth up north, and flooding," he said.
"The general public, they're pretty strapped for cash as it is, and now we get this on top, it's not real good.
"We're usually starting to get a lot busier going through to the Christmas period but it hasn't really fired up as such and now with this on top, we're going to be definitely feeling a bit of a deterrence away from meat.
"Different suppliers down south are telling me that they're seeing a drop off instantly from it."
Mr Terry McGimpsey says there has been a huge response from customers since the footage went to air.
"They're starting to ask now how our animals are processed, whether it be a Muslim product. They're very concerned," he said.
He says consumers need to be reassured that cattle slaughtered in Australia are treated differently to Indonesia to ensure the meat is high quality.
"What we actually go through with our own animals, even in the yards, right through, they're treated like a human being's treated," he said.
"They're not hit with whips or not pushed in any way because we try to keep our animals as calm as possible to end up with a good result.
"If you're not doing that your meat's not worth anything anyway."
While the report has many butchers worried, organic and ethical butchers say they have seen an increase in sales since the footage went to air.
Steve Povey owns the Meat-ting Place in Brisbane which sells certified organic and RSPCA-approved meat. He says he has seen business pick up.
"We've noticed a slight increase in sales and I was wondering what's going on and started to put two and two together," he said.
Mr Povey says customers are questioning how his meat is killed and whether it is different to Indonesia.
"Being an organic industry, everything that we buy is all traceable and auditable and so are we and subsequently people feel safe," he said.
"It's nothing like what you see overseas."
Mr Povey says consumers are getting the wrong idea about Australian meat and they often think the same slaughtering practices are used here.
"We're the opposite. They have different rules over there, different ways of doing stuff," he said.
"It's certainly not good advertising for the beef industry and let me reassure you that that doesn't happen in Australia like that."
Topics: beef-cattle, business-economics-and-finance, food-and-beverage, small-business, trade, government-and-politics, federal-government, rural, food-processing, australia
First postedWith a mid-term cabinet shuffle looming in Ontario, one cabinet minister is choosing to resign to “make room at the table” for more women to support Premier Kathleen Wynne’s goal of gender parity in her executive.
Ted McMeekin, the minister of municipal affairs and housing, announced in a Facebook post Monday afternoon he will resign his place in cabinet as soon as a replacement is named but will stay on, at least for now, as the MPP for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale.
“Sometimes the best way for a man to advance the equality of women may be to step back and make room at the table,” McMeekin said in the statement. “For me, this is such a time.”
“My decision was focused by the premier’s intention to achieve gender parity in her next cabinet,” the 68-year-old added. He has three daughters and has “often dreamed of a day when the question of gender parity wouldn’t even arise, because it would just be taken for granted.”
Like our Prime Minister, I’ve never been afraid to call myself a feminist
“Like our Prime Minister, I’ve never been afraid to call myself a feminist,” the outgoing minister added, but he also admitted it wasn’t an easy decision.
“Even with all of my privilege and advantages, there’s a part of me that still wants to cry out ‘this isn’t fair.’ It has caused me some soul searching,” McMeekin said.
The former social worker is a well-liked and gregarious presence in the house who has worked with members on all sides to draft a developmental disabilities strategy, create a Local Food Act and more.
He’s represented his Hamilton-area riding since 2000, even after it flipped Conservative federally. He’s held a number of cabinet posts, including community and social services and agriculture, food and rural affairs. Prior to running provincially, he served first as a city councillor and later as mayor of Flamborough.
In the past, McMeekin has been described as the conscience of cabinet; his strong social justice bent representing Wynne’s more left-leaning tendencies even as a tough fiscal situation forced her to swing right on a number of issues. And he wants to serve as that moral compass one last time.
It appears his goal is to encourage some of the other men in cabinet, who’ve been there for decades, to take the initiative to clear the way for the next generation.
“Ultimately, I support the premier’s leadership in this matter and I want to do what I can to help her achieve it,” he said.
There have for months been rumblings that Wynne would refresh her cabinet after the spring sitting ends this coming Thursday. She’s recently pledged that when that cabinet shuffle arrives, she will strive for gender parity, just as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau so famously did last fall, garnering global praise for the move. But that also creates a dilemma for Wynne, whose cabinet includes 26 ministers in addition to herself. Only seven of those ministers are currently women, including deputy premier Deb Matthews. That means she needs to either dramatically increase her cabinet or cut a few old timers.
Wynne has been meeting with all her ministers in recent days and weeks, sources say, to discuss the future of the executive and her goals for gender parity and greater racial diversity. There are a number of very capable women who won tough ridings in the 2014 election that have been suggested as cabinet contenders — Eleanor McMahon in Burlington, Indira Naidoo-Harris in Halton and Daiene Vernile in Kitchener-Centre among them. Kathryn McGarry in Cambridge and Ann Hoggarth in Barrie could also be promoted. All five won ridings that easily could have turned Tory blue and could be rewarded in this revamp.
Glenn Thibeault is one man who sources say will be elevated to cabinet. The former federal New Democrat left the party to run in a controversial 2015 byelection but the Sudbury MPP has long been rumoured to headed to cabinet eventually. Now that criminal charges related to that byelection scandal have been stayed it might be his turn to shine. Thibeault is a long-time advocate for developmental services and championed the idea of a national autism strategy in federal parliament, so he could be involved in a file that would help quell the controversy over proposed changes to autism funding in Ontario.
So does Wynne grow her cabinet or drop some of the older ministers who are long in the tooth or under-performing? The concern would then become that a spate of byelections would follow as disgruntled former ministers depart, distracting the party from efforts to renew its communication strategy and start planning for the 2018 election.
Word is Wynne will announce her cabinet shuffle next week or the week after to allow the new ministers the summer to become familiar with their new files.
Read McMeekin’s full statement below:
Earlier today I spoke with the premier and let her know that I would not be continuing as a member of her cabinet. I will continue to discharge my duties as minister of municipal affairs and housing until the premier names a replacement. My decision was focused by the Premier’s intention to achieve gender parity in her next Cabinet. I have three daughters, all confident and accomplished young women. With my wonderful wife, they are the joy of my life. Thinking of them, I’ve often dreamed of a day when the question of gender parity wouldn’t even arise, because it would just be taken for granted. Like our Prime Minister, I’ve never been afraid to call myself a feminist. In fact, I’ve always been proud of being an honourary member of the Women’s Caucus, and working for equality. But sometimes the best way for a man to advance the equality of women may be to step back and make room at the table. For me, this is such a time. I won’t tell you this was an easy decision. Even with all of my privilege and advantages, there’s a part of me that still wants to cry out “this isn’t fair.” It has caused me some soul searching. Ultimately, I support the Premier’s leadership in this matter and I want to do what I can to help her achieve it. I don’t make this decision lightly. It has meant a great deal to me to serve in the governments of Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty, and when I look at what we have achieved, together — even just the few pieces I’ve had a small hand in — I feel a quiet pride. We brought in the province’s first Poverty Reduction Strategy and lifted tens of thousands of children out of poverty. Then we set a goal of eliminating chronic homelessness within ten years. We moved to wipe out the waitlists for direct funding programs serving developmentally disabled children and adults. We refreshed our affordable housing strategy with a revolutionary new, portable housing benefit. We’re giving municipalities the authority to adopt inclusionary zoning. And we secured over a billion dollars of new funding for housing, because we believe that everyone in Ontario should have “an affordable, suitable and adequate home to provide the foundation to secure employment, raise a family and build strong communities.” We brought in a Local Food act. And when the previous federal government threatened to eliminate the agricultural stability programs on which so many of our farmers rely, we worked with other provinces to stand up for agriculture. We’ve reaffirmed our protection of the Greenbelt and our commitment to end urban sprawl, for the sake of ensuring a better quality of life to our children and grandchildren. I know the cynics and critics will say none of it was enough, and I’ll let you in on a little secret. Most of the time, I agree with them. There’s always more to be done. That’s what has driven me so far, so long. But I will not let the excellent become the enemy of the good. We’ve done some very good work… and I’m proud of it. When the new Cabinet is named, I will happily return to giving my constituents the kind of service and attention they deserve, without having to share me with the many demands on the time of a Cabinet minister. I’ve contested five provincial elections in the last 16 years and each time the people of my riding have given me the great privilege of representing them. It remains one of the great honours of my life. To the Premiers I’ve served To my colleagues in Cabinet, caucus and the Legislature To the staff teams and dedicated ministry officials And of course to the voters of Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale, who so many times honoured me with their trust… Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. In closing, let me quote two of the leaders whose views and actions helped to shape me. Father Daniel Berrigan, the great social activist who died just a few weeks ago, said “We stand on the brink of the unknown; which is to say, things are normal, and good, and permissive of joy.” No one who knows me would expect me to close without quoting the hero of my youth, Bobby Kennedy. Bobby said: “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal” — — or as I’m sure he would frame it today — “Each time a man or woman stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he or she sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” I‘m grateful to have sent my few small ripples into the current of this Province. Thank you.Reporting by Ali Eyvaz and Baris Seckin; Writing by Sibel Ugurlu
ROME
Turkey is ready to help fight against xenophobia, racism and Islamophobic rhetoric in Europe, Turkish Parliament speaker said Friday.
Ismail Kahraman’s remarks came during a meeting of the Union for the Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly in the Italian capital.
"It is worrying and upsetting to see that xenophobia, racism and Islamophobic rhetoric can easily find place in mainstream politics in Europe -- in addition to extreme right-wing circles -- under the influence of local and national elections," Kahraman said.
The speaker called for a "sincere struggle" against terrorism and rising problems in Europe.
"It is especially dangerous to use marginalizing discourse, which harms the culture of coexistence, as a tool of populist policies," Kahraman said, adding these "tendencies which threaten the future of larger Europe" could only be confronted by "embracing the principles of democracy, human rights, rule of law and tolerance".
"Turkey is ready to give the necessary support in this process," he said.
Kahraman underlined the importance of cooperation among Mediterranean countries in order to address the migrant crisis, and terrorism.
"The EU and the Mediterranean region should undertake an important function on the way to peace and stability," he said.
Noting that Turkey was a part of Europe and a Mediterranean country, Kahraman said Turkey was "fully aware of its responsibility to transform the Mediterranean basin into a region of peace, democracy and prosperity", and "has done more than its part" in this regard.
The speaker recalled that Turkey was hosting nearly 3 million refugees from Syria, making it the top refugee-hosting country.
He also underlined Turkey's efforts in significantly reducing the number of illegal migrants taking the Aegean route as part of a deal reached last year between Turkey and the EU.
"The migrant crisis and the threat of terrorism have shown that Turkey is a key partner in terms of ensuring the security and stability of the EU.
"For this reason, the EU should shape its approach towards Turkey with a long-term strategic understanding," Kahraman said.
Turkey and the EU signed a refugee deal in March 2016, which aimed to discourage irregular migration through the Aegean Sea by taking stricter measures against human traffickers and improving the conditions of nearly three million Syrian refugees in Turkey.
Since then, the number of refugees caught crossing the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece has fallen by 85 percent, according to the Turkish Coast Guard.“One goal in his last sixty five appearances” said the commentator of Rosicky. His reply was to score two goals and win Arsenal the match. It wasn’t an easy game, however, as Mertesacker’s red card gave WBA a golden chance at a comeback.
It was a game we dominated until the sending off and were comfortably 2-0 up. But I had expected us to dominate the ball and create chances. WBA’s strategy against the big teams has been to stay compact, keep the scoreline close, and then attack towards the end of the game by bringing on fresh substitutes.
It was Long who started the game ahead of Lukaku as WBA’s lone striker. He ran the channels all afternoon until finally winning the penalty. The stage was set for Lukaku to finish off the comeback. He bullied the Arsenal defenders at times and seemed to be at the center of every West Brom attack, but when the ball fell to him kindly in the box, he curled it wide and Arsenal managed to hold onto their lead. The key ended up being Rosicky’s two goals.
WBA were not too ambitious with their attacking, but they also didn’t sit back and let Arsenal have the ball. Playing a 4-5-1, they pressed Arsenal’s midfield and were effective in disrupting our passing rhythm. Rosicky, Arteta, and Ramsey had to work very hard to find space. But Rosicky, it has to be said, was very, very good at finding space. He popped up in pockets of space everywhere and drove Arsenal forward.
When WBA did win the ball, they kept it well also. They didn’t quite pass it like Swansea, but were much better than Reading. At the very least they had a gameplan. They knew what they wanted to do. Which was 1. attacking down the wing and put in crosses. This didn’t work very well in the first half as they lacked any real presence in the box. What it did mean was that the fullbacks Jones and Ridgewell were keen to push up and provide width. 2. WBA tried to play aerial through balls to Shane Long behind Arsenal’s defence. Again and again Long was caught offside but they persisted. Long’s pace and movement through the channels was their greatest threat and it culminated in the penalty and red card.
We caught Shane Long offside several times as WBA tried to release him with balls over the top. That was their most effective attacking tactic.
To West Brom’s credit, they had begun to push forward more since Rosicky’s second goal. The second half cavalry had come off the bench and Arsenal were having some defending to do. Just before the penalty Morrison had gotten clean in behind the defence and drew a good save from Fabianski.
To me this highlights the fragility of our midfield. At times it was too easy for WBA to play around our midfielders, and not for the first time this season we had trouble winning the ball back. This was evident in the fact that Rosicky and Ramsey both picked up first half bookings.
There will be times when the midfield gets beaten, and perhaps Mertesacker should have dealt with it better, but this season it has been too easy for teams to pass around us at times. We need a destroyer in there next to Arteta or Ramsey.
For the last 20 minutes, Arsenal went 4-4-1 and WBA gave everything they had to get the equalizer. We rode our luck at times as Long and Lukaku both missed good chances from inside the box. WBA’s crosses too were more dangerous with Lukaku in the box. We understandably had a lot of defending to do, but what was disappointing was our inability to keep the ball for even a few seconds.
Fabianski’s errant kicking was a factor in this. He finished with a pass accuracy of just 56%, completing just 9/19 long balls. But crucially, he completed just 2 passes after the sending off. It was a mixed afternoon for Fab who endured some nervy moments but also came up with some big saves and catches.
Overall, a crucial win that we had to work really hard for. Rosicky was the clear man of the match. Our football was great to watch at times, but so often we fail to take advantage of our dominance. This time Rosicky took his chances well and ensured we had a lead to defend when things got tricky. There are some weaknesses in our play but if we keep performing like this we will find it very difficult to drop points.
AdvertisementsMany Protestant denominations have ordained women as priests and bishops for decades. Among them is the Church of Sweden, a Lutheran denomination, which decided to ordain women in 1958.
In his remarks to journalists on the plane, the pope also praised Sweden for integrating so many migrants and refugees into its culture, and said that other countries should not be afraid to welcome immigrants.
“It’s not human to close doors! It’s not human to close the heart,” Francis said.
Asked whether he planned to travel to Germany to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation next year, Francis said that his schedule was still in flux but he is very likely to travel to India and Bangladesh.
In Malmo, Sweden, on Tuesday, Francis celebrated an outdoor Mass for the country’s small Catholic community, and in his homily offered a new take on the Beatitudes, the blessings offered by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
In addition to Jesus’ eight blessings for the meek, the poor and the hungry, Francis proposed six more for modern times. Among them, he said, “Blessed are those who protect and care for our common home,” a reference to the environment, a phrase he used in his encyclical Laudato Si.
He concluded with: “Blessed are those who pray and work for full communion between Christians.”
It was a note of praise for those Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox and evangelical Christians who have stepped up efforts to bridge longstanding schisms. Francis’s trip to Sweden to commemorate the Reformation — begun 499 years ago when Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses to a church door in Germany — was a dramatic gesture intended to highlight the process of reconciliation.
Some conservative Catholics on social media responded with ridicule to headlines saying that Francis had proposed six new Beatitudes. The traditionalist blog Rorate Caeli posted several more suggestions on Twitter, like: “Beatitude #92: “Blessed is the Martini. Nothing to add.”My life has been both supremely mellow and intensely hectic this semester. I'm not even talking about a bi-polar kind of oscillation either. I'm talking BOTH at the SAME TIME. Anyone familiar with the Buddhist concept of NON-DUALITY? Me neither...Anyway, I apologize to all my friends who came to enjoy Internet Vibes. I enjoyed writing posts and corresponding with you all. Maybe just check it once a week. Who knows? You might find something!Today I want to talk about something very personal to me: PREPPY CLOTHES.Some time in high school I started having strong feelings about Lacoste shirts. My friends and I used to go to the rummage sale at the Congregational Church and find great old Izod/Lacoste stuff probably last worn at the Glen Ridge Country Club's '87 Fourth of July Gala.I mostly liked Lacoste shirts because of the alligator; an image at once quirkily powerful and powerfully quirky (NON-DUALITY). I soon realized that the quirkiness was lost on most people. A substitute teacher saw me wearing a turquoise Lacoste shirt with a popped collar and said "You look like the bad guy from a John Hughes movie." He was probably right, although I'm not blonde.The ICONICITY of the Lacoste alligator is both appealing and repelling. On one hand it is beautifully simple and weird. On the other hand, it lends itself to CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION (which is a state of mind and NOT an absolute action). In recent years, Lacoste has made sweaters and t-shirts in which the alligator is monstrously enlarged to cover one's entire chest. This amounts to a crass FETISHIZATION.Unsurprisingly, RALPH LAUREN (ne Lipschitz) has done the same thing with his POLO LOGO. I've always been kind of out with Polo although I've recently come around to it. There is something MASTERFULLY SUBVERSIVE about a Jew from the Bronx starting THE preppy clothes company and picking a logo as over-the-top as a polo player on a horse. Ralphie must have been smiling as he designed it.MAN, I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO SAY! This is the problem with Internet Vibes, everything turns into a novel. Let me just wrap up with some quick bullet points:- PREPPINESS & AUTHENTICITY - "Do not pop your collar if you don't sail."What is authentic for a guy like me? Fourth-generation Ivy League, deracinated, American Jew born on the UWS, raised in NJ to middle-class post-hippie parents with semi-Anglophilic tendencies AND propensity to put on Eastern European accents and use obscure Yiddish phrases. The obvious answer is that I, like all of us, should be a truly post-modern consumer, taking the bits and pieces I like from various traditions and cultures, letting my aesthetic instincts be my only guide. In fact, all of my friends (even the children of immigrants) seem to be in the same boat. We are BOTH disconnected from AND connected to EVERYTHING. Now we've transcended mere clothes.A few weeks ago, a girl at a party was giving me a hard time for wearing my very-beautiful Sean John jacket with fur collar. I could probably write a novel about that. I'll let you fill in the blanks to relate this anecdote to the rest of the post.-PREPPINESS AND COLONIALISMWhile walking around Shimla, a mountain town in India which was formerly the Summer Capital of the British Empire, I came to a Pringle store. Pringle is a super-nice Scottish sweater company. This was right on the main drag in Shimla; a town where the honeymoon suite at a hotel costs $10 a night. This story has no point.MADRAS, perhaps the most conspicously preppy fabric because of its bold ugliness, is of course from INDIA. In an effort to thoroughly de-preppify the nation, the city of MADRAS is now known as CHENNAI.Let's not forget that there are NO ALLIGATORS in FRANCE. ALLIGATORS live in the swamps of FLORIDA or CHINA. Also, don't forget their brothers, the CROCODILES, who chill out in the "HEART OF DARKNESS" itself.CONCLUSIONS:THERE ARE NONE.Wait, take a look at these pictures. They might help you to FEEL MY VIBE.Scottish Taliban? Best of Both Worlds? In this L'Homme Run promotional photograph, my ideal alter-ego takes form.In this picture, I am melancholically pondering issues of identity and authenticity. Note the popped collar.FINAL THOUGHT:I've never felt super connected to JUDAISM, but I did go to HEBREW SCHOOL and I had a BAR MITZVAH. Growing up Jewish, you are presented with three images of your people:- DESERT NOMADS BUILDING PYRAMIDS- EASTERN-EUROPEAN SHTETL-DWELLERS WITH BIG BEARDS- AMERICAN LIBERALS WHO EAT CHINESE FOOD ALL THE TIMENow do you see where I'm coming from? Interestingly, Christianity teaches us that THREE can be ONE. I guess you would call that a theory of NON-TRILOGICITY??!?!?“COULD Beirut become the Silicon Valley of the Middle East?” So asked a Lebanese news website in 2015. With an educated population, relatively liberal culture and large banking system, Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, seemed well-placed to become a hub for internet startups in the region. But there was at least one glaring problem. “Let’s face it—the internet in Lebanon [is] abysmally bad!” wrote Tony Fadell, the Lebanese-American co-creator of the iPod, in November. Due to government mismanagement, the country has some of the slowest download speeds in the world.
Across the Middle East in recent years, young men and women have created new products, started new companies and inspired hopeful talk of replicating the startup scenes in America and Europe. These entrepreneurs are a potential boon to the region’s economies, which suffer from slow growth and high unemployment, especially among the young. A pity, then, that so many obstacles stand in their way—and that so many are put there by governments. No place in the Arab world comes close to Silicon Valley in terms of dynamism. But, slowly, progress is being made, say entrepreneurs.
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To understand what startups in the region are up against, consider that most of them will fail. That is true throughout the world, but in a country like Egypt, with no bankruptcy law, failure can mean a prison term if debts are not paid on time. Closing a company can take five to ten years and reams of paperwork. Those that stay in business must navigate outdated legal and regulatory systems that make it difficult to do things that are routine for startups elsewhere, such as paying employees with stock options. This is on top of the challenges that affect all Egyptian firms, such as rising prices and predatory officials.
Elsewhere the story is much the same. In countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, which claim to be startup-friendly, it is actually quite difficult to start up (see chart). Across the region, labour laws tend to make it hard to hire and fire workers, especially foreigners, even though schools fail to equip many locals with desirable skills, such as coding. Tax authorities are often confounded by startups, says Con O’Donnell, who started Sarmady, an Egyptian online-media company, which he sold to Vodafone in 2008. “They don’t understand the Amazon model,” says Mr O’Donnell, referring to the e-commerce giant, which lost money but grew quickly during its first two decades.
Amazon is thought to be in talks to buy Souq, a large online retailer based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Founded in 2005, Souq is often touted as a success story by investors in the region. But Souq apart, high barriers to trade have prevented e-commerce more generally from taking off. Getting goods through customs can be a bureaucratic nightmare, made worse by high tariffs, varying regulations and fluctuating currencies. “People talk about the region as if it is 200m people, but try to ship to these people,” says Louis Lebbos, the founder of AstroLabs, a hub for tech startups in Dubai. Several well-funded ventures have tried—and failed. Souq, which anyway ships mostly to the six countries in the Gulf Co-operation Council, a customs union, is the rare exception.
E-commerce is one of several industries in which startups could do much more to fill market needs. Others include financial technology, as most Arabs do not have bank accounts or credit cards; and health care, with rates of obesity and other diseases rising across the region. But firms in these industries often have to seek approval from slow-moving government agencies. This can add years to a business plan. “In more developed systems, startups are more willing to jump ahead of regulation and the regulation catches up,” says Mr Lebbos. “But here the axe falls on those who jump ahead.”
For decades, the region’s socialist-minded governments showed little interest in encouraging private enterprise. Many leaders are wary of empowering young people, who may also seek more political freedom. But as the region’s economies struggle, there is pressure on governments to improve their handling of startups—and to keep up with each other. In November, when Mr Fadell tweeted about Lebanon’s slow internet, Saad Hariri, the prime minister, quickly responded: “I am listening Tony, it’s on top of our future government agenda.” In Egypt the cabinet has just approved the country’s first bankruptcy law, one of several economic reforms aimed at encouraging investment.
Several governments have also injected money into the system and guaranteed some of the risk involved in backing startups. Most notably, Lebanon launched a $400m package four years ago to encourage lending from banks. Such outlays, paired with the relatively small number of worthy startups in the region, have led to fears of a bubble. But more recent investments have been smaller and more organic. Last year, for example, Morocco received some $50m from the World Bank to create two new venture-capital funds, part of a plan to cultivate its growing startup scene, while international investors poured $275m into Souq and $350m into Careem, a ride-hailing app based in the UAE.
In most countries there are now clusters of startups, brought together by co-working spaces like Astrolabs in Dubai or Cogite in Tunisia, which have connections to accelerators, incubators and investors. Collaboration is common. Last month the Greek Campus, a hub for startups in downtown Cairo, hosted the Rise-Up summit, one of the largest gatherings of entrepreneurs in the region. Many young geeks aim to do good as well as make money. Abdelhameed Sharara, who started the event in 2013, says he was motivated by the failures of the Arab spring. “I felt there was another way to make it happen.” Many in attendance share his sense of purpose. “We are figuring out how to feed people better, how to empower women, how to educate children,” says Waleed Abd El Rahman, the founder of Mumm, a home-cooking delivery service in Cairo.
Unfortunately, the difficulty of doing business in the region, and the repressive nature of most governments, have caused many of the brightest minds to move abroad. But these challenges also force those who remain to think creatively about how to work around the system. And this makes for better companies, say many entrepreneurs. “If you can succeed in a country like Egypt, everywhere else is easy,” says Mr Sharara.A lawmaker is planning to introduce Bill that would tax people for having to many gadgets.
PBA Party-list Rep. Mark Aeron Samberg is one of the proponents of the bull, which he says will generate additional income for the government.
“We need cellphones but we don’t need five or six cellphones or 10 cellphones. That’s the aim of this bill, it’s just to prevent people from buying too much on a certain product and at the same time generating income for the government,” Sambar said.
While there is no set plan in place to track people’s purchases of gadgets, Sambar proposes that a person’s TIN, or tax identification number could be utilized to identify people buying excessive gadgets. If a person does not go over the amount of allowed number of gadgets, he/she can get a tax refund from the BIR by bringing their official receipts.
Not to rain on Sambar’s parade here, but we think there’s other, more constructive ways of producing additional cash for the government. His proposal will prove difficult to implement, and may end up costing more money to run than it is designed to bring in. Setting up servers to track purchases via TIN will be a nightmare, since cashiers and point-of-sale terminals will have to be connected together to create the network. There’s alos a question of how much is too much? Who sets the arbitrary number of how many gadgets is too much for a single person?
SourceSince the release of the publicly available Linux-version of PVS-Studio, it was just a matter of time until we would recheck the Linux kernel. It is quite a challenge for any static code analyzer to check a project written by professionals from all around the world, used by people in various fields, which is regularly checked and tested by different tools. So, what errors did we manage to find in such conditions?
How we did the check
We have already checked the Linux kernel. A lot of things have changed since then - now it's equally easy to check an OS, or any other project.
pvs-studio-analyzer trace -- make pvs-studio-analyzer analyze -o /path/to/report.log -j8
It took us just a few months to adapt and test the analyzer in Linux; which was previously available only for Windows. This time it was much easier to check the project.
We used PVS-Studio version 4.9-rc4 (commit bc33b0ca11e3df467777a4fa7639ba488c9d4911).
In this article we will cover only the general analysis diagnostics of levels one and two. We should note that the code really is of very high quality - the density of warnings pointing to real flaws is extremely low.
I have chosen warnings that most likely pointed to real bugs/errors. We should understand that besides useful warnings, the analyzer may issue false positives, or badly formatted code or 'code smell'.
Unfortunately, the number of false positives in the Linux version of PVS-Studio is higher than we would like it to be. I think this is due to the fact that this version is still quite young. We have done a lot, and still continue working to minimize the number of false positives. The Linux code helped us become better, and add a good number of useful modifications to the analyzer - and now we would like to answer back.
Typos
The most common errors are caused by the usual typos and Copy-Paste errors. If you have read our articles before, you've probably noticed that. They are everywhere: in all operating systems, and in any language. Still, they are a great example for showing the potential of a static code analyzer: it's much harder to find them with other tools. Let's see what we have in the Linux kernel:
PVS-Studio warning: V581 The conditional expressions of the 'if' operators situated alongside each other are identical. Check lines: 2384, 2390. debug.c 2390
int dbg_check_nondata_nodes_order(....) |
4-player platforming gameplay. In this early screenshot of the game from E3 2009, players are able to pick up and carry each other, as Luigi is doing with Blue Toad
New Super Mario Bros. Wii is the first Super Mario game to feature simultaneous cooperative multiplayer gameplay.[31] Up to four players, as either Mario, his brother Luigi, or one of two different colored Toads, can play through levels together.[32] Stages are completed when one player touches the flag pole; other players have a limited amount of time to grab it in pursuit before they automatically enter a bubble and the stage is completed. A bonus is awarded if all players grab hold of the flag within three seconds of the first player grabbing it. Players are ranked after each level based on points, coins, and enemy kills they achieve.[33]
Players are able to interact with each other in several ways, which can be used to either help or compete with each other; for instance, players can jump on each other's heads in order to reach higher places. They can also pick up and throw each other, and eat and spit each other out while riding Yoshi.[34] If a large distance forms between two or more characters, the game's camera will compensate by panning out to show all of them at once.[35] If the players still do not catch up, they are then dragged by the edge of the screen until they move forward faster or lose a life via a passing obstacle.[36] If one player enters a different area of a level, such as one enclosed via a warp pipe or a door, without the other players, they will warp to the same place after a short period of time.[37]
The first player, who controls Mario, navigates the world map and selects stages.[38] Players return to the map screen if they all die before anybody respawns in the stage. If all players run out of lives and get a game over, they must restart from their last save point.[39] If a player dies, they re-emerge in the level encased in a bubble.They can resume play when another player breaks the bubble. A player can break the bubble by touching it, or by hitting it with a fireball, ice ball or Koopa shell.[37][11] Players can also voluntarily encase themselves inside the bubble while a more skilled player traverses a difficult segment.[31] If every character in a co-op session enters a bubble at the same time (whether through death or voluntarily), they will lose the level and must restart.[37]
In addition to the main story mode, which can be played in either single-player or multiplayer modes, there are two dedicated multiplayer modes; "Free-for-All Mode", in which players complete courses together and compete to get the highest rank, and "Coin Battle", where they compete to collect the highest number of coins.[40]
Plot [ edit ]
When Mario, Luigi, Yellow Toad, and Blue Toad are celebrating Princess Peach's birthday in her castle, a large cake appears. Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings emerge from the cake and trap Peach inside. The cake is loaded onto Bowser's airship and it takes off, with Mario, Luigi, and the two Toads giving chase. The Toads in the castle grant them access to the new items, the Propeller Mushrooms and Penguin Suits.[41]
After traveling through several worlds fighting the Koopalings, Bowser Jr., and Kamek the Magikoopa, the Mario Bros. and the Toads arrive at Bowser's castle. Bowser is defeated but is revived by Kamek, who casts a magical spell that transforms him into a giant. Bowser chases after Mario and the others, destroying everything in his path, until Mario finds a large switch and triggers it, causing Bowser to fall through the ground and releasing Peach from her cage. Peach and Mario depart from the castle in a hot-air balloon, with Luigi and the Toads following behind.
The credits are shown as a minigame where the letters in the credits are written on blocks, which can be broken by the playable characters to get coins (all four characters appear, but only the ones controlled by players can get coins). After the credits, Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings help Bowser out of his unstable castle, which falls over and traps them.
Development [ edit ]
New Super Mario Bros. Wii was created out of a desire to recreate the Super Mario series' single-player gameplay experience for multiple players.[42] Shigeru Miyamoto, the head game developer at Nintendo, had been interested in creating a Super Mario game with multiplayer features since the series' beginnings with the 1983 arcade game, Mario Bros. Attempts to integrate cooperative multiplayer into Super Mario 64, the first 3D game in the series, ultimately failed due to the hardware limitations of the Nintendo 64. With the faster CPU and enhanced graphical and memory capabilities of the Wii, Miyamoto and the rest of the development team were able to revisit this idea, as the hardware allowed the smooth display of enough enemies and items on the screen at once, and allowed a camera that could dynamically adapt to the players' movements, ensuring they constantly know what is the situation of their character.[22][43] Miyamoto said that Princess Peach was not a playable character because of her dress, since making her skirt realistically move would require complex dedicated programming.[44]
Miyamoto wanted the game to be accessible to all players, and thus tried to balance its difficulty via features catering both to casual and hardcore Super Mario fans. After the release of New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS, which Miyamoto felt had not been hard enough in retrospect, he wanted to create a new Super Mario game which would provide a higher level of challenge for players who desired one. Simultaneously, the Super Guide feature, which would allow a player to watch a level get completed before trying again after failing a certain number of times, was included with the game in order to make the game accessible to unfamiliar players as well.[45] The development team decided to include the feature as an option that would appear in a level after failing a certain number of times to prevent hindering the experience for more experienced players. As an extra incentive for advanced players, the team also added achievements that could be earned by completing the game without making the green block appear in any levels.[22] The ability for a player to put themselves into a bubble and opt out of doing a level was devised so that both novice players and more experienced ones could play without interfering with each other.[46] Miyamoto also hoped for the game to turn into a staple game for the Wii and achieve levels of success similar to that of New Super Mario Bros..[47]
New Super Mario Bros. Wii was worked on by several developers, some of whom had varying understandings of the design principalities of Super Mario games. Miyamoto, who served as the game's producer, helped the directors out with creating a general understanding of the ground rules for the game's design, writing out specification documents explaining the "rules" of how the game would work. This led to discussions and decisions over what was considered "natural" and "unnatural" for a Mario game; for instance, with the advent of the Ice Flower's ability to freeze enemies, the developers decided that it would be logical for the ice blocks to melt when shot with fireballs, and to float to the surface when submerged in water.[46]
The music for New Super Mario Bros. Wii was composed and arranged by Shiho Fujii and Ryo Nagamatsu, with additional work provided by sound director Kenta Nagata.[1][48] Series regular Koji Kondo was the sound advisor and did not write any new compositions, though some of his creations were re-arranged for the game.[49] Charles Martinet returned to voice Mario and Luigi, along with Samantha Kelly as the Toads and Princess Peach, Kenny James as Bowser, and Caety Sagoian as Bowser Jr.[50]
Release [ edit ]
On May 30, 2009 the online version of the Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that two new sequels would be released for the Wii: a sequel to Wii Fit titled Wii Fit Plus, and a sequel to New Super Mario Bros. tentatively called New Super Mario Bros. Wii.[51] The latter game was announced at E3 2009[52][53][54] and further shown off at Gamescom.[55][56][57] To highlight the uniqueness of the game, Nintendo released the game in a red case instead of the traditional white box color that Wii games generally have.[58] The game's announcement came following a standstill in Wii sales, which had led to a 52% drop in Nintendo's first-half earnings for 2009. Nintendo hoped that the game would help to increase sales of the Wii in the coming holiday season.[59][9] In a Japanese retail briefing event prior to its release, Miyamoto expressed his faith that the game would retain strong sales stretching beyond its first year on the market.[60]
New Super Mario Bros. Wii was released in Australia on November 11, 2009, and in North America on November 15. It was later released in Europe and Japan on November 20 and December 3, respectively. On October 29, 2010, it was released as a pack-in game with a red Wii console, alongside Wii Sports and a built-in download of Donkey Kong, which was released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros.[61] It was also included as part of a bundle release with a black Wii alongside a soundtrack CD for Super Mario Galaxy on October 23, 2011.[62]
At E3 2011, a variation of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, dubbed New Super Mario Bros. Mii, was showcased as a playable demo for Nintendo's then new console, the Wii U, allowing players to play as their Mii characters. It was a prototype designed to showcase the technology of the system.[63] An enhanced port of the game was released in China for the Nvidia Shield TV on December 5, 2017, alongside other Wii and GameCube ports such as The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. This updated version of the game features high definition graphics in 1080p and a reworked UI.[6][64]
Piracy lawsuit [ edit ]
In November 2009, 24-year-old Australian James Burt purchased a copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii several days before its release, as the store had mistakenly put it up for sale early, and ripped and uploaded the game disk online. Nintendo took down the game and sued Burt shortly afterwards, accusing him of violating copyright laws and depriving Nintendo of potential sales. The case was ultimately settled in January 2010, with Burt receiving a fine of AU$1.5 million as compensation for lost sales, as well as an additional fine of AU$100,000 as a part of Nintendo's legal fine.[65] Burt was also forced to disclose the locations of all of his computers and electronic storage devices, as well as give access to his email, social networking and website accounts.[66] Nintendo of Australia managing director Rose Lappin called the incident "a global issue", noting that thousands of copies of the game had been downloaded across the world before it was taken down. Burt later commented on the incident, calling his actions "very stupid" and asserting that the crime's repercussions were something that he would have to deal with for the rest of his life.[67]
Reception [ edit ]
The game received praise for its multiplayer features following its showcase at E3, with critics praising its competitive aspects as well as its cooperative aspects,[33][68][21] though the game's lack of online play was criticized as a missed opportunity. Many favorably compared the game to The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure, which similarly took its respective series' traditional gameplay and interlaced it with cooperative multiplayer.[33][69][70][24] Chad Concelmo of Destructoid praised the game's "creative and giggle-inducing" levels and tighter control compared to New Super Mario Bros., while calling the multiplayer gameplay "unique, addictive, and gloriously entertaining" and giving the game a 9.5 score based on his initial impressions.[33] Engadget's Andrew Yoon called the game "playable, addictive and fresh", and commended the game's camera system that could zoom out automatically to show off-screen players.[68] Ars Technica praised the game as "insidiously fun" despite noting the simplicity of the game's graphics.[21] Sophia Tong of GameSpot compared the game to Super Mario Bros. 3 and called the new multiplayer feature "a blast to play and hilarious to watch".[24] Eurogamer's Oli Welsh called the multiplayer "a simple stroke of genius".[70] Chris Kohler of Wired praised the difficulty behind the multiplayer mode.[69]
The game's presentation was another point of praise for some critics. CNET's Jeff Balakar called seeing a Super Mario game in 480p "an eye-opening experience", and praised the worlds' attentions to detail.[9] IGN's Craig Harris also praised the widescreen graphics, noting that the game looked smooth in progressive widescreen mode despite the version of the game being displayed being an incomplete build,[8] while Matt Cassamassina said that it looked "crisp, clean [and] colorful".[55]
Some reviewers were slightly critical of the game's multiplayer. Although CNET's three reviewers enjoyed the game, Balakar mused that the multiplayer gameplay was occasionally frustrating due to the chaos and tight screen space.[9] CNET's Dan Ackerman, whilst praising New Super Mario Bros. Wii's overall enjoyability, noted its strong similarity to its side-scrolling predecessors, musing that it felt "firmly planted in the 2D era."[9] MTV writer Russ Frushtick commented on the game's difficulty, comparing it to that of the NES game Contra.[71][72]
The game received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[73] Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu called it a "masterpiece of 2D action" and gave it a perfect 40/40, making it only the 13th game and the fourth Wii game to receive this score in the publication's 23-year history.[91][92] Kotaku highly praised the game, calling it a reason to buy a Wii.[93] Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com regarded it as the true spiritual successor to 1991's Super Mario World.[74]
Critics continued to praise the game's multiplayer features, with several singling it out as one of the game's most potent and worthwhile features. Patrick Kolan of IGN Australia called it the funnest 4-player experience since Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and stated that it exceeded their initial expectations despite strong suspicions.[13] Matt Wales of IGN UK lamented that the game worked as both a single-player and a multiplayer experience, but stated that it was at its best when played with multiple people.[18] Nick Chester of Destructoid called the cooperative mode fun despite occasional frustrations, and stated that players would likely have more fun playing alongside other friends.[75] GameSpot's Randolph Ramsay called the multiplayer "initially great fun", but also admitted that they found it tedious at times due to the sheer chaos that it led to.[79] Craig Harris of IGN US praised the bubble system, calling it a smart design choice; however, he criticized the game's lack of any online multiplayer features, highlighting it as a particular point of dissatisfaction.[11] Kolan also saw this as a shortcoming, criticizing a lack of online leaderboard features for the competitive multiplayer modes.[13] Conversely, Wales did not see this omission as a major issue, arguing that sociality was a primary aspect that made the multiplayer enjoyable and that it was wise not to include the feature because of Nintendo's poor-quality online service, though they noted that a leaderboard would have been an admirable addition.[18] GameSpy also gave the game leeway for its lack of online play, arguing that the medium is a primarily competitive experience whereas New Super Mario Bros. Wii required a cooperative experience in order to be thoroughly enjoyed.[94] Brett Elston of GamesRadar+, highly critical of the four-player multiplayer, called it frustrating and stated that it felt cramped due to the several characters and small screen size, while advising that the game was best experienced with only two players.[81]
Gameplay and controls were praised for their reminiscence of older 2D Super Mario titles; many singled out the use of the Wii Remote held sideways as the best way to play the game and praised it for calling back to the layout of the rectangular-shaped controller of the Nintendo Entertainment System.[11][13][75] Ramsay lamented that the game's lack of support for the Wii's Classic Controller was disappointing.[79] Thoughts on the game's integration of motion controls were varied. Kolan praised them as being "easy, intuitive and unobtrusive – the three most critical aspects in any motion-controlled game",[13] while Ramsay stated that they were occasionally intrusive on general gameplay.[79] Chester mostly praised the motion controls for being natural, taking exception with the need to hold a button and shake in order to carry items.[75] Elston stated that the game's handling was "compromised" by the motion-controlled spin jump, which they stated the review team kept repeatedly activating by accident while trying to play the game.[81]
Some writers criticized New Super Mario Bros. Wii for feeling streamlined and banking off of the gameplay of its predecessors. Although Harris awarded the game an 8.9 out of 10 and deemed it a fun experience overall, he also was highly critical of it for "playing it safe", and, comparing it to Super Mario Galaxy, called it a "missed opportunity" for Nintendo in terms of content.[11] Edge, while giving the game a positive score of 7/10, criticized it for having a lack of traditional Mario charm and low difficulty level.[76] Elston argued that the game lacked the creativity of others in the series.[95] The A.V. Club called the game "the least essential Mario title to date", stating that it lacks a strong concept and shows an underlying repetitiveness in Mario games.[96] Conversely, Nintendo Power argued that the game works as a sequel because it maintains what made the original Mario games great while adding new features.[84]
Corbie Dillard of Nintendo Life pointed out the game's visual polish and smooth animations, but also stated that it did not hold the same level of splendor as other first party Wii releases.[83] Ramsay also compared the game's graphics to other Nintendo-developed titles, stating that it lacked the level of polish that the previously-released Super Mario Galaxy had despite utilizing a bright and varied array of colors.[79] Kolan praised the game's music as one of the best in the series, and lauded the game's sound design for calling back to previous Super Mario entries.[13] Elston also shed praise on the game's soundtrack, as well as the enemy interaction with the in-game music.[81]
New Super Mario Bros. Wii received the Best Wii Game award at the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards. IGN gave it the 2009 Wii Game of the Year Award.[97] GameTrailers awarded it Best Wii Game of 2009.[98] It also received the Best Family Game of the Year award in Yahoo's 2009 Game Awards,[99] and the Nintendo Power Award for 2009's "Wii Game of the Year".[100] GamesRadar named the game the 13th best on the Wii in 2016.[101] IGN listed it as #8 on their list of the top 25 Wii games in 2012,[102] and also as #103 on their list of the top 125 Nintendo games of all time in 2014.[103] Polygon placed it at the #10 spot in their ranking of every Super Mario game, stating that the game's single-player was "standard Mario fare" while singling out the multiplayer experience as an incredible inclusion.[104]
Sales [ edit ]
New Super Mario Bros. Wii was a commercial success, selling 936,734 units within four days of its release in Japan, the biggest debut for a Wii game in the region;[105] its sales increased to 1,401,558 in the following week.[106] Upon the game's release, sales for the Wii console increased by 128%, following a recent slowing in hardware sales for the system.[107] New Super Mario Bros. Wii sold 3,002,753 units within seven weeks of its release in Japan, making it the fastest game in that country to sell 3 million.[108] In North America, New Super Mario Bros. Wii sold 1,390,000 units in November 2009, making it the third best-selling game of the month behind the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.[109] Within 45 days, the game had sold 4.2 million copies in the US, surpassing Super Mario Galaxy{'s 4.1 million sales.[110][111] In December 2009, the game sold a total of 2.82 units.[110] By the beginning of 2010, New Super Mario Bros. Wii had sold nearly 10.5 million units,[112] making it the fastest selling single-system game in history,[113] with 4.5 million units sold in the U.S., 3 million in Japan, and nearly 3 million in Europe.[112]
In its first year of sales, New Super Mario Bros. Wii sold 4,001,276 units in Japan, making it the first Wii title with 4 million sales in the country.[114] On November 19, 2014, Nintendo of America announced via Twitter that the game had surpassed sales of 10 million units in the United States alone.[115] As of September 30, 2018, the game has sold 30.22 million copies worldwide, making it the fourth best-selling Wii game as well as the second best-selling Mario game on the Wii console (behind Mario Kart Wii).[116]
Sequel [ edit ]
In 2012, a sequel to New Super Mario Bros. Wii was released as a launch title for the Wii U, entitled New Super Mario Bros. U.[117]
New Super Mario Bros. Wii Coin World [ edit ]
New Super Mario Bros. Wii Coin World (Japanese: New スーパーマリオブラザーズ Wii コインワールド, Hepburn: Nyū Sūpā Mario Burazāzu U~ī Koin Wārudo) is a 2011 Japan-only arcade game developed by Capcom.[118] The gameplay features multiplayer like its console counterpart, and is based primarily on a slot-machine mechanic. The game features a variety of "event" elements, each based upon gameplay from New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Winning various events and on the slot machine gives players opportunities to collect keys. Once five keys are collected, the player enters an event with Bowser to win a jackpot.[119]
Notes [ edit ]
^ Japanese: New スーパーマリオブラザーズ Wii, Hepburn: Nyū Sūpā Mario Burazāzu Wī?Michael Keaton in "Birdman" The long tracking shot to nowhere: Why flashy camera work shouldn't earn "Birdman" an Oscar "Birdman" abuses the technique that works so well in "Goodfellas" and "True Detective"
In December, as part of Grantland’s year-end “What We Saw” series, editor Chris Ryan penned an ode to the tracking shot. The technique, he wrote, “just feels so wonderfully cinematic, a unique element of the medium….Deployed judiciously, tracking shots can make you feel like you are experiencing some kind of heightened version of moving life. I like a lot of directors, but the ones I love tend to be able to move their cameras.” Primarily concerned with Cary Fukunaga’s stunning six-minute raid sequence from "True Detective’s" fourth episode, Ryan’s piece also name-checked some of the shot’s most celebrated practitioners, including Martin Scorsese, Orson Welles and Brian De Palma.
Conspicuously absent from that list, however, was Alejandro González Iñárritu. Constructed to look like one continuous shot, Iñárritu’s "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" has rivaled Richard Linklater’s "Boyhood" as 2014’s awards season darling. Along with taking the top prize at the Directors' Guild of America Awards, Birdman has earned two Golden Globes and garnered nine Academy Award nominations, including best picture, best director and best cinematography for Emmanuel Lubezki. (He won last year for Alfonso Cuarón’s "Gravity," which upped the tracking-shot ante with its own 17-minute opening.) A staple of year-end top-10 lists, the film’s bid for formal virtuosity enthralled even critics underwhelmed by Birdman’s content. “In the end, I’m not sure there’s much there, but who cares?” argued the Atlantic’s Christopher Orr, who named "Birdman" the third-best movie of 2014. “A film this inventive and stylish provides its own rationale.”
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There’s indeed not much there. The comeback saga of Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton), an unhinged, middle-aged white man who Used to Have It All, "Birdman" relies heavily on one-note female characters, “comic” depictions of mental illness, and uninspired jabs at vain actors, superhero franchises and the power of social media. While unimaginative content can be rendered imaginatively (think of Lubezki’s recent work with Terrence Malick), "Birdman" misses the mark. In his eagerness to be crowned tracking-shot king, Iñárritu mishandles the elements that make long takes so thrilling in the first place.
Part of the problem lies in the film’s very conceit: When a movie is structured as one continuous take, its duration no longer surprises us. That’s not to say length isn’t important or impressive (it is, after all, a long take), but a tracking shot’s element of surprise only works when, as Ryan reminds us, they are “deployed judiciously.” From the endless traffic jam in Jean-Luc Godard’s "Weekend" to Clive Oven racing through war-ravaged streets in Cuarón’s "Children of Men," the best long takes step unexpectedly into traditionally edited films and immediately heighten audience anticipation: How much longer could this possibly last? There’s no need to ask that of "Birdman," since every cut has been rendered invisible, every camera move preordained to flow into the next. Iñárritu courts our sense of wonder while leaving us with nothing to wonder about.
Great tracking shots explore not only the limits of duration, but also the limits of space. Consider the famous Copacabana shot in "Goodfellas," when Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) leads his date down a back staircase, through labyrinthine hallways and a bustling kitchen, right to the front of the club, where a table is set up just for them. Or the Dunkirk Beach sequence in Joe Wright’s "Atonement," where the camera weaves among soldiers and civilians as they fight, execute horses, hold each other, smoke, sing. Their frames teeming with characters all living their own ancillary stories, such tracking shots exemplify Ryan’s “heightened version of moving life.”
"Birdman’s" spatial possibilities, on the other hand, are mostly limited: dressing rooms, backstage corridors, the bar down the street where the shrewish theater critic writes her takedowns by hand. Lubezki’s camera is admirably agile within these tight spaces, but mostly it’s called upon to hover during scenes that don’t require or benefit from Iñárritu’s continuous approach. There is one major exception about halfway through the film when Riggan, locked out of the theater during a smoke break, must march around the building in his tighty-whities through Times Square and a throng of camera phones. For the first time, "Birdman’s" form springs to life. Lubezki’s camera finally has a reason to follow.
Of course, "Birdman’s" filmmakers insist their camera always has a reason to follow, even if they can’t quite agree on what that reason is. According to Lubezki, “Life is continuing, and maybe not having cuts was going to help immerse the audience in that kind of emotional rhythm.” (Note that “maybe.”) On "Fresh Air," Edward Norton explained Iñárritu’s thinking to Terry Gross:
[Iñárritu] said right away, look there’s a reason for doing this, which is, I’m telling a story about a person in a spiritual crisis who might actually be losing his mind. He might actually be going crazy. We’re not sure, and I don’t ever want to leave the bubble of his anxiety. I want the audience with him inside the bubble of his mounting panic and all the things that happen to him without any break because I want them to experience life in this seamless way that he’s experiencing it. And I think as soon as he said that, and we realized he’s doing this because he’s trying to create not a showy, you know, presentation but he’s trying to create a really deep emotional sensation that aligns the audience with the main character, it became really exciting.
Other filmmakers and critics have justified potentially showy tracking shots by emphasizing how the technique is rooted in character. Scorsese has explained how the Copacabana shot illustrates the lack of “separation between [Henry Hill] and the world that he was trying to get into... The camera just glided through this world. All the doors are open to him.” (Jake LaMotta’s march to the title fight in "Raging Bull" accentuates a similar feeling.) Ryan likewise points out how, on "True Detective," “Fukunaga’s camera functions as a kind of character in the house. It’s Cohle’s perspective, just heightened. The camera pauses to gaze, to wander, to linger on characters.”
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Whereas Scorsese and Fukunaga represented their characters’ heightened perspectives, Iñárritu too often reminds us of the people behind the camera. Twice the camera heads to the theater’s roof to watch Emma Stone and Edward Norton’s uneasy flirtation. At one point, the camera stays in Naomi Watts’ dressing room to watch her make out with another actress. We’re no longer seeing things through Riggan’s eyes, but through the eyes of Iñárritu and his three (male) co-writers. That gang includes Armando Bo, who told Creative Screenwriting that the film “works as one shot because it was written for that. It was one of the first ideas Alejandro had, even before the character.” Iñárritu might think he successfully fused his one-shot concept with Riggan’s character, but Watts’ scene makes the arbitrariness of the film’s self-imposed long takes alarmingly clear.
In his review of Gus Van Sant’s shot-by-shot remake of "Psycho," Roger Ebert recounted the story of a child prodigy who flawlessly played Chopin for a famous pianist. The elder musician responded: “You can play the notes. Someday, you may be able to play the music.” There is no doubt that Birdman is a technical feat, yet in their preoccupation with moving their camera, Iñárritu and Lubezki forgot how moving the camera is supposed to move us, too.This can't be good for one's mental toughness the night before a fight.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Welterweight Jordan Mein will step into the Octagon later tonight (Sat., Aug. 23, 2014) having to deal with the arrest of his father, James Lee Mein, weighing on his mind.
The 47-year old was arrested Friday afternoon during the weigh-in ceremony for UFC Fight Night 49: "Henderson vs. dos Anjos" (read official results here) on one count of sexual battery. To check out full booking details and mug shot click here.
Beau Taylor, reporting for the Tulsa Voice, first broke the news on Twitter.com. Mein, who planned to corner his son against Mike Pyle later this evening at BOK Center, is reportedly already out on $2,000 bond.
Without question, this will serve as a major distraction for Mein, who stepped on short notice when Demian Maia was forced off the FOX Sports 1 card with an injury little more than two weeks ago. Mein (28-9) has won four of his last five fights, most recently notching a split decision win over Hermani Perpetuo at UFC on FOX 11 in April 2014.You’ve been bombarded by their ads, DVR’ed the annual fashion show (but just so you could watch Taylor!), and— whether for yourself or someone else—have probably procured a pair of neon panties there. But how much do you really know about the lingerie giant?
1. ITS FOUNDER WANTED TO MAKE THE LINGERIE-BUYING EXPERIENCE LESS … CREEPY.
Founder Roy Raymond was inspired to open up his own shop after an awkward department store experience. “When I tried to buy lingerie for my wife, I was faced with racks of terry-cloth robes and ugly floral-print nylon nightgowns,” he explained. “I always had the feeling the department-store saleswomen thought I was an unwelcome intruder.” The very first Victoria’s Secret, devoted solely to selling lingerie in a more upscale (and male-friendly) atmosphere, opened in Palo Alto in 1977.
2. THERE WAS NO "VICTORIA."
Raymond picked the moniker because he felt it complemented the store’s chic, English-inspired interior, “replete with dark wood, oriental rugs, and silk drapery,” Slate’s Naomi Barr writes. “Outwardly refined, Victoria’s ‘secrets’ were hidden beneath.” Raymond and his wife, Gaye, would go on to open five more stores and launch a successful mail-order catalogue.
3. IT HAD A FAKE HEADQUARTERS.
In keeping with its upscale, British-influenced image, the company used to list its address on catalogues as "no. 10 Margaret Street, London"—even though the company was actually headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.
4. ITS CURRENT OWNER IS A BUSINESS LEGEND.
The chain was purchased for $1 million in 1982 by Leslie “Les” Wexner. A self-made, media-shy midwesterner, Wexner revolutionized the retail industry when he founded The Limited on the premise that stores built around just a couple of small-ticket items—in this case, basic shirts and pants—could make money. (Lots of it.) Wexner has since sold The Limited (and its little sister spinoff, Express), but his L Brands—the parent company of Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, among others—raked in $11.45 billion last year. Wexner himself is worth more than $7 billion, making him the richest person in Ohio. (Sorry LeBron.)
5. L BRANDS MAY HAVE INFLUENCED APPLE.
One admirer of Wexner’s: Steve Jobs, who (according to Wexner, anyway) credited the Ohio native with inventing specialty retail.
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6. IT DOMINATES THE MARKET …
No other lingerie brand even comes close to its success: Victoria's Secret is responsible for 40 percent of all intimate apparel sales, according to Business Insider, and operates 1060 stores in the U.S. alone.
7. … AND MAKES WAVES OVERSEAS.
Its recent expansion into the Middle East (via franchisees) hasn’t been without controversy. Earlier this year, Qatari officials banned the brand’s “Strawberries and Champagne” fragrance from a VS there, arguing that the reference to bubbly violated the “customs, traditions, and religious values” of the country.
Victoria's Secret
8. SHOPLIFTERS LOVE IT.
VS stores are a frequent target of both petty thieves and large-scale shoplifting rings. From 2007 to 2014, shoplifters carried away nearly $20,000 worth of merchandise from a Fairfield, Conn. store; last fall, one Florida-based “entrepreneur” made $53,000 selling stolen Victoria’s Secret underwear. (In a 2007 story in The New York Times, Lieutenant Christine Petersen of the Jersey City PD remarked that she wasn’t surprised people were able to seize so much product: “Have you looked at Victoria’s Secret panties? There’s not much there.”)
9. ITS FANS CAN BECOME A LITTLE TOO INVESTED.
The company recently had to “divorce” one overly-enthusiastic devotee. Wisconsin resident Amy Thompson was served legal papers banning her from shopping at any Victoria’s Secret location after she allegedly made over $7000 in returns, attempted to use fraudulent coupons, resold almost $200,000 worth of merchandise, and threatened to “batter” a store clerk. (Thompson, for her part, denies the allegations and has filed a complaint with her state’s consumer protection agency.)
10. IT CHARGES MORE FOR BIGGER SIZES.
Its most recent scandal has nothing to do with tone-deaf ad campaigns or retouched photos. This summer, the company came under fire after one fashion editor noticed that shoppers with larger cup sizes pay up to $4 more for their bras than women who fit into sizes A-D.
11. IT'S A CAREER-MAKER.
Throughout the years, the company has helped a number of young models spread their wings (so to speak). In 2014, all but five of the 21 catwalkers included on Forbes’ list of richest models had at one point mugged for VS ads or strutted in the fashion show.
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12. THERE ARE VICTORIA'S SECRET ANGELS FROM EVERY CONTINENT …
… Except Antarctica.
13. ITS FASHION SHOW IS A GLOBAL PHENOMENON.
The brand’s annual runway show, which debuted in 1995, now serves as the fashion world’s Super Bowl. Viewers tune in from more than 180 countries and territories around the world, and the spectacle is such a guaranteed ratings boon that CBS reportedly pays the company for the rights to air the oh-so-heavenly event.
14. THE BRAND TAKES BEDAZZLING TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL.
The star of every VS Fashion Show: the fantasy bra. At last year’s event, Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio wore matching pieces of lingerie worth $2 million—each. But that’s nothing compared to the bra Gisele Bundchen modeled in 2000. That year’s satin “Red Hot Fantasy Bra” was encrusted with more than 1300 diamonds and rubies. Its $15 million price tag was enough to secure its place in Guinness World Records history as the |
and condemned the post as "horrible and indecent''.
"Please don't judge the entire community for one or two individual acts,'' councillor Jason Hubbard said.
Another council member Joyce Gibson extended an invitation to anyone who judged the community to "come see us... spend a day with us".
"If I knew you would come, I would bake a cake. We're very decent people,'' she added.Well. Holy shit. If there was a comic that could capture the essence of Hollywood Metal, I think I have found it. If there was a comic that could also capture the spirit of genre bending, I think I have also found it. Atlantean viking scifi historical fantasy activate.
I know it is difficult to believe but the world outside of the United States has comics. Sometimes the most popular are ones you have never heard of. Enter Thorgal, a fantasy comic that has been dominating the French/Belgian market since its inception in 1977. As of now it is still being published, even eclipsing the success of post-Thorgal work by creator Jean Van Hamme. There is something about a space bound alien Viking outcast that captures the imagination of young ones.
Child of the Stars collects the introductions and early adventures of Thorgal, a mysterious child found by a gruff group of Vikings. Set in the golden era of Nordic naval adventures, Child of the Stars begins with a ship lost at sea. Leif Haraldson, leader of the crew, soon loses his men to superstition and mutiny at the hands of Gandalf the Mad. Tied to a mast and offered for sacrifice, Lief is saved only by a shining light that leads the ship to safety. The divine beacon turns out to be a metal cradle in which a baby sleeps. The child is named Thorgal Asierson after Thor and Asier and is raised as a Viking to little dispute except for Gandalf the asshole. I am sorry. I shouuld be fair to this character as he is perhaps the leading antagonist for Thorgal’s early advenuterers. Gandalf is not unreasonably evil, just obsessed with local power and thus, spiteful towards mysterious god children. Pretty straightforward, right?. Very soon within the first volume however, the storyline of Thorgal manages to set itself apart from other comics. Enter space.
We soon learn Thorgal is from space and that the beacon was a spaceship or his craft entering the atmosphere. Thorgal is the son of Varth, a spacebound imperialist who wants to use future technology to tame the savage lands of Earth and enslave the primitive human race. Earth, as it appears, is in its second phase after an unspoken disaster caused the first dominate race to leave. Varth’s domination quest is opposed by his own father Xargos. Echoing popular Nordic tradition, Varth and Xargos have a duel to settle their dispute — this time in space. Much like the action scene in the beginning part of the story with Lief and Gandalf, two men settle their quarrels over fighting and Xargos is bested by Varth, leading to his banishment on the primitive Earth. Many years later, Thorgal meets the banished Xargos, who reveals this past and the fact he is his grandfather. All of this is, mind you, within the first 100 pages.
Thorgal’s unique story angle makes it endearing. Additionally, wrapped up within a dense narrative of science fantasy is an underlying current of even more complex Nordic mythology. Unlike current publications, which dilute the mythological aspects of Nordic culture, Thorgal’s story is driven by an engine of folktales. The second arc of Child of the Stars involves a dwarf king (who looks like a gnome) searching for metal that does not exist in order to regain his name, which was lost to the serpent king. The king eventually finds said metal in the disk worn by Thorgal that houses his digital memories. Sure, that works. Thorgal continues through an oscillating carousel if continuing story and crazy fucking folk epics. At times it is confusing but all the while it is something that is rarely broached let alone done so well.
As I said before, the mythological aspects woven into the story is perhaps Throgal’s most endearing quality. Through the lens of oral tradition lives a story that is not only unique but reverent to a long aged tradition. Sure, the main plot of Child of the Stars deals with Thorgal being ostracized and even plotted against by Gandalf the dickhead and his son, which he eventually overcomes, but there are others. One of these other stories involves Nixies and Thorgal’s future wife going on an adventure with a blind god, who turns into both a Dragon and a Unicorn during the course of the story. During vignettes such as this, a folk narrative envelopes the story with not only dense detail but a dreamy haze. These small derivations only strengthen the character of Thorgal, the boy and also comic.
Child of the Stars is the first book in a continuing series of adventures. The establishment of Thorgal as a character eventually leads to a wider much more expansive universe of mortals, demigods, and immortal characters. Not only is Thorgal an excellent story but its use of full fledged mythology as a spine is not only challenging for the reader but also rewarding. You can read the adventures of Thorgal in the newly revised and chronological order or through original publications of Tintin which have a much more erratic publication history. Yes, I believe I found the comic that could hang in the Hollywood Metal offices. Maybe I’ll get the one with the blindfolded unicorn cover to sit above Brendan’s desk.
THORGAL
First Published: Tintin (March 22, 1977)
Written by: Jean Van Hamme
Illustrated: Grzegorz Rosiński
Website: Official
Score: 6/9 HammersBest Man
I was lucky enough to be Best Man for Mouse’s wedding three years ago. It was a hell of a party and it was an honor to stand by his side on his special day. I was tasked with doing a Best Man speech, and even though I made gratuitous cuts to it, the speech ran nearly twenty minutes. Twenty glorious minutes.
Though longer than a typical wedding speech, I approached it like a stand up set – which Mouse often joked that it would be another “gig” for me. Some of the groom’s family (the older, east coast crowd) didn’t appreciate some of the parts of the speech. To be fair I DID have a couple swears and said “blowjob” once or twice. But hey, Mouse said to “have fun with it” and to “do whatever” and I still managed to keep it PG-13.Australian scientists are trialling a new technique to help chronic suffers potentially get a better night’s sleep without the use of sedatives.
Sedatives are the most common treatment for insomnia, but doctors warn there are side-effects.
“Sedatives should only be used for two weeks at a maximum, so long-term treatment should be discouraged,” Doctor Daniel Judge said.
Researchers are now trialling a new treatment, which involves sleep restriction therapy with the addition of a drug to combat the side effects of resulting fatigue.
A new sedative-free insomnia treatment could mean better sleep for sufferers. ()
Sleep restriction therapy involves a sleep psychologist limiting the amount of time in bed to a minimum of five hours. The sleep window gradually increases over weeks.
“It's about trying to reboot a patient's sleep habits with their inner-circadian rhythm, it's also about improving efficiency in sleep. Making sure when patients are in bed, they get good quality sleep,” Dr Judge said.
While this form of mild sleep deprivation is very effective, it's difficult for people to function the next day.
To combat feelings of grogginess and tiredness, patients are then given a medication named Armodafinil, which helps keep people awake the day after.
The drug has been currently used to treat disorders such as narcolepsy and obstructive sleep apnoea.
Armodafinil helps keep people using sleep restriction therapy awake the next day. ()
It is hoped the innovative treatment could benefit more than one third of Australians who experience insomnia from time to time.
Kelly Berger, 27, has struggled with insomnia for most of her life, and said the condition slows her down considerably the morning after.
“It's almost like permanent jetlag I think. You wake up and you feel so exhausted,” Ms Berger told 9NEWS.
“You're just tired you're on autopilot, you can't concentrate, you can't retain information.”
She said that since using Armodafinil, her life has changed for the better.
“It’s been fantastic,” she said.
For more information about the insomnia trial in Sydney, visit the Woolcock website.
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2019Are you tired of being seen as a just friend zone type of man. Here’s a quick way to prevent that perception from the very beginning. And you need to as you’ll see below. This approach is based on evolutionary biology and psychology that’s built into every women’s DNA and bodily chemistry.
She’s preprogrammed to respond to signals of male dominance. When it comes to sexual attraction, that biological programming is in charge and all logic goes right out the window. Biologically she has no choice in the matter. Historically if she made the wrong choice her very survival and that of any potential offspring were at extreme risk, so her biology and internal chemical message system is rigged to be attracted to men who show certain alpha dominant traits. You show those traits and you’re sexual attractiveness skyrockets. And her entire perception of who you are as a man is framed in the first few seconds of your initial connection. And she’ll have made a decision whether she’ll want to have sex with you within no more than five minutes – most reseachers believe it’s within no more than five seconds. Of course it will take a lot longer and she’ll run any man through a battery of tests before even beginning to act on it but in her internal body chemisty the choice between yes or maybe and a definite no is made literally in seconds.
That’s how long a male has to position or frame himself in her perception as a sex partner potential or not. And she doesn’t make the decision consciously. It’s all happens deep in her biologically primitive limbic system in charge of reproduction “chemistry” and those chemicals do their messaging and decision analysis in nanoseconds. Only later does she truly consciously gets involved and most of that is filtering and testing to see if she agrees with the choice made subconsciously at a near purely instinctual level. Here’s how to make those first seconds work to establish yourself as a sexual possibility.
When you first notice her show dominance by making direct eye contact while showing a sincere smile and hold it for about 3 seconds. If attracted she will return the smile and glance away within that time frame. If instead of glancing to the side or returning her gaze back to her friends she glances down first, she’s showing she recognizes your dominance with a submissive subconscious reaction. That’s a signal your gaze and smile triggered the first spark of attraction.
At that point it’s important to further demonstrate your confidence and dominance by immediately making a direct approach. The point isn’t to engage her fully but simply to show you’re interested as well as unafraid and to make a quick good first impression and nothing more. The best way to insure you come across as dominant (thus a sexual man) and not just gaming her is to make a connection and then break it off quickly and give her time to wonder about you.
Attraction is very much not much more than a form of curiosity. You can continue the conversation later and it will be easier and even more welcome if you make your initial contact and then give her space and time.
A dominant man shows no fear of approaching a woman, so you must move in for the initial contact right away once she’s shown the signs of submissive attraction, no matter how attractive she may be. In fact, a dominant man demonstrates more of that quality the more attractive she is, as it also signifies her beauty is not in the least intimidating.
When you make an quick initial contact and then leave and go about your own socializing or whatever you were doing for a while, you’re signaling you’re independent, busy and sociable. It also reverses the pattern she’s used to where it’s obvious when a guy is trying to hit on her, he’ll often overstay that initial welcome, even if she showed a slight bit of initial interest. So be the exception and give her space and time to wonder and the attraction will build.
It’s also important to be mindful of body posture as a dominant male shows it most clearly with a tall erect stance. One way to take on that kind of posture is to imagine a steel cable running through your head into your spine pulling up as if it’s attached to a crane overhead. Stride (do not walk or shuffle) directly to her and say literally anything without self-doubt as you already know she’s shown the first signals of attraction. Something as simple as “Hi, Only have a minute, but just want to make sure you didn’t get away before we had a chance to meet.” Give her a minute to reply, then excuse yourself, mention you might like to talk a bit later and return to whatever you were doing before you noticed her. And that’s it.
Later you can reengage her to get her number or start a deeper conversation and you’ll find she’ll likely be far more warm as while you were busy elsewhere, if you did it right, she’ll have been thinking about you or watching you out of the corner of her eye waiting for you to return, if she doesn’t approach you herself. She might as you made the required initial response which gives her permission in her own mind to do so without feeling she’s being overly assertive and unfeminine.
That simple and brief encounter sets up the chemistry and initial flutters of sexual butterflies which is the whole point and what is most critical to establish the frame of all future interactions with her. Attraction is sparked and you’ve established yourself as a sexually confident man.
AdvertisementsYou Can Stop Writing Comments About Pointer Ownership
There's a certain thing that you have probably done at least once if you program in C++ for a living. To the best of my knowledge, a lot of C++ programmers still keep doing it, even though the new C++ standard offers a better way of accomplishing what they're trying to do.
The Problem
While working with C++ code, I sometimes come across methods that look something like this:
// the.h file: class BlackBox { public: //... // store() takes ownership of the object pointed to by ptr! void store(Gadget *ptr); //... private: Gadget *m_contents; }; // the.cpp file: void BlackBox::store(Gadget *ptr) { //... m_contents = ptr; //... } //... BlackBox::~BlackBox() { //... // when the box gets destroyed, so does its contents delete m_contents; //... }
I see this in both legacy and new code. The idea here is as follows: if we have an instance crate of BlackBox, and we call cr ate.store(gadget_ptr), then the lifetime of the object that gadget_ptr points to is tied to the lifetime of crate : the destruction of crate will cause the destruction of the Gadget within it.
In the previous versions of C++, there was no way to convey this idea of "transfer of ownership" to the compiler, so the only remaining option was to write these comments. The comments can help other programmers understand what your intention is, but they mean nothing to the compiler, of course. It will happily make your program do the wrong thing if you ask it to. The comments do nothing.
The main thing that can go wrong here is that the client code can accidentally (or unknowingly) break the contract and attempt to destroy the instance of Gadget after its ownership has been transferred to an instance of BlackBox :
// crate is an instance of BlackBox // gadget_ptr is a pointer to an instance of Gadget crate.store(gadget_ptr); // store takes ownership of gadget_ptr's pointee... //...some other stuff happens that is not important here... delete gadget_ptr; //...uh-oh, the programmer forgot or didn't know that store owns *gadget_ptr at this point!
This leads to undefined behaviour. For example, the memory, pointed to by gadget_ptr could be freed twice: the first time, it will be freed by the client code, and the second time it will be "freed" by the destructor of BlackBox. This is called "double-free", and you don't want this to happen in your program. But before that takes place, a method of BlackBox might try accessing the "dead" instance of Gadget and wreak havoc. Whatever the case, we don't want it to happen.
Another, less scary, but annoying thing is that even if everything is fine, we may still end up with suspicious-looking code like the following:
crate.store(new Gadget(beeper, flasher));
The above looks like a memory leak, but it really isn't. However, someone who is not familiar with how BlackBox::store works, might assume that it is!
The Solution
Fortunately, the new C++ standard gives us all the tools we need to solve this problem. These tools are: unique pointers and rvalue references. Let us revisit BlackBox::store. We can take advantage of the new language features and rewrite BlackBox like this:
// The.h file: class BlackBox { public: //... void store(std::unique_ptr<Gadget> &&ptr); //... private: std::unique_ptr<Gadget> m_contents; }; // The.cpp file: void BlackBox::store(std::unique_ptr<Gadget> &&ptr) { //... m_contents = std::move(ptr); //... }
The code that calls store will now look like this:
// Assuming gadget_ptr is also a unique_ptr: crate.store(std::move(gadget_ptr));
Or, if you want to create an object and immediately pass it to the method:
crate.store(std::make_unique<Gadget>(beeper, flasher));
This solves the problems that were mentioned earlier. It's basically impossible to double-delete: no matter how much you fiddle with the unique pointer, after passing it to the method it will have been moved from, so you can't destroy the object. The "create an object and pass it to the method" scenario is also looking much nicer, since it's much more obvious what's really going on.
Explanation
So let's break down what's going on here.
We replaced the regular plain pointer with a "smart" unique_ptr (and we no longer need to explicitly destroy the owned object in the destructor).
BlackBox::store's only parameter is now an rvalue reference to a unique_ptr.
's only parameter is now an rvalue reference to a unique_ptr. The transfer of ownership happens inside BlackBox::store. The line m_contents = std::move(ptr); essentially amounts to taking whatever state was inside the object bound to ptr and transferring it into m_contents, after which the object bound to ptr will not point to anything. Side note: what is really going on is a tad more complicated. Even though ptr is an rvalue reference, when used in an expression, it acts as if it was an lvalue reference (don't ask). std::move doesn't actually move anything, it just returns an rvalue reference to its parameter, whatever the parameter may be. Given the above, the line m_contents = std::move(ptr); converts ptr to an rvalue reference and invokes the move assignment operator of unique_ptr, which does the job of transferring pointer ownership!
. The line essentially amounts to taking whatever state was inside the object bound to and transferring it into, after which the object bound to will not point to anything. The client code now has to use std::move if it wants to pass an lvalue into BlackBox::store. This is because lvalues cannot be bound to rvalue references, so a conversion is needed (and std::move does that conversion).
if it wants to pass an lvalue into. This is because lvalues cannot be bound to rvalue references, so a conversion is needed (and does that conversion). If the client code wants to pass an rvalue (like in the example with make_unique ), no call to std::move is needed.
Some people might ask why I chose to make the parameter of BlackBox::store an rvalue reference rather than an lvalue reference and force the client code to use std::move. While it is true that an lvalue reference would also have worked, if I did that, it would be impossible to write code like crate.store(std::make_unique<Gadget>(beeper, flasher));. I also happen to think that forcing the client to use std::move at the call sites is good rather than bad, because it communicates the intended effect to the reader.
Conclusion
Stop writing comments about pointer ownership. Instead, let the compiler enforce your rules! Take advantage of unique pointers and move semantics.
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Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Image copyright AFP PHOTO/KCNA VIA KNS Image caption US tensions with North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-un (pictured) have flared in recent weeks
A military response to North Korea would be "horrific" but remains an option, the top military adviser to US President Donald Trump says.
Gen Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the comments while visiting China.
He was responding to remarks by a top Trump aide ruling out military action over North Korea's nuclear programme.
Tensions have flared between the US and North Korea after Pyongyang made advances in its missile testing.
Mr Trump has warned the North that it faces "fire and fury", while Pyongyang has threatened to strike the American territory of Guam.
But the sharp rhetoric of last week has since softened, with North Korea leader Kim Jong-un putting the Guam plans on hold - a move praised by President Trump.
Chief White House strategist Steve Bannon said on Wednesday there could be no military solution to the stand-off.
"Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that 10 million people in Seoul don't die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don't know what you're talking about, there's no military solution here, they got us," he told The American Prospect.
Gen Dunford agreed a military solution would be "horrific" but went on to say "what's unimaginable to me is not a military option".
"What is unimaginable is allowing [North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un] to develop ballistic missiles with a nuclear warhead that can threaten the United States and continue to threaten the region."
He said President Trump "has told us to develop credible, viable military options, and that's exactly what we're doing".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption South Koreans give their views on Trump's strategy on North Korea
A senior Chinese military official who met Gen Dunford told him that military action should be ruled out and that "dialogue" was the only option, the Chinese defence ministry said.
China is the North's only major ally. The US has criticised China for not doing enough to rein it in, but Beijing says it has begun halting iron, iron ore and seafood imports from North Korea, in line with new UN sanctions.Kathy Wardle's final wish was that she would be one of the last Canadians forced to travel abroad to legally end her life on her own terms.
Wardle, 73, suffered from debilitating osteoarthritis. Nearly 10 years of countless pills and multiple surgeries failed to treat the pain, and her thoughts turned to suicide.
"Could I use the morphine pills? I was convinced I could … [but] the doctor said you're more likely to end up in a coma," she said.
"I thought about the car in the garage thing, and I thought, who was going to have to find me? That would be awful," she added, while lying in bed just weeks before her death.
More than anything, Wardle wanted to end her life peacefully at her home in Toronto, cuddling her two standard poodles, surrounded by her closest friends and her sister, Lesley Forrester.
Having it in your own country would be a thousand, thousand times better, in every way. - Kathy Wardle
But with assisted suicide banned in Canada, she looked to the Dignitas clinic in Zurich, Switzerland. It offers accompanied suicide for individuals suffering from a terminal illness, unendurable pain or an unendurable disability.
Individuals who receive the green light from Dignitas are able to legally end their lives on their own terms, by drinking a lethal cocktail of barbiturates.
Supreme Court ruling comes 'too late'
Partway through Wardle's preparations to leave for Switzerland, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Canadians have a right to doctor-assisted suicide.
It was significant progress for the dying with dignity movement, but for Wardle, the ruling came too late.
The government was given up to a year to draft new legislation, and in the meantime, assisted suicide remains illegal.
"I'm happy about [the ruling]... I'm glad that's going to happen," Wardle said.
On Feb. 6 this year, the Supreme Court gave the federal and provincial governments 12 months to amend legislation that bans doctors from assisting patients who have chosen to die.
"It won't do me any good, because I can't wait. I'm in too much pain."
Wardle said she hopes she's one of the last Canadians to go through the ordeal of preparing for physician-assisted suicide abroad.
"Having it in your own country would be a thousand, thousand times better, in every way," she said.
In Wardle's case, the Dignitas process required extensive documentation, including post-operative notes from her multiple surgeries and family records proving next of kin. The whole ordeal was a stressful and frustrating process for Wardle — who had to track down the paperwork and organize an international flight and accommodation, all while dealing with her deteriorating physical condition.
She just looked like she was falling asleep … then it was clear to us that she wasn't in pain. - Lesley Forrester
After weeks of preparations and waiting, Wardle received the green light from Dignitas — she was cleared to travel to their clinic in Zurich, where a doctor would meet with her in person and ask her if she was sure she wanted to die, before giving her the final go-ahead.
On March 17, a sunny day in the hilly countryside of Zurich, Kathy Wardle enjoyed her final moments outside, sipping cognac and enjoying a final smoke.
"She said okay I'm ready … so in we went … then we just told each other how much we loved each other," Forrester says.
"It wasn't even three minutes and her eyelids drooped, and she just looked like she was falling asleep … then it was clear to us that she wasn't in pain."
Forrester, now back home, says the whole process was peaceful, but she wishes her sister could have died at home.
"It was so far removed from being here. There wasn't that kind of comfort level at all," she says.
"It would just be so different if it could be in Canada … death is a natural part of life."
This week on The Sunday Edition
Starting at 9 a.m. ET on Sunday, March 31 on CBC Radio's The Sunday Edition:
Michael Enright: Should animals have rights similar to human rights?
Money and politics Part 1: Management guru and author Henry Mintzberg says western society has become deeply unbalanced. Our politics, economy and social policy are dominated by the interests of the private sector, while governments shrink in size and influence and the public interest goes unheeded.
Money and politics Part 2: The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is one of the most influential political organizations in the U.S., but one that few people know about. ALEC is almost entirely funded by giant corporations, like Koch Industries, and it doesn't just sway public policy, it seats politicians and big business at the same table, to draft laws.Google has blocked access in India to a YouTube film trailer that mocks the Prophet Muhammad, claiming it was meeting a valid legal process, the company said on Friday.
Earlier a source at the Internet Service Providers Association of India said Friday that ISPs in India had been instructed on Thursday to block links to the video.
But the blocks already in place are actually those by Google. The source at the ISPAI said that its members were still in the process of implementing the blocks on links to the video.
"We do, at times, block content in launched countries in response to a court order or other valid legal process," Google said in a statement on Friday. The company did not provide further details, but according to sources, it was served a legal notice to block the content by a court in Jammu and Kashmir in North India.
The block by Google also only covers the original trailer posted on YouTube by a user who identified himself as Sam Bacile. Google ran the message: This content is not available in your country due to a legal complaint by court order. Sorry about that.
Adaptations of the video posted by others on YouTube could still be accessed from India.
The authenticity of the trailer and its similarity to a movie "Innocence of Muslims" has been questioned, as well as whether there is a movie by that name.
The online video, which sparked off protests against U.S. diplomatic missions in Libya, Egypt, and Yemen earlier this week, was to be blocked in Pakistan from Thursday. An aide of Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday in a Twitter message that the video would also be blocked in the country.
Google said on Thursday that the video, which is widely available on the Web, is clearly within its guidelines and so will stay on YouTube.
The Internet company however drew an exception in Egypt and Libya, stating that given the very difficult situation in these countries it had temporarily restricted access in both countries. Four Americans including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, were killed when a diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, was stormed by gunmen.
India has previously complained that Internet companies allow content online that it considers objectionable, and has asked for a mechanism to ensure that content such as controversial religious material can be quickly removed from the websites. Civil rights groups hold that the government wants to censor the Internet.
John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @Johnribeiro. John's e-mail address is john_ribeiro@idg.comWe have just released our next open source project called ‘help’ - it’s a simple to run rails application for making it easy to reach out for help within small and medium teams.
We have just released our next open source project called ‘help’ - it’s a simple to run rails app for making it easy to reach out for help within small and medium teams.
Since we are growing very fast we’ve noticed it’s incrementally harder to help each other. Lots of newcomers = lots of questions. The Qs are very different from each other in nature - from simple development related issues to formalities or asking for an access to particular tool. Few problems arose in the last couple of months:
somebody that needs help does not know to whom she/he should reach out
does not know to whom she/he should reach out somebody that can help does not know who needs support
does not know who needs support somebody that can help and is well known for helping will get increasingly more and more requests
The last one is very bad, because it leads the best, most caring and experienced employees to feel overwhelmed or even burnt out. That is one of the strangest things in human nature - if you are a good ‘helping hand’ kind of person, it’s common that you end up with more and more tasks to do in reward. Sad but true.
Luckily this is where the app comes in with it’s very simple flow:
the green path is for you to subscribe for different categories you can help with (like development questions or communication). Once you choose the categories you are good at, your ‘helper’ profile is being created
the red path is for you to select a category you need some help with - the screen shows only a few, but we've managed to figure out around 10 common skills that we felt are going to cover 90% of the issues:
once you select a topic, the help app randomly assigns somebody from the list of helpers who have previously subscribed to it via the green path:
That’s almost it! Now you simply write in your question and the random person gets notified via email that you need support. It might happen that the helper won't have enough time to help you out but that’s fine too - we can trade the support tickets in one of our HipChat rooms and it’s good to have somebody to start with :)
To wrap this up - help is very simple to run and it uses ticketing system with random assignee. If you feel that your team can benefit from this approach, we urge you to try it out (the app is available on GitHub). Subscribing to topics and becoming a helper is voluntary, yet we found that people feel good about saying that they are good at least in few subjects and are glad to help each other.
PS. The app is already working but it’s still missing some improvements and UI / UX suffers from severe bootstraping. Good news is, the app has been just used to improve itself!
Update: Thanks to Dawid & Mateusz, our UX/Design Team, Help app looks much better now.This is what we did to make our open source app work and look slickDark Star > St Stephen > The Eleven > Death Don't Have No Mercy Cryptical Envelopment > Drums > Other One > Cryptical Envelopment > New Potato Caboose > Jam > Drums > Jam > Feedback
seeded by David Gans on GDH-Trading
de-glitched at the Frisco Refinery, 6/02: (the following glitches were
removed)
t01: 14:55
t02: :10, :20
t04: 1:10, 6:08, 8:23
t.11: 7:12
no portion of the wave was deleted in fixing these flaws.
individual sectors were repositioned to eliminate glitch.
the following (minor) glitches couldn't be removed
t01: 8:00 - 8:20
t04: 1:02 - 1:07
flaws were too small to locate.
tracks 1-3 re-tracked
Conversion Notes:
DAE (EAC: High, Secure, Offset Corrected) all track quality > 99.8%
All sector boundaries verified using SHNTOOL
SHN(seekable) using shortn32 via eD(efojr) - 07/20/02
plus-circle Add Review
comment Reviews
Reviewer: johnbhoffman - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 1, 2019
Subject: Sick Eleven. Filthy Jam! Nuf said. Def a top 20 show, IMHO. Great sound quality for '68! I always opt for Pig, but he would have slowed down this smokin' set! - February 1, 2019Sick Eleven. Filthy Jam!
Reviewer: Splash63 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 18, 2018
Subject: this is the season of what now all over looking for Eleven versions post Dead&Co summer 2018 tour. they brought it back with a beautiful vengeance, thank you. - July 18, 2018this is the season of what now
Reviewer: mifraidin - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - September 22, 2017
Subject: Five stars I wish I'd been less liberal with 5-star ratings, because this one REALLY deserves it. Fiery. - September 22, 2017Five stars
Reviewer: Jimmy/Duluth MN - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - November 23, 2016
Subject: Pre show banter. Please let go of your body is everybody! (chuckles), Everybody relax for Christ's sakes everybody just cool it we're going to play here until ah... until, until.... until we drop.
--- J Garcia 10-12-68 - November 23, 2016Pre show banter.
Reviewer: jpotts3 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - December 11, 2015
Subject: One of the finest- every note sings, shimmers and shines! This one is SOOOOOO good. One of a handful of tapes that i heard early**, and helped me come to know how astonishingly good the Dead are when they are at their finest- soul tremblingly beautiful.
** ( Munich 1972 SOTOTW, Darkstar to Dew; SF Orpheum 7/18/76, Red Rocks 1882 run, especially the 2nd night) - December 11, 2015One of the finest- every note sings, shimmers and shines!
Reviewer: bluestones - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 7, 2014
Subject: I Lost This Show And Would Love Another Copy gmail.com. Recently my computer was hacked into and I lost my entire music library and this is something I would love to get back. If anyone is willing to make a trade, email me. will.ruddock - May 7, 2014I Lost This Show And Would Love Another Copy
Reviewer: GDAvalon1968 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - September 26, 2012
Subject: I was here-I'm back
Reviewer: TOOTMO - - May 24, 2011
Subject: Attention GDAVALON68
Would GDAVALON68 please report to the Forum? (It is down at the bottom of the home page.)
If you do not see the specific thread that would be appropos to you, please start one to let us know you are there.
Thanks,
TOOTMO
I'm back-I swear that was half a show. Even on acid at 16 Reviewer: TOOTMO - - May 24, 2011Subject: Attention GDAVALON68Would GDAVALON68 please report to the Forum? (It is down at the bottom of the home page.)If you do not see the specific thread that would be appropos to you, please start one to let us know you are there.Thanks,TOOTMOI'm back-I swear that was half a show. Even on acid at 16 y.o - September 26, 2012I was here-I'm back
Reviewer: MisterBulbo - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - March 11, 2012
Subject: Wonderful Snapshot Dark Star drifting through the ballroom and the everyone has a role in the trance. Meant to be heard but you can almost see the transitive nightfall of diamonds...
I |
and did not initially become Protestants as so many of their contemporaries had done.
Once Elizabeth came to the throne in 1559 Henry found himself travelling around Europe. History knows of his travels because he was a childhood friend of Lord Robert Dudley and wrote to him often. It is from one of Paget’s letters that historians know that Mary was habitually called Queen of England following the quartering of her arms with those of England. Henry eventually returned from his travels which included Venice and Turkey but died in December 1568. He left a widow and a baby daughter called Elizabeth.
Thomas Paget now succeeded to the title. He was married to Nazareth Newton and his life was troubled both by his wife and by his religious beliefs. Thomas and his younger brother Charles had both studied at Cambridge. They left without taking their degrees which was a normal element of noble education before being accepted into the Middle Temple where they practised law. Both brothers were at Cambridge during Elizabeth I’s visit of 1559 and initially their catholicism did not seem to be a bar to their careers; certainly they had supporters at court who pleaded their case. However, Thomas became more devout. He refused to take the Oath of Supremacy and found himself, on one occasion, under house arrest at Windsor where he was forced to undergo a course in the doctrine of the Church of England. The archives contain letters from him to Walsingham pleading to be allowed not to attend church services in St Paul’s. There are other letters directed to Cecil where he justifies his decision to separate from his wife who eventually turned state evidence against him. It is perhaps telling that his son, the next Baron Paget, was a Protestant. So far, so sad – religious belief seems to lie at the heart of Thomas Paget’s troubles. After his wife died he fled to the continent where he eventually gained a pension from Philip II and it appears that he hoped to be restored to his title in the event of the Armada being a success. Thomas’s story is complicated by his love-life and his beliefs but it is a fairly straightforward story.
By contrast his younger brother Charles Paget steered a far more difficult course which is fogged by conspiracy as well as the mists of time. Charles Paget scarpered to France in 1881 on account of his Catholicism. One version of events sees him making contact with an agent of Mary Queen of Scots called Thomas Morgan and entered the embassy of Archbishop Beaton in Paris – an out and out traitor to Elizabeth’s England in other words. For the next seven years history records Charles as working for Mary and even receiving a pension from her. This was not entirely surprising to his acquaintances at home in England. After all, the Paget family seat was in Staffordshire not far from Tutbury Castle. Charles had even spoken in Mary’s defence to Lord Howard.
Paget is first known to have plotted on Mary’s behalf in 1582. Cardinal William Allen of the English College at Douai was also associated. The plan was for the Duke of Guise to invade England with the financial backing of Philip II of Spain. Prior to the invasion English Catholics were rise up, depose Elizabeth and release Mary.
In 1583, the plot which came to be known as The Throckmorton Plot, was well underway. Paget went on a secret visit from France to England under the pseudonym Mope where he met the Earl of Northumberland and brother Thomas Paget who hadn’t yet fled from England. He is also known to have met with Lord Howard. Was it a meeting to transact family business; was Charles Paget warning his friends and family against involvement with the plot – he was known not to have approved of the whole plot – certainly that was what he wrote in a letter to Mary Queen of Scots- he objected to Spanish and Jesuit involvement. Or was he a double agent working for Walsingham all along?
Paget met with Walsingham in Paris in 1581 where he offered the spymaster his services. The Watchers by Stephen Alford suggests that Paget wasn’t a double agent using the evidence of Walsingham’s letter to Stafford at that time the English Ambassador in France saying that Paget was a ‘most dangerous instrument’ and fearing for the Earl of Northumberland if he continued to associate with the man. Another of Walsingham’s letter’s makes it clear that he regarded Charles as completely untrustworthy.
Whatever the case, honest man or double agent, Paget remained on Mary’s staff and was involved in the Babbington Plot which cost the Queen of Scots her life. Paget, unlike his older brother, had no great love for the Spanish and by 1599 he was in contact with another generation of English diplomats. He returned home on the accession of James I of England from whom he had a pension – for the support of his mother or the spying agains the Spanish he’d undertaken in Europe – history can’t be sure. He died in 1612 at home at his manor of Weston-on-Trent which had been given to him by James I.Hobbit discovery: Hopes 700,000-year-old find could shed new light on evolution
Posted
A 700,000-year-old hobbit has been discovered by a team of Australian-led researchers on the Indonesian island of Flores, shedding new light on human evolution.
Key points: Researchers found six teeth and a jaw bone fragment
The remains are about 600,000 years older than another hobbit found on the island
The findings may suggest a case of evolutionary reversal
The dwarf-like ancient relative of modern man stood just one metre tall and has been dated at half a million years older than a hobbit found on the island a decade ago.
Published in the journal Nature, the researchers argue their fossil find descended from Homo erectus, which would suggest an incredible case of evolutionary reversal where human bodies — including brains — actually shrunk.
The University of Wollongong's Gert van den Bergh led the team who found the fragments.
He suggested that shrinking may have occurred because they were marooned on the island in a simple ecosystem with few predators, where perhaps they did not need such a big brain.
"But what is clear is that they made stone tools, so they weren't stupid," he said.
Found at a site called Mata Menge in central Flores, the jaw fragment and six teeth were from at least one adult and two children.
Griffith University archaeologist Adam Brumm described the island Flores as an experiment in natural evolution.
"There were earlier forms of humans that reached these islands — these were people that had technology, they had stone tools, they had the intelligence to make tools like our early ancestors.
"But that was not enough to protect their bodies from shrinking in size, just as occurred to elephants that also ended up in this remote island."
Dr van den Bergh said the discovery was significant because the fossils were much older than the previous hobbit find at Liang Boa, known as Homo floresiensis.
"The remains from Mata Menge, they are more than half a million years older than Homo floresiensis — almost 600,000 years older than the hobbit remains from Liang Boa," he said.
"We know that humans were present on the island 1 million years ago and that's based on dated stone artefacts."
Do you know more about this story? Email investigations@abc.net.au.
By dating the layers of rock above and below the fossil find, researchers were able to work out the general age of the ancient discovery.
Homo floresiensis was discovered in 2004 — around the same time as the release of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy — and has caused turmoil in the scientific community ever since.
"It was such a strange creature — only a metre tall with such a tiny brain and a mixture of primitive and advanced characteristics — and nobody really knew for sure what it was or what we should conclude," Dr van den Bergh said.
Dr van den Bergh said there were several hypotheses about the find, including that it was a dwarfed version of Homo erectus or that it came from a tinier, earlier ancestor like Homo habilis.
"The problem with that hypothesis was that those creatures have never been found outside Africa," he said.
"Now these new finds show that 700,000 years ago the ancestors of Homo floresiensis were already as small as the hobbit itself and secondly it provides a link between Homo erectus and Homo floresiensis."
Know your ancestors: HOMO ERECTUS Lived 1.6 million – 100,000 years ago
Brain size: Average 1,050 cubic centimetres
Fossils of these short and stocky humans, with their distinctive skull shape and large brow ridges, have mostly been found in China and Indonesia HOMO FLORESIENSIS Lived 190,000 – 50,000 years ago
Brain size: Average 380 cubic centimetres
Conflicting interpretations and debates surround the remains of these tiny humans from Indonesia. Homo floresiensis are not our ancestors but their unusual features and recent survival suggests our human family tree is more complex than once thought HOMO HABILIS Lived 2.3 - 1.5 million years ago
Brain size: Average 610 cubic centimetres
The earliest of our ancestors to show a significant increase in brain size and also the first to be found associated with stone tools
An independent reviewer for the Nature journal, Aida Gomez-Robles from George Washington University's Department of Anthropology, backs the link between Homo erectus and Homo floresiensis.
"[However,] there is still a lot of debate about this," Dr Gomez-Robles said.
"Even if I think these fossils descended from Homo erectus, there are other people who think they are descended from Homo habilis."
One of the dissenting voices is ANU biological anthropologist Colin Groves, who believes there are not enough fossils to confirm a link to Homo erectus.
"I tend to be of the other school of thought, that thinks that it was descended from something like Homo habilis, which was a species that lived in Africa from about 2.3 to 1.4 million years ago," Professor Groves said.
"It was a small-sized species with a fairly small brain and rather idiosyncratic-looking teeth, relatively long arms, and short legs.
"It distributed itself around the tropical old world sometime after 2 million years ago — we don't know when — and eventually ended up on Flores about as far east as any pre-modern human did."
The only way to confirm the find is to find more fossils such as wrist bones and skulls, an exciting search that these researchers are more than ready for.
"There are many other islands in this region east of Bali and in between Asia and Australia that could contain early humans of entirely unknown forms, and no-one's even looked for the bones of these creatures," Dr Adam Brumm said.
Topics: science-and-technology, evolution, archaeology, indonesia, australia, wollongong-2500, university-of-wollongong-2522One Premier League Trophy Isn’t Enough for Chelsea—or Antonio Conte Despite winning the league and Manager of the Year, Conte’s job could be in jeopardy if the club finishes this season empty-handed
Before last season, the only other manager not named José Mourinho to win the Premier League title for Chelsea was Carlo Ancelotti in 2009–10. From Luiz Felipe Scolari to André Villas Boas, a string of others have tried and failed. Antonio Conte bucked that wider trend and emulated both Mourinho’s first tenure and Ancelotti’s spell by landing the main prize in his debut season.
His job was far from straightforward: He had to find a way to reinvigorate a team that had put up the worst title defense in living memory during 2015–16 by finishing 31 points off the top—at least until Leicester immediately one-upped them by finishing 49 points back. A 13-game win streak from October to January put the team in a position they long refused to relinquish. Despite his switch to a 3-4-3 formation coinciding with the start of that run, the truth was that Chelsea’s defense was stoic and hard to play against from the start.
Conte’s side finished seven points clear of second-place Tottenham, but this lofty position is going to be tough to maintain. The old adage is that the league table never lies, and in relation to handing out prizes after 38 games, it doesn’t. However, it doesn’t always project well for the following season. Based on the underlying metric of expected goals, Chelsea were broadly equal to the rest of their top-six rivals, but they built up their advantage by edging a series of close games and conceding just four goals during that win streak. They were an effective unit, but the numbers hinted that they were marrying defensive stability to a slice of good fortune, which built the foundation for their title.
Managing Chelsea is a job with a simple remit: You either win trophies, or someone else will be brought in to replace you. For Conte, the deal is no different, and it just got even harder. This past summer has given his rivals a head start.
Coming into this season, Chelsea are not the favorites—and neither are Tottenham. Instead, the bookies tip Manchester City as most likely to top the table come next May. City had the best expected goals number in the league last season, and after replacing their keeper and their fullback corps—their two biggest problems—they’re in good shape to dominate the competition.
Meanwhile, Chelsea’s transfer strategy provides a contradiction. Chelsea has long been criticized for hoarding young talent and not offering a route to the first team; look no further than former players like Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku and City’s Kevin De Bruyne playing for Chelsea’s direct competitors. Yet with a specific strategy rivaled perhaps at the top tier of football by only Real Madrid, Chelsea have frequently used the transfer market to get younger players and replace talent at the wrong end of the age curve. This summer, they did it again.
Diego Costa has been abandoned via text message and Nemanja Matic sold. Both will spend most of the coming season in their 30th year. Joining the outs list was club legend John Terry (36). The replacements: striker Álvaro Morata (24) from Real Madrid, central midfielder Tiemoué Bakayoko (soon to be 23) from Monaco, and Antonio Rüdiger (24) from Roma. That’s the spine of the team strengthened with promising talent all at the front end of their peak years.
However, Chelsea’s title winners were a tight unit, and Conte rarely rotated. Of teams in the Premier League in the last four seasons, only Leicester’s 2015–16 side used a smaller core. Ten of their outfielders played more than three-quarters of available minutes compared with Chelsea’s nine. Without having to worry about European football and the extra six games shoehorned into the autumn schedule, the last two champions have each played out the season with little need for rotation, buoyed by some injury luck and a fairly fixed starting 11.
Conte, though, doesn’t seem happy with the summer business. The fallout with Diego Costa looked to be Conte’s doing, and for much of the offseason he appeared unsettled. There was speculation that he was frustrated with the club’s sale of Matic and its inability to re-sign Lukaku. The front-office logic of turning over the squad seems clear, but two players who started 30-plus games last season have already been easily discarded.
Central midfield looks particularly understaffed. Bakayoko is currently recovering from knee surgery, and he might not feature at all this month. With Matic gone, Cesc Fàbregas started the Charity Shield against Arsenal. With 12 assists in just 13 league starts, he’s capable of pulling the attacking strings for Chelsea, but he’s less suited to complementing N’Golo Kanté in the center of the now familiar 3-4-3. He lacks the innate defensive mind-set that underpins everything Chelsea do, and we can surmise that Conte thinks the same, as last season he subbed him in more often than he started.
On top of that, Chelsea’s new signings might not even make the team better—at least in the near term. The biggest question surrounds Morata replacing Costa. Everyone’s favorite Brazilian Spaniard brought a new dimension of gamesmanship to the front line, and alongside his nuisance factor, he was an extremely versatile and dangerous finisher. He enjoyed two incredible bursts of finishing form during his time at the club, each of which underpinned a successful title bid. Before New Year’s during the 2014–15 season, he notched 13 goals, and during the same period in 2016-17, he scored 14. Later in each season, the goal rate slowed up, but his contributions were pivotal in giving Chelsea a platform to build on. With 16 wins from 19 games, Chelsea’s 2017 started with 49 points and a six-point lead that they would not relinquish.
While Costa’s credentials remain rock solid, Morata now faces a challenge to make the starting role his own. He has long projected to be a top-class striker, and when he gets on the pitch he tends to score goals. Last season his rate in La Liga of 1.01 goals per 90 minutes played was top class, but he started only 14 games and has yet to nail down a first-choice slot in any of his seasons as a pro. For a 24-year-old who just transferred for £58 million, that’s an odd thing to be able to say. He shoots slightly more frequently than Costa does, but until a bravura run of league form in 2017 (when he scored 10 goals as part of Real Madrid’s rotational “B” team that took the slack for a busy Champions League–filled schedule), he hadn’t consistently been shooting from the most dangerous central areas. Now he could pick up right where he left off, but it’s not guaranteed.
If you watch a collection of his goals, Morata looks like he can do it all: right foot, left foot, and a slew of headers. But during the two seasons before last, his domestic goal rate at Juventus was less impressive: 0.4 per 90 in 2015–16 and 0.5 in 2014–15. Plus, Real Madrid cue up a ton of high-quality chances for their strikers. Chelsea aren’t attacking juggernauts, and Conte’s defense-first focus may mean Morata is required to be more active in the forward line to carve out added chances, much like Costa did.
With Eden Hazard sidelined, Chelsea will start this season with their two most reliable attackers from the last three years absent. Michy Batshuayi, who signed for £33 million from Marseille last summer, will benefit from the added games in the schedule and compete with Morata for starting time. He’s good enough to feature—17 league goals for Marseille in 2015–16 earned him his move—but Conte was still reluctant to use him last season, even as Costa cooled as the weather got warmer.
It’s probable that Conte, like any manager, wants to sign players at their peak now for his team now, while the club is painting with broader strokes and ensuring that personnel are lined up for the long term. A couple of more transfers look necessary with not much beyond Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso at fullback and not much cover in central midfield. Additions in both spots would allow some breathing space in the short term and add in the depth required for an added European campaign. But it’s also possible that in the hierarchy of transfer decisions at the club, Conte’s influence is not at the top of the list. Technical director Michael Emenalo has been in his role for six years, and five managers have come and gone under his watch.
The underlying tension at the club may be the presumption that Conte’s time is limited. He signed a new contract in July, but it covers only the next two seasons. With success measured in trophies, Conte might have to win something again in order to keep his job. During Roman Abramovich’s stint as owner, only Mourinho (in both his spells) and Ancelotti have lasted longer than Conte.
It seems improbable that Conte hasn’t bought himself more time. Still, his fellow countryman Ancelotti once led the team to a barn-storming first season, too. Then, a year after lifting the trophy, he was gone.The impacts on businesses, though, are real.
King Street Cycle owner Andy Cox said he faced a 40 per cent decrease in sales when Erb and Caroline streets were closed last year. He had to adjust staff and merchandise ordering, citing it as “a tough time.”
At the end of November 2016, when uptown reopened, Cox was looking forward to getting back his usual levels of business but that’s yet to happen.
“People aren’t coming back to uptown quite yet,” he said, looking out his store’s front window at a row of pylons across King Street at Erb. King Street is closed once again but this time hopefully for only a few days.
Despite the struggles — including an unwanted orange fence along the sidewalk and noise and dirt from the construction site, plus a break-in in August in which the suspect used a large, heavy pipe left behind by construction workers to smash the front door — King Street Cycle isn’t planning on filing for compensation.
“I don’t feel like it would go anywhere,” said Cox.
Although he is disappointed in how GrandLinq implemented the construction, he and his staff are hopeful about the end result.
“We are not anti-LRT,” Cox said. “We can see the region is growing, with a young demographic not as invested in car culture. The LRT is a positive thing.”
King Street Cycle is bracing for even more construction later this spring for the City of Waterloo’s streetscape project. Closures will take place along King Street from Central Street to just south of Erb. But again, Cox thinks the outcome will be positive with bike lanes and larger sidewalks.
“Uptown will be wonderful when this is all finished,” he said.
Peter Davies owns a business on King Street, All My Nails Salon, and is also not filing for compensation.
“This is not a sob story,” Davies said. “The construction did have an impact on us, but we are doing everything we can to survive, to stay positive.
“Filing for compensation would be like suing myself with my own tax dollars. It’s not the answer.”
If the businesses filing claims won, the region would pay using tax dollars, but could be reimbursed from GrandLinq. The OMB would have to determine that the region did not do everything in its power to assist business and minimize the impacts of construction, that there was not a sufficient long-term benefit to businesses, and that business suffered losses as a direct result of construction, rather than other factors like mismanagement.
“The region has done a lot for businesses,” said Galloway.
Initiatives include offering seminars on how to deal with construction, paying for direct mailers to customers, facilitating contests and contributing $20,000 to the Business Improvement Areas in Kitchener and Waterloo.I read Scott Alexander because he’s a pretty good weathervane for insight into the respectable crowd. For reasons I don’t understand, he periodically gets raves from writers way up the food chain, so he’s clearly writing about sensitive subjects without activating their panic buttons. I once read this book on Highly Sensitive People, and the author was like “OK, this may be painful, so stop and take a breath before you move on. Sense how you’re feeling. Breathe again. Now turn the page.” I found this extremely irritating, and Scott reminds me of that author. Who, by the way and despite the offputting habits and an entirely unscientific theory, provided me with a successful frameworks and some useful tips. Yes, I am a Highly Sensitive Person. Go ahead, laugh; it’s 20 years and I still think it’s funny.
Anyway. While this may seem like insider baseball, I’m writing this because the issue at hand illustrates an important point.
Recently, Scott wrote a soothing reassurance to the many people writing him “heartfelt letters complaining about their low IQs”.
See, the correct response to “heartfelt letters complaining about their low IQs” is a gagging noise or, perhaps more maturely, a discreet eye-roll. But that’s just me.
Scott quotes a Reddit commenter echoing a typical concern:
I never got a chance to have a discussion with the psychologist about the results, so I was left to interpret them with me, myself, and the big I known as the Internet – a dangerous activity, I know. This meant two years to date of armchair research, and subsequently, an incessant fear of the implications of my below-average IQ, which stands at a pitiful 94…I still struggle in certain areas of comprehension. I received a score of 1070 on the SAT, (540 Reading & 530 Math), and am barely scraping by in my college algebra class. Honestly, I would be ashamed if any of my coworkers knew I barely could do high school-level algebra.
Scott does something like five paragraphs on the measurement and meaning of IQ and how it’s great for groups but not terribly valuable for the individual. All that is just duck and weave, though, because basically, his response is “Well, your IQ test wasn’t accurate”. But Scott’s worried that if he says that, it will undo all the hard work he’s put in convincing people that IQ has meaning.
********************************************************************
So reading the post, the reddit thread, and the comments, I’ve concluded that my–well, somewhat undue–frustration has two sources. First, I believe abrupt, brusque and occasionally rude responses are not immoral and frankly necessary. But more importantly, I’m dumbfounded that Scott would treat these queries as worthy of a treatise, so I’m wondering why.
I don’t usually quote Malcolm Gladwell unless it’s his ketchup piece, but this is instructive:
Of course, Gladwell was actually quoting someone with actual expertise, Arthur Jensen:
While individual IQs are irrelevant, the tiers are pretty useful. Those who interact regularly with all three tiers can place people pretty accurately in those tiers. My various occupations have given me access to the entire range of IQs, from the occasional low 80s to third standard deviation and possibly beyond. As a result, I don’t know a 98 from a 105, but I would never place either in the below 90 or above 115 group.
And from that vantage point, I can’t figure out why Scott is equivocating, because there is simply no way the Reddit poster, or indeed anyone who reads Scott’s blog, has an IQ much south of 115. The idea is ludicrous. Instantly risible.
Alexander is clearly aware of this. His characterization: “Help, I got a low IQ score, I’ve double-checked the standard deviation of all of my subscores and found some slight discrepancy but I’m not sure if that counts as Bayesian evidence that the global value is erroneous” oh so gently mocks his emailers–and mocks them in a manner that only higher IQs could understand.
But why would he spend so much time on the topic? Maybe it’s my (extremely low) opinion of the SSC groupies, but it’s pretty obvious that the emailers are looking for validation from their hero.
“I’ll tell Scott or random people on the internet that I’ve got a low IQ and they’ll go, pish tosh! and tell me how smart I am.”. Write an intellectual email, tossing in all the right buzzwords, worrying about their IQ, in order to get a reassuring “Don’t be silly! You’re far too intelligent for a 90 IQ!” that they can brag about.
In short, I think Scott’s emailers are lying to get an ego boost.
Sure, it’s possible that IQ tests are routinely handing out scores of 90 to people with 80th percentile SAT results. It’s just extremely unlikely. Alternatively, these folks could be IQ-denialists lying to seed doubt and confusion about IQ tests. “We’ll be, like Russian agents and post fake news through Scott. No one will trust these foul instruments!”
I’ll take “Needy Validation” for $1000, Scott.
He may simply be too polite to say “I don’t believe you”. But no one else did, either, in all the megabillion comments he gets on each blog. Some of the reddit folks gently pointed this out, but their views didn’t catch on.
Hence I wonder about restriction of range. Are the people in the discussion, from Scott Alexander on down, so unfamiliar with the intellectual capabilities of a 94 IQ that he thinks it merely unlikely that the IQs are inaccurate, as opposed to a possibility that can be instantly dismissed?
Maybe that’s it. After all, most of the educated world is setting their intellect standards like the second graph of this grip strength study illustrating the essay title:
As the author says, note the change in the x axis.
In perhaps his most famous piece, Scott characterizes the other, the people outside his inadvertently constructed social bubble as “dark matter”. These people exist. They are legion. But somehow he never runs into them, never has any contact.
It’s a neat little metaphor, but really all he’s describing are social bubbles that restrict your range pf experience or understanding. Just as most progressives never run into a conservative, so too are most college graduates who aren’t teaching in high poverty districts rarely going to meet an average IQ, much less sub-90 intellects.
Steve Sailer, with the ruthless accuracy and snarkiness that (wrongly) inspires disdain for his excellent observational skills, once observed that Rachel Jeantel, who testified at George Zimmerman’s trial was a high school student. Steve, who notices things, was pointing out that our expectations for high school students must include Jeantel, when in fact most people yapping about at risk black high school students have Will Smith in mind. Wrong. Smith is a bright guy.
Rachel was 19 when she testified, and graduated the next year from high school at 20. The media reports that “extensive tutoring” helped her graduate, but high schools will graduate anyone who tries hard enough. In my opinion, the support and the attention, not the tutoring, is what helped Jeantel graduate. I can’t find much about her life since then, but no news in this case is pretty good. I’d guess Jeantel below the 90 tier, but she might be right above it. She’s pretty functional. She’s savvy about how to handle her moment in the sun. She took advantage of the support offered her.
Listen to some of Jeantel’s testimony. Go back up and read that Reddit post that Scott says is typical of the worried emails he gets from people who are saying that they have roughly the same IQ as the young woman in that video.
Perhaps then you’ll see why I think the emailers deserve derision, gentle or otherwise.
Derision not because a low IQ is to be mocked or dismissed. Derision in part because I believe these people are seeking validation and ego boosts. But mostly, derision to reinforce and educate people about these tiers. The more people understand the basic realities of a 90 IQ as opposed to one of 115, the more we’ll understand the challenges of educating and employing them. The more people who engage in these debates understand how cocooned they are, the less foolishly optimistic they’ll be in considering education policy debates.
Educators, the peasants of the cognitive elite, can offer some guidance. Many educators deliberately ignore cognitive reality; I’m not saying we all have the right answers, or that I do. But I would like all educated people who think they understand American education to look at the whole picture, rather than be allowed to ignore the “dark matter”.
I really don’t know if Scott himself is refraining from mocking these IQ queries or if he really doesn’t understand that their fears are impossible.
Ending where I began: I read Scott Alexander because he’s a pretty good weathervane for insight into the respectable crowd that prides itself on its skeptical humanism. Unfortunately, either interpretation of his behavior is consistent with that set. I remain befuddled.A lorry driver was arrested after police found 18 suspected illegal immigrants stowed in the back of his vehicle.
The lorry was stopped by police after a passing motorist grew suspicious and called 999 while driving on the M25 in Hertfordshire yesterday.
Officers flagged down the lorry near to St Albans and found 18 Vietnamese men inside.
All of the men were arrested on suspicion of entering the UK illegally, and the driver was arrested on suspicion of assisting illegal entry to the UK.
A spokesman for Hertfordshire Police said: "Police were called shortly after 4pm on August 8 following reports of suspicious activity on a lorry on the M25 in Hertfordshire.
"The member of the public who made the call followed the lorry which made its way on to the M1 before police stopped it close to Junction 9 of the M1.
"Eighteen people who are believed to have entered the UK illegally on the lorry were taken into custody for their safety.
"The driver of the lorry, a 40-year-old man from Poland, has been arrested on suspicion of assisting people entering the UK unlawfully."Not to be confused with Mudie
Dog breed
Mudi A black Mudi Other names Hungarian Mudi
Canis Ovilis Fenyesi Origin Hungary Classification / standards FCI Group 1 Herding dogs, Section 1 Sheepdogs #238 standard AKC Miscellaneous The AKC Miscellaneous class is for breeds working towards full AKC recognition. CKC Miscellaneous Herding Group 7 [Follows the FCI breed standard standard] The CKC Miscellaneous List is for breeds working towards full CKC recognition. UKC Herding Dog standard Domestic dog Canis lupus familiaris )
The Mudi (in Hungarian, the plural form of mudi is mudik) is a herding dog breed from Hungary. It is closely related to the Puli and Pumi, from which it was separated in the 1930s. Today, the Mudi is bred for work, sport, companionship, and show. They continue to be used in herding, as well as participating in a variety of dog sports.
History [ edit ]
The Mudi was first discovered as a breed in 1936 by Dr. Dezso Fenyes in Hungary, where it became known as the "driver dog." Its origin reaches well back into the 15th and 18th centuries, but the exact time is hard to pinpoint. Mudis nearly disappered shortly after their recognition, as many were killed during World War II. The breed became recognized by The Federation Cynologique Internationale in 1966, followed by the United Kennel Club in 2006.[1] The Mudi still actively herds in Hungary with Hungarian shepherds and with flocks of up to 500 sheep. [2]
Description [ edit ]
Appearance [ edit ]
A fawn Mudi
Mudi usually weigh 18 to 29 pounds (8.2 to 13.2 kg) and stand 15 to 19 inches (38 to 48 cm) high at the withers. The coat is medium wavy or curly, with short hair on the face and legs.[3] The accepted colors are black (fekete), brown (barna), white (fehér), Fawn (fakó), Ash (hamvas), and Cifra (marbling of black and gray.) Mudis are born with various lengths of tails from bobtails to long full length tails. Dogs born with short or natural bobtail will be indicated on the FCI pedigree as docking is prohibited.
Temperament [ edit ]
The Mudi is a versatile farm dog that can hunt, exterminate rodents, and act as a capable herding dog and flock guardian. They are great for alerting and protecting their home and family. They have a high pitched bark and can be very loud. There are three herding dogs native to Hungary: the Puli, Pumi and Mudi, all having similar characteristics. The Mudi is a clever, keen, active dog who becomes very attached to its owner and family. The Mudi may be aloof with strangers and early socialization is recommended.
Exercise and activities [ edit ]
The Mudi is a very active breed. They need to be taken on a daily, long, brisk walks or jogs. In addition, they will benefit from a large safe area where they can run free. They need a lot of running and other exercises to be in good condition. They love to play and will excel in all kinds of dog sports such as Frisbee. The Mudi can compete in dog agility trials, obedience, Rally obedience, Schutzhund, showmanship, flyball, tracking, and herding events. Herding instincts and trainability can be measured at noncompetitive herding tests. Mudi that exhibit basic herding instincts can be trained to compete in herding trials.[4]
Health problems [ edit ]
The Mudi is a generally healthy breed. Some health problems that have been seen in the Mudi include, hip dysplasia, epilepsy, cataracts, elbow dysplasia and patellar luxation. [5]
Living conditions [ edit ]
The Mudi can live in an apartment if it is sufficiently exercised. However, they need space to run and play and are more suited to a larger space. They are moderately active indoors and will do best with at least a large yard. This breed can live outdoors.
Life expectancy [ edit ]
About 13–14 years. Although, two Mudis in Canada lived to 17.5 years of age[citation needed].
Grooming [ edit ]
With its short coat, the Mudi is generally easy to groom. The Mudi's coat sheds dirt and hair, however, does not require frequent bathing. A weekly brushing is sufficient and their coat does not need trimming. The Mudi sheds in the spring and does not fully regain his coat until the end of summer. Their nails should be cut every few weeks as needed, along with basic care. [6]Let me start by saying I do not know what Straughn Gorman was doing with $167,070 in cash stashed throughout his motor home, including bundles in the freezer and the microwave. Maybe he really was planning to buy marijuana with it in California, as the cops suspected. But the way they managed to take his money starkly illustrates how law enforcement agencies can conspire to evade constitutional limits with the help of canine accomplices. The forfeiture case, which is documented by dashcam video of two coordinated traffic stops, also shows there still are some limits on cops' license to steal, as long as judges are willing to enforce them.
On the morning of January 23, 2013, Gorman was driving west on Interstate 80 in Nevada when he was pulled over by Trooper Greg Monroe, ostensibly because he was driving too slowly in the left lane. Instead of simply issuing Gorman a ticket or warning and |
government is willing to release. The data released to the Tribune represent more than 11,800 patient visits involving gunshot victims in Chicago, only an estimated two-thirds of the known shooting victims during the 7 1/2-year time frame studied. The figures also don't reflect the amount ultimately paid by patients or taxpayers — a fraction of what the hospitals billed. Private insurance companies negotiate payments based on treatment, and patients who pay out-of-pocket or have no insurance also can negotiate. Medicaid and Medicare pay using a set fee schedule for procedures and hospital stays. All together, the Tribune conservatively estimated that hospitals typically get paid about 30 percent of what they bill. The data indicate that charges from area hospitals rose significantly over the 7 1/2-year span. Hospital charges in 2009 for patients admitted in Chicago totaled $41.6 million. In 2015, the last complete year of data, hospital charges added up to a combined $62 million. Many categories of charges contributed to that increase, including charges for operating rooms and anesthesiology, both of which more than doubled. Back in 2009, gunshot inpatients in Chicago averaged about $57,963 in charges for their hospital stay. Through the first half of last year, inpatients racked up $93,647 on average in hospital charges. Illinois' hospital charging data also indicate that inpatient stays grew longer, most likely a factor in the escalating charges. For each year since 2009, the average length of stay in a Chicago hospital for victims of a firearm assault hovered at about a week. For similar inpatients treated in the first half of 2016, the length of stay grew to more than nine days on average. The breakdown in the types of insurance used by hospital inpatients makes clear that the financial burden of the medical costs associated with gun violence often falls on taxpayers, not the victims.
Nearly half of the amount for treating inpatients after a firearm assault was billed to taxpayer-funded Medicaid and, less often, Medicare. Less than one-quarter of inpatients were insured through commercial insurance or HMOs, and others either were self-pay or insured in some other way. The data are further confirmation of how skewed gun violence is along racial and socio-economic lines. Nearly two-thirds of the hospital inpatients treated for injuries suffered as a result of firearm assault were black males ages 15 to 44, the data showed. The costs to treat gunshot wounds are driven by the unique and critical nature of the injuries. The data paint a picture — in unadorned medical terms — of the bodily destruction: patients with injuries to the head and neck, abdomen, hips and thighs; bullets that caused open complex fractures of bones, left small intestines exposed and lacerated livers. Read ongoing Chicago Tribune coverage of the causes and costs of the city's street violence. Doctors can't afford to take a wait-and-see approach. "With a penetrating injury, especially a gunshot wound, the patient is so sick they immediately need to operate," said Dr. Vafa of Mount Sinai. When alerted that a gunshot victim is en route, Mount Sinai goes into high-alert. Some 15 medical personnel are mobilized. Various tests and procedures, among them X-rays and CT scans, are ordered to determine the seriousness of the wound. Blood is readied in case a patient's blood pressure suddenly drops. Stapling devices need to be delivered to the operating room. "The hospital needs to be in a constant state of being ready," Vafa said. "That includes people giving X-rays, people drawing blood, laboratory work, operating rooms ready to go, doctors ready to go." How charges add up The first shot fired at Annette Johnson should have killed her. It was a warm September afternoon six years ago. The then-37-year-old mother of three was standing on her front stoop in Chicago's Garfield Park neighborhood unloading groceries with her youngest son, Antonio. They were talking about a new pair of pants he wanted for the upcoming homecoming dance when a car pulled up and she saw the barrel of a gun pointed out the window. Johnson froze. She remembered wondering if that gun was really pointed in their direction. She heard the gunman yell something at her older son, Anthony Jr., who had come out of the house to help with the groceries. Then came the crack-crack-crack of the shots. The left-handed Johnson instinctively threw her left arm in front of her face. Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune Annette Johnson holds a photo of her son Antonio at her home on May 2, 2017. Annette was shot in the arm and her 15-year-old son Antonio was killed when a gunman opened fire on them as they unloaded groceries at their West Side home on Sept. 25, 2011. Annette Johnson holds a photo of her son Antonio at her home on May 2, 2017. Annette was shot in the arm and her 15-year-old son Antonio was killed when a gunman opened fire on them as they unloaded groceries at their West Side home on Sept. 25, 2011. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune) (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune) The bullet struck Johnson just below the elbow and traveled diagonally through her forearm, fracturing her left ulna — the thinner and longer of the two forearm bones — and lodging inside her wrist. As Johnson dove to the side of the porch steps, Antonio, with his solid 6-foot, 195-pound frame, fell on top of her. Bullets whizzed into the house, one missing Johnson's teen daughter by inches and lodging in the back of her bedroom closet. After the car sped off, Johnson pulled herself from under Antonio and asked if he was hurt. A trickle of blood ran down his neck, and he had a glazed look in his eyes. When Johnson told her son not to move because he'd been shot, he answered in a whisper, "OK." It was his last word to her. "His head just fell forward and blood started running from his mouth," Johnson, now 43, recalled. "I ran into the house screaming. I was hysterical." Johnson rode to Mount Sinai in an ambulance behind Antonio's. She had no feeling in her fingers. Later, X-rays showed the bullet shattered a section of her ulna before cauterizing the veins in her wrist. There was a gaping oval wound about an inch and a half in diameter where the bullet had entered and a large clot of blood underneath the skin in her wrist where it had come to a stop. While Johnson was awaiting test results, Chicago police detectives came to her room with a photo array of suspects, handed her a pen and asked her to circle the picture of the gunman and write her initials by it. Johnson looked at the detectives and held up her useless left hand. "I said, 'How am I supposed to sign with this?'" She looked over the photos, saw Keith Talbert's face, and instantly a chill came over her. Johnson grabbed the pen with her right hand and awkwardly circled Talbert's photo, identifying him as her son's killer. Her son was shot and killed and a bullet tore through Annette Johnson's arm in the same shooting. For Johnson, who spent barely 24 hours at Mt. Sinai, the hospital charges approached $27,000. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune) Her son was shot and killed and a bullet tore through Annette Johnson's arm in the same shooting. For Johnson, who spent barely 24 hours at Mt. Sinai, the hospital charges approached $27,000. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune) SEE MORE VIDEOS About 11 p.m., shortly before Johnson was wheeled into the operating room for emergency surgery, a woman from the Gift of Hope organ donation network approached and asked her to sign paperwork allowing Antonio's organs to be harvested. "It was like my whole world just crumbled right then and there," Johnson said. Minutes later, Johnson was under anesthesia on the operating table. Doctors cut open her forearm the length of the ulna and exposed the shattered bone. Her medical records show the bone was "significantly comminuted" — reduced to small particles. The two good ends of the bone needed to be fused together using what's known as a compression plate fixed with seven 3.5-mm titanium screws. Once the plate was in place, doctors cut around and cleaned the bullet wound and sutured the skin back together. The bullet was left in her arm after it was determined that removing it carried too much of a risk, a common practice in the treatment of gunshot victims. After she was sewn up, Johnson was moved to a recovery room. She was released from Mount Sinai the day after the shooting with her arm in a sling, a prescription for pain pills and instructions on how to care for her wound. The bill for her surgery and overnight stay totaled $26,982.54. The itemized, four-page bill shows how the charges added up. The first 15 minutes of anesthesia cost $437, and each additional 15 minutes was billed separately, for a total of $3,933. The metal plate was $593, each cortical bone screw was $246. The total charge for the operating room facilities came in at just under $10,000. And once her surgery was over, Johnson was moved to a "step down room" to recover from the anesthesia — at a charge of $2,713. Medicaid took care of the bill. But there was another cost she had to worry about — her son's burial. Days after her release from the hospital, Johnson was at a funeral home picking out a casket. Antonio was buried at Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park. A week later the bill came: $5,535.08. Crippling injuries In September 2009, Leyva was 18 and living with his mom and dad and three siblings in the Logan Square neighborhood on the Northwest Side. Life was good. Although he'd recently dropped out of high school, Leyva was stocking and bagging at a grocery store to help support his family. He played on championship baseball and basketball Park District teams and was a popular kid.
Leyva acknowledged that back then he occasionally hung out with gang members — friends from the neighborhood — but said he was never affiliated. "I was just hanging out with the wrong people at the wrong time," he said of the day he was shot. Leyva and some friends were driving around, waving a flag out of the car window in celebration of Mexican Independence Day. But then someone in the 2800 block of North Lawndale Avenue snatched the flag from the car. He and his friends got out to confront the group. Leyva, though, quickly decided to turn and walk away with two of his friends. That's when he heard someone yell, "Shoot him!" "As soon as I hit the curb, I just dropped," Leyva said. "All I can remember is just thinking about my mom. What is my mom gonna say?" Leyva couldn't get up but managed to flip his body over. He could see the group badly beating one of his friends. He kept trying to move his legs. "I was trying to put a lot of effort into getting back up," he said. "I just felt so weird." Leyva was taken by Chicago Fire Department ambulance to Illinois Masonic. When he arrived at 11:25 p.m., he was pale, cool to the touch and strapped to a board in a neck brace. He had a gunshot wound in his back and no sensation or movement below his waist. The procedures Leyva would endure over the next three weeks are spelled out in 13 pages of billing records: blood draws, X-rays of his chest and abdomen, CT scans, painkillers and the slicing open of his abdomen to treat the damage from the bullet. As soon as I hit the curb, I just dropped. All I can remember is just thinking about my mom. What is my mom gonna say? — Leo Leyva, who was shot in Chicago in September 2009, when he was 18 The hospital had to go into high alert given the critical nature of Leyva's wound. There was a $7,919 charge labeled "trauma active" for mobilizing doctors, residents, nurses, technicians — all the medical personnel who might have to treat him as he arrived at the hospital. The bullet had put Leyva's major organs at risk of failure or long-term damage. One of the first services ordered was a "critical care evaluation and management." It cost $3,020. Doctors also made an emergency intubation, ordered a blood count, tapped into his veins and gave him morphine. Each carried a charge. Just after midnight, a CT scan captured images of bullet fragments, according to hospital notes. That was billed at $1,608. Doctors then cut open Leyva's abdominal cavity and found the bullet had pierced his stomach, according to a discharge summary report. The surgeon removed the bullet from the abdominal wall and repaired his stomach before closing the wound. About two weeks later, Leyva needed a second surgery to remove bullet fragments from his back, according to the report. The discharge notes pointed to improvement in Leyva's pain, but he still felt no movement or sensation below his waist. Much of his time at the hospital remains a blur to Leyva. He does recall the morphine drips every four hours, if only because they weren't helping the burning, tingling sensation shooting from his hips to toes. Leyva, now 26, recently described the treatment in a quiet, even voice as he sat in his wheelchair. He lifted his American Eagle T-shirt, exposing a pale white scar from surgery that runs upward from his belly button. His fingers slowly traced the crude line as he glanced downward. By March 2017, the charges for Leo Leyva’s rehab totaled $253,163.05, a tab that is being picked up almost entirely by Medicaid and is still climbing. Leyva then slid his finger across his belly to a small quarter-sized splotch on his left side, where a tube had been inserted, he said. "My stomach felt so tight," he said. "I just couldn't breathe, I couldn't laugh." After three weeks at Illinois Masonic, Leyva was discharged to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. No one had told him yet whether he would regain any movement or sensation in his legs. The second surgery had improved the pain but nothing else. Protected data The combined price tag of Johnson and Leyva's acute medical care — $184,000 — is an important yet underreported piece of the unrelenting story of gun violence, experts say. The financial costs are a common denominator that links all neighborhoods, said Garen Wintemute, a professor of emergency medicine at University of California at Davis who studies gun violence. "We all have a financial stake," he said. "We are all paying for it." Part of the reason the financial story is not often told is the difficulty in getting the data. Since there's no requirement across all states for hospitals to note whether patients are being treated as the result of a firearm assault, researchers who hope to study gun violence are usually left to use samples of data rather than complete sets. A recent study by Stanford University succeeded in examining eight years of data, to 2014, and found that initial hospitalizations involving firearm injuries cost $734.6 million a year nationally. The Chicago Tribune's analysis relied on data from the Illinois Department of Public Health, which collects patient information from hospitals, data that is however exempted from the Freedom of Information Act by state law. After months of negotiation, the health department agreed to provide some data to the Tribune but restricted other information, such as naming individual hospitals. Also, the agency withheld any information regarding Caucasian children or senior citizens, arguing that since so few in those demographics are the victims of gun violence, reporters might be able to use the data to identify individual patients. It's much the same story nationally with research on gun violence, including its financial costs, chilled by cuts in funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The federal agency lost funding in 1996 in the wake of legislation pushed by the gun lobby that prohibited spending federal dollars on efforts to "advocate or promote gun control." Lars Dalseide, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association, told the Tribune the NRA supported the legislation back then because of public statements by CDC officials that the research would be used to limit gun use by law-abiding Americans. Dalseide emphasized the need to look at how the justice system punishes gun offenders, saying laws already on the books should be enforced to deter violence.With his legislative agenda stalled, President Donald Trump might now go to war against congressional Republicans — and win.
That’s the provocative argument Dave Hopkins, a political scientist at Boston College, made on his excellently named blog “Honest Graft” this week.
“The presence of serious conflict between Trump and congressional Republicans, especially Mitch McConnell, is now undeniable,” Hopkins writes. And, he adds, “Wherever one's own sympathies might lie in such a battle, Trump simply holds heavier artillery and superior field position.”
There’s little modern precedent for a total break between a president and his own party’s leaders in Congress. When it comes to legislation, nominees, and positioning for the midterm elections, these actors ordinarily have powerful incentives to try to work together.
But Trump is no ordinary president. So I called up Hopkins to talk through just how likely a falling-out between Trump and congressional Republicans is — and how it might actually play out. (This interview has been condensed and restructured for clarity.)
Why Trump and Republican leaders are increasingly squabbling
Andrew Prokop
For much of the year, it’s seemed that Trump, McConnell, and Ryan have had powerful incentives to work together rather than fight each other. If Trump wants to get his appointees confirmed, he needs McConnell in the Senate. If McConnell wants Trump to appoint people he likes, he needs to have good relations with Trump.
And they all have important personal stakes in the Republican Party doing well in 2018 — McConnell and Ryan want to keep their majorities, and Trump wants to avoid a Democrat-controlled house of Congress dogging him with investigations, subpoenas, and so on.
So why do you think they might have a falling-out anyway?
Dave Hopkins
I think what we’re seeing now is a realization on the part of both Trump and congressional Republicans that there may be this fight in the party over whose fault it was that the agenda didn’t sail right through. Neither side wants to take the blame, because if you do take the blame, there may be repercussions in the future from primary challenges, from challenges to leadership positions, from a party base that is exasperated with its own elected officials.
I do think that from the point of view of the Republicans in Congress, the congressional leadership, they would very much prefer not to openly break with Trump. They will say nasty things about him on background, but they understand it does them no good to wind up in an open war with the White House.
A lot of those juicy quotes on background, I think, are attempts to provide a kind of strategic guidance to him. “Stop saying these things about Charlottesville and start talking about tax reform!” They’re rooting for him to succeed because they do understand that their own fate is linked to his.
But from Trump’s point of view, he was deferential to the congressional leadership on the legislative agenda and the legislative strategy, with the idea that if he let them figure that stuff out, then they knew best how to push this stuff through and get it to him to sign, and everyone would be happy. And that has not worked out.
Andrew Prokop
It also seems that when someone criticizes Trump, he just instinctually feels that it’s necessary to hit back much harder. We’ve seen that when McConnell chided him for inexperience, when Jeff Flake published that very critical book, and so on.
Trump seems to view these as a challenge to his own dominance in the party, and he could be trying to bloody up a couple of people in the party that have criticized him, to send a message to the others.
Dave Hopkins
There may be some strategy there. But there’s also, I think, some emotion. There are a lot of things that Trump is going to fail at during his presidency, and that he’s going to be frustrated by.
Why Trump may have the advantage in a fight against Republican leaders
Andrew Prokop
So if this war really does heat up, why do you think Trump has a good shot of winning it?
Dave Hopkins
Obviously, it depends to some extent on how we define victory here. In some ways there may be no winners in the Republican Party if Trump goes to war, because it makes it very difficult for legislation to get passed and for either side to realize its legislative goals.
But in terms of where blame gets laid for the failures, and for the inability of the Republican agenda to actually be enacted, Trump does hold some advantages.
Within the Republican Party, Trump’s power remains relatively strong. So that’s where he can have some successes. He may not get his border wall, and he may not get his Obamacare repeal plan. But he might be able to make Jeff Flake lose his primary.
If that’s what he turns his presidency toward, as a set of goals, he might really notch some victories at Ryan and McConnell’s expense.
Andrew Prokop
But if there hypothetically was some sort of total falling-out between, let’s say, McConnell and Trump, doesn’t McConnell have a lot of his disposal too? What can he do here?
Dave Hopkins
The obvious answer is that McConnell and the Senate could make Trump’s life more difficult on Russia in a way they haven’t yet. They could appoint an independent commission, for example, to look into the Russia case and take it out of the partisan committee process. And that would be a clear message to Trump, or it would certainly make Trump very, very unhappy. They could kill off any elements of Trump’s agenda that are not their own agenda, so they could say infrastructure isn’t happening. They could make it harder for Trump to get his executive branch appointments through. So there are things they could do.
But again, they understand at some level that their fate is linked to Trump’s. And if Trump goes down in flames in a big scandal, whether it’s Russia or something else, if his popularity continues to decline, if he’s seen as ineffectual — well, Trump’s got three years left before he has to worry about reelection, but most of the Republicans on the Hill are up next year, and they’ll take the brunt of a lot of that.
If there is a fight, it’s a fight where Trump holds most of the ammunition. So that’s why I think they’re mostly not responding in kind to his provocations.
How the Russia scandal could play into Trump’s decision-making
Andrew Prokop
I’ve always thought that Trump clearly realizes that a Democratic takeover of a house of Congress would be a real disaster for him on multiple fronts. The subpoenas would start flying, and I assume more would proceed on the Russia investigation front.
But we’re hearing these stories this week that Trump has complained to McConnell already that the Republicans in Congress right now aren’t doing enough to protect him on Russia.
Dave Hopkins
I think it’s probably the case that having Republicans in control is much better for Trump than the prospects of a Democratic takeover, especially when it comes to the Russia scandal and the prospect of impeachment. But it also may be that Trump doesn’t quite grasp that — or that he still sees what the Republicans are doing on Russia as threatening enough to him.
There was a Politico piece yesterday that suggested he’s screaming at senators that they passed the Russia sanctions bill, that they’re not looking out for him enough on the Russia investigation.
That obviously is a complicating factor here, if Trump’s resentment toward the Republican Congress is in fact privately compounded by the Russia issue, which he has not talked as much about publicly but seems to be furious about privately.
Whether Trump is strategic enough to realize that what he’s doing is risking the Republican majority in the House, I think, is hard for us to tell from this vantage point.
And of course, November 2018 may seem like it’s just around the corner for members of Congress, but for Trump that may be a long way away. He might be thinking about what’s going on right now, what’s happening over the next couple of weeks.
Why even Republican senators might shy away from standing up to Trump
Andrew Prokop
The strongest counterargument to the idea that Trump could win this fight, I think, is the six-year terms of the Senate.
A third of the Senate won’t be on the ballot again until 2022. That gives them more freedom to think about the longer term and how their actions will be viewed in a post-Trump world if that world should come about, one way or another. And there seems to be very little that Trump could do to win a showdown against, say, John McCain, who almost surely won’t run again.
So when I think about this, Trump taking out Jeff Flake in a primary is plausible to me. Maybe Trump could even run up a drumbeat of conservative media criticism against Mitch McConnell, who himself is up in 2020 in a state where Trump is really popular. But the Senate seems to be institutionally empowered to better withstand short-term pressure from Trump.
Dave Hopkins
It’s also the case that the Republican senators either individually or collectively still don’t want to take the fall for the failure of the conservative agenda more broadly. I think they’re very sensitive to that, whether or not that imperils their immediate reelection chances. We saw this on health care, where the Senate didn’t want to be the last ones holding the hot potato.
The Senate is not going to want to be the villain in the story from the point of view of conservative activists, conservative media, critics, Trump supporters nationwide. They don’t want this to end up being a case where, “Gee, Trump really tried his best, but the bad old Senate couldn’t get it together to pass his bills.”
And so that, I think, is part of the dynamic here. It’s hard to understand the Republican Party these days without understanding the conservative media and activist universe that Republican elected officials are responsive to and are connected to.
So I think part of this struggle is really a struggle ultimately over who’s going to bear responsibility, when the tale gets told within the Republican Party at the end of this presidency about what happened. How much of it is going to be a story about Congress letting Trump down, and how much of it is going to be a story about Trump’s own failures?Canadians are broadly supportive of the country committing to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, even at a personal cost, but views vary significantly from one part of the country to the next.
And for two of the premiers who visited Ottawa for a first ministers summit yesterday, Saskatchewan's Brad Wall and Manitoba's Greg Selinger, the issue affects them very differently as they face re-election in less than five months.
A new poll by the Angus Reid Institute taken as the world's leaders prepare for climate talks in Paris next week suggests that more than two-thirds of Canadians believe that climate change is a serious threat.
The poll also suggests that a majority of Canadians are prepared to make a personal sacrifice to do something about it: 63 per cent said they support Canada signing an international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions, even if it means a 10 per cent increase in their annual energy costs.
Of potential routes to achieving lower emissions targets, Canadians prefer a cap-and-trade system, with 59 per cent saying they support the implementation of such a pricing system in their province. By comparison, 52 per cent supported the idea of a carbon tax — and a majority were opposed to such a scheme in Alberta, where Premier Rachel Notley this weekend announced that the province would be putting something like that in place.
Compared with residents of other provinces, British Columbians were most likely to be on board with taking steps toward curbing greenhouse gas emissions, while Albertans were the least. They were not alone, as residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba also appear skeptical.
Wall and Selinger face different situations
The two Prairie provinces were split down the middle on whether residents supported new efforts at the cost of higher energy prices, and a majority were opposed to the implementation of a carbon tax (they were divided virtually equally on a cap-and-trade system). But though the two provinces are looking at how to deal with the longer-term issue of climate change similarly, their two premiers are facing different situations in the short term.
Both Saskatchewan and Manitoba are scheduled to hold their next provincial elections in April (the federal election bumped them from the fall, when they were originally scheduled).
Premier Brad Wall of Saskatchewan has averaged an approval rating of 63 per cent in 2015. (CBC) At this stage, Wall's tenure in office, which began in 2007, looks to be in little danger of coming to an end. The most recent poll out of the province awarded his conservative Saskatchewan Party 54 per cent support, against 25 per cent for the opposition New Democrats. His approval rating has averaged a glittering 63 per cent in polls conducted in 2015.
Nevertheless, Wall does have an incentive to be one of the few dissenting voices around the premiers table. Though his support in Saskatchewan remains the envy of most premiers, his numbers have been dropping of late. The climate change talks present a good opportunity for the premier to portray himself as a defender of the province's oil and gas industry but, if he goes too far, he risks alienating the large proportion of Saskatchewan residents who do want action to be taken on the file.
Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger's NDP has trailed by double digits in provincial polling since the spring of 2013. (CBC) For Selinger, whose NDP has been in power in Manitoba since 1999, a strong performance on the issue is greatly needed, though unlikely to turn around his fading fortunes. Only in Alberta did the federal New Democrats take a smaller share of the vote than in Manitoba in October's federal election, and by the most recent measure Selinger's NDP trails the opposition Progressive Conservatives by 20 points.
In fact, the party has trailed by double digits for over two years, while Selinger's approval rating has averaged just 22 per cent in 2015. His disapproval rating, at 66 per cent, does not bode well for his party's chances in the April vote.
Considering that Manitobans are split on the issue of how to tackle climate change, the NDP premier may be hard-pressed to find a winning position that can fit his party's natural place on the political spectrum and not split the vote with the surging Manitoba Liberals. Wall is under no such constraints in Saskatchewan.
Low expectations
But the premiers might have more incentive to posture than to strive toward agreement. Though the Angus Reid poll suggests that Canadians think that the federal and provincial governments can come together with a common message to bring to Paris, Canadians do not think that much will come from the talks in the French capital.
When asked whether respondents were confident that the climate change conference would achieve broad international agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, 59 per cent said they were not very or not at all confident. Only in Quebec were a majority confident that an agreement would come out of the talks.
The expectations of most Canadians will be met if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau comes out of Paris with little to show for his efforts. But this also means that it will not take much to beat those expectations and claim some success.
And while Paris marks an important first test for the new government, it may also prove to be a significant final test for two premiers before they take their case to voters.
The poll by the Angus Reid Institute was conducted between November 16 and 18, interviewing 1,508 Canadians via the internet. As the poll was conducted online, a margin of error does not apply.On electoral reform, Trudeau didn’t just break a promise – he lied
On electoral reform, Trudeau lied. And he ran a strategy designed to sabotage electoral reform and create acceptance of his lie.
Specifically, there were two lies. Trudeau lied last Wednesday, saying there was no consensus on electoral reform. And, since at least mid-November, he was lying each time he repeated his election promise of electoral reform. Since at least that time Trudeau was actively working against it.
After the election, Trudeau appointed political rookie Maryam Monsef to the sensitive assignment of electoral reform. And when he finally unveiled his electoral reform process in May, it included a Parliamentary committee with a majority of Liberal MPs and no public consultations.
These may have been early signals Trudeau had already made up his mind.
In reaction to Trudeau’s torqued electoral reform process, the opposition – especially NDP MP Nathan Cullen – created a groundswell, putting Trudeau on the defensive. The PM backed off, freed the committee and allowed public consultation.It was all going so well, until it wasn't. And even then, when Aaron Ramsey's hamstring failed him, Arsenal found a way to win their next two league fixtures, beating Everton and Swansea, before the paucity of options was really felt by Arsenal in three consecutive games against Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur and West Bromwich Albion. The writing had been on the wall, though, before Arsenal's run of bad results, a run that was slightly arrested by a straightforward 3-0 win against Dinamo Zagreb, and watching Arsenal over the past few weeks, it is hard not to think that after Mesut Özil, the most important member of Arsenal's midfield is not the now-absent Francis Coquelin but Aaron Ramsey, who enabled the unconventional midfield pairing of Cazorla and Coquelin to win matches without Arsenal being entirely convincing or dominant.
Coquelin is now injured, and will miss at least the next twelve weeks, which makes the spirit of this article slightly different. However, the crux of Arsenal's midfield issue remains, and is nicely summed up here by Lewis Ambrose:
When Arsenal are pressed in the middle against a team managing the space around them, it doesn't tend to end very well. The thing is, Arsenal don't control games with the ball anymore. Recent wins against Manchester United, Watford, Everton and Swansea City saw goals come in quick flurries from intense attacking moves or set pieces rather than a considered approach from deep.
With Arsenal just two points off the top, one could be forgiven for asking, "well, so what if Arsenal don't control matches, they're still winning?", and I must admit, wanting to see Arsenal control matches is a personal preference. But in order to win games against teams that press Arsenal's midfield, Arsenal either have to control matches, or Arsenal have to be a good pressing side, which they are not. When Arsenal press well, it tends to be in the same twenty minute bursts where they also score a majority of their goals. There is, again, a benefit to scoring goals in bunches, but it has to be matched by being able to absorb pressure so that these goal-scoring bursts can win the game, and it is here where Arsenal have failed in recent weeks: they were lucky not to concede against Swansea, and then they did concede against Bayern, Tottenham and West Brom.
Arsenal's failure to control or press lies with the composition of the central midfield. As I have written about previously, Arsenal lack a controller in the mould of the dearly departed Mikel Arteta, with the acquisition of such a player a difficult enterprise. Perhaps Arsenal tried to convert Cazorla into a controller, but he remains at heart an attacking midfield player, which means more often than not, he isn't setting the tempo of Arsenal's play. Thus, Cazorla's influence tends to be limited to the twenty-minute bursts of high-tempo play or when Arsenal are ahead. Nor is Coquelin a controller, but in a pressing system, he would be excellent at winning the ball back in high positions and quickly shifting the ball to Özil et al as Arsenal countered, much like the first goal against Manchester United (and the eagle-eyed among us will note Cazorla had no influence in the move for the first goal before coming into play for Arsenal's second). But Arsenal don't press well as a unit for entire matches, and without systematic chances, it is hard to see Arsenal counter-pressing in the way Klopp's Dortmund did so successfully.
However, if Arsenal were to begin to press better as a unit, there would have to be a change in midfield as Cazorla is not suited to a pressing game. Again, this has to do with the nature of his game: he is an attacking midfield player, without the inherent defensive nous of a central midfielder, and he is not the most energetic or physical player and would struggle to cover the amount of ground a pressing central midfielder has. This leaves Arsenal in a mix between control and counter, and while they have done well enough in the Premier League, this imbalance has been ruthlessly exposed in Europe four times over the past nine months: at home against Monaco, away against Dinamo Zagreb, at home against Olympiacos and away against Bayern Munich. Aside from Bayern, those are all matches Arsenal should have easily won, and yet, Arsenal encountered the same problem in all three: caught between trying to control and trying to counter, Arsenal did neither, and the weakness of the midfield was exposed, with Coquelin left to do too much defensive work, and Arsenal unable to build attacks once behind against a side that pressed the midfield well, necessitating pushing men forward and leaving open gaps for the opposition to counter.
The same happened against Bayern Munich. Everyone struggles against Bayern, but having said that, Cazorla's lack of aptitude to the position against top-class opponents was ruthlessly exposed, particularly by David Alaba for the Bayern third, who casually robbed Cazorla of possession 25 yards from goal, where he had all the time in the world to shoot from range, as Coquelin had pushed forward to create a decoy. Coquelin makes that movement so that Arsenal don't have to use him in build-up play, but that movement tends to not work against sides that press well.
Against Swansea, the same happened again. Arsenal were pressed out of the first half, with Coquelin and Cazorla having a minuscule influence on proceedings on both sides of the ball:
In the second half, Arsenal scored from two set pieces, which enabled Arsenal to control proceedings, as the nature of Swansea's game changed. With Cazorla badly out of form, though, once Arsenal fell behind in recent reversals, the midfield was exposed.
It had only been exposed in recent weeks, though, because of Ramsey's absence. When Ramsey plays on the right, he tends to come inside and play effectively as a third midfielder, which provides the midfield with another passing option, and another player who can link play between the deeper midfielders and Mesut Özil and Alexis Sánchez, while also giving Giroud an option for combination play and a runner in behind, a threat that Cazorla does not provide. With Héctor Bellerín pushing forward on the right in space left by Ramsey, this gives Arsenal an option for playing out of pressure. The fine-tuning of the system, though, means that the absence of any of Ramsey, Bellerín or Özil essentially renders the system ineffective, with Arsenal's record without one of those three very poor, with the attack becoming more reliant on set pieces which is problematic as scoring from set pieces not a consistent source |
people don’t want liberal elites, they no longer want to have anything to do with the liberal values that these elites are supposedly embracing.
Sources:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_30428.cfm
http://guardianlv.com/2014/07/hillary-rodham-clinton-supports-gmos/
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10468
Share This Post:PayPal suspended the account of a white-hat hacker on Tuesday, a day after someone used his research into website authentication to publish a counterfeit certificate for the online payment processor.
"Under the Acceptable Use Policy, PayPal may not be used to send or receive payments for items that show the personal information of third parties in violation of applicable law," company representatives wrote in an email sent to the hacker, Moxie Marlinspike. "Please understand that this is a security measure meant to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience."
The email, sent from an unmonitored PayPal address, makes no mention of the item that violates the PayPal policy. The suspension effectively freezes more than $500 in the account until Marlinspike submits a signed affidavit swearing he has removed the PayPal logos from his site.
Since 2002, Marlinspike has included a yellow donate button on the download page for a hacking tool he calls SSLSniff, and more recently he released a program called SSLStrip, which also includes the button. But it was only after someone published counterfeit SSL certificate on Monday that PayPal took action against the account.
"This is not something I had anything to do with, and they responded by suspending my account," Marlinspike told The Reg. "I've been the one trying to warn them of this in the first place."
The account suspension is troubling because it penalizes an independent security researcher whose discoveries have already yielded important insights into secure sockets layer, one of the web's oldest and most relied upon measures for preventing man-in-the-middle attacks. It's the latest action to demonize hacker tools that can be used by security professionals for good because they can also be used by criminals for bad.
It also flies in the face of the tacit approval of PayPal and its parent company, eBay, give to groups distributing dozens of other hacking tools. No doubt, the Wireshark packet sniffer is used regularly to reveal the passwords of unsuspecting victims, and yet its purveyors accept payments by PayPal. The same goes for the Cain & Abel and l0phtcrack password recovery tools and Remote-Exploit.org, a group whose tag line reads: "Supplying offensive security products to the world."
A PayPal spokeswoman said the company's privacy policy prevented her from discussing Marlinspike's case. But in general, she said hacking tools are allowed in certain cases, such as when they can be used to legitimately help administrators assess the strength of user passwords.
"We do not, however, allow PayPal to be used in the sale or dissemination of tools which have the sole purpose to attack customers and illegally obtain individual customer information," the spokeswoman, Sara Gorman, wrote in an email. "We consider whether there is any legitimate use in helping to strengthen the defenses of one's site when determining violation of our policy."
She said PayPal relies on a dedicated team with "extensive experience in information security, law enforcement, financial services and risk" to make such decisions. She didn't explain how they determined programs such as Wireshark and Cain & Abel have legitimate uses and the tools offered by Marlinspike do not. She also didn't explain why Marlinspike's banishment came less than 24 hours after the release of the bogus PayPal certificate.
According to a note included with the certificate's release, Marlinspike distributed it during a training session at the Black Hat security conference in July. The hacker confirms he offered a class to penetration testers that taught them everything they'd need to test and carry out attacks on SSL certificates, and as part of that, he included a proof-of-concept certificate. But he never distributed the certificate and each student signed an agreement stating the material was for evaluation purposes and was not be be publicly released, he said.
And in any event, he never used PayPal to accept payment for the class. What's more, the only items being distributed on the PayPal-adorned pages are SSLStrip and SSLSniff. Bogus certificates were never available anywhere on the site, he said.
So if you're a hacker who relies on PayPal, the not-so-subtle message is to make sure your projects steer clear of your online payment processor. It doesn't matter that you speak at the same conferences attended by the rest of the security world. As PayPal well knows, hacker tools can be used for good or for bad, and the company has the sole discretion to choose which is which. ®Media: thousands of Russian soldiers are currently stationed in the Donbas Sunday, June 18, 2017 8:07:00 AM
The total number of military personnel from the Russian Armed Forces who are active in the separatist-held territories of Eastern Ukraine is currently 5-6 thousand, wrote journalist and military expert Yuriy Butusov on ZN.UA news website.
“Nominally assigned to the command posts, the local separatists carry out, in the best case, the functions of students and ‘advisers’, or are otherwise ‘talking heads’ for propaganda. Russian mercenaries are the linchpins in all the military subdivisions of the military groups. The total number of Russian military personnel in the Donbas is constant and is around 5-6 thousand people,” the analyst noted.
The author pointed out that the Donbas has become a training ground for the regular Russian army, and the leadership of the separatist armed forces is effectively made up of Russian officers.
“The subdivisions of the Russian Army are deployed here on a rotational basis. All systems of control, reconnaissance, artillery, radio-electronic warfare, and logistics – all of these are handled by Russian soldiers. The 1st and 2nd army corps of the occupation forces, on the levels from the battalion staff to the corps command are staffed by Russian officers with the status of ‘advisers’, who in actual fact have the powers of real commanders,” the article states.
Butusov also observed that the motorized rifle and armored divisions are frequently sent to the Donbas to carry out combat training tasks, including direct participation in military actions.
According to Pavlo Zhebrivskyi, Head of Donetsk Regional State Administration, there are as many as 4,000 Russian soldiers in the Donbas, without taking into account mercenaries, who fight for money.
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Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.The history of Pablo Escobar has always been a finite one, something Netflix’s Narcos already barreled toward in its first season. It remains to be seen if Season 2 will complete the tale once and for all, but the first official photos from Season 2's September premiere have Pablo heavily on the run.
Ahead of a September 2 premiere, Netflix released the first gallery of images from Narcos Season 2, which, according to acclaimed series star Wagner Moura, will mark the last for Pablo Escobar.
That said, the possibility Pablo Escobar’s death leaves open the question of Narcos Season 3, especially as Season 2 experienced a bit of showrunner turnover. A new subject for a third season seems possible, if not sticking with the cocaine trade beyond Escobar’s death, though Boyd Holbrook ( Gone Girl ) and Pedro Pascal ( Game of Thrones ) might not then participate.
In the meantime, Narcos Season 2 will premiere all episodes on September 2, the teaser for which you can find below.With the sculpture all ready to go, I moved on to making the mold.
This can be a complex process and maybe even take as long as your sculpture. It is a real investment, in time and money.
I decided I would use FlexPro urethane rubber to make a glove mold, and then make a mother mold in Ultracal30 plaster stone.
> If you want to see a bit more about making urethane molds, click here.
First, I dripped and brushed urethane A/B mold making solution onto my Buddha. This takes time, and a good solid 3 or 4 hours in a single stretch to do properly. The urethane goes on thin, and requires many layers build up for maximum flexibility and strength. You put each layer on BEFORE the previous layer cures fully, so it doesn't de-laminate. You can make it into a paste by adding some cabosil (fumed silica), but BE CAREFUL as it creates a cloud that is dangerous to breathe. Best to mix it outside in an area where people won't need to be. And wear a breathing mask.
Buildup the urethane enough so it is smooth on the outside--you don't want too many crevices, or the plaster will go into them and encapsulate the rubber and not be able to come apart.
Urethane and silicone make excellent molds for pouring plaster and concrete casts because they capture the original sculptural details down to a fingerprint. Keep that in mind when you sculpt--I smoothed every surface down with baby oil and a sculpting tool.
Once the urethane cured overnight, I created a two-piece plaster mold. This is a pain in the neck because plaster is messy and you need to create a clay parting line for the first half and then pour the second half once the first part is cured and cool.
I try and make my mother molds really non-detailed so they can pull away from the glove mold easily. For this, I use fiberglass mat and dip it in the plaster and add to the urethane in multiple swatch layers--much like people use burlap or plaster bandage material.
After you remove the clay parting line and spray the plaster and urethane with PAM, you are ready to add the second layer of plaster.
Once both sides of the mold were set and cured, I patiently and slowly pried them apart with a small screwdriver and wooden wedges. Take time and don't screw this up--it will be something worth doing right. Make sure to make the mold flat and bottom-heavy for when you put it on a table to pour plaster or concrete into it, so it'll stay upright.
Then, you're ready for the fun! Time to pour a casting!Jeremy Corbyn today criticised the new rules for the Labour leadership contest as “not very fair” as he called for party officials to perform a u-turn on the cut off for new members to take part.
Corbyn said he hopes the NEC reverses last week’s decision to impose a January 12 freeze date – excluding those who have been members for less than six months – but stopped short of saying the.reformed rules would make the result illegitimate.
“I would have thought it would be better to accept we have this very large membership – they joined because they want to be involved.
“There’s going to be some quite intense discussions over the next few days, I suspect, and I hope our party officials and our national executive will see sense on this and recognise that those people that have freely given of their time and their money to join the Labour party should be welcomed in and given the opportunity to take part in this crucial debate, whichever way they decide to vote,” he told the Sunday Politics,
“I’m hoping there will be an understanding that it’s simply not very fair to say to people that joined the party in the last six months that ‘sorry, your participation is no longer welcome, as we’re having a leadership contest’.”
“I don’t want to make a big deal of this, I just want them to think again.”
This follows Corbyn’s speculation there may be a legal challenge to the six-month cut off point for members allowed to vote, though he has said he will not be the one to do it.
“I’m very concerned. We haven’t heard the end of this. A lot of people joined the party in the last six months and will be extremely annoyed,” he told The Mirror,
“They joined because they want to be involved in the party and they’re not being allowed to.
“There may be a legal move, but nothing has been decided yet. Not by me anyway.”
Many have expressed dismay that those who have been members for less than six months cannot vote in the leadership selection and at the eight-fold increase in the cost to become a registered supporter – up to £25 from £3. More recent members – including the 130,000 to have joined since the EU referendum – are thought to be more pro-Corbyn. The registered supporters scheme will be open for two days, from Monday to Wednesday this week to allow new supporters to sign up.European Parliament (EP) President Martin Schulz is promising to “speed up” Georgia’s visa liberalisation process with the European Union (EU).
“European Parliament looks to make the visa regime as effective as possible in the short term … [and] to make enterprises and investors get access to the European single market,” Schulz said at the joint press conference after a roundtable discussion with Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili in Brussels today.
PM Garibashvili noted Georgia’s progress in visa liberalisation dialogue with the EU and named visa free travel for Georgia’s citizens to the EU as the main priority of his country.
“Establishing a visa free regime as you mentioned Mr. President is one of the main priorities of my country. Visa free travel will be the most attractive results of Georgia’s EU integration process in the short term perspectives. It will bring tangible benefits for the citizens of Georgia,” Garibahsvili said.
Georgia has fulfilled phase one of the visa liberalisation process and has moved onto the next step. On November 17 it became clear that the EU’s first mission will visit Georgia on November 24 and prepare a progress report on Georgia’s implementation of the second phase of visa liberalisation.
Garibashvili, who was in Brussels to attend the first EU-Georgia Association Council meeting, believed the EP would ratify the EU-Georgia Association Agreement soon.
He stressed the Association Agreement was the master plan of Georgia and its effective implementation was of the greatest importance.
“Our main priority is to consolidate democracy, the rule of law and good governance, strengthen the independence of the judiciary and to ensure the protection of human rights and freedoms,” he said.
“We are confident that by implementing the Association Agreement, Georgia will eventually become a stable country with a functioning pluralist democracy.
A country where effective mechanisms of checks and balances and strong democratic institutions are provided.”
Garibashvili was confident of EP’s unflagging support to the principles of sovereignty, non-interference and each country’s right to define and pursue its foreign policy.
Source: agenda.ge
Tags: Association AgreementRESEARCHERS WORKING in the irradiated zone around the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant say bird populations there have begun to dwindle, in what may be a chilling harbinger of the impact of radioactive fallout on local life.
In the first major study on the impact of the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years, the researchers from Japan, the US and Denmark say that analysis of 14 species of birds common to Fukushima and Chernobyl shows the effect on numbers is worse in the Japanese disaster zone.
Published next week in the journal Environmental Pollution, the paper says its findings demonstrate “an immediate negative consequence of radiation for birds during the main breeding season March-July”.
Two of the study’s authors have spent years working in the irradiated 2,850sq m zone around the Chernobyl plant, which exploded in 1986. A quarter of a century later, the zone is almost devoid of people.
Timothy Mousseau and Anders Pape Moller say their research there uncovered major negative effects among the local bird population, including reductions in longevity, male fertility and birds with smaller brains.
Many species show “dramatically” elevated DNA mutation rates, developmental abnormalities and extinctions, they add, while insect life has been significantly reduced.
Some scientists have challenged the findings, arguing that animal and insect species have thrived around Chernobyl’s almost uninhabited shadow.
Prof Mousseau, a biological scientist, at the University of South Carolina in the US, says however that there is “no data to support that thesis”.
Prof Mousseau says the fresh findings are of “profound” interest because Fukushima presents the first opportunity to monitor the impact of a large-scale nuclear disaster “from day one”.
In a 2003 judgment by a Danish academic body, Prof Pape Moller was found to have been guilty of “a falsification of the scientific message”.The pineapple industry is concerned that fruit imported from Malaysia could introduce diseases.
The Federal Government's announcement of a review into Australia's import risk analysis (IRA), has been welcomed by fruit and vegetable growers.
The Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee delivered a report on Biosecurity Australia's risk analysis in March, following concerns over the introduction of diseases from New Zealand potatoes, Fijian ginger and Malaysian pineapples.
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The Senate inquiry made a number of recommendations, including to establish an independent statutory body to look after biosecurity and quarantine operations.
It was also critical of the current method of assessing the risk of proposed imports, and said the Department of Agriculture needs to be more consultative and take greater account of stakeholders' 'perceived risk'.
Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce recently announced an examination of the IRA process.
Managing director of Tropical Pineapples, at Yeppoon in Central Queensland, Derek Lightfoot says he will now find independent risk experts to work alongside the industry, to help build the case against imports.
"We thought 'well how on earth could anyone agree to allow a new disease into this country that can't be eradicated?'
"That's what prompted me to look a lot more closely at the risk model that was used, because their overall determination was that there was very low risk of any issue arising here in Australia," Mr Lightfoot said.
The ginger association says biosecurity measures in Fijian ginger crops don't go far enough in making sure imports are free of the destructive burrowing nematode.
Chair of the Australian Ginger Growers Association Anthony Rehbein says it's been a drawn-out battle.
"The Senate Review vindicated what our researchers have said, what industry has said and I maintain, why is it up to industry to keep other industries out where they don't have a clean nose, and they don't know their pest and diseases, they don't know what their problems are and why has the taxpayer got to fix that problem?
"It's making everybody stop and think, and it's making everyone stop and realise that these IRAs were done hastily, they weren't done with due diligence," Mr Rehbein said.
Manager of government and parliamentary relations at AUSVEG, Andrew White, agrees the risk assessment process needs to be fixed urgently.
"The evaluation process with the risk matrix is not appropriate at the moment and it is very unclear from a scientific perspective and from a transparency perspective how those risk levels are determined, so we feel there does need to be a lot more detail about it," Mr White said.
"Now whether you renew the entire thing and start from scratch, or whether you look at the model and point out the severe flaws and go from there we're not too fussed, but it does need to be looked at seriously."
Submissions to the review are open until September 10.Lenovo has had its fair share of hits in the past, and they do seem to have more than just a passing interest in the world of tablets. Well, one of their upcoming projects that is being prepared to be unleashed among the masses would be the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2. This Windows 8-powered ThinkPad Tablet 2 was initially scheduled for an October 26th launch this year, but apparently things did not go as planned, and delays meant October turned into November, followed by further delays that saw November go by. I guess “soon” would be a more reasonable timeframe, considering how the ThinkPad Tablet 2 has already seen its FCC filings approved, which is always a good thing for the gadget-seeking faithful.
The FCC documents for the ThinkPad Tablet 2 were filed by Lenovo’s OEM partner Wistron Corporation, where it mentioned the device’s Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and WWAN capabilities. In fact, it also picked up approval for use of GSM bands 850 and 1900, in addition to WCDMA bands II and V, which are what AT&T relies on in the US. Too bad there was no approval for NFC or LTE use, but bear in mind that such features could be lined up for the ThinkPad Tablet 2’s successor.
Filed in. Read more about Lenovo.JAX-KC grades: Big days from Ramik Wilson, Dee Ford limit Jags' offense
By John Breitenbach • Nov 6, 2016
Kansas City Chiefs 19, Jacksonville Jaguars 14
Here are the highest-graded players and top takeaways from the Chiefs’ Week 9 victory over the Jaguars.
Quarterback grade: Blake Bortles, 45.5
Bortles struggles to find rhythm against Chiefs’ defense
While Bortles did not get a lot of help from his teammates, including a crucial dropped pass on fourth down early in the game, the Jaguars’ signal-caller was a key reason why Jacksonville’s offense struggled today. Not only was Bortles unable to hit open targets on some occasions, he also misread the coverage at times, which led to three horrible passes that went straight into the hands of Kansas City defenders. While the Jacksonville quarterback was fortunate only one of those throws was actually intercepted, these passes suggest that his struggles in 2016 continue.
Top offensive grades:
WR Allen Robinson, 84.8
C Brandon Linder, 82.1
TE Marcedes Lewis, 74.1
TE Julius Thomas, 71.5
WR Marqise Lee, 69.6
Jags’ offensive players make costly mistakes
Bortles isn’t the only one to blame for the Jaguars’ struggles on the offensive side of the ball. The visiting skill players managed to make mistakes in the most crucial situations. Besides Allen Hurns’ aforementioned drop on fourth down, running backs T.J. Yeldon and Chris Ivory both happened to fumble the football at times when it seemed like Jacksonville had momentum. In addition to the skill players, the offensive line, especially the two tackles, also had a tough game; OTs Jermey Parnell and Kelvin Beachum combined to allow 11 total pressures.
Top defensive grades:
MLB Paul Posluszny, 89.6
DE Dante Fowler, 80.3
CB Jalen Ramsey, 78.9
CB Prince Amukamara, 75.2
DE Yannick Ngakoue, 72.4
Jaguars’ new recruits already proving key contributors
Dante Fowler may, technically speaking, be a second-year pro, but he may as well be a rookie after missing the entirety of 2015. He re-joins a defense already dependent on a couple of players straight out of college in Jalen Ramsey and Yannick Ngakoue. The Jaguars’ two young pass-rushers combined for two hits and three hurries, providing the kind of consistent pressure Jacksonville’s defense has needed for some time. Combining them with Ramsey’s has been a big boost to the unit as a whole. Ramsey allowed only one catch on two targets for 9 yards against Kansas City, shutting down one side of the field.
Quarterback grade: Nick Foles, 53.4
Nick Foles’ stock recovering after reunion with Reid
Nick Foles’ stint with the Rams was an unmitigated disaster, but an injury to Alex Smith has presented him with an opportunity in Kansas City. Andy Reid certainly retains faith in Foles, who played his best early in his career in Philadelphia. Although the former third-round pick may never be an elite starter, he can be functional in Reid’s West Coast offense. Against the Jaguars, Foles was far from perfect, but he avoided the crippling mistakes that could have cost his side a win. Reid was aggressive early, dialing up a deep fade on the first pass of the game, before transitioning to a more conservative approach. The Chiefs’ QB connected twice downfield, both 23 yard touchdowns. He was more inconsistent in the intermediate and shorter range, but had a passable enough performance.
Top offensive grades:
C Mitch Morse, 80.9
TE Travis Kelce, 77.2
TE Demetrius Harris, 67.9
WR Albert Wilson, 69.6
WR Tyreek Hill, 69.3
Second-year center Mitch Morse continues to improve
After a poor start to the season, Chiefs’ center Mitch Morse has improved significantly the past couple of weeks. He recorded his fourth perfect game in pass protection in a row, and topped his season-high run-blocking grade with a 78.9 mark. Morse is well-suited to the Chiefs’ diversity of running concepts, with his ability to block both in-line and on the move. In the middle of a unit still ironing out some issues, Morse’s development could be key.
Top defensive grades:
LB Ramik Wilson, 93.1
CB Steven Nelson, 86.8
ED Dee Ford, 84.9
DI Jaye Howard, 81.9
DI Chris Jones, 80.4
Kansas City defense able to put Bortles under pressure
While Jacksonville made several unforced mistakes, the Chiefs were responsible for numerous miscues of the Jaguars. Edge defender Dee Ford had an excellent day, as he was in the backfield on almost every dropback of Bortles. Ford finished the game with two sacks, two quarterback hits, and four quarterback hurries, while edge defender Tamba Hali also recorded five total pressures. However, it was actually second-year inside linebacker Ramik Wilson who had a career day and caused the most damage to the Jacksonville offense. Wilson read Bortles’ eyes really well to pick off the Jacksonville quarterback in the first half, but his biggest play came in the second half when he knocked the ball out of running back Chris Ivory’s hand on the goal line to prevent a Jaguars’ touchdown.
PFF Game-Ball Winner: Ramik Wilson, S, Chiefs
PFF’s player grading process includes multiple reviews, which may change the grade initially published in order to increase its accuracy. Learn more about how we grade and access grades for every player through each week of the NFL season by subscribing to Player Grades.A pair of California condors have produced a baby, surprising wildlife experts who said on Friday the endangered raptors had managed to secretly mate outside their careful monitoring.
Late last month, biologists noticed a "mystery" juvenile condor at a wildlife sanctuary in Big Sur, California, according to the Ventana Wildlife Society, a group that helps protect and observe the birds in their natural habitat.
The young bird was seen with two adult condors presumed to be its parents - and the bundle of joy, about 9-months-old, had been hatched and raised without the knowledge of biologists monitoring the region, the group said.
"This pair of condors is suspected of nesting in a remote portion of the Ventana Wilderness in the Arroyo Seco drainage," the group said in a statement. "Biologists have never entered the nest because of the area's inaccessibility."
This was only the third unobserved pairing of condors in the wild since 1997, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The parents were identified as "Shadow" and "Wild 1," the group said. Shadow, the suspected father, has been active in the population, having produced two other chicks, the group said.
"This is truly exciting to witness as it offers another example of condors surviving on their own," said Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society.
Condors, the largest flying birds in North America, once populated an area from Canada to Mexico but nearly became extinct in the 1980s due to factors such as poaching, lead poisoning and habitat destruction.
The total condor population now stands at 425 birds, both captive and wild, of which 116 are living in the wilderness of California, the Ventana Wildlife Society said.
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One of the longest-living raptors in the world, condor populations are also found in Mexico, Arizona and Utah.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere in Seattle; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Andrew Hay).A new NPR report reveals that under President Donald Trump abused undocumented immigrants face a tough choice.
According to Denver City Attorney Kristin Bronson, four women have not pursued cases related to violent physical assaults out of fear related to Trump’s tough talk and action on immigration.
She told NPR this:
We had pending cases that we were prosecuting on their behalf and since January 25, the date of the president’s executive order [on immigration], those four women have let our office know they were not willing to proceed with the case for fear that they would be spotted in the courthouse and deported.
That fear and “distrust [of] the court system” is reportedly the result of a video released last month that shows ICE officers waiting outside of a Denver courthouse.
Bronson has asked ICE to search for the violent criminals they’re after elsewhere so the immigrant community in Denver can feel safer relying on the justice system. After all, “ICE could just as easily work through the local jail here in Denver to apprehend these individuals and avoid frightening people in our community.”
[image via Department of Homeland Security]
——
Lindsey: Twitter. Facebook.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comDNA is often referred to as a “building block” for life, but perhaps a better metaphor would be LEGO. Research in manipulating DNA molecules has led to a robust set of abilities in snapping it together to create complex 2D and 3D shapes. DNA’s code-based organization made it possible to design linear molecules that would fold and snap together in predictable ways — under laboratory conditions.
Now, a new method of designing DNA structures has not only automated much of the shape-creation process, allowing scientists to shape their molecule directly, but builds that molecule to be more stable than any previous attempt at DNA “origami.”
The thing about DNA is that much of the chemical bonding that holds it into complex structures is transient. The adhesion offered by hydrogen bonding, for instance, is dependent on a wide range of things. Not the least of these is salt concentration, and prior attempts to use DNA to make nano-scale sculpture have required high levels of magnesium salt to keep the final shape from unraveling.
The new technique, recently revealed by researchers from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, gets around this by building its models out of relatively stable double helices. Every edge in the computer wire-frame ends up represented by a self-contained double helix in the final molecules, where previous technologies have mostly used closely packed bundles of single-stranded helices. Doing it this way takes more premeditation in code design and shape assembly, and thus the newly advanced shaping algorithms, but once made they have a much better ability to actually go to work in the body.
Up until now, most attempts at improving the stability of engineered DNA nano-structures have looked to use whole different versions of DNA, a class of synthetic nucleic acids collectively called XNA. The idea was that since DNA cages and bunny rabbits don’t have to act as genetic material for a cell, they have a much narrower list of chemical requirements than natural DNA. This approach allows useful object creation without the need to reinvent the proverbial wheel.
The automation on display here has been called a 3D printing solution for DNA, and in terms of ease of use that label certainly fits. All they need to do is have their algorithms design a set of DNA molecules coded so that they could only realistically assemble in a certain way, in certain conditions. Then, a third party created those linear DNA strands for them — all the team had to do was put this collection of strands through the warming and cooling of the assembly process, and they did the rest of the world themselves.
As to why scientists would particularly want to be able to create everything from DNA spheres to DNA Coke bottles, it really comes down to which area of science they study. DNA microcapsules have been studied for their potential to deliver drugs directly to where they’re needed most. And since DNA can be programmed, it could be used as a sort of injectable physical tool, perhaps grabbing pores in the blood-brain barrier and holding them open for a new therapeutic molecule. They could be programmed to grab on to only one sort of marker (say, a surface protein on a cancer cell) and change conformation to attract further attention.
DNA isn’t perfect, and certainly on a long enough timescale it seems likely that techniques like this will be combined with exotic XNA molecules. Still, this breakthrough manages to get somewhat exotic durability out of plain old DNA. That should make the dreams of many researchers far more achievable.The Battle of Asiago (Battle of the Plateaux) or the Trentino Offensive (in Italian: Battaglia degli Altipiani), nicknamed Strafexpedition ("Punitive expedition")[1] by the Austrians, was a counteroffensive launched by the Austro-Hungarians on the Italian Front on 15 May 1916, during World War I. It was an unexpected attack that took place near Asiago in the province of Vicenza (now in northeast Italy, then on the Italian side of the border between the Kingdom of Italy and Austria-Hungary) after the Fifth Battle of the Isonzo (March 1916). Commemorating this battle and the soldiers killed in World War I is the Asiago War Memorial.[2]
Background [ edit ]
Already for some time the Austrian commander-in-chief, General Conrad von Hötzendorf, had been proposing the idea of a Strafexpedition that would lethally cripple Italy, Austria-Hungary's ex-ally, claimed to be guilty of betraying the Triple Alliance, and in previous years he had had the frontier studied in order to formulate studies with regard to a possible invasion.
The problem had appeared to be serious, mostly because the frontier ran through high mountains and the limited Italian advances of 1915 had worsened the situation and excluded a great advance beyond the valleys of Valsugana and Val Lagarina (both connected by railway) and the plateaus of Lavarone, Folgaria and Asiago.
The geographic location of the routes of advance was conducive to the original plan which called for an advance from Trent to Venice, isolating the Italian 2nd and 3rd Armies who were fighting on the Isonzo and the Italian 4th Army who was defending the Belluno region and the eastern Trentino.
The preparations for the battle began in December 1915, when Conrad von Hötzendorf proposed to his German opposite number, General Erich von Falkenhayn, shifting divisions from the Eastern Front in Galicia to the Tyrol, substituting them with German divisions. His request was denied because Germany was not yet at war with Italy (which would declare war on Germany three months later), and because redeploying German units on the Italian Front would have diminished German offensive capability against Russia. After having received a negative reply from the Germans, who refused the proposed replacement and actively tried to discourage the Austro-Hungarian proposed attack, Conrad von Hötzendorf decided to operate autonomously. The 11th Austro-Hungarian Army, under the command of Count Viktor Dankl, would carry out the offensive followed by the 3rd Army under Hermann Kövess. It was not so easy, however, because the Italians had deployed in the area about 250,000 troops (General Brusati's First Army and part of the Fourth Army). Italian intelligence had been gathering information about an impending enemy offensive in Trentino — and a big one — for about a month, but Cadorna dismissed those reports, persuaded as he was that nothing could happen in that region.
Battle [ edit ]
On 15 May 1916, 2,000 Austrian artillery guns opened a heavy barrage against the Italian lines, setting Trentino afire. The Austrian infantry attacked along a 50 km front. The Italian wings stood their ground, but the center yielded, and the Austrians broke through, reaching the beginning of the Venetian plain. With Vicenza about 30 km away, all the Italian forces on the Isonzo faced outflanking.
Cadorna hastily sent reinforcements to the First Army, and deployed the newly formed Fifth Army under Pietro Frugoni to engage the enemy in case they succeeded in entering the plain. And even though the Italians were holding the line, the situation was critical.
However, on 4 June, the Russians unexpectedly took the initiative in Galicia, where they managed to enter Austrian soil. Although they were effectively countered by German and Austro-Hungarian troops, Hötzendorf was forced quickly to withdraw half of his divisions from Trentino. With that, the Strafexpedition could no longer be sustained and the Austrians retired from many of their positions. Italian troops in the region were increased to 400,000 to counter the Austrian positions.
Although the Strafexpedition had been checked, it had political consequences in Italy: the Salandra Cabinet fell, and Paolo Boselli became the new Prime Minister.
References [ edit ]
Coordinates:It is a “miscalculation” to think that Beijing will not give up on North Korea, a leading Chinese think tank stated in a recent report.In the paper, the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the country’s top research institute in social sciences, said that “in 10 years, the key issue in North and South Korean relations will be the unification issue.”Pyongyang has to “dispel the miscalculation that China will not abandon North Korea, no matter what the situation,” in working toward future regional security and the reunification of the peninsula, it added.It is rare for Beijing’s leading policy think tank to raise the issue of unification so publicly, as China has traditionally regulated such discussions closely.While China previously expressed trepidation regarding the idea of a reunified Korea, the report appears to take the opposite view, promoting a forward-looking policy in regard to a possible reunification.This indicates that if regional security and the reunification of the Koreas are to China’s benefit, Beijing is ready to give up on North Korea’s strategic importance as a buffer between China and U.S. troops in South Korea.As the first year of Xi Jinping’s presidency comes to a close, the 2014 Asia-Pacific regional development report analyzed Beijing’s strategies and policies in the region over the next five to 10 years.There are three possible scenarios that could play out within the next decade on the Korean Peninsula, the report said: North and South Korea could be reunited, the status quo may be maintained or an armed clash could ignite.The |
for a moment, with her dog, to survey the memorial. A young child died yesterday after being left in a car in the parking lot of the caregiver. ( Rick Madonik / Toronto Star )
Woman charged in child’s gruesome death in hot car released on bail: DiManno Around 1 p.m. the superintendent smashed in the vehicle’s window, and the child was rushed to hospital but could not be revived.
Article Continued Below
In her brief appearance at the College Park courthouse Friday, Kosovac was dressed in a grey long sleeved T-shirt, her dark hair freely falling on her shoulders. She kept her gaze straight ahead, making just one passing glance back at the courtroom gallery that was packed with reporters. The Crown did not oppose bail, and Kosovac left the court flanked by officers. She put on dark sunglasses and didn’t utter a word or change her neutral expression as she left the building. Two other men accompanied her for the long, silent walk out of the courthouse.
A young child died after being found in a hot car in Etobicoke Thursday. Zeljna Kosovac, 50, is charged with criminal negligence causing death. ( Justin Greaves/Metroland )
One of them marched ahead and made several attempts to hail a cab before one stopped, amid the cameras of waiting journalists. Bail conditions for Kosovac’s release, on her own recognizance, include prohibited contact with the parents of the dead child, Justyna and Dariusz Adamski, supervision to be around children under 14, and a relinquishing of her passport within 12 hours of release. Toronto Police Const. David Hopkinson said that it was too early to say whether it was the temperature inside the car that caused the toddler’s death, but that the case serves as a stark reminder of the perils of hot vehicles. “It’s a horrible reminder,” he said of the case. Jolanta Pawlowsk lives just down the street from the family and had just found out what happened. “They are the nicest neighbours, the nicest family,” she said, adding the parents have another young son. “The boys were very, very, very well behaved and gentle.” Pawlowsk has lived there for 15 years and has known the family for as long as they’d been there, which was about three or four years. She got to know them because they often played in their front yard.
Residents of a nearby apartment building said the boy was found unconscious around 1 p.m. by a superintendent, who smashed in one of the car’s windows to rescue him. ( Justin Greaves / Metroland )
“I can’t imagine what they’re going through. How is it really possible to do something like this?” In the parking lot where the child was found, general contractor Roger Reynolds and his co-worker Lisa Taschuk stopped to pay their respects. They said they were working in the adjacent building all day Thursday and passed by the lot where the car was parked several times on their way to get coffee and lunch. They didn’t notice anything was amiss until the emergency crews arrived. “We knew something wasn’t right, with the brigade of emergency vehicles coming down the road,” Taschuk said. “You just don’t expect something like this to happen, but every year it seems to happen.” “The baby seat was sitting right here,” Reynolds said, gesturing to the sidewalk, steps away from the vigil. “When I got home, I hugged my four-year-old and just kept hugging. I didn’t sleep last night.
Teddy bears and remembrances now rest beside the spot where the child died. ( Rick Madonik/Toronto Star )
“I keep asking myself, could I do something like that?” Laying four white roses at the vigil and holding her eight-month-old son in her arms, Helen Ksiazek cried. She didn’t know the boy or his family, but lives down the road. “I’m overcome with so much sadness this happened. As a mother of a son, it is very upsetting,” she said, kissing her sons cheeks and stroking his head. Linda Canning and her son walked over from a neighbouring building and laid yellow carnations down in between stuffed animals and notes. She said she watched the scene unfold from her balcony yesterday. “I saw that car seat sitting there and it breaks my heart. We keep visiting the vigil because we want the family to know we are thinking of them,” Canning said. Larry Armstrong lives across the street from the building, and arrived with a bouquet of flowers and a prayer. “It just really hit me,” Armstrong said. “I wish I had a child of my own, and I don’t. I just feel so bad for the family.” After saying a prayer while dropping off the flowers, Armstrong said he’d continue to pray for the boy. “I just pray to God he didn’t suffer,” he said. Lisa Frenette brought her two young sons to pay their respects at the parking lot where the boy, not much older than either of them, died. The two brothers brought a brown stuffed bear and moose, with a red maple leaf stitched to their chests, to leave at the back of the building. With files from Star staff and the Canadian Press#ToonEnough Congrats to Toontown Rewritten on reaching 1 million players! pic.twitter.com/kr75xesRil — BriWood15 (@BriWood15) July 20, 2016
There's just one week left to grab a one-of-a-kind Toontown Member Mailer, and we want to make sure you don't miss out! This year's mailers contain three new trading cards from Series 4, as well as an official Toontown Postcard straight from Flippy himself.To guarantee getting your mailer, you'll need to have your envelope postmarked by. We've already sent out hundreds, and we would love to send out more as a thank-you to our many players!If you've already gotten your Toontown Member Mailer, we want to see it! Post it on our Facebook page, send us a Tweet, or tag it withto share a cool picture of your brand-new merchandise.Say, speaking of-- we ran a giveaway last week in celebration of reaching ONE MILLION players. The campaign was a huge success as we reached thousands of people to spread the word about Toontown!One lucky Tweeter,, posted a picture of one of the old Toontown Member Mailers that Disney used to send out. Their post was the one that was randomly selected in our drawing, which means we'll be sending an exclusive Toontown poster straight to them. Make sure to send a "Congrats" for winning!The giveaway was a huge success, so you can be assured that we'll be doing it again. If you missed out or are bummed that you didn't get the poster, be patient and you'll have another opportunity!Thanks for the support, Toons. As always, have fun in Toontown!When the Supreme Court declined to speak to software patenting in the Bilski case, there was wailing and gnashing of teeth in the open source software world. The new Bilski test for patentable subject matter looked at first like the status quo for software patentability. But, being the sort of person who tries to check clouds for a possible silver lining, I noted a possibility that courts and the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences would read the test to invalidate some software patents. Later I noted that there were a number of early decisions finding software unpatentable.
That trend is continuing in a good direction. A new study of the first full year of decisions applying Bilski to software confirms that the direction of the case law is toward finding software is not patentable subject matter. The study by Robert Greene Sterne and Michelle K. Holoubek is titled The Practical Side of §101 : One year post-Bilski: How the decision is being interpreted by the BPAI, District Courts, and Federal Circuit. [PDF] It contains brief summaries of 182 decisions of the BPAI, 6 federal district court decisions, and 3 Federal Circuit decisions. The majority of the BPAI and district court decisions concern software. And many of those software decisions apply Bilski to find that the subject matter is too abstract to be patented.
Sterne and Holoubek found that before the BPAI, in the 182 cases involving challenges on the grounds of non-statutory subject matter, the decisions rejecting patentability outnumbered those finding statutory subject matter by 2.5 to 1. Of the four district court decisions addressing software, all found the patents non-statutory. None of the Federal Circuit decisions plainly addressed a pure software claim.
The market for software patents is hardly dead. Indeed, as shown by recent transactions, including the princely sum ($4.5 billion) bid for Nortel's portfolio by Microsoft, Apple, and others, it's acting very healthy. But it could be coming down with something serious. Stay tuned.AMD came roaring into GDC 2013 with a vengeance. Not only did the chipmaker introduce its first branded line of dedicated cloud gaming graphics cards - the Radeon Sky Series - we got a taste of what it claims is the world's fastest GPU.
Attendees of a Tuesday night press conference saw the GPU, the Radeon HD 7990, make its first public appearance. Later, a set of 7990s powered EA's 17-minute introductory Battlefield 4 demo on the big screen.
And though Sony spent more time talking about the PS4's DualShock controller than AMD's chippy contributions at the conference, Neal Robison, director of ISV relations at AMD, was more than happy to lay it out for TechRadar.
"You don't know how long we've been waiting for that Sony announcement, because we've been working on it for years," Robison said during a sit down in AMD's expo booth. "To finally be able to talk about a culmination of all this effort is really rewarding."
PlayStation 4 parlance
AMD provided the console's CPU design - eight x86-64, low-power Jaguar cores - plus a next-gen Radeon HD graphics card said to have 18 compute units. Beyond putting two individual pieces of silicon into one game box, the company smooshed them together to create a single APU.
"It's not just about an x86 solution, but it's about that Jaguar APU where it's a combination of the graphics and CPU together and being able to create something that's greater than just putting an x86 PC-like architecture together," Robison explained.
Sony, he said, approached AMD based on the company's track record with the Xbox 360, Wii and other consoles, effectively skipping over Nvidia, which provided the chips for the PS3.
"[Sony's] approach - and they've said this publicly over the last couple of days here at GDC - was, 'We looked at some of the ways that we approached hardware in the past, and we wanted to improve.' And they looked at us as being able as being able to provide that."
AMD could provide an integrated solution through its APU that Nvidia couldn't, he continued, by optimizing information flows, generating greater performance, better power and heat efficiency, and by providing tools and dev relationships to provide the PS4 a strong launch.
"We could say, 'Hey look, these guys already know how to develop on a PC architecture.' It's something that's really familiar to them and we showed Sony the tool chains and the work flows that had been developed by all these content developers that would very easily be able to move over."
Critics' corner
In a recent interview with TechRadar, Nvidia's Tony Tamasi sized up the PS4's specs to "a low-end CPU, and a low- to mid-range GPU" when compared to gaming PCs. The console's innards, Tamasi said, are outdated even now, months before the PS4 launches during the 2013 holiday season.
"Well, of course they're going to do that," Robison said with a laugh when told of the comparison. "They're a little bitter."
He didn't neglect to give a more nuanced response.
"For us, really by looking at that APU that we designed, you can't pull out individual components off it and hold it up and say, 'Yeah, this compares to X or Y.'
"It's that integration of the two, and especially with the amount of shared memory [8GB of GDDR5, 176GB/s raw memory bandwidth] that Sony has chosen to put on that machine, then you're going to be able to do so much more moving and sharing that data that you can address by both sides.
"It's more than just a CPU doing all these amazing calculations and a GPU doing calculations. We are now going to be able to move certain tasks between the two."
Devs, he said, will be able to push the console's capabilities beyond a traditional x86 PC architecture, and multithreading - being able to take advantage of all eight cores - is going "to become a huge deal for a lot of the big blockbuster games."
Robison deflected when asked about AMD putting its stamp on Microsoft's next-gen console, the Xbox 720, but he noted that the company had "tremendous success" with the Xbox 360.
"It was a great partnership and we enjoy working with them," he said.
We get the sense that this relationship isn't cooling off anytime soon.
TechRadar will have more from our GDC conversation with Robison, so stay tuned.**This is an online game. In most cases, your child is playing with real people.** Please take a moment to understand how this game's person-to-person interaction functions. In the past, I have seen numerous stories of children who routinely disconnect mid-game because it's bedtime, or their parents decide that they've played enough for the day. Some of these stories have come from parents themselves, proudly stating that they are firm about making their children stop playing at a specific time. **While it is admirable that you are teaching children some responsibility to schedules, *please stop neglecting to teach them responsibility to other people*. ** Unless your child is playing a Custom Game, his actions will permanently affect the statistics of up to 9 other people. Don't enforce behavior that involves disregarding other people. Do you want your child being callous to people in face-to-face situations too? **The average game of League of Legends lasts over 30 minutes. *Many last close to an hour*.** When a game has begun, players have implicitly committed their time to each other until the game ends. **If you have given your child a strict cutoff time for play, do not allow him to begin a game if he has less than an hour left.** * Bedtime in 30 minutes? *Don't allow him to start a new game.* * Dinner in 45 minutes? *Don't allow him to start a new game.* **If a game is in progress, do not interrupt it unless it is an emergency. *You are affecting up to 10 people, not just your child*.** * Feel like checking your e-mail on the same computer? Please wait until the game is over so you don't completely ruin things for the real people on your child's team. * Is a game that started 90 minutes before bedtime somehow still in progress at 87 minutes? Please allow him to finish the match so you don't completely ruin things for the real people on your child's team. Games almost never last that long, and if people lose due to a teammate quitting after spending that much time on a match, they are likely to be more upset than usual. Now you're probably thinking, "But what if my child takes advantage of me and starts a game 5 minutes before bedtime because now I'll feel guilty about making him quit a game in progress?" I have an answer for that. Are you ready for it? It's a two parter. 1. **Let him finish the game.** This sounds like you're letting your child walk all over you, but please just let the game finish normally and follow through with step 2. 2. **Ground him.** You're the parent. Don't let him play League for a while. If your kid tries to exploit you, you don't have to stand for it. Step 1 is just about showing courtesy to other people and being responsible to the team. However, your child should definitely learn that there are consequences for all actions. If you are a parent and can't figure out why this is a problem, take some time to read [how people react to children prematurely abandoning games](http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/rl1BFa7j-if-you-afk-in-the-middle-of-a-ranked-game-because-its-past-your-bedtime). If you know any parents who make their kids leave mid-game on a whim, please direct them to this thread. === Update (Feb 16): First off, holy shit. That's a lot of activity. I didn't expect that Reddit link, but I'm not complaining. When I posted this, I was hoping to get a little debate flowing. I decided to avoid any input for a week since I knew it was potentially a self-sustaining topic and I wanted people discussing their views, not discussing me. That said, some people are basing their arguments on faulty assumptions of the person who wrote this and the motivation behind it, so here's some info. * I'm over 30. This isn't the rant of a kid who got tossed off the computer. * I'm unranked. This isn't about blaming my tier on leavers. If I cared about my rank, I'd have a rank. * As some people figured out, the issue isn't really LoL. Tying it to LoL gives it a common reference point to engage everyone here. * The suggestions given are not presented with the expectation that parents let everything take a backseat to a game in progress. Parents are responsible for their children's development. Some of the lessons taught are directly explained (e.g., look both ways before crossing a street), while others are learned by example (e.g., habits). In the LoL scenario, a parent constantly cutting a game in progress sets an example which suggests that other people's time doesn't matter (yes, this is an extreme view, and I will address that\*). The alternate action of waiting sets a different example which suggests that commitment is binding. Now, unless you're of the opinion that other people's time *is* worthless (a valid opinion, although many claim to oppose it), there's a clear winner between the two suggestions. \* In most cases, this is obviously *not* the lesson learned, but picking an extreme and declaring the other option "wrong" incites responses. Many, *many* responses, as it turns out. Ideally, parents wouldn't boot their kids off mid-game, time wouldn't be wasted, Lux could explain double rainbows to Paul Velasquez, and everyone would be happy. But let's be honest, reality is not ideal. There will always be reasonable causes to interrupt a game. So what the heck was the point? Context. Circumstances. These are things parents should consider *constantly*. Adopting a Zero Tolerance approach is lazy and counterproductive. Awareness and guidance (this includes punishments) through situational consideration take more effort, but your child will be better off for it. Did any parents read this? Obviously, yes. Some responded. Some agreed, some disagreed, some got downright defensive. The awesome part? The explanations. Regardless of opinion, taking the time to state your position and why means you've given some thought to the issue. Parental awareness? Yes, please. A few of my favorites: A mom > [{quoted}](name=Kitti,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=bEhf1EPt,comment-id=0018,timestamp=2015-02-07T14:47:32.440+0000) > > Personally as a Mom and Wife I understand the concept. If perhaps more parents played the games with there kids and see It would be easier. But as for me Yeah I let my kids or husband :D finish out there match prior to dinner or bed time. And its not just with league either my Oldest son does more TF2 than LoL And the rule for my kids for bed time around here.. well **They stop playing games around 30mins to an hour before bedtime then there is no issue of oh hang on mom I just need to finish this up..** a dad > [{quoted}](name=DaidJuice,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=bEhf1EPt,comment-id=0055,timestamp=2015-02-08T16:19:34.758+0000) > > I have kids, they are 12 and 10, they are named Rielly and Zoe. > > Rielly, my son, is 12 and loves to play league of legends. He has been told that I get off of work at 7PM every day so if its after 6PM he is not allowed to start a new game in case I need the computer. He doesn't get to play video games during the week at all unless all of his homework is done and there are no video games after 7PM during the week because that is family time. On the weekend he is allowed to play up to 3-4 games a day. Before he plays he is required to check with his mother or I to make sure there is time. > > Zoe, my daughter, is 10 and plays mostly on the WiiU because she is not really into League but she plays the crap out of Monster Hunter 3U. Hunts in that game can take up to 45min. She has the exact same guide lines as my son with the exception that if she can get through more hunts on the weekend its allowed because some of them are much shorter. > > Why do I do all of this? Mostly because they are goram kids and as their parent I knew that when I decided to have fun sexy times with their mom I was potentially taking on a huge responsibility. Turns out I have double the responsibility as I have two kids. > > And before there are snide comments about how I am probably some work from home or skum bag non working dad I will let you know... I work 40-50 hours a week as a manager at a cable company, I am going back to school at night (1/2 time) so I am not stuck their for the rest of my life, I play ~10 matches of league a week (not a lot and I know I am forever Wood 5), I am also a community manager for a website, and I personally stream 2 nights a week myself. > > The reality is that being a parent is hard work, probably the hardest work one will ever have to do. And shoving kids off into another room to play video games until the computer is needed or decide its time to scream at them and tell them to go to bed because tomorrow is another crap day at a crap job and the only control that exists is over the poor kids who had no choice of who they were born to is no way to parent. > > So as a parent I am here to say it is possible to follow the OP guidelines. It is not easy and if somebody is a single parent it gets exponentially harder. **But, being a parent is the hardest, and most rewarding thing, you will probably ever do... so deal with it.** and someone who disagrees with the original post > [{quoted}](name=Eleshakai,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=bEhf1EPt,comment-id=00c000000000000000000000,timestamp=2015-02-14T17:41:07.187+0000) > > But it's not my responsibility for punishing them for breaking other peoples' rules. They're following the rules I set for them, so for me to punish them would be wrong. The reality is that it is a parent's job to prepare their child for the world. In the world, the body whose rules you nbreak will punish you. Children should learn the REAL consequences of breaking rules, not 'fake' consequences. > > That's real parenting. **I would explain to the kid that if he leaves games he may lose his account and will almost certainly be punished as a result of Riot's rules... and then let him make a choice about how he wishes to do it. And I will only punish him if he breaks MY rules.** As for the PA comic, I laughed. I was disappointed that they got it wrong, but oh well. Not everyone gets a PA comic!
Title
Body Cancel
SaveWhat was supposed to be a nice trip to the beach, almost ended in disaster for the Ursrey family.
According to the Panama City News Herald, Roberta Ursrey noticed her sons were swept far from shore in yellow-flag conditions at a Florida beach. Yellow-flag conditions typically mean the water is rougher, however swimmers are allowed, but should be cautious.
“People were saying, ‘Don’t go out there,’” Ursrey told the Panama City News Herald.
Ursrey and her family swam out to rescue her sons and then they themselves could not get back to shore. There ended up being nine people stuck in 15 feet of water, including her mother who suffered a massive heart attack.
“I honestly thought I was going to lose my family that day,” Ursrey said. “It was like, ‘Oh God, this is how I’m going.’”
A passerby saw the family in distress and began forming a human chain with 80 people, extending 100 yards. They reached the family and were able to save all nine swimmers.People really like Kanye West --occasionally peculiar behavior and all. Young Thug named a song after him. Lily Allen admitted that her album title, Sheezus, was inspired by Kanye's Yeezus. He drops albums late and interrupts pop godesses during their acceptance speeches, but none of that has stopped his legions of fans from continuing to show support. Rock group Cradle of Filth don't belong to any of those legions.
Recently the group posted a picture of Yeezy wearing a Cradle of Filth shirt, seemingly indicating that he's a fan. Cradle of Filth made a fairly emphatic point that the feeling wasn't mutual when they captioned the photo, "Kanye West. Cradle Of Filth fan.
Fortunately not a collaborator." Ouch.
While Crade of Filth didn't elaborate on why, exactly, they were fortunate not to work with The Life of Pablo artist, it isn't hard to think of potential reasons. The same things that make Yeezy so endearing to fans--the spontaneity, the impassioned rants, his perceived lack of respect for some of his contemporaries, his bucking against cultural conventions--make him detestable to many others. Some people say he's arrogant, and considering that he has called himself a god on several occasions, they might not be far off.
Still, Kanye probably doesn't care, and there's evidence of that going back to College Dropout and Late Registration. On the latter album's track, "Bring Me Down," Yeezy raps, "Everybody feel a way about K but at least y'all feel something," indicating that he'd rather be a polarizing figure than a neutral one.Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Television audience ratings for U.S. TV host Conan O'Brien's first TBS program Conan last night were higher than rival Jay Leno and his late night program on NBC, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. O'Brien's ratings were also higher than CBS network's David Letterman, as well as Comedy Central programs hosted by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
Monday marked O'Brien's return to late night television after his departure as host of The Tonight Show on NBC following a dispute this year, in which Leno's program The Jay Leno Show was canceled after poor ratings, and NBC reinstated Leno as host of The Tonight Show.
Conan O'Brien is enjoying a sweet, sweet victory in the ratings. —The Hollywood Reporter
O'Brien's debut program featured guests including curator Arlene Wagner of the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum, actor Seth Rogen and actress Lea Michele. His guest schedule for Tuesday night's program included actors Tom Hanks and Jack McBrayer, in addition to music from the group Soundgarden.
The premiere of Conan was watched by over 4.1 million viewers. Nielsen ratings data made public today showed that Leno's program The Tonight Show was only watched by 3.5 million viewers, and Letterman's Late Show was seen by 3.4 million people. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report were watched by 1.3 million and 1 million viewers, respectively.
O'Brien announced his move to TBS, a cable channel founded by Ted Turner and owned by Time Warner, in April.
O'Brien's viewership trended towards younger people, with 2,451,000 individuals ranges from ages 18 to 34 – and 3,285,000 people in the 18 to 49 age demographic. Leno's The Tonight Show, in comparison, only drew in 950,000 people in the same younger demographic breakdown.
In an analysis of O'Brien's ratings win, Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times wrote, "the debut of 'Conan,' the new late-night show starring Conan O’Brien, got off to a strong start". James Hibberd commented for The Hollywood Reporter, "Conan O'Brien is enjoying a sweet, sweet victory in the ratings."
Related news
SourcesFormer Alabama and Oakland Raiders linebacker Rolando McClain, prior to retiring from the NFL at the age of just 24, "felt like Aaron Hernandez, like I just wanted to kill somebody," he said among other revealing things about the abrupt end of his playing career in a feature story by ESPN The Magazine.
The picture McClain paints of his life, with details never previously revealed, suggests he returned to Tuscaloosa, Ala., after retiring because it is the only place he has ever been able to stay out of trouble.
The NFL included.
Following his third arrest in his hometown of Decatur, Ala., earlier this year, McClain's self-destructive lifestyle led him to realize that he "would have ended up locked in a cage like an animal. That had to be the only outcome," he said.
The arc of McClain's pro career is a quick one: Drafted No. 8 overall by the Raiders in 2010, and given a rookie contract worth $40 million over five years, with $23 million guaranteed. In less than three seasons, he made headlines as much for trouble with the law as for his play, and fell out of favor with the Raiders so much that he was suspended and cut at the end of his third year. Shortly after signing a one-year contract with the Baltimore Ravens as a reclamation project, he was arrested in Decatur, Ala., on a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, then retired and moved to Tuscaloosa -- where he spent what he called the best years of his life while at Alabama.
According to McClain, he developed a disdain for pro football in part because of constant requests for money from family and friends in Decatur. On the day of his most serious arrest -- for discharging a firearm beside a man's head during an altercation -- McClain was in town for his grandfather's burial, and was irked to learn that his family had arranged for a $20,000 funeral, replete with limo service, to be paid by McClain.
"I was pissed off," he said.
As for his future in pro football, McClain simply said "probably," when asked if he planned to resume his playing career next season.
Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter @ChaseGoodbread.Historical homosexual convictions: plan to expunge criminal records in WA
Updated
Many of June Lowe's friends have a criminal record, just because they had homosexual sex before it was decriminalised in Western Australia in 1989.
So the long-time gay rights activist is excited that political momentum is building to clear their records of offences which no longer exist.
Last night, at a function to celebrate the Pride festival, WA Attorney-General Michael Mischin indicated he had the support of the Premier over his plan to expunge all historical homosexual convictions.
Mr Mischin said it was a symbolic and practical step towards equality.
"Work has been done on this to determine a 'best practice' model for achieving that end, and although I cannot commit Government by pre-empting any decision by Cabinet, the Premier has told me that he is supportive of that objective," he told the gathering.
His announcement brings the Government's position into line with the opposition, which pledged in August to quash the convictions under old anti-homosexual laws if elected in March next year.
The support of the two major parties makes it appear likely the required legislation will pass if it is introduced to Parliament after next year's election.
But it could still face potential hurdles in garnering the support of the Liberal Party room, particularly among conservative Christian MPs, and a new Parliament next year.
Regardless, Ms Lowe said the support of the Barnett government showed there had been a shift in attitudes towards discrimination against gays and lesbians.
"As a society we have moved forward enough that even the conservative parties feel comfortable with this," she said.
The move by Mr Mischin came after he was lobbied by the Law Society of WA in April.
In a submission, the society's president Elizabeth Needham pointed out that people with these convictions on their criminal record were still facing discrimination.
"In all likelihood, even after that conviction was spent, you would not ever be able to drive a bus, become a police officer, teach, voluntarily foster children or participate in any number of public services because you were once convicted, for all intents and purposes, for being homosexual," she wrote.
The New South Wales and Victorian parliaments have already passed legislation to expunge the offences from criminal records, while most of the other states and territories have signalled their intentions to follow suit.
Topics: lgbt, laws, law-crime-and-justice, community-and-society, discrimination, state-parliament, perth-6000
First postedOur record-busting summer 2011 continues to be an object of fascination to climate scientists all over the world. Alongside floods in Thailand, drought in Eastern Africa and the European heat wave, the driest, hottest year in recorded Texas history has provided a case study for gauging the influence of climate change on weather extremes.
Researchers from Oregon State University, the University of Oxford and Exeter scrutinized last summer and -- with data from 2008 (the most complete set we have) and comparable La Niña years in the 1960s -- ran them through a set of computer models. When they threw the results on a scatter plot, the spread was dramatic: Texas was 20 times more likely to see heat extremes in 2008 than in years with similar oceanic conditions in the '60s. They found much the same for drought.
"This suggests that conditions leading to droughts such as the one that occurred in Texas in 2011 are, at least in the case of temperature, distinctly more probable than they were 40-50 years ago," says the study in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.TNRI EXCLUSIVE
First Look at Google Chrome For Mac
Exclusive Screenshots
Manyusers were understandably peeved when's revolutionary new web browser, Google Chrome, was released as a Windows-only. The tech giant was awfully mum on when to expectandversions of Chrome; admitting that the lack of a Mac version was "embarrassing," Google co-foundersaid it could be "months" before one is released.
So what's the hold up? Well, no word yet on the Linux version, but a top-secret source tells me things aren't going so well over in the Mac division at Google HQ. Some of the killer features of the Windows version of Chrome, such as the "omnibar" and the new tab page, had to be ditched entirely because they were just "too hard" to implement on the Mac platform. Despite these setbacks, Google's Mac engineers are determined to make Google Chrome the best it can be and are diligently working around the clock to bring the cloud computing operating system of the future to the Macintosh.
I managed to score an exclusive sneak preview of the current beta of Google Chrome for Mac. My source warned me it was a work-in-progress and that there are still some bugs to be worked out. Boy, he wasn't kidding. Design-wise, Google Chrome for Mac is going in a completely new direction from Google Chrome for Windows. All I've got to say is, Google is definitely "thinking different" when it comes to the modern browser. Some exclusive screenshots of the yet-to-be-released browser after the jump.
Google's homepage looks pretty good in this Google-made browser, as should be expected.
Google's billion-dollar purchase, however, isn't looking too hot here.
Could Google be leveraging its power to make its competitors' sites look bad? "Don't be evil," indeed.
Yahoo-owned social bookmarking site Delicious barely even renders...
...while popular music-aggregating site last.fm doesn't render at all.
The new Facebook is bound to cause even more user outrage when Chrome for Mac is released.
Digg looks like shitt.
TechCrunch looks like TechCrap.
First impression: not bad, but certainly not replacing Firefox or Safari anytime soon. Bad news for developers, who will have to spend long hours making their sites look decent in yet another browser. Here's hoping Google can iron out these bugs soon.How badly do we need these in North America?
The world’s first-ever official Marvel Collection Store by Enter-6 has recently opened at Enter6 Park Avenue in Seoul, South Korea and Hot Toys is delighted to take part in this marvelous occasion!
When fans arrive at the entrance of EnterSix Department Store at the Wangsimni subway station, they will be captivated by Hot Toys’ ground-breaking 4m tall Hulk VS Hulkbuster life-size display.
To further enhance the Marvel experience, Hot Toys’ impressive Hulkbuster and Hulk life-size statues are displayed inside Enter6 Park Avenue. Upon arriving at the Marvel Collection Store, fans will be greeted by the stunning life-size statues of Iron Man Mark XLV, Ant-Man, Ultron Prime and Mark XLIII Artist Mix Designed by TOUMA as well as all the Hot Toys 1/6th scale collectibles, diorama, Cosbaby, and Artist Mix Bobble-Heads found throughout the spectacular store.Depending on the schedule, most Cup Series drivers spend their Saturdays either practicing, resting, fulfilling sponsor obligations or actually watching the XFINITY Series race.
But this Saturday, sandwiched between practice in the morning and qualifying this evening for Sunday’s Brickyard 400, Ricky St |
the chance to expand itself, launching a $50 million “inclusivity” initiative that included the creation a new deanship.
This is an unlikely alliance between corporate middle-management and self-styled student radicals, adolescent zealotry getting pimped by bureaucrats. And it’s playing out all over higher ed. Over the last two years, usually in response to some rash of undergrad intolerance, colleges and universities have hired about 75 new “diversity” administrators.
What happens in colleges matters. Students at Middlebury and Yale will go on to run the country, and the intellectual habits they pick up as undergrads will stick. With American politics now suffering toxic levels of incivility, we need these institutions to return to their real purpose.
Rob Montz is a fellow at the Moving Picture Institute. Find his work at: RobMontz.com. Check out his interview with TAC executive editor Pratik Chougule at Fearless Parent Radio: http://fearlessparent.org/free-speech-controversy-us-elite-universities-episode-104/The case for rooting for Iowa State basketball comes after a made shot by the opponent.
An example: Kansas' Perry Ellis scores early in the second half of last Saturday night's game in Ames. Iowa State's Georges Niang quickly gathers the ball out of bounds, and he quickly passes up the court -- down the left side past the near three-point line -- to guard Monte Morris. It's a made shot for the Jayhawks, and yet the Cyclones have numbers, a pseudo three-on-two fast break in which Kansas is a split second too slow to get back, and Morris' speed takes over. He glides down the court, attacks the rim and hits a lay-up before the Jayhawks defense can get set. No need for patience. No need for overthinking. Just get the ball and go.
Seven seconds after Kansas scored, Iowa State has already scored to respond. This is what the Cyclones do.
Mason had cut Iowa State's lead to 39-35. Three and a half minutes later, Iowa State is up 12, a margin that the Jayhawks were unable to fully erase the rest of the way, thanks in part to a couple more of these quick-response scenarios. Iowa State beat Kansas 86-81, finally knocking off the only visiting team to win in Hilton Coliseum since 2012, and it did so with exactly the kind of game it wants to have: 20 assists, 9-of-20 three-point shooting and a fast pace that led to 167 total points being scored.
College basketball keeps slowing down, and yet Fred Hoiberg, now in his fifth season as head coach after a stint as an NBA executive, is trying to drag it kicking and screaming back into a more palatable direction. For the benefit of all of us watching, may he succeed in doing it.
It's no secret that college basketball is mired in a tumultuous era. It's not quite a crisis -- casual fans are hardly avoiding the NCAA tournament -- but the sport faces an uphill battle, at least in terms of interest before March. The rash of one-and-dones and transfers makes building connections with teams difficult, for one, and that problem is compounded by the sluggish, conservative product being put on the court each night. It took only three days of the 2014-15 season for advanced stats guru Ken Pomeroy to predict that this could be the slowest college basketball season ever, continuing a frustrating trend after a move for officials to call tighter games -- therefore favoring the offense -- petered out toward the end of last season.
In an era of micromanaging and fewer possessions, Hoiberg, fortunately, continues to push the Cyclones. According to kenpom.com, Iowa State ranks second in shortest average offensive possession time and 15th in adjusted tempo. It averages 80 points per game, ranking 16th, and it ranks fifth in assist-to-turnover ratio. Despite losing Melvin Ejim and DeAndre Kane, productive rebounders who both averaged over 17 points per game, the Cyclones have climbed to ninth in the AP poll.
This is what we should want out of college basketball. No, not just an up-and-down-the-court track meet with no defense, but a willingness to push the tempo, be aggressive and let the players actually play basketball without a strict controlling of the minutiae of every single possession. Hoiberg trusts his players to run -- even though the Cyclones rotation is always a hodgepodge of veterans and transfers -- and the result is one of the most satisfying, watchable brands of basketball available. They are all about positional versatility, with a host of rangy players capable of scoring down low but also running and stretching defenses. Niang, a 6-foot-7 junior, is the best example of this as a matchup nightmare who can score down low but also draw bigger defenders away from the basket, allowing Iowa State to thrive in creating favorable matchups that, combined with the tempo, make opponents uncomfortable.
While Hoiberg is beloved in Ames and has had tremendous success in four and a half seasons as head coach, his methods have yet to translate into deep NCAA tournament success. It could have happened last year as a No. 3 seed, but Niang's Round of 64 broken foot dealt a severe blow to the team and helped lead to a Sweet 16 loss to eventual national champion Connecticut, the farthest the Cyclones have advanced thus far.
But a new team of transfers and mainstays is clicking again in 2015. Bryce Dejean-Jones, a 6-foot-5 graduate transfer from UNLV, averages 12.6 points per game and actually leads the team in rebounding (5.9 per game). And Jameel McKay, a 6-foot-9 a former juco star who wasn't eligible until January, has fit right in, averaging 9.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.8 blocks off the bench, improving the Cyclones' biggest weakness (a lack of size) while also showing that he can run the floor.
Let's go back to the Kansas game. Nearly 10 minutes after one quick response set off another run, Iowa State did it again. A Kelly Oubre dunk trimmed Iowa State's lead to four, but Iowa State responded even quicker than the earlier series: Niang passed in to Naz Long on the run, only this time McKay got a step on Kansas' defenders. Long led him perfectly for an emphatic dunk, sparking a 10-2 run that again gave the Cyclones another cushion.
via ESPN
Niang is the team's best player, but there is no star system here: Six players average between 9.8 and 14.8 points per game, and the Cyclones lead the nation in assists per game, moving fast and passing with a purpose. It has all pushed the Cyclones back into the top 10 as they compete to possibly end Kansas' streak of 10 straight regular-season Big 12 championships, in what may be the deepest league in the nation.
As usual, Iowa State's flaws aren't hard to identify. Even with McKay stepping in to provide desperately needed height, the Cyclones are still woefully undersized. They rank 267th in offensive rebounding percentage, and lockdown defense is hardly their focus. They can be streaky from long range too, which is a recipe for inconsistency that leads to things like a 64-60 loss to South Carolina in which they were 1-of-18 from beyond the arc.
Still, after beating Kansas State at home on Tuesday night, Iowa State is 4-1 in the rugged Big 12 with a win over Kansas, and beyond South Carolina its only losses are to No. 13 Maryland and No. 21 Baylor, both away from home. Despite losing Ejim and Kane, the Cyclones look a lot like last year's team, and if they stay healthy that could result in taking another step forward in March, competing for a Big 12 championship and also threatening to crash the Final Four.
It's something that any fan of the game should want. While Hoiberg alone can't solve college basketball's problems -- he, of course, has relied heavily on unfamiliar groups of transfers -- his NBA-influenced style of play is something to embrace. Coaching is a copycat profession, and the more something succeeds, the more it can catch on.
Thankfully, watchable basketball can still be successful.
* * *
Contact Matt at matt.brown5082@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @MattBrownCFB.The federal indictment against Martin Shkreli suggests a lot of things about the reviled 32-year-old CEO. Chief among them: He was great at convincing people to give him money, but not very good at investing it. And when it came time to pay people back, he repeatedly plundered his company to cover the losses.
Shkreli was arrested in his midtown Manhattan home early Thursday morning and perp walked before a crowd of photographers in a cozy-looking hoodie on his way to jail. Also arrested was Evan L. Greebel, a corporate attorney who served as outside counsel to Retrophil, one of the companies at the heart of the alleged fraud.
According to prosecutors, Shkreli tried his hand at investing several times over, all to disastrous results.
Between 2006 and 2007, authorities say, Shkreli had lost all the money that had been invested in his first hedge fund, Elea Capital Management, resulting a $2.3 million dollar default judgement to Lehman Brothers.
That information was omitted from investor pitches when Shkreli started his second hedge fund, MSMB Capital, in 2009. In emails, the US Attorneys Office alleges, Shkreli told potential investors the fund was liquid and monitored by independent CPAs. Neither of these assertions were true.
In the meantime, he kept raising money, telling a potential investor in November 2010 that the fund had assets worth $35 million.
“In fact,” the indictment alleges, “the value of assets in MSMB Capital’s bank and brokerage accounts totaled approximately $700.”
By February of 2011, the fund—which at its peak held about $3 million—had been depleted. Most of the money was lost in a February 2011 short sale of Orexigen Therapeutics (OREX). Shkreli, who failed to obtain enough shares to support the sale, lost around $7 million. Over the course of the fund’s lifetime, Shkreli also withdrew about $200,000, which he apparently used for personal expenditures.
Despite sending out regular updates declaring gains, the depleted MSMB Capital fund never traded again.
In the meantime, Shkreli began soliciting investors for a second fund, MSMB Healthcare. He managed to raise as much as $6 million, though he told potential investors the fund had $55 million in assets. That fund too, ended badly, in part because Shkreli allegedly used the money to pay off the debts he’d racked up with the first fund.
That’s where Shkreli’s pharmaceutical company, Retrophin, came in, authorities say. Through a series of backdated agreements, he converted a $900,000 equity investment MSMB had made in Retrophin into a loan, which he forced Retrophin to repay. Authorities say he used that money to pay off the debt he racked up with his disastrous OREX short sale.
But he still owed more money to the MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare investors. According to prosecutors, Shkreli made a series of fake investments into Retrophin to cover the losses, recording them on Retrophin’s capitalization table even though MSMB had never invested money in the company. These fradulent documents were signed off on by Greebel, who served as outside counsel to Retrophin.
After a November, 2012 inquiry from the SEC, Shkreli and Greebel decided to bolster the fake investments with backdated transfers with the help of three employees referred to in the indictment as “Co-Conspirator 1,” “Corrupt Employee 1,” and “Corrupt Employee 2”.
Emails sent during this period appear to support the government’s theory. In one email, the indictment alleges, Shkreli advised an employee that an agreement signed in November had actually been “signed in June.” The employee initially sent back a clearly redacted copy that had June written by hand over the redacted date. The indictment notes an accountant copied on the email read it and “exclaimed, ‘WT...F.’” The final copy of the agreement had a new cover page with the June date typed and no redactions.
When an external auditor found out what was going on, Shkreli and Greebel decided to pretend to make it right by promising MSMB would pay the money back. “The current thinking is let rtrx [Retrophin] pay, get a note from the fund and if the fund cant fulfill the note rtrx will write it off as bad debt,” Greebel advised in an email to Shkreli. “[On] current thinking: that works for me,” Shrekli responded.
But there were still investors waiting to be paid. In one case, Shkreli suggested using Retrophin’s money and disguising the $100,000 payments as a settlement. In emails, Greebel advised Shkreli that would attract undue attention from auditors and suggested Shkreli instead list the investors as consultants on Retrophin’s payroll. “Why does it need to be a consulting agreement??! Have you heard of the term settlement?” Shkreli wrote Greebel. “We can call it a settlement agreement, but given [the auditor’s] recent behavior, they may require it to be disclosed in the financials. I was trying to prevent that issue,” Greebel wrote back.
In all, the government says, Retrophin paid out at least $7.6 million in claims and compensation the company was never responsible for.
Retrophin filed a civil suit against Shkreli in August alleging many of the same clains and according to Newsweek, he’s known he was the subject of a criminal investigation since at least January. And that was all before he purchased a lifesaving drug for AIDS patients and jacked up the price by 4,000 percent. What a surprise this guy turned out to be an asshole.
You can read the entire indictment here:Members of Congress take a few weeks off for the winter holidays, and in the process, party leaders in both chambers use the time off to prioritize. When lawmakers return refreshed, eager to get the new year off to a strong start, what should be at the top of the to-do list?
Senate Democrats and the White House are focusing primarily on extending federal unemployment benefits, helping struggling families keep their heads above water while giving the economy a boost. Indeed, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will bring a temporary extension to the floor early next week and the White House is lobbying in support of the bill.
GOP leaders in the lower chamber have a very different priority
House Republicans will kick off the second session of the 113th Congress next week by voting on another bill to undercut the president’s health care law. In a memo sent to Republican colleagues on Thursday, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., announced that the chamber would take up a measure next week to “strengthen security requirements” on the error-plagued HealthCare.gov website and “require prompt notification in the event of a breach involving personal information.”
The Majority Leader added, “American families have enough to worry about as we enter the new year without having to wonder if they can trust the government to inform them when their personal information – entered into a government mandated website – has been compromised.”
That’s nice rhetoric, I suppose, and it certainly dovetails well with the coordinated Republican effort, complete with carefully staged “ field hearings,” to raise fears about health care and security. It’s obvious that GOP officials really put a lot of thought into their multifaceted public-relations plan.
But it’s nevertheless a reminder about Republican lawmakers’ indifference to substance and governing.
Listening to Cantor yesterday, one might assume security requirements at healthcare.gov are a legitimate area in need of congressional attention. But those assumptions would be wrong – there have been no security breaches ; literally zero Americans’ personal information has been compromised; administrative security testing for healthcare.gov is constant; and when rare vulnerabilities have popped up, the problems have been identified and resolved quickly and safely.
House GOP leaders know all of this. It’s not a well-kept secret.
So why would Cantor go out of his way to make this the #1 post-holiday priority for the House of Representatives? Especially when there’s so much real work to do? Because GOP officials are eager to scare consumers – if Americans are worried about non-existent security problems, maybe they’ll think twice before enrolling for coverage and participating in the system. And if consumers can be convinced to steer clear of signing up for insurance, it’ll undermine the federal care system overall, which would satisfy the GOP’s unhinged ideological goals.
The House Republican health care agenda is, in other words, predicated on ham-fisted demagoguery.Posted by Charlie, under NOTEBOOK
:: For immediate and premature release. ::
Famed Humorist Found with Banana in Compromising Position
Noted author, designer, illustrator and humorist, Andy Herald, was found this morning in a compromising position with a tropical fruit. Herald, a native Los Angeleno and pious wearer of iPod/iPhone earbuds, is well-known for his “instructional diagrams” and use of coffee-blood transfusions. This marks the first scandal of this kind for the content creator.
Little is known about what prompted the lewd act with the banana, or when the relationship began, but the Los Angeles Times has full coverage:
READ THE ARTICLE HERE!
We reached out to Mr. Herald for comment, but he was unavailable for response. Representatives for Andy, co-founder of HowToBeADad.com, have issued the following statement:
“OOohhh ohhah hahhh ahhhhha hhahahhh hahaha hahhh oooh.”
We are currently working on a translation for the statement since his agents and publicists are all monkeys.
One thing is for sure, this is certainly not going to be the last time Andy Herald appears in the public eye. His work has been seen by millions and outlets like ABC, HLN, Huff Post and more have reported on HowToBeADad.com. This past year, he co-authored a book with Random House, and brands are clamoring to work with the digital ninjagurumavendivaexpert.
Herald is a writer, humorist, digital wizard and co-founder of HowToBeADad.com, a site with over 500,000 aggregate social followers and around a million pageviews per month. Mostly from his mom. But his mom is really cool.Illustration of the road of the future. Arup/The Telegraph
Smart cars and vehicle-to-vehicle communication
Cars of the future will be smarter and safer. They will be able to monitor the alertness of the driver and communicate with each other to avoid collisions. On-board computers are already creating a huge amount of data and as big data analytics improve, further trends and inefficiencies will be identified.
Vehicles will also be able to communicate with each other about traffic, weather and road conditions and warn the driver about potential safety hazards. In the future, systems could automatically take over braking or steering if they sense an imminent accident. Advanced sensors within the vehicle could also monitor a driver's heart rate, eye movements and brain activity to detect issues ranging from drowsiness to a heart attack.
Driverless vehicles
Google
Google's self-driving vehicles have shown that they can recognize and respond to roadworks, level crossings, complex intersections and a variety of communications with cyclists. For example, using laser imaging, the car can recognise a cyclist waving his hand, will expect the cyclist to move over and will not pass until it is safe to do so.
In 2014, Google launched their first scratch-built driverless car; the vehicle has no steering wheel or pedals, and a top speed of 25mph (40km/h). The company aims to build 100 of the electric vehicles for testing. The cars will be equipped with two buttons — one to start the vehicle and one for panic stop.
Driverless car interiors
Driverless vehicle technology means that passengers could spend their time in a more meaningful way whilst travelling. As the focus will be internal to the vehicle, there will be more emphasis on the passenger experience.
Swiss company Rinspeed has proposed one vision of this driverless future with its Xchange concept car. Rinspeed transformed the interior of an electric Tesla Model S with seats that swivel, tilt and slide into 20 positions, a wide-screen television in the rear and an Italian espresso maker in the centre console.
Drone delivery system
Matternet US company Matternet is designing a drone delivery network for regions, particularly in low-income countries, where a road network doesn't exist or is unreliable. In such areas, lightweight, autonomous drones could be the fastest and most cost-effective method for delivering food, medicine, and other necessities to isolated communities.
Matternet proposes a system of base stations where drones could rapidly switch batteries or payloads with other drones and then continue through the network of base stations to their drop-off or collection point. According to Matternet, this cheaper and more environmentally friendly transport system could be a substitute for expensive investments in road infrastructure.
Synchronized traffic signals
Los Angeles, USA, is the first major city in the world to fully synchronize all its traffic signals. The Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control system is one of the world's most comprehensive traffic systems for alleviating traffic.
The city has synchronized all 4,400 of its traffic signals by using magnetic sensors in the road to measure the flow of traffic. The system also uses cameras and a centralized computer system which receives information from the sensor network and automatically makes adjustments to traffic flow.
Solar roadways
Solar Roadways
The Solar Roadways project, the brainchild of Scott and Julie Brusaw, aims to replace standard asphalt roads, parking spaces, pavements and bike paths with advanced solar panels that generate clean and renewable power. The panels also contain LED lighting, heating elements to melt snow, inductive charging capability for electric vehicles while driving, and even some storm water management abilities. The project more than doubled its original crowdfunding goal of US$1 million through site Indiegogo, raising US$2,200,886 to take it to the next phase of development.
Smart and dynamic highways
Snowflakes, temperature sensitive roads and glow in the dark lighting. The Smart Highway, by Studio Roosegaarde and civil engineering firm Heijmans, is a concept to develop more dynamic highways. The aim is to make roads that are safer and more sustainable by using interactive lights, smart energy and road signs that adapt to specific traffic conditions.
Automated bicycle storage
In Tokyo, where space is at a premium, Japanese construction company Giken has developed an underground bicycle park for secure storage and to relieve street clutter.
Members place their bike on a runway and use a membership card to access the parking. The automated system then conveys the bike to a slot underground in 15 seconds. Bikes are retrieved and returned to users in a similar amount of time.
Self-healing concrete surfaces
Researchers at the University of Bath, Cardiff University and the University of Cambridge are working on a self-healing concrete that uses bacteria to seal cracks that can lead to decay and collapse. The aim is to create a concrete blend containing bacteria in microcapsules that will germinate if water seeps through a crack.
The bacteria will produce limestone as they multiply, sealing the crack before the water can cause structural damage. Self-healing concrete could vastly increase the life of concrete structures, remove the need for repairs, and reduce the lifetime cost of a structure by up to 50%. As over 7% of the world's CO2 emissions are due to cement production, extending the lifetime of structures and removing the need for repairs could have a significant environmental impact.
Automated, space saving car parks
Volkswagen's car towers at Autostadt in Wolfsburg, Germany, are 60m tall parking towers of glass and galvanized steel. They house 800 cars and are connected to the Volkswagen factory by a 700m underground tunnel. In the vertical carparks, cars are lifted into position via mechanical arms that move vehicles in and out of their bays at a speed of two metres per second.
Eito & Global Inc is a Japanese company that makes circular automated Robot-ParkTM parking systems which can accommodate the same number of cars in less than half the space of surface parking. The company also makes cylinder-shaped automated underground parking facilities that are earthquake resistant and cheaper to build than conventional garages.
These are form part of a report on the future of highways by engineering company Arup.Southern Methodist Mustangs forward Semi Ojeleye (33) and forward Ben Moore (00) react to a basket in the first half against the Cincinnati Bearcats at Moody Coliseum. (Photo11: Tim Heitman, USA TODAY Sports)
SMU head coach Tim Jankovich is comfortable to report that not much has changed with his program.
Since taking over in July after four years as the coach-in-waiting under Hall of Famer Larry Brown, Jankovich says much of the culture and philosophyremain the same. And the goals — staying atop the American Athletic Conference and as a top-25 team that plays in the NCAA tournament regularly — are all the same, too.
However, his players have noticed the slight change between coaches.
"When coach Brown left, everyone was shocked," SMU forward Semi Ojeleye says of Brown leaving the program with one year left on his contract. "But coach Jank had been there all along. We all knew the change wouldn't be too big. They're both great basketball minds who were always on the same page. But the biggest difference, for me, is that (Jankovich) lets us play more freely. That's allowed us to grow this year big time."
Ojeleye also says Brown has remained in close ties with the team, serving as a mentor from afar as Jankovich steers the program to elite status. Yet the upward trajectory hasn't been easy because sanctions still handcuff Jankovich. SMU will lose four scholarships over the next two seasons as a result of NCAA sanctions under Brown; the Mustangs lost nine total. SMU's main annual goal of playing in the NCAA tournament — and going far — wasn't an option last season, when the Mustangs finished second in the AAC, because they were banned from the postseason by the NCAA.
Currently ranked No. 21 in the coaches poll, sitting atop the American standings — narrowly ahead of Cincinnati — and as a projected No. 7 seed in USA TODAY Sports' bracketology, SMU (24-4, 14-1) looks poised to get back to the Big Dance. Jankovich notes that his team's motivation is more of a renewed sense of hunger, though.
Southern Methodist coach Tim Jankovich says the transition from associate head coach to head coach has been "natural." (Photo11: Brian Losness, USA TODAY Sports)
"We talked about it beginning of year, but we don't revisit it and say, 'Hey remember when we couldn't play in (the NCAA tournament) last year?" Jankovich says. "I would say, we're very hungry to get to the tournament. But who isn't? Is there a little extra? I'd say there's a tiny, tiny bit. But I think we'd be playing with the same sense of urgency whether we went last year or not."
That sense of urgency is necessary for an elite team in the AAC, a conference the NCAA selection committee hasn't exactly respected in the past. Even though Connecticut won the national title in 2014 as a No. 7 seed and Tulsa was a surprise at-large bid last season, the seeding and inclusion of teams in the tournament haven't always been favorable. In 2014, for instance, the Mustangs were the most notable bubble team snubbed by the committee, and they went on to finish as the NIT runner-up.
The committee also hasn't been kind to Jankovich as a head coach. In his first season as head coach at Illinois State, the Redbirds were one of the "first four out" by national bracketologists in 2008's NCAA tournament. He took the team to four NITs in five seasons but has never been to the NCAA tournament as a head coach, including three seasons as the head coach at North Texas in the mid-1990s before serving as an assistant at Illinois and Kansas under Bill Self.
"I think if you ask any coach across the country, they'll tell you their conference deserves more respect than it gets," Jankovich says. "I would fall right into that category. As far as how we're perceived, I don't follow much outside our walls. It's hard to see us as under-the-radar because we're nationally ranked."
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Calling SMU underrated only feels necessary because the program, which has won 25 games in each of the past three seasons, has had its regular-season success overshadowed by omissions from the postseason. The one season SMU made the NCAA tourney, its first trip since 1993 as a No. 6 seed in 2015, the Mustangs were upset by UCLA on a controversial goal-tending call.
Jankovich is fully aware that a breakthrough has to take place in March Madness and not in the raucous, celebrity-frequented Moody Coliseum in Dallas, where the Mustangs are 23-0 under Jankovich — which encompasses the nine games he coached while Brown was serving an NCAA suspension last season. SMU has lost only four of 70 home games since the start of 2013-14.
"When you get to the tournament, it has very little to do with the name and school you play for and it's more of, 'Does your style fit their style?' It's about matchups, and I think we can be a hard matchup for a lot of teams," Jankovich says. "This group thinks big, which I love. But we keep reminding ourselves that our (regular-season) success is all wonderful, but we're trying to do bigger than that."
Southern Methodist Mustangs guard Ben Emelogu II (21) and guard Sterling Brown (3) celebrate the win against the Houston Cougars in the second half at Hofheinz Pavilion. (Photo11: Thomas Shea, USA TODAY Sports)
SMU, riding a 10-game winning streak, is particularly stellar on defense this season, limiting opponents to 58.9 points a game to rank third nationally in points allowed. The Mustangs also feature a wide arsenal of wing players, and Jankovich essentially starts five guards. After losing 6-11 big man Harry Froling, who transferred to Marquette, in mid-December, the team's identity has been guard-oriented. Its tallest player in the starting lineup is 6-8 senior Ben Moore (11.6 ppg, 8.4 rpg), who plays like a guard.
"Because of our personnel, I think we're a bit unconventional," Jankovich says. "We don't have one guy who is a point guard or a traditional big guy. We have seven scholarship players (due to the NCAA recruiting punishment) and they're all about the same size on the wing. They're all guards to me. Then there's an amazing chemistry and maturity with this group in terms of being united. Are we deep? Not really, but I'll take that liability and keep all our other assets."
Ojeleye, a Duke transfer, is one of those assets as a 6-7 wing. He's averaging a team-leading 18.3 points and 6.7 rebounds a game.
“We have guys who can all handle the ball, dribble, pass and shoot which allows us to get rid of pressure on offense and easily switch ball screens on defense," Ojeleye says. "When we give up size, we trap in the post and then take advantage of mismatches on offense. What we give up on the inside, we more than make up for by taking advantage of matchups."
NCAA TOURNAMENT BUBBLE TEAMSWant these election updates emailed to you right when they’re published? Sign up here.
Hillary Clinton continues to gain ground in our presidential forecast, as it becomes clearer that last week’s debate was a turning point in the race. In fact, the polls we added to our database on Tuesday may have been Donald Trump’s worst since the debate. They included surveys showing Clinton leading Trump by 9 percentage points and 10 points in Pennsylvania, by 6 points and 2 points in North Carolina, and by 3 points in Nevada.
These polls contribute to an impressive streak for Clinton, who has trailed in just one of 25 swing state polls conducted since the debate. Her chances of winning the election are up to 75 percent in our polls-only model, her best position since Aug. 30, and 71 percent in our polls-plus model. Those forecasts assume that Clinton currently leads Trump by slightly more than 4 percentage points nationally, which may be on the conservative side as Clinton’s lead has tended to grow as additional post-debate polls have been added to the model.
One particular area of concern for Trump is North Carolina, where the polls we added on Tuesday were the fourth and fifth since the debate to show Clinton ahead there. They also had favorable trend lines for Clinton, with SurveyUSA showing her with a 2-point lead rather than a 4-point deficit in their early August poll, and Elon University showing her up by 6, instead of down by 1 point in their mid-September poll.
North Carolina is not a state where you want to be trailing in the polls in October, hoping for a late comeback. That’s because it typically has high rates of early and absentee voting. In 2012, for example, about 60 percent of ballots in North Carolina were cast before Election Day. Absentee voting is already underway there, while in-person early voting begins on Oct. 20.
Our forecast models, which don’t make any specific assumptions about early voting, see North Carolina as being important for another reason. Namely, because of the state’s demographics, it acts as a potential hedge for Clinton in the event of a collapse in her support among white voters without college degrees, especially in the Midwest. That’s why our models show North Carolina as the fourth-most important state, ahead of more heralded ones such as Ohio and Colorado.
To back up for a moment, one of the most important features of a presidential forecast is how it handles correlations between states. Take a hypothetical example of an election between the candidates Kang and Kodos, in which Kang has 268 electoral votes locked up, Kodos has 263, and it all comes down to Rhode Island and Delaware. Kodos must win both Rhode Island and Delaware in order to be elected president. If Kodos’s chances are 50 percent in each state, then what are his chances overall?
The answer is … you can’t say yet, because I haven’t told you how Delaware and Rhode Island are correlated. There are three main possibilities:
If the vote in Rhode Island is completely independent from the vote in Delaware, Kodos needs to win the equivalent of two coin flips, and his chances are 25 percent. If they always vote together — as goes Rhode Island, so goes Delaware — Kodos will either win both states or lose both, and so his chances are 50 percent. And if they’re perfectly anticorrelated — Rhode Island hates Delaware’s guts, and always votes the opposite of Delaware just to prove the point — Kodos can’t win both states and his chances are zero.
We’ve spent a lot of time exploring this question at FiveThirtyEight. And the empirical answer is closest to No. 2, with No. 1 being the runner-up. That is, the states are positively, but not perfectly, correlated with one another. This ought to be fairly intuitive. If on Nov. 8, you learn that Trump has won Wisconsin despite having been behind in the polls there, you should assume it’s more likely than not that Trump has beaten his polls elsewhere, but especially in states that are demographically similar to Wisconsin, such as Michigan and Minnesota.
That’s how FiveThirtyEight’s forecast models work. They assume that states are partly — in fact, mostly — correlated with one another. That’s part of the reason our electoral vote distributions look slightly clumpy, with groups of states varying together, and also have “fat tails,” which represent cases where there’s a massive polling miss and Clinton or Trump outperform their numbers almost everywhere:
An important feature of this correlation is that it helps the trailing candidate’s chances. Say that by Election Day, Trump isn’t quite dead in the water, but Clinton has Pennsylvania, Colorado and most of her “firewall” states locked up. Trump has to win each of five remaining tossup states — New Hampshire, Florida, North Carolina, Nevada and Ohio — in order to become president, with 50 percent chances in each one.
This is just like the Kang and Kodos example. If you imagine these states as being five independent coin flips, Trump’s odds are really long — just 1 chance in 32 that all five coins come up heads for him. But if the coins are perfectly correlated with one another — maybe there’s some master coin that moves all five states together, and all he needs to do is for that one coin to come up heads — his odds are 1 in 2.
(Deep breath.) OK, back to North Carolina. As I just mentioned, correlation is a risk to Clinton because it allows Trump to win by the “master coin” scenario in which all of the swing states move in the same direction. So she would rather have a diverse group of swing states that are less correlated with one another and less likely to move together.
North Carolina serves that purpose, because it’s a little different than most of the other swing states. Its mix of voters — a combination of college-educated whites (and college students) in Charlotte and the Research Triangle, African-Americans, and often very conservative white evangelicals elsewhere in the state — is distinctive. All right, it fairly closely resembles Virginia and Georgia, although both are barely even swing states at the moment.. But it isn’t similar to Midwestern states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, which have a far higher proportion of white voters without a college degree. This is particularly true if you also consider religion: the noncollege whites in North Carolina tend to be evangelicals, whereas the Midwest has a lot of groups like middle-class white Catholics.
Our model needs to be more precise about this — so it infers the correlations between states by evaluating polls like this one that contain demographic information on more than 100,000 voters. Specifically, it evaluates religion, race, region, party and education; these are some of the major dividing lines in American presidential elections. The result is a correlation matrix that looks like this:
As you can see in the chart, the model assumes that all states’ outcomes are positively correlated. But some are much more correlated than others. In particular, the Midwestern swing states are liable to behave similarly to one another. There are other interesting correlations too — |
meet its intended target.
#3GAuction is slower than Internet Explorer and PTCL Broadband but misbah still wins :) — Jao Muh Dho Ja Kr (@hassanthegr8) April 23, 2014
So no change in bids for round 5 and 6. Is this the saturation point? #3gAuction #Pakistan — Faizan Qureshi (@faizanqur) April 23, 2014
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4:35pm
@WajSKhan @Goshno @arif_isf all bidders have 3 waivers each. We await next round bids and once all waivers run out I think it should end… — Omar Manzur (@isloodiaries) April 23, 2014
3:55pm
According to the PTA website, the results have not changed after Round 5.
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2:55pm
Round 5 results are expected at 3:45pm.
The market talk is that the PTA is looking good for $1.3 billion.
With free tea and snacks available at the event, the atmosphere at the auction is festive and the PTA chairperson looks upbeat as he mingles with the attendees.
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2:45pm
Round 4 saw bidding only for Block A, in which the bid increased by $6.02 million.
This brings the total bid of all four blocks at end of Round 4 to $902.82 million, a total increase of $17.82 million from Round 1.
There is still no interest shown in Blocks B and C.
Considering how slowly the auction is moving, it might go on for another day.
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2:30pm
According to an information and communications technology (ICT) expert, the auction is going according to PTA’s expectations and the government is likely to generate revenue between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion.
The expert added that currently the operators are bidding on 10MHz blocks (A and D) and once the the companies feel they could lose out in the bid, they will then switch to the 5MHz blocks (B and C) which have not shown any change throughout the three rounds.
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2:12pm
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2:07pm
PTA chairperson while speaking to The Express Tribune said he is hopeful that the government will raise at least $1.1 billion from the auction.
The telecommunication officials also said that the auction may be extended till tomorrow or even day after it.
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2:00pm
After #3GAuction it'll take years for #Pakistan to actually get #3G, nations at the same time would've moved to more newer techs like 5G LTE — Anonymous (@AnonymousPKT) April 23, 2014
Bidding to continue till we get a winner. Auction can enter into second day, or even third day as well. #3gAuction http://t.co/CpoDGQQYb4 — Zohaib (@Iwantmzr7back) April 23, 2014
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1:55pm
The results of the spectrum auction will determine whether or not the auction was a success. But for PTA this is a big test – after all this is the job PTA’s chief and his team were trusted with by the finance ministry.
In his budget speech for fiscal 2014, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had set a target of $1.2 billion under non-tax revenues, which was supposed to be earned from the auction of 3G licences.
Dar went one step further in January this year and said the government was expecting to raise $2 billion from the auction, which was later reduced to $1.3m after the absence of any new entrant.
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1:47pm
The fourth round of bidding is underway and the results are expected around 2pm.
4G technology has already been deployed in 101 countries.
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1:25pm
In the third round, PTA received a total bid of $896.8 million. The bid for lot A increased by $5.9 million. The results can be viewed below:
3G and 4G Spectrum Auction going on, results are good at stage 3 http://t.co/PcO5a3mlMx — Armando Ali Handroo (@ShaukatAliY) April 23, 2014
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1:15pm
If one of the four bidders – who are each bidding for four blocks – bids higher on a second block, they will get that too. This means that one company can lose out in the auction.
Therefore, all bidders have to be careful when they keep their bids the same in each round – in case someone swoops in and bids higher for the block they are bidding the base price for.
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1:00pm
The bidding for the third phase of the auction is ongoing and the result is expected to be announced at 1:30pm.
3G/4G auction underway in #Pakistan. Lots of suits here. pic.twitter.com/G07casRiSc — Nosheen Abbas (@Goshno) April 23, 2014
Late but much needed #3G & #4G Auction in #Pakistan … History in the Making. Pakistan can produce many future Tech Gaints! #TechChilla — Kamran Y. Khan (@IMKamiKhan) April 23, 2014
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12:45pm
Expressing their frustration, some of the people seem to be bored with the auction drama and cannot wait to find out the result of the spectrum auction.
Bored with this auction woction drama – can I just have 3G on my phone now?! — Samra Muslim (@samramuslim) April 23, 2014
For an all-electronic auction, we sure as hell know how to waste time. Tea break, lunch break, 11 o clock starting time. — Abdullah Saad (@kursed) April 23, 2014
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12:35pm
The second phase of bidding is also complete. There has been an increase in the total bid as compared to the first phase of bidding. The results can be viewed below:
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12:30pm
The CEOs of telecom companies participate in the spectrum auction from their offices.
CEOs of #telecom companies participating in #3G auction from their offices pic.twitter.com/OMw4qvcUOP — Mudassir Jehangir (@mjmufti) April 23, 2014
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12:20pm
The PTA Chairperson Syed Ismail Shah addresses the attendees at the spectrum auction.
Chairman PTA addressing #3G auction session. Auction starts after this. Bravo Ismail Shah pic.twitter.com/XRGtMo1eKa — Mudassir Jehangir (@mjmufti) April 23, 2014
A lot excitement and buzz can be seen at the Marriot hotel in Islamabad at this historic moment.
At the Marriott #3g auction. Lots of excitement & buzz. Full house with attendees from #mobilink and other celco's. pic.twitter.com/U3ft18RFCn — Omar Manzur (@isloodiaries) April 23, 2014
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12:10pm
PTA has organised the viewing of online bidding at Marriot in Islamabad. As big screens flicker with bidding activity, journalists, politicians and members of civil society gather together to witness what many called a historic moment.
The successful auction of 3G and 4G spectrums is expected to create more than 900,000 jobs in the country’s telecom sector.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
12:00pm
According to RadioPakistan, PTA has received $885 million in the first phase of bidding for the 3G and 4G auction.
The first phase of bidding for 3 & 4 G spectrum license auction has been completed, in which PTA has received 885 million US dollars offers — Radio Pakistan (@RadioPakistan) April 23, 2014
#PTA has received offers beyond base price on completion of first phase of 3 and 4G spectrum licenses auction: Chairman PTA Dr. Ismael Shah — Radio Pakistan (@RadioPakistan) April 23, 2014
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11:50am
It is hoped that next generation mobile services will enable higher GDP growth and introduce more innovative e-services, such as E-medicine and E-education.
The deployment of 4G technologies will also provide our engineers and technician opportunities to acquire the latest skills and become competitive in the international market.
Stage backdrop for PTA 3G auction seems like it was designed 15 years back #Pakistan pic.twitter.com/RJlJ4Kjug0 — Hassan Naqvi (@shznaqvi) April 23, 2014
3G 4G auction. oh god, what are we doing when the poor can't even buy tomatoes? #Eh — Madam Speaker Sherni (@mahobili) April 23, 2014
Most probably Telenor and Mobilink would be coming up with the highest bids, followed by Zong and Ufone. Warid stays behind. — Umer Mukhtar (@umerspeaks) April 23, 2014
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11:40am
The auction is being carried out under the Simultaneous Multiple Round Ascending (SMRA) mechanism.
Under the SMRA mechanism, all lots are auctioned simultaneously over a series of rounds. Bids are submitted on individual lots at the announced prices in each round, at the end of which a standing high bidder is identified for each lot.
The standing high bidder is committed to the lot and cannot withdraw – he is only released when outbid by another bidder. When a lot receives at least one bid, the price for the lot increases in the next round.
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11:35am
All four bids for the 3G auction have been committed. The bidding for the auction of the 4G spectrum will now start.
More than 160 countries have already launched 3G mobile services including Afghanistan.
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11:20am:
People on twitter express disappointment over the fact that Warid – one of the main telecom companies in Pakistan – is not participating in the auction.
Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone and Zong taking part in the bid to secure their 3G and 4G licenses. Where is @OfficialWarid? — Tanvir Hussain (@TanvirH) April 23, 2014
Ufone, Mobilink, Telenor and Zong, all four are bidding for 3G and Im here using Warid. Just converted to it 3 months back! =( — Hassan Zia (@Hzia24) April 23, 2014
The four obviously being Ufone, Mobilink, Telenor and Zong. Warid misses out. — Emad Zafar (@EmadZafar) April 23, 2014
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11:10am
All the four existing telecom companies who had submitted bids 3G and 4G spectrum licences had qualified for the auction.
After scrutiny of submitted bids, China Mobile (Zong), PTML (UFone), Mobilink and Telenor Pakistan qualified for the bidding. Warid, the fifth local telecom operator, did not participate in the bidding process.
Today is D-Day or in #Telecom terms 3G/4G day. Bidding has started & Telenor, Mobilink, Ufone & Zong are participating. #3gAuction #Pakistan — Wajahat Kazmi (@kazmiwajahat) April 23, 2014
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11:00am
Number of active 3G subscriptions have surpassed one billion, according to experts. Third-generation mobile services is now a decade old technology.
People on twitter question why it took Pakistan so long:
So auction for 3G & 4G started today!!! Why did it take us 2-3 years to do it?? No one answerable!! No one questionable #ThisIsPakistan — Amjad Ali (@mrcruizy) April 23, 2014
10:55am
The base prices for 3G and 4G licences have been set at $295 million per 10MHz and $210 million per 10MHz respectively.
3G & 4G Auction, #Pakistan finally to jump into the league of the extraordinary internet speeds ;) — Elie Gohar Durrani (@khaneliegohar) April 23, 2014
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10:50am
The first phase of the auction has begun.
In order to ensure transparency, the PTA has decided to keep the auction web-based which will not require the physical presence of the four cellular mobile operators (CMOs) participating in the bidding process.
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10:45am
Anxiously waiting :) all set for spe ctrum auction #4G #PTA — Kashif Zulfiqar (@kzkashif01) April 23, 2014
The Day of Judgement Arrives :) #Pakistan going for formal spectrum auction after delaying it thrice. http://t.co/WPLRehehZi #Tech — Muhammad Tahir Akbar (@Tahir_Akbar2) April 23, 2014
Happy 3G/4G Auction Day. Magic is in the air! In other news, little sparrows and other animals helped me get ready for work ala Cinderella. — Dishoom Bhai Jaan (@dishoomjee) April 23, 2014
i cant wait for dancing adds of mobile companies after the 3G auction — Jao Muh Dho Ja Kr (@hassanthegr8) April 23, 2014
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10:40am
The bidding will take place in 5 phases, each 45 minutes long.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has put on sale 30MHz of spectrum in 3G [2100MHz] band and 20MHz of spectrum in 4G [1800MHz] band.
Read full storySAN FRANCISCO, CA - SEPTEMBER 11: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks to the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2012 conference on September 11, 2012 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Max Morse/Getty Images)
Mark Zuckerberg nailed the no. 1 charitable spot in Silicon Valley last year and has kicked off 2013 by joining a number of tech moguls in giving away the biggest prize in the history of science.
The Facebook founder, along with Google’s Sergey Brin and venture capitalist Yuri Milner, announced the launch of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences on Wednesday. The organization will reward an unprecedented amount of prize money to researchers making advances in curing intractable diseases and extending human life, the Guardian reported.
The organization doled out a total of $33 million through its foundation to 11 winners making huge strides in disease research, according to a press release.
“We believe the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences has the potential to provide a platform for other models of philanthropy, so people everywhere have an opportunity at a better future,” Zuckerberg said in a statement.
One of the winners included Hans Clevers, 55, a professor of molecular genetics at Hubrecht Institute. He was recognized for the breakthroughs he’s made in stem cell research and cancer, according to the organization’s website.
Clevers told the Guardian that the $3 million prize is meant to “make life easy.”
One of the Breakthrough Prize’s goals is to make the selection process as transparent as possible and will do so by including past winners on future selection committees, according to the organization. Anyone will be able to nominate a candidate, there are no age restrictions and prizes can be shared among a number of deserving scientists participating in a research project.
As Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley titans continue to apply their approach to building businesses to their charitable efforts, a new wave of giving is beginning to emerge, as some experts have predicted.Let’s take a fairly common task that many system administrators face: creating shortcuts on all user desktops.
PDQ Deploy and PowerShell go together like eggs and bacon. There are so many things that PowerShell can do by itself, but when combined with the power of PDQ Deploy, the sky becomes the limit for what’s possible.
We’re going to assume that PDQ Deploy and PowerShell are already installed.
Using PowerShell to Create a Shortcut on All User Desktops
Here’s a quick script to create a shortcut to Notepad and put it on the public desktop.
# Create a Shortcut with Windows PowerShell $TargetFile = "$env:SystemRoot\System32
otepad.exe" $ShortcutFile = "$env:Public\Desktop\Notepad.lnk" $WScriptShell = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell $Shortcut = $WScriptShell.CreateShortcut( $ShortcutFile ) $Shortcut.TargetPath = $TargetFile $Shortcut.Save()
Let’s save this into a powershell script file (.ps1 file). For this example, I simply called my file, “Super SysAdmin Script.ps1,” though I would suggest a more appropriate name for your environment.
Using PDQ Deploy to Run PowerShell (.ps1) Scripts Remotely
Here’s the general rundown for how to configure a package in PDQ Deploy to deploy your newly-created PowerShell script. I’m going to use screenshots where possible, but you should definitely check out the PDQ Deploy videos. Here’s one of our awesome videos that includes how to add Powershell scripts (.ps1 files) to a package – link to video.
They’re very helpful and provide lots of information, plus Shane has an awesome beard that some say give him magical powers.
Creating a package using our new script
Click New Package button Name your package Click on Step 1 within the package (it’s an Install Step) Navigate to the location of the install file – the script in our example Save your package
Here’s an animated example:
Deploying to Your Workstations
Step 1 – Click Deploy Once Button
Step 2 – Add target machines manually or via the Choose Targets button (both options shown)
Adding machines manually is great for a quick deployment, but for more flexibility and power, you can use this into our other product PDQ Inventory. You can make collections to dynamically deploy to machines based off of different sets of criteria.
Additionally, with the Pro and Enterprise versions of the software, you can set up packages to run on a schedule, automatically retry failed machines, email you the results, use Wake-On-LAN, and much more. Check out the differences here – link to PDQ Deploy version comparison.
Step 3 – Verify your deployment
Ta da! Like magic, all users on SomeComputer should now have a shortcut to Notepad on their desktop.
Troubleshooting Issues
One thing to keep in mind when using PowerShell with PDQ Deploy is that when PDQ Deploy runs a PowerShell script, it is only going to show whether or not the script was able to execute. In order to see more detailed information (errors or otherwise), you’ll have to dive deeper into the output of your deployment.
As a quick example to demonstrate this, I have created a package that deploys the following PowerShell as a script.:
Wirte-Host "Here's an example..."
Notice that I have purposefully misspelled the cmdlet Write-Host for the purpose of generating an error.
When I deploy the package to a target, it shows that the deployment was successful. Upon a more detailed investigation, I can see that the Output Log indicated an error.
Be sure to look at the output log whenever you have unexpected results. It can really help narrow down the causes for various issues.
Final Notes
I hope this gives you an additional way to utilize PowerShell in your environments.
PDQ Deploy is a powerful tool that allows you to use PowerShell (and much more) in efficient and creative ways. I’m sure you’ll find many exciting features that you’ll fall in love with as well. Find out more about it here – link.
Check it out! May the PowerShell be with you!Bakers Delight has caused outrage by marketing a bread roll covered in M&Ms as a lunchbox snack for kids.
The popular bakery launched a back to school promotion in Australia, with a billboard ad featuring three products, including a white roll with bacon and cheese, a cheese and Vegemite scroll and four white finger buns with M&Ms sprinkled on top.
Below the rolls were the words "School lunches? Problem solved."
The promotion is also running in New Zealand, with the website featuring the rolls as a "lunchbox or after school snack".
The promotion received significant backlash, with one complainant to the Ad Standards Board saying "Advertising of lollies on bread for school lunches is appalling. Lunch and healthy food choices is challenging enough for most families and to have this as an acceptable choice is unfathomable.
"A company that promotes bread as sugar free this is a disgrace. This is only contributing to the childhood diabetes and obesity epidemic that we have in Australia."A reporter for the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network has been arrested in the city of Suez for inciting and participating in violence, a security source told state news agency MENA on Wednesday.
MENA said that Abdel-Rahman Shahin also reportedly works for the Freedom and Justice newspaper and the TV channel Egypt 25, both affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, from which ousted president Mohamed Morsi hails.
The newspaper was banned after the Brotherhood was designated a terrorist group by Egyptian officials in December, while the TV channel was taken off the air shortly after the announcement of Morsi's ouster in July.
The source told MENA that prosecutors in Suez have issued nine arrest warrants against Shahin for violent attacks against police and army forces as well as gathering funds to sabotage the state.
Three other Al-Jazeera journalists – Australian Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Fahmy Fadel and Egyptian Baher Mohamed – are already on trial on charges of airing false news.
The 17 other defendants in their trial are accused of joining and aiding a terrorist organisation.
Authorities accuse the Egyptian affiliate of the channel, Al-Jazeera Mubashir Masr, of being biased in favour of Morsi and his supporters and helping them to plot against the country.
Al-Jazeera has dismissed the charges against its staff as "absurd" and "baseless" and has continued to call for their release.
The station has not yet commented on Shahin's arrest in Suez.
Shahin was expelled from Al-Azhar University before the popular revolt in 2011 on accusations that he had formed an on-campus militia and was later involved in attacks after Morsi's ouster, MENA added.
Short link:New Jersey knows bears better than Goldilocks.
We’ve compiled so many scientific reports on them, we’ve probably had to shake a few out of trees so we could cut down the lumber to make the paper. We’ve had bear policy debates, bear public hearings, bear protests and bear call-in radio segments. We’ve shot bears, run over bears, chased bears, tranquilized bears and tagged bears. Lawyers have argued about bears in front of the state Supreme Court.
Heck, there hasn’t been this much angst over misbehaving bears since Jim McMahon and “Refrigerator” Perry.
And after all this bear back-and-forth, the state last year crafted a Comprehensive Black Bear Management Policy to deal with the growing bear population. Along with educating the public against leaving six-foot Italian subs or tasty poodles on their decks, the plan calls for a hunt whenever there are too many bears wandering into too many backyards and confronting us — as they are now.
Bear lovers insist the hunt is an excuse for testosterone-drunk hunters to drag home trophies. But New Jersey is hardly bear-shooting crazy. This year’s hunt, scheduled to start Monday, will mark the first time in 40 years the state is holding black bear hunts in consecutive years. Last year, 600 bears were killed during the hunt. It barely dented the population.
But, as usual, game officials and activists can’t agree. Officials say it’s a bull market for bears — that Yogi is growing in numbers, and getting more dangerous and reckless when confronting humans. Activists, however, say statisticians are making a boo-boo. They insist bears aren’t more of a problem; the public is more diligent about reporting incidents.
A group, which has filed a lawsuit to stop the hunt, made its arguments before the judges yesterday, and the appellate court is expected to rule before the first shot.
Jeff Tittel, of the Sierra Club, says we should embrace bears, not hunt them — because they prove the state “hasn’t been paved over with subdivisions and strip malls.” So, we should celebrate coyotes, mosquitoes and poison ivy, too?
If there is going to be a hunt, Tittel says nuisance bears on the fringes of neighborhoods should be the targets. After all, they’re the ones using our trash cans as buffet tables. It makes sense, but hunting on the outskirts of town might be risky.
Until bears wear condoms and stay in the woods, we’ll need an occasional hunt. Bears used to be on the endangered list. Now, it seems, we could be on theirs.
Related editorial: N.J. bear hunt is needed: Bear population must be controlledDisclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. For more info, please see my privacy policy. Affiliate links may give me a commission on the product but it is of no extra cost to you.
So you may or may not have noticed but my last few training runs have been terrible ): It doesn’t help that I’m also fighting a cold alongside this so I’m writing this post today to give myself a reminder of why I run and why I should keep going and not give up.
Carmy’s Reasons to Run
To be able to have an excuse to “carb load” To have amazing looking legs To be able to outrun everyone if there’s ever an zombie take over To prove to myself that I can do it To have guilt-free “me” To have excuses in the future to travel “for the race!” To buy super cute running outfits To keep myself sane Because I gave up badminton To inspire others To have something to do other than studying and working Because Friday night clubbing isn’t my scene and Friday night tempos are To know that I can run more than 20k if I ever need to escape Toronto To explore the trails in Toronto that I never knew existed To be able to go everywhere in sweats or running clothes and not wear “real” clothes 😉 Because running in the winter with a headlamp in the dark is kinda awesome Because I can To be happy
So why do you run? Does makes a list make you feel better when you’re down on your training?
Other places to connect with me
Instagram: http://instagram.com/runcarmyrun
Twitter: https://twitter.com/runcarmyrun
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/carmyycom
Email: [email protected]
<3 Carmy
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TumblrThe government agency in charge of improving the NHS has placed the King's College Hospitals trust in special measures.
NHS Improvement said it has placed the trust in special measures over serious concerns about its growing deficit.
It follows the resignation of chairman Lord Kerslake, who released a statement on Sunday saying he was standing down in protest at the "unrealistic" financial approach of the Government.
However, Sky News revealed on Monday that Lord Kerslake was asked to resign on Friday by NHS Improvement.
King's College Hospitals are among the busiest in the country.
Ian Dalton, chief executive of NHS Improvement, said: "The financial situation at King's has deteriorated very seriously over recent months and we have now placed the trust in special measures to maximise the amount of scrutiny and support that it receives.
Image: Lord Kerslake, who stood down as chairman on Sunday
"We understand that the wider NHS faces financial and operational challenges, and other trusts and foundation trusts have large deficits. However, none has shown the sheer scale and pace of the deterioration at King's.
"It is not acceptable for individual organisations to run up such significant deficits when the majority of the sector is working extremely hard to hit their financial plans, and in many cases have made real progress."
NHS Improvement said it had agreed with the King's board earlier this year a budget deficit of £38m for 2017-18.
In late October, the body said, the trust formally worsened this prediction to £70m, and last week re-forecast an end-year deficit of £92m.
"As an organisation, King's own prediction for its deficit has worsened by £54m, and more than doubled, within months," a statement said.
Lord Kerlake said in a statement released on Sunday night: "I do not do this lightly as I love King's but believe the Government and regulator are unrealistic about the scale of the challenge facing the NHS and the trust.
"I want to pay tribute to the staff and their excellent patient care."
He went on to pay tribute to the "world-class" care given at the hospital, especially after the Westminster and London Bridge terror attacks.
Image: Lord Kerslake has been advising Jeremy Corbyn
In a self-penned article in Monday's Guardian newspaper, he wrote: "King's, like many other hospitals, is fighting against the inexorable pressures of rising demand, increasing costs of drugs and other medical supplies, and the tightest spending figures in recent times.
"There are undoubtedly things that I and the trust could have done better, there always are, but fundamentally our problems lie in the way that the NHS is funded and organised.
"We desperately need a fundamental rethink. Until then we are simply 'kicking the can down the road'."
The peer, also known as Bob Kerslake, was appointed to a role advising Jeremy Corbyn and his team on "what to expect in government", describing the Labour leader's ideas as "not unusual".
Lord Kerslake insisted that his decision to speak out was motivated by a "deep passion for the NHS" and was "nothing to do with party politics".
Labour's shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said Lord Kerslake's decision was "embarrassing for the Government" and that "seven years of underfunding is impacting on patients in unacceptable ways".
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "We know that King's NHS Foundation Trust faces huge financial challenges and we will support them to tackle these issues and continue to deliver high quality care for patients under a new chairman."WASHINGTON: “Not a good beginning. Not a good beginning,” Senate Armed Services chairman John McCain told the administration’s nominee for deputy secretary of defense this morning. “Do not do that again, Mr. Shanahan, or I will not take your name up for a vote before this committee. Am I perfectly clear?”
“Very clear,” said Patrick Shanahan, enduring a rocky confirmation hearing for the No. 2 position in the Pentagon, which remains unusually short on senior officials. Other senators at the hearing asked Shanahan about Pentagon procurement, especially about nurturing innovation, continuing the Third Offset Strategy for high-tech weapons, and starting the Pentagon’s long-awaited audit this fall. But McCain repeatedly took the mike to berate the Trump nominee for non-answers on Russia and for potential conflicts of interest after his 31 years at Boeing.
In that initial exchange, Shanahan’s specific offense was giving a vague non-answer in his written testimony to the committee’s question on whether he supported providing “lethal defensive weapons” to Ukraine. In the hearing, ironically, when McCain asked Shanahan to clarify, he stated his support for arming the Ukrainians so swiftly and unequivocally that the irascible but aging senator seemed momentarily thrown before returning to the attack.
But McCain didn’t have just one axe to grind with Shanahan. After Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer tried to elicit the nominee’s position on how to respond to Russian violations of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, McCain stepped in again: “Mr. Shanahan, you’re not making me happy,” the chairman said. “You just ducked basically every question Sen. Fischer asked you.”
McCain’s biggest objection to Shanahan, however, was the nominee’s 31 years at America’s second largest defense contractor, Boeing. (Only Lockheed Martin sells more to the Pentagon. And Sen. McCain, thanks to the long-running scandal over Boeing’s former tanker deal, is believed to harbor a deep suspicion of Boeing’s conduct).
“I want to move forward as quickly as I can with your nomination,” McCain told Shanahan at the hearing’s end, “(but) I am concerned. 90 percent of defense spending is in the hands of five corporations, of which you represent one. I have to have confidence that the fox is not going to be put back into the henhouse.”
“Mr. Shanahan, I think you’re a fine man; you have an outstanding record; (but) take a look at your responses that you sent to this committee,” McCain said. “Some of them were less than specific, at least one of them (was) almost insulting.”
Citing US casualties in Afghanistan, Ukrainian casualties against Russian-backed separatists, and the US shoot-down of a Syrian jet, McCain made it clear he wants clear answers on administration policy — and if the committee doesn’t get them, it will find answers of its own as it works on the annual defense policy bill.
“I want some answers, I want some straightforward answers, (and) if they don’t give us a strategy from the people that I admire most, we’re going to put a strategy in,” McCain warned. “I want to work with this administration, I want to work with this president, I want to work with the new secretary of defense, — who I happen to be one of the most ardent admirers of — but I have to tell you, in a couple of weeks, we’re going to mark-up up the defense authorization bill….The president has two choices: Either give us a strategy or we will put a strategy that we develop into the defense authorization bill.”
“Somehow over the last several years, this committee seems to have been treated as sort of a rubber stamp,” McCain concluded. “That’s not what the Constitution of the United States says. The Constitution of the United States says that the Senate would provide advice and consent.”This is the mail archive of the libc-alpha@sources.redhat.com mailing list for the glibc project.
Re: PATCH: safe string copy and concetation
To: Christoph Hellwig <hch at caldera dot de>
Subject: Re: PATCH: safe string copy and concetation
From: Ulrich Drepper <drepper at redhat dot com>
Date: 08 Aug 2000 11:24:07 -0700
Cc: libc-alpha at sources dot redhat dot com
References: <20000808181701.A29165@ns.lst.de><m3ittbog8g.fsf@otr.mynet.cygnus.com> <20000808201040.A3502@ns.lst.de>
Reply-To: drepper at cygnus dot com (Ulrich Drepper)
Christoph Hellwig <hch@caldera.de> writes: > memcpy for strings is plain ugly. memcpy will not null-terminate > your strings and led to source-bloat. This is why you use *((char *) mempcpy (dst, src, n)) = '\0'; Which is more efficient than any of the str*() functions when concatenating multi strings since the NUL termination only has to be done at the end. > There are some people outhere that like clean and safe solutions > better than fast ones... Dammit, it is not safe. It hides bugs in programs. If a string is too long for an allocated memory block the copying must not simply silently stop. Instead the program must reallocate or signal an error. I can construct you cases where the use of these stupid functions is creating new security problem. > What's the problem with strlcat. > strcat is insecure and strncat inconsecuent, but strlcat? Do I have to repeat myself? Every program which is handling strings has to know how long they are. Therefore it is incredibly stupid to use strcat or any of its variants since one knows where the end of the destination string is. It seems you never ever spent a single second thinking about these issues. -- ---------------.,-. 1325 Chesapeake Terrace Ulrich Drepper \,-------------------' \ Sunnyvale, CA 94089 USA Red Hat `--' drepper at redhat.com `------------------------Having managed to drag Daryl ‘Wingsofdeathx’ Hennegan away from the adulation of his adoring fans for a few moments, I took the opportunity to ask some questions from the man recently likened to a ‘top lane Scarra’.
Wings, as he is most commonly known is a League of Legends player from the US server. He recently came to prominence when he was recruited by Team Dignitas as a sub for their EPS campaign and then furthermore recruited by EG as their top laner. Here is what he has to say.
Hi, Wings. Firstly, thank you for agreeing to answer some question. So, lets get started. Can you tell me a little about yourself?
Wingsofdeath: My name is Daryl, I go to school in Irvine as a computer science major. I've been playing games since I was 5 starting with the original NES. I've been playing games my entire life and gaming is my passion and favorite hobby. Always was and always will be.
What roles do you most prefer in League of Legends?
Wingsofdeath: I prefer playing solos or ad carry. I've mostly been playing top lane recently. I generally like the characters that you place in these roles and I'm also a fan of laning. I don't really like jungling since you really don't do a whole lot mechanically. You beat on neutrals alot of the time. That isn't to say that jungling isn't difficult in its own right, but I play this game to PvP, and laning is closer to PvP than jungling.
How did you come to play LoL?
Wingsofdeath: I started playing League of legends as a distraction from WoW, my main game at the time. After HoN beta went retail and I didn't want to spend money to pay for an account, I started to look for another game I could play casually on the side when not raiding. I found out about League of Legends off of an ad banner from one of the forums i visited on a regular basis. From there, my love for the game grew and I ended up quitting WoW and playing league full time.
What encouraged you most to improve as a player?
Wingsofdeath: I am a competitive person by nature, so I usually strive to be the best |
number one in the world, but by its residents. Tiger Woods has called Isleworth home, as have many professional golfers including Mark O’Meara, Stuart Appleby, Robert Allenby, Charles Howell III, Lee Janzen and Paula Creamer. NBA stars such as Shaquille O’Neal, Grant Hill and Dwight Howard have also lived in Isleworth. Other athletes, from baseball hall of famer Barry Larkin and Ken Griffey Jr. to actor Wesley Snipes also have been Isleworth Residents.
Other celebrities have called Windermere home at some time. Boy band groups N’Sync and The Backstreet Boys, and former manager Lou Perlman have also resided there. Baseball’s Johnny Damon grew up in Dr. Phillips and has resided in Windermere for some time.
Just a mile or two away from Isleworth, in Orlando’s Dr. Phillips neighborhood, lies Bay Hill, home to one of the most popular PGA tournaments in the world. Bay Hill residents, past or present, include Arnold Palmer, Payne Stewart, Scott Hoch, and Dow Finsterwald.
In another area of town, just east of the Orlando International Airport, sits the Lake Nona Country Club. Lake Nona residents have included many of the world’s best international golfers, such as Greg Norman, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, Annika Sorenstam, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose and Ian Poulter.
Other celebrities and athletes have called the Orlando area home. It’s not just a coincidence that these celebrities have lived here. Orlando offers so much in the way of weather, entertainment, and a world-class airport. Orlando truly is one of the most beautiful places in the world to live.
For more information on homes in Orlando, please contact us today.The Ogo levels the playing field in so many ways! The Active Seat Control (ASC) combined with the best of self-balancing technology means you can intuitively govern the direction, speed and braking through body movements – even completely hands-free! In essence, the Ogo gives you body language in a social setting and moving within a crowd becomes very easy and comfortable.
Users have told us that the Ogo seems very intuitive and interactive. This is the ‘magic mind-body movement’ at work – they direct their eyes and the Ogo seems to instinctively follow. Just like walking! What is actually happening is that the Ogo is engaging both the body and mind and your core weight is intuitively shifting in the direction that you want to go, turn and stay in balance, providing a great low impact workout for any core muscles you have!
When riding the Ogo your head and your eyes are up scanning the direction you are wanting to go. No longer needing to look at the ground for obstacles, you become more aware and able to experience and engage with your surroundings. Many have said this ‘really improves their self-esteem, confidence and ultimately provides a greater sense of well-being.’
Note: The Ogo is a multi-purpose personal mobility device. It is not a medical device or health care product.Photo: Jenny Downing/Flickr
Here's some bad news: Humans have put too much carbon dioxide in its atmosphere, and it's heating the globe, rising sea levels, accelerating the sixth great extinction, and all around endangering the sustainability of civilization. Here's some good news: Humans have recently invented a neat material called carbon nanofiber, which is being used in all sorts of technologies, buildings, and products.
WHAT IF we could take the carbon from the atmosphere, and convert into handy nanofibers, and use them to provide the implements of the future. That'd be a nice earth-relieving corrective, yeah?Now, if the innovation you're going to read about were able to be scaled up and made cost-effective, it could radically restructure the world's economy and its ecology. Both, presumably, for the better. If. If, if, if. Still:
"We have found a way to use atmospheric CO2 to produce high-yield carbon nanofibers," George Washington University's Stuart Licht, Ph.D, said in a statement announcing his team's findings, which were presented today by the American Chemical Society (ACS). "Such nanofibers are used to make strong carbon composites, such as those used in the Boeing Dreamliner, as well as in high-end sports equipment, wind turbine blades and a host of other products."
"The carbon molten air battery... is attractive due to its scalability, location flexibility, and construction from readily available resources"
Essentially, Licht and co. say they have developed a method for trapping carbon dioxide, and using an electrochemical process to turn it into carbon nanofibers. The press release calls it a "diamonds from the sky" approach.
The capture part isn't new—engineers, academics, and the coal industry have been after a way to grab carbon out of the air and, typically, to "sequester" it underground or otherwise in order to prevent it from contributing to climate change. That's the Carbon Capture & Sequestration technology you may have heard about. Alternatively, scientists, advocates, and industry folk have tried using algae, machines, or artificial trees to do the trick.
Licht's pitch has the unique potential to turn that carbon into useful materials, however; he and his team members say their molten carbon air battery is the potentially transformative part of the tech.
From the abstract of Licht's paper: "The carbon molten air battery, presented by our group in late 2013, is attractive due to its scalability, location flexibility, and construction from readily available resources, providing a battery that can be useful for large scale applications, such as the storage of renewable electricity."
The proposal calls to mind The Diamond Age; Neal Stephenson's underrated third cyberpunkish novel, set in a world in which so-called nanotech matter compilers draw resources from the air, combine it with materials from feeds, and transmogrify them into all kinds of objects.
Still, the same skepticism that applies to all CCS tech should be applied here—and that's a lot. No one has managed to show that this technology works efficiently or affordably enough to be put into widespread use. It remains deeply experimental. And environmentalist critics worry that it produces moral hazard, or the illusion that we'll eventually be able to vacuum our pollution out of the sky without correcting our dangerous habits.
But there's no disputing that this carbon-to-carbon concept is a bona fide Big Idea. If it gets legs, there's a nonzero chance the future may actually involve transforming pollution into goods.Composting is a sacred act. A person who composts thoughtfully is a shepherd over the transformation from death into life. Without the holy cycle of decay and rebirth that the composter harnesses for her garden, life on this planet could not exist.
Composting is far more than just free fertilizer for the garden. It’s a vital and necessary sustainability strategy for reducing waste, closing the nutrient cycle, and preventing air pollution that causes climate change.
Composting can remove 20-50% from your household waste stream, reducing the burden on landfills while replenishing your lawn, trees, houseplants, or garden for free. (And if you pay for trash pick-up, composting can save you money there, too.)
When organic matter like food waste goes to the landfill, it ends up decomposing anaerobically—or without oxygen. This process creates methane, a greenhouse gas 20-35 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming our planet. Landfills are the United States’ third largest source of methane emissions, according to the EPA.
If we composted food and other organic waste instead of throwing it away, we’d need fewer landfills, and they wouldn’t emit methane. Food does not belong in landfills.
Compost = Life
For your soil, there is no more powerful ingredient than compost. Whether you till it into your garden beds or use it as mulch around shrubs and trees, it is considered essential to organic and sustainable food production. Once it’s in the soil, finished compost—or humus—increases fertility, adds both micro- and macronutrients, buffers pH, prevents diseases, breaks down toxins, and improves soil structure.
But even if you don’t have a garden, composting is still a vitally important practice. We humans take far more carbon, minerals and organic matter from the soil than we put back. But without organic matter, soil becomes dead, inert mineral dust that won’t grow anything but weeds.
Returning as much of our organic waste as we can to the soil will begin to rebalance the nutrient cycle we depend on for our very survival.
Composting Basics
The basics of composting are simple. Pretty much anything that once lived or was made from a living thing can be composted. As long as an item contains all natural components, it will decay, decompose and break down, returning it’s nutrients to the soil.
A compost pile can be as easy as starting a heap of veggie scraps, dead leaves, and grass clippings in the far corner of your yard, but most people like to contain their compost in a neat-looking compost bin.
There are many different kinds of compost bins to fit every living situation: simple pallet bins, tumblers that make turning the compost easy, towers for urban yards and small spaces, and even worm composters that will make fast, odorless work of all your table scraps in the space under your kitchen sink. Select the bin style that works for you, and if it is an outdoor model, install it near the garden, away from your house.
Once you have reached a critical mass of scraps in your bin (usually about a cubic yard of material or a 3’x3’x3′ pile), it will begin to noticeably break down. After everything has decomposed and transformed into dark, rich-smelling, crumbly humus (see picture above), you can sprinkle it around your trees, lawn, garden or houseplants to help them grow.
Considered “black gold” by most gardeners, even if you don’t garden yourself, you could easily give your compost away to your neighborhood green thumb! She’d be so grateful. Avid gardeners never seem to have enough compost.
Speeding Up Your Compost
Compost happens.
If you leave an apple on a table, it will eventually decay and break down into a little pile of dirt. There’s really nothing you need to do to get compost to happen except make a pile of things to rot outside. But if you want to get your compost pile to break down quickly and evenly so you can use it regularly in your garden, here are a few things to keep in mind:
The Right Balance
An efficient compost pile is a careful balance of dry or brown things that contain carbon (like leaves, straw, or paper) and wet or green things that contain nitrogen (like food scraps or rabbit droppings).
So, for example, if you add a lot of shredded leaves or cardboard to the pile, you will need to balance and mix it with a nice heap of fresh grass clippings or horse manure, and probably some water from the hose so things don’t get too dry.
I like to keep a small stockpile of horse manure (green) and straw (brown) on hand nearby as fodder to keep my pile in balance so it decomposes quickly.
Small Surface Area
The smaller you can shred or chop your compostable items before you put them into the pile, the faster and more evenly they will decompose. It’s really worth the extra effort to chop and shred if you plan to use your compost for vegetable gardening.
Put slow-composting things like tree branches, nut shells, hair, latex, and old rope into a separate pile at the back of your lot, while keeping your faster compost pile closer to the garden.
Air and Water
Turn your compost pile weekly to mix and aerate it, which will help everything to decompose much faster. You can do this with a pitchfork, but a compost tumbler bin can make this incredibly easy.
Make sure your compost pile stays moist, like a damp sponge. Hose it down if it’s too dry; turn it more often if it’s too wet. The balanced combination of air and moisture in the pile ensures that the microorganisms breaking down your compost have everything they need to thrive and reproduce themselves.
Know Your Limits
While you technically can compost any food, animal-based or plant-based item, some things are better left out of the average home compost pile. For example, if you add fish, meat or a lot of fat to your compost pile, as they decompose, they will create a strong smell that will annoy your neighbors and bring every critter for miles to your yard! When in doubt, leave it out.
Related: 10 Things You Should Not Put In Your Compost Pile
Also consider how much space you have to compost. For example, if you live in an apartment, you will be limited to vermicomposting just your kitchen scraps. But that doesn’t mean you can’t compost other things. Does your city have a municipal composting program or a community garden that composts? Do you have a friend who gardens, who might like to have your coffee grounds or birdcage papers?
Everything we can do to keep compostable materials out of the landfill will help prevent pollution and restore our depleted soils.
100 Things You Can Compost
The following list is meant to get you thinking about your compost possibilities. Imagine how much trash we could prevent from going into the landfills if each of us just decided to compost a few more things!
(G) refers to items that are mostly “green” or nitrogenous, or that decompose very quickly; (B) refers to items that are mostly “brown” or carbonaceous, or that take much longer to decompose.
From the Kitchen
Fruit and vegetable scraps (G) Egg shells (crushed) (B) Coffee grounds (G) Coffee filters (B) Tea bags (Make sure they are made of natural materials like hemp or cotton, and not rayon or other synthetics. If in doubt, just open it and compost the tea leaves alone.) (B) Loose leaf tea (G) Spoiled soy/rice/almond/coconut milk (G) Used paper napkins and paper towels (B) Unwaxed cardboard pizza boxes (ripped or cut into small pieces) (B) Paper bags (shredded) (B) The crumbs you sweep off of the counters and floors (B) Cooked pasta (G) Cooked rice (G) Stale bread, pitas, or tortillas (B) Stale tortilla chips or potato chips (B) Spoiled pasta sauce or tomato paste (G) Crumbs from the bottom of snack food packaging (B) Paper towel rolls (shredded) (B) Stale crackers (B) Stale cereal (B) Cardboard boxes from cereal, pasta, etc. (Remove any plastic windows and shred) (B) Used paper plates (as long as they don’t have a waxy coating) (B) Nut shells (except for walnut shells, which are toxic to plants) (B) Spoiled tofu and tempeh (G) Seaweed, kelp or nori (G) Unpopped, burnt popcorn kernels (B) Old herbs and spices (G) Stale pretzels (B) Stale candy (crushed or chopped) (G) Stale protein or “energy” bars (G) Pizza crusts (B) Old oatmeal (B) Peanut shells (B) Cardboard egg cartons (cut them up) (B) Stale pumpkin, sunflower or sesame seeds (chopped up so they can’t sprout) (G) Avocado pits (chopped up so they don’t sprout) (G) Wine corks (chop up so they decompose faster) (B) Moldy cheese (in moderation) (G) Melted ice cream (in moderation) (G) Old jelly, jam, or preserves (G) Stale beer and wine (G) Toothpicks (B) Bamboo skewers (break them into pieces) (B) Paper cupcake or muffin cups (B)
From the Bathroom
Used facial tissues (B) Hair from your hairbrush (B) Trimmings from an electric razor (B) Toilet paper rolls (shredded) (B) Old loofahs (cut up, natural only) (B) Nail clippings (B) 100% latex or lambskin condoms (B) 100% cotton cotton balls (B) Cotton swabs made from 100% cotton and cardboard (not plastic) sticks (B) 100% cotton tampons and sanitary pads (including used) (B) Cardboard tampon applicators (B) Menstrual blood (G) Urine (G)
From the Laundry Room
Dryer lint (from 100% natural fabrics only!) (B) Old cotton clothing and jeans (ripped or cut into small pieces) (B) Cotton fabric scraps (shredded) (B) Old wool clothing (ripped or cut into small pieces) (B) Old cotton towels and sheets (shredded) (B)
From the Office
Bills and other plain paper documents (shredded) (B) Envelopes (shredded, minus the plastic window) (B) Pencil shavings (B) Sticky notes (shredded) (B) Old business cards (shredded, as long as they’re not glossy) (B)
Around the House
“Dust bunnies” from wood and tile floors (B) Contents of your dustpan (pick out any inorganic stuff, like pennies and Legos) (B) Crumbs from under your couch cushions (again, pick out any inorganic stuff) (B) Newspapers (shredded or torn into smaller pieces) (B) Junk mail (shredded, remove coated paper and plastic windows) (B) Subscription cards from magazines (shredded) (B) Burlap sacks (cut or torn into small pieces) (B) Old rope and twine (chopped, natural, unwaxed only) (B) Leaves trimmed from houseplants (G) Dead houseplants and their soil (B) Flowers from floral arrangements (G) Natural potpourri (B) Used matches (B) Ashes from untreated wood burned in the fireplace, grill, or outdoor fire pits (in very small amounts) (B) Grass clippings (G) Dead autumn leaves (B) Sawdust (from plain wood that has NOT been pressure-treated, stained or painted) (B)
Party and Holiday Supplies
Wrapping paper rolls (cut into smaller pieces) (B) Paper table cloths (shredded or torn into smaller pieces) (B) Crepe paper streamers (shredded) (B) Latex balloons (Make sure they are latex!) (B) Jack O’lanterns (smashed) (G) Those hay bales you used as part of your outdoor fall decor (broken apart) (B) Natural holiday wreaths (chop up with pruners first) (B) Christmas trees (chop up with pruners first, or use a wood chipper, if you have one…) (B) Evergreen garlands (chop up with pruners first) (B)
Pet-Related
Fur from the dog or cat brush (B) Droppings and bedding from your herbivorous pet rabbit, gerbil, hamster, etc. (Do NOT use dog or cat poop.) (G) Newspaper/droppings from the bottom of the bird or snake cage (G) Feathers (B) Horse, cow or goat manure (G) Alfalfa hay or pellets (usually fed to rabbits, gerbils, etc.) (B) Dry dog or cat food, fish pellets (B)
Just imagine if all of us kept so many things out of the landfills and returned their nutrients to the earth?
For a truly sustainable future that our great-grandchildren can thrive in, closing the nutrient cycle by composting is essential, or we will deplete our precious soils into dust. Good thing it is such an easy and frugal thing to do!
This article was excerpted from my book Sustainability Starts at Home – How to Save Money While Saving the Planet.An electric truck outfitted with a hydrogen fuel cell–powered range extender will be introduced on an experimental basis by a partnership of Renault Trucks and the French Post Office (La Poste), according to recent reports.
The range-extended Maxity Electric will represent the first such vehicle put into use in Europe — with the unit being tested under actual operating conditions for a full year in the French city of Dole — which will presumably give the company a good understanding of the possibilities of such a technology.
As it stands, the French Post Office actually owns the largest fleet of electric vehicles in the world, so this experimental pilot is simply building on that.
The new vehicles have been outfitted by Renault Trucks with a 20 kW hydrogen fuel cell; plus two hydrogen tanks (75-liter capacity each) — thereby making it possible to carry “4 kg of H2 at 350 bar.” The vehicles were developed in partnership with Symbio FCell.
“The truck is driven by a 400V, 47 kW asynchronous electric motors [sic] with 270 N·m (199 lb-ft) of torque; maximum speed is 90 km/h (56 mph). The truck is equipped with four Valence Technology Li-ion battery packs, weighing a total of 400 kg (882 lbs) and providing 42 kWh capacity.”
The project supervisor for the pilot, Christophe Vacquier, commented: “When the vehicle is running, the electric motor is fed by two complementary energy sources; the fuel cell is capable of delivering a maximum power of 20 kW and, once that threshold has been reached, the batteries kick in to supply whatever power is still required. When idle, the fuel cell is available to recharge the battery as needed.”
Interestingly, the heat released by the fuel cell is actually used to warm up the passenger compartment — thereby avoiding use of the batteries for heating needs.
The vehicles will, of course, be used by the Post Office on mail + package collection routes.
Renault Trucks’ Director of Energy Efficiency Strategy, Karine Forien, commented: “200 kilometers of autonomy make it the ideal choice for a daily schedule of urban and suburban routes. Our purpose behind this project is to support European metropolitan areas in their goal of limiting air and noise pollution emissions, through testing innovative vehicles that produce zero emissions and that in the near term should become economically viable for our customers.”
Related: Time To Come Clean About Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles
Image Credit: Renault Trucks(ABT) persuadedto pay $3.3 million for freezer pops by pretending they were drugs approved by the FDA, according to a whistleblower lawsuit that illustrates how stricter government oversight could prevent drug companies from defrauding taxpayers.
The suit was filed against 26 pharmaceutical companies and led to Forest Labs (FRX)'s $313 million settlement with the Department of Justice. In that case, Forest admitted selling a thyroid drug, Levothroid, that had never been approved by the FDA (as well as giving improper incentives to doctors to prescribe antidepressants for children). Most of the other defendants have not settled.
The Forest settlement -- and a similar settlement with Schwarz Pharma -- came after the DOJ intervened in the suit because it believed it may have some merit. The DOJ does not always intervene in such suits, and there's currently no indication it has any interest in the allegations against Abbott. Abbott did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The complaint accuses the companies of generating fake Medicaid reimbursement codes to gain payment for products that weren't actually drugs, or for generic drugs that were never approved by the FDA. The suit says:
... hundreds of millions of dollars of federal Medicaid funds have been used to pay for ineligible vitamins, minerals and other dietary supplements as a result of false claims caused by Defendants' actions.
In Abbott's case, the suit alleges that the company made up a "National Drug Code" number -- a string of digits that Medicaid needs to process reimbursement claims -- and a fake FDA approval date for some of its non-drug nutritional products, and Medicaid paid the claim without checking whether the code and date were legit. The implication is that if Medicaid claims processors were more vigilant about auditing NDC numbers and FDA approval dates, then bad actors would mend their ways.
Between 1996 and 2003, Abbott allegedly received $3.3 million in reimbursement for Pedialyte Freezer Pops, a non-prescription product that Abbott makes for babies who might be dehydrated from diarrhea, the suit claims. An FDA spokesperson told BNET that Pedialyte is not medicinal: "Pedialyte is not an OTC drug. It is not a dietary supplement (it is not labeled as such). It is a conventional food." The FDA published a Federal Register notice making that clear in 2003 (see page 6).
The complaint alleges that Abbott gave the pops the fictitious NDC number "00074 0245" and claimed the FDA approved them as a drug on June 1, 1996. The freezer pops were among almost $50 million in alleged wrongful payments for popsicles, Pedialyte, and vitamins that Abbott booked from Medicaid, per the suit:
The suit was brought by Constance A. Conrad, who is described in the legal papers only as:
... a resident of the state of Pennsylvania. Ms. Conrad has over 30 years experience in the federal healthcare programs field.
Among the other companies named as defendants areand, which noted the suit in a recent quarterly filing with the SEC. The suit alleges that the companies together reaped more than $500 million in false claims for non-drugs and unapproved drugs.
Image by Flickr user Kelly Sue, CC.
Related:Disclaimer: I assume this article is not meant for the Renegade Tribune reader, but for the sheeple from the formerly White West who can still be ‘salvaged’ (if such thing can be accomplished at this point). I understand people from East European countries might have some more integrity left in them.
In order that the masses themselves may not guess what they are about WE FURTHER DISTRACT THEM WITH AMUSEMENTS, GAMES, PASTIMES, PASSIONS, PEOPLE’S PALACES …. SOON WE SHALL BEGIN THROUGH THE PRESS TO PROPOSE COMPETITIONS IN ART, IN SPORT IN ALL KINDS: these interests will finally distract their minds from questions in which we should find ourselves compelled to oppose them. Growing more and more disaccustomed to reflect and form any opinions of their own, people will begin to talk in the same tone as we because we alone shall be offering them new directions for thought … of course through such persons as will not be suspected of solidarity with us.”
– The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion – PROTOCOL 13: Distractions
I must admit I’m not a sports’ fan. I seldom sit down in front of the idiot box to watch anything, let alone activities which I should perform myself, like for example ‘sports’.
If you watch football, if you follow any single bit of news on football, if you PAY cable to watch football, if you watch endless debates on the latest gossiping on this or that footballer, if your mind is completely occupied by football and there is nothing you can do about it, you are an idiot. An idiot did I say? worse than that: A race traitor.
If you would not subject your children to watch porn (of any kind), why subjecting them to watch football then? As the opening quote points out at the beginning of this article it is all part of the same brainwashing machine. Mind you, I’m not referring here to so-called ‘soccer’ only, but also to American football. Either way… choose your poison. Of course, I should also include basketball in the lot. These forms of ‘entertainment’ are all part of what should be known as the ‘Niggerball phenomenon’. Enter race-traitor, sell-out Michel Platini in his own words:
When I was a kid, a long time ago in a galaxy far-far away, all local football teams in my country (the big 1st Division teams, I mean) were all white people’s teams. Mostly people from the land, combined to a lesser extent with folks from some other parts of the country. Sometimes the team would include a couple of ‘foreigners’ who used to be whites from other countries in Europe (they used to be Northern Europeans for some reason). That was the official rule then. But that changed dramatically later on, little by little, year after year.
Now take a look to some national football teams these days, like for instance the French team. If you happen to be French, take a look and tell me if you support these people. Tell me if you see them as your ‘equal countrymen’.
Tell me if you scream ‘goooaaal!!!’ when one of these players scores for ‘your team’. Are these the role models you want for your children? If the answer is ‘yes’, you are a useless moron. Don’t bother arguing. I have no need for traitors like you.
If, on the contrary, you still have some self-respect and care about which role-models your children should look up to, maybe you would consider the idea of changing your sport-watching habits. I’m not here to indoctrinate anybody on entertainment (as I said, I could not care less about watching any sports on television) but I would suggest you to start looking for other ‘healthier’ alternatives.
Recently in my last holidays, at the hotel, I spent some spare time watching the current winter sports on TV, particularly ski jumping. I must admit I admire these young folks for what they do. Jumping and gliding at that vertiginous speed looks like pretty exciting stuff to me. One of the things that strikes me first when watching these sports is one simple thing which I’m going to whisper to you (just in case somebody is listening): These kinds of sports are mostly dominated by whites.
All in all, if you are an American sport’s fan and you are not interested in European sports whatsoever I would definitively suggest you to shift to ice hockey. Why? An image is better than a thousand words.
And another one for the ladies.
And here I attach a random selection of images of different sports for you to get the point on what I’m talking about.
Again I insist, sports on television are just a mesmerizing distraction for you to shift attention from real issues, just like Hollywood movies, gossip programs, cartoon shows, Jew-porn, you name it (remember The Protocols). My point is, if you are going to poison yourself (and your kids) with these kinds of TV spectacles, at least do it intelligently. I think you get my point.
So stop watching niggerball. Stop talking about this black or that mestizo player as being ‘assets’ in your team. You could well use robots or chimpanzees instead. The point is: THEY ARE NOT YOUR FOLK ANYMORE. Your local white football team died a slow death a long time ago; something ugly and Talmudic ate it from inside. It became just a prostituted brand name to advertise whatever somebody wanted to sell. A merchandising money-machine, a tool of mind control for the Jew to advance your racial dispossession while you cheer and stuff yourself with trash-food, manufactured by same aforementioned entity (how lovely, huh!). But please don’t tell me there are still white players in those football teams. Most of these ‘white players’ have become just a bunch of metrosexual whores anyway (who cares).
So, the decision is yours. If you don’t want your children to become wiggers (or something much worse) you know what to do. Choose wisely.
Note: Thanks to Bob Wolfstreet for the inspiration to write this piece.Chris Lewis, the "prat without a hat" © Getty Images
Chris Lewis
Lewis' career was never dull but he also failed to achieve as much as many had expected. The first signs that all was not well came in the West Indies in 1993-94, when Lewis decided to shave his head on arrival. Nothing wrong there, except that he then opted to practice without a sun hat. Inevitably, he succumbed to the Caribbean sun. "Chris Lewis baldly went where no other cricketer has gone before," noted the Sun, "and the prat without a hat spent two days in bed with sunstroke. Just as you would expect, the ideal covering for an all-rounder suffering from sunstroke, as diagnosed by our own doctor, is… a bowler." Quite.
Arthur Dolphin
During a game against Middlesex at Lord's, Yorkshire wicketkeeper Dolphin fell off a chair in the dressing room as he reached for his clothes and broke his wrist, missing the remainder of the summer. It was a bad month for Yorkshiremen. A team-mate of Dolphin's in that game, Abe Waddington, had been giving Arthur Morton of Derbyshire a ride on his new motorcycle one evening during a match between the two counties when they crashed. Waddington escaped unharmed and resumed the next day. Morton broke ribs and was out for eight weeks, his absence not helping as Derbyshire were bowled out for 23.
Matthew Hayden
Sidelined after breaking a finger at the start of the 2006-07 season, Hayden decided to keep fit by going for a leisurely jog. Unfortunately, while running he was set on by a local dog and had to be taken to hospital with a 5cm gash in his ankle. "It was a vicious attack," he said. "I was just out for a leisurely run. You are always a bit shocked by that sort of thing, but I was more disappointed than anything. It just hasn't been my week."
Ted Dexter
In normal circumstances, being run down by a car would invoke sympathy. Not in Dexter's case, however, because the car was his own. When his Jaguar ran out of petrol on the Great West Road in Brentford in June 1965, Dexter decided to push it to the nearest garage. Unfortunately, he lost control and it ended up pinning him to a factory gate, breaking his right leg. "The hero lay there with blood pouring out of his leg while other drivers rushed by" is how Matthew Engel described the incident.
Ian Greig
Clearly, Greig was not meant to be a housebreaker. On arriving home after the first day of Sussex's Championship match against Kent in June 1983, he snapped his key in the lock. Taking what seemed like the easy option, he then scaled the side of the house to try to climb in through an open window, fell 18 feet and broke an ankle. Four years later, while being X-rayed after being hit on the hand in his third match as Surrey captain, he stood up, banged his head on the machine and had to have two stitches.
Trevor Franklin
One of the most serious of all the accidents here, Franklin was mown down by a motorised luggage trolley at London's Gatwick airport at the end of New Zealand's tour in 1986 (during which he broke a thumb) and suffered multiple fractures of his leg. He was out of the game for 18 months, and when he did return he was handicapped by never being able to run at full speed again. Despite this, and being what Wisden described as "unspectacular but effective", he made a hundred in the Lord's Test four years later. However, when he faced England in 1991-92, he had his forearm broken by David Lawrence.
Jimmy Adams
After 19 hours of negotiations at a London hotel, the 1998-99 West Indies tour of South Africa finally got the go-ahead - at one stage the whole thing looked like being scrapped following a dispute over payments. On the flight to Johannesburg, Adams managed to slice through the tendons of his right hand while cutting some far-from-fresh bread. "There was an announcement seeking the services of a doctor," Dr Ali Bacher, a mediator during the crisis, said. "I answered the call to find Adams lying unconscious with blood pouring out of his hand. A young doctor appeared. She stitched the wound up while I assisted. I gave up being a doctor in 1979." Adams missed the tour, as well as the post-meal coffee. A similar fate befell Mark Boucher in Australia in 2000 when he sliced through his hand rather than meat, forcing Andrew Hall to keep wicket.
Don Topley: a victim of an aggressive letterbox © Cricinfo Ltd
Don Topley
Journeyman cricketers supplement their income with a variety of jobs in the off season. In Topley's case that meant working as a postman. However, shortly before the start of a new season he tried to post a letter through a door but the spring-loaded letterbox snapped back on his fingers, sending him off to the local Accident and Emergency department.
Bruce French
Proof that when you are having an off day, nothing goes your way. In Lahore during England's wretched 1987-88 tour of Pakistan, French was minding his own business in the nets when he was hit on the head by a throw from a spectator returning a stray ball. He was taken to hospital, where he was struck by a car outside the main entrance. He had his wound stitched without incident, only to crack his head on a low-hanging light fitting as he got up to leave.
Derek Pringle
As he sorted out complimentary tickets for the 1982 Headingley Test, Pringle leaned back on his chair, which collapsed, dumping him on the floor and leaving him with shooting pains between the shoulder blades. The myth soon arose that he had injured himself writing letters, something he attributed to Bernard Thomas. "The Machiavellian little man told the press I'd done my back in writing a letter - presumably his attempt to toughen me up with some cod psychology."
Chris Old
Old was a fine quick bowler who would undoubtedly have achieved more but for his tendency to acquire injuries on the eve of matches. He once pulled out of a Test match when he sneezed and damaged a rib. Frank Keating once wrote of him: "Ask that engaging hypochondriac how he is keeping and the answer, as ever, takes a full half-hour." It was reported that the first bowling machine installed at Lord's was nicknamed Chris Old... because it kept breaking down so often.
Martin Williamson is executive editor of Cricinfo and managing editor of ESPN Digital Media in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This article was originally published on Cricinfo in February 2007
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.Now’s the perfect time of year to be applying to some of the world’s most prestigious journalism fellowships. However, completing these applications can be an arduous, time-consuming task. To make sure you don’t miss any crucial deadlines, it’s essential to start preparing ahead of time.
So if you’re on the lookout for the fellowship that will kick-start your career, keep these eight opportunities — and their deadlines — |
cast Episodes' -OutputMode Multiple | ForEach-Object { Start-Process -FilePath $_. link }
Keep in mind that a PowerShell one-liner is one continuous pipeline and not necessarily a command that’s on one physical line. Not all commands that are on one physical line are one-liners.
The code shown in the previous example requires PowerShell version 3.0 or higher. It returns a list of all of their podcast episodes:
I’ve gone ahead and selected the episodes I want to listen to as shown in blue in the previous example. Click OK and those episodes are automatically opened in your default web browser:
Anytime you’re going to be opening a web browser from PowerShell, I recommend running PowerShell non-elevated otherwise you’re bypassing UAC (User Access Control) and asking for drive by malware (any application that’s run from an elevated PowerShell session also runs elevated).
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PrintThis week Tom Givens, one of the most admired firearms trainers in the business, highlighted a video of a self defense shooting over at Pistol-Forum.com that teaches a lot of key lessons about successful self defense.
How many times have you heard the phrase “You can’t beat a drawn gun” before in discussions of self defense? Well, this gentleman did. The bad guys busted through the door with guns in hand and he decisively beat them back, leaving one with only gunshot wounds to show for his robbery attempt. So how did he do this?
1. Paying attention
The first key to success here was situational awareness. The term “situational awareness” gets used quite a bit but often the conversation is pretty silly. Some folks talk like situational awareness is some sort of superpower that repels bad guys. In some cases it’s certainly true that paying attention to what’s going on will allow you to avoid a dangerous situation, but sometimes paying attention just means that you get an extra couple of seconds notice that trouble is coming.
Note how quickly this all went down. The bad guys stormed in the front door and covered most of the empty space to the guard station in just a couple of seconds. Had the good guy been unaware of their approach until they’d covered all that space he would have had a much bigger problem on his hands. A couple of seconds doesn’t seem like a lot of time but in life or death situations increments of time we ordinarily dismiss as insignificant make the difference between life and death.
Paying attention buys you time, and time is opportunity. In this case paying attention bought him the opportunity to keep the bad guys from establishing control and determining his fate. They came in like a wrecking ball…they left as quick as they came in, scared out of their wits and bleeding.
2. No hesitation
When he saw those guys coming through the door he knew instantly what was up and reacted immediately with the judicious application of lethal force. Once again I encourage you to listen to this interview with William Aprill and pay particular attention to what he says about “schemas.” The security guard in this video clearly recognized that someone may well try to kill him and made some important decisions about that well before the moment when he had to pull a gun. Creating that “mental parking spot for violence” made all the difference.
Accepting that it may be necessary for you to use violence in self defense is an important part of the defensive process. Criminal violence happens fast and usually by complete surprise. The three thugs here perpetrated a full-on ambush on the security guard…but he had apparently already recognized that as a possibility he faced in life.
In the aftermath of dangerous events you often hear people mention something like “and then my training took over.” What they mean by that is precisely what you see in that video. The instant their mind recognized a situation they had deliberately prepared for, their body produced the actions they had rehearsed without hesitation.
When you accept that it may happen, learn the signs that it is happening, and make reasonable preparations on how to respond…the chances of a happy outcome increase dramatically.
Note that when the bad guys saw him move and draw that pistol it completely destroyed their plan of action. They were thrown into absolute panic by the sight of somebody who reacted to their initial assault with immediate violence. Someone with a gun and the apparent resolve and skill to use said gun will scare the living excrement out of most bad guys. Those who are too stupid or mean to be scared and run away will usually end up being shot.
3. Aiming
Note how the security guard drew to a two-hand hold with the pistol in his line of sight. This tends to work pretty well for getting hits…as is shown in the video. Ignore anyone who tells you it isn’t possible to intelligently direct bullets under gunfight conditions. Those people are idiots.
4. Movement
Note how the security guard moves off the line of attack. It’s not a vast distance, but a moving target that is shooting back with reasonable accuracy is a pretty tough problem to deal with.
5. Intelligence
Note how, once the shooting has stopped, he places himself in a corridor where he can monitor the entrance while exposing almost none of himself in the process. It was over, but he didn’t know that. You usually don’t know when it’s over in the moment. This guy was giving himself every advantage he could even after the shooting stopped.
Outnumbered, outgunned, and yet he inflicted his will on the would-be aggressors so effectively the one who was shot crawled out of there without his gun or even his own damn shoes. Ponder that for a moment…one older guy with a gun and the mindset and skill to use it effectively put three violent felons into a state of absolute terror.
Seems like a pretty good template for self defense to me.
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RedditCLOSE Here's a breakdown of the stories right now at www.democratandchronicle.com. Virginia Butler
Buy Photo Pastor Paul Burress delivers his message at Victory Church in Henrietta. (Photo: 2012 file photo)Buy Photo
Paul Burress, a charismatic, in-your-face pastor who gained fame for operating a fight club in his Henrietta house of worship, has been accused of forcibly touching two women.
Burress was for years a pastor at Victory Church, a large nondenominational Christian church. The Victory website does not list Burress as being among its leadership team, and the telephone went unanswered there Monday morning.
Burress, 43, is a mixed-martial arts fighter as well as a minister, and received a great deal of publicity when he was featured in Fight Church, a 2014 documentary.
On Friday morning, however, he was arrested by Monroe County sheriff's deputies on two counts of forcible touching, according to Sheriff's Office spokesman Cpl. John Helfer. Helfer verified the person arrested was the minister noted for his "Fight Church" activities.
The charges arose from separate incidents in February, Helfer said. The complainants are adult females.
The offense in question, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 1 year in jail, is defined in the state penal law as forcibly touching "the sexual or other intimate parts of another person."
Burress, who could not be reached for comment Monday, was processed in the sheriff's Henrietta substation and given an appearance ticket.
He is scheduled to be arraigned in Henrietta Town Court on Sept. 19, according to the Monroe County District Attorney's office.
The Henrietta pastor has been dogged by accusations of sexual misconduct for several years. Several blogs and news websites featured such claims three years ago, when Burress came to public attention because of his fighting-in-church approach.
But none of those accusations were proved and there is no record of any previous arrest.
Tina Wright, a former member of Victory Church who asserts she has a long personal history with Burress, said she had spoken to one of the women who filed charges.
Wright, who now lives in South Carolina, said she encouraged that woman and others who may have been harmed by the minister to come forward.
"I know beyond the shadow of a doubt there are more victims. There’s a lot of us here," Wright said. "We need to end the silence so we can stop the cycle of abuse, especially in the church."
NEWSLETTERS Get the ROC60 newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Rochester in 60 seconds: Get all the news you need to know in less than a minute. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-790-9565. Delivery: Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for ROC60 Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
Asked her reaction to reports of his arrest, Wright said, "I’m still in shock, to be honest. I’m relieved that the voices of the victims are finally being heard and they’ll have the opportunity to tell their stories."
SORR@Gannett.com
Read or Share this story: http://on.rocne.ws/2y0vNajFormer PM launches outspoken attack on leave campaign, calling it ‘depressing and awful’ and Boris Johnson a ‘court jester’
The NHS would be as safe as a pet hamster in the presence of a hungry python if Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Iain Duncan Smith rose to power following Brexit, Sir John Major has said.
In an extraordinary attack on his fellow Conservatives, Major produced a withering assessment of leading members of Vote Leave, calling their campaign deceitful, untrue, depressing, awful and “verging on the squalid”.
The former prime minister insisted his intervention was not a personal slight against Johnson or Gove, but a more general criticism of the leave campaign’s shift to the right on immigration and claims that they would protect the NHS.
How do I … vote in the EU referendum? Read more
However, he went on to claim Gove had wanted to privatise the NHS, Johnson wished to charge people for health services and Duncan Smith advocated moving to a social insurance system.
“The NHS is about as safe with them as a pet hamster would be with a hungry python,” Major said on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show.
He added Johnson was a “court jester” but not a serious politician and said that the Conservatives Johnson had divided would not be loyal to him after leaving the EU.
“I think I would offer him this piece of advice – if the leave campaign led by Boris continue to divide the Conservative party as they are doing at the present time, and if Boris has the laudable ambition, for it is a laudable ambition, to become prime minister, he will find if he achieves that that he will not have the loyalty of the party he divided.
“Iain Duncan Smith was serially disloyal in the 1990s, when he became leader he was surprised that no one was loyal to him and Boris should learn from that.
Turning to Vote Leave’s claims about the economy, Major said they were “fundamentally dishonest” about the cost of the EU being £350m a week.
“And on the subject that they have veered towards, having lost the economic argument, of immigration, I think their campaign is verging on the squalid,” he said.
“I am angry at the way the British people are being misled, this is much more important than a general election, this is going to affect people, their livelihoods, their future, for a very long time to come and if they are given honest, straightforward facts and they decide to leave, then that is the decision the British people take.
“But if they decide to leave on the basis of inaccurate information, inaccurate information known to be inaccurate, then I regard that as deceitful.”
The attack, which was likely to have been authorised by the official remain campaign and Downing Street, is designed to counter the Vote Leave claim that it would spend at least £100m more a week on the NHS out of money clawed back from Brussels.
Leading Brexit campaigners reacted by taking a serious tone in interviews on Sunday morning, rather than launching a counterattack on Major. In an interview with Peston on Sunday, Gove said he still believed the party could come back together after a vote to leave, and he would not want to choose between his close allies Cameron and Johnson.
He also argued that the UK will not actually have left the EU by 2020 in the event of a vote for Brexit, implying there will be a long time period to get the negotiations right.
“We wouldn’t have left the European Union by the end of this parliament but we would in due course bring [immigration] down to tens of thousands,” he said.
Nigel Farage: migrant sex attacks to be nuclear bomb of EU referendum Read more
A backbench Brexit campaigner, Bernard Jenkin, tweeted that his side was “rising above the personal attacks and bitterness of John Major, with positive case for leave”. Andrea Leadsom, a Conservative energy minister, told the BBC 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics: “He’s obviously decided playing the man is going to be the better tactic for the remain side.”
Speaking on Marr as well, Johnson dismissed Major’s accusations and said he wanted to talk about the arguments.
The former London mayor said it was “absolute nonsense” that he was supporting the leave campaign out of personal ambition and added that he did not want it to become about “personality politics”.
He also distanced himself from a Vote Leave poster that said: “David Cameron cannot be trusted on immigration,” claiming he had never seen it before.
Major’s attack is the latest escalation of hostilities between leading Conservative members of the in and out campaigns, which have engaged in vicious claims and counterclaims in the last few weeks.
Johnson has previously accused the prime minister of leading a government that had eroded trust on immigration by failing to meet its targets.
On Sunday, he wrote jointly with Gove in the Telegraph that the prime minister had put the British economy in “severe danger” by giving away a UK veto during talks in Brussels earlier this year.
Poll gives Brexit campaign lead of three percentage points Read more
Other leading members of the leave campaign have more directly impugned the prime minister’s character, painting him as untrustworthy and damaged as a leader.
Three backbench Tory MPs have suggested he should face a leadership challenge after the referendum, and more could speak out if he continues to campaign so ferociously to stay in the EU.
Duncan Smith last week accused Cameron of insincerity and an attempt to deceive the public over EU immigration.
From the other side, Michael Heseltine, a Conservative former deputy prime minister, accused Johnson of behaving “irresponsibly [and] recklessly” and making “preposterous, obscene political remarks”.
Ken Clarke, a Tory former chancellor and home secretary, said Johnson was not serious and just a nicer version of Donald Trump, while Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem former deputy prime minister, said on Friday that the former London mayor was like “Trump with a thesaurus”.
Despite the bitterness of the rows, the prime minister told the Mail on Sunday that he would want Johnson and Gove to have major roles in the government if Britain voted to stay in.
He also warned that quitting the EU would create a “clear and present” danger of rocketing mortgage costs by £1,000 on average or £1,500 in the worst-case scenario.Aliens, you're fired: that's how Trump supporters do Tabby's science
It's almost midnight but I could have problems to sleep because of this idea that I have to record somewhere. The blog seems like a better place than my scribbling notebook now – despite the fact that the idea could be embarrassingly wrong.
Thousands of young people are excited about a cosmic superstring in the constellation Cygnus.
Let me start with this nice music called "Superstring" by "Cygnus X". I've known it for some 15 years – around 2001, I found it as one composition among several others that appeared when I inserted superstring-like keywords to music searches. ;-) If these words were a hint, what would it tell you? Yes, Cygnus is a constellation so if you look for an experimental proof of superstrings, you should look in the constellation Cygnus (swan).
OK, if you were gazing in that direction for years, you would finally find a seemingly ordinary star, Tabby's star or KIC 8462852, which is some 1480 light years away from the Earth. Its radius and mass are about 50% higher than the Sun's. This star became famous because of its strangely behaving flux. Hundreds of news outlets argue that these adjustments of the flux were caused by extraterrestrial aliens, more specifically by a Dyson swarm they built to extract the energy from their Sun.
Let me offer you a potentially equally groundbreaking but arguably less unnatural solution: a cosmic string. This very blog contains several posts about a possible discovery of a cosmic string through two nearby images of a galaxy that have seemed identical for a few years.
The two nearby images could have been identical and the doubling could have been caused by the gravitational lensing through a cosmic string.
Because of the cosmic string in between – which "attracts" the light rays thanks to its deficit angle \(\delta = GT\) or so – a part of the image is doubled, the optimistic story said. Cosmic strings are the only objects that are capable of creating identical undistorted images via gravitational lensing. The space around a cosmic string is flat almost everywhere – except at the location of the cosmic string. The spacetime looks like a cone and the deficit angle describes how much it differs from a flat plane. It was exciting for some 3 years before sharper images from the Hubble showed in 2006 that there were two similar but distinct galaxies. The cosmic string explanation of CSL-1 was dead.
But now, Tabby's star is another baffling object. Montet and Simon published a preprint about the bizarre time dependence of the flux coming from Tabby's star just a few days ago. In 3 years when it was observed by Kepler, the flux was dropping approximately linearly, by 0.9% in total. However, in half a year afterwards, the drop accelerated to 2% per 7 months. And then the fast drop stopped although some linear decrease may be continuing now.
The cloud models basically suck and one of the reasons might be that they think that the high intensity is the "normal" value – and the low intensity is obtained by some partial shielding. Well, the truth may be the other way around. The low value of the flux may be the normal one and something – the cosmic string lensing – may have been temporarily enhancing the flux simply because the cosmic string made the star temporarily wider.
This image of CSL-1 shows that the cosmic string – cutting the picture along a line so that the two red disks are on the opposite sides – could have doubled the image and therefore the flux. If the tension and the deficit angle were smaller, it could have just increased the width of the star.
Now, the radius of the star is some 3 light seconds. We need to increase its flux – and therefore width – by a few percent, so the distance by which the cosmic string shifts parts of the image should be some 0.1 light seconds. On the other hand, the distance of Tabby's star is 1480 light years which is \(5\times 10^{10}\) light seconds. The ratio is roughly \(10^{11}\) so we need a cosmic string with a deficit angle comparable to \(\delta \sim GT\sim 10^{-11}\). That's a much lower tension and deficit angle than generally expected for popular cosmic strings, \(\delta \sim 10^{-6}\), but I will look at the problems it causes tomorrow. (I do think that this lower string tension could be compatible with the unification ideas in Witten's strongly coupled heterotic strings, for example.) The location of the cosmic string that is very far from the middle of the Earth-Tabby_star segment (i.e. close to the Earth or to Tabby's star) could change the numbers.
How should the intensity be affected? The cosmic string basically adds a "strip" of the stellar disk. As the cosmic string is moving across the star, the added area basically behaves as the thickness of the disk \(y(x)\) at a given \(x\) of the star, so the graph of the flux as a function of time \(P(t)\) should basically be a positive semicircle.
On the left side and the right side from the blue semicircle, the blue semicircle should be extended by the constant horizontal axis. The cosmic string may hypothetically vibrate and add lots of complexity but I think that this simple graph should be the "zeroth approximation" of the graph for the flux from Tabby's star as a function of time – assuming that a straight cosmic string is moving uniformly and simply crossing the star. Clearly, we need Kepler's observation to start near the center of the picture – the maximum of the flux when Tabby's star was maximally widened.
The August 2016 paper contains Figure 3:
You see that they tried to describe the observations of the flux in terms of some piecewise linear function or something of the sort. Can you try to fit the observations with my semicircle graph instead? Is a semicircle (well, a semiellipse because the stretching and units are different for the two axes) continuing with the constant function afterwards a good enough fit? It's after the midnight now and I want to sleep. But I hope that when I wake up, a TRF commenter will clarify all the missing details of this stupidity and the Nobel committee won't wake me up before 7 am.
Thank you very much and good night.
Mathematica is efficient so within minutes, I created this best fit using the semicircle function (the Mathematica source has less than 20 commands):It looks very good to me assuming that the datapoints (in my picture ellipses) are 1-sigma intervals.BTW when I was sleeping, I realized that the gravitational lensing by a less exotic object than a cosmic string could possibly do a similarly good job. Well, I don't know the functions for the total flux from an object deformed by a localized gravitational lensing source so the cosmic string is the easiest case for me to calculate.Image caption Martin Freeman is starring as Bilbo Baggins
Filming on the two Hobbit movies has begun following months of delays caused by funding problems, a row over actors' wages and surgery for its director.
Filming is taking place at Stone Street Studios, Wellington, and on location around New Zealand.
Production on the films, starring Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, is expected to take up to two years. The first is due out in late 2012.
In January, director Peter Jackson had surgery for a perforated ulcer.
Studios Warner Bros and New Line had previously considered taking the production away from New Zealand after acting unions threatened to boycott the films in protest over payments.
The unions had complained of inconsistencies in the terms and conditions of New Zealand actors and other production workers compared with their overseas colleagues.
They said they would strike if their demands for a collective contract were not met.
'Movie drought'
In an open letter written at the time, Jackson warned that shifting the entire project to eastern Europe "could so easily happen".
There are some bits of bad luck associated with it. We're all very optimistic about it. We're ready to go - just as soon as 2015 comes around Martin Freeman jokes about the problems The Hobbit has faced
"Seriously, if the Hobbit goes east - eastern Europe in fact - look forward to a long, dry big-budget movie drought in this country," he said.
After the studios threatened to leave, thousands of people took to the streets up and down New Zealand to demand that the production remained in the country.
But at the end of October, the New Zealand government passed legislation to change labour laws and improve tax breaks to ensure production remained in the country.
The changes mean actors and others working on the films will be hired as contractors not employees.
The films had earlier been stalled by problems including rows over distribution rights and the exit of original director Guillermo del Toro.
At a press conference last month, the film's star, Freeman, joked about the trials it has faced.
"There are some bits of bad luck associated with it," he said.
"We're all very optimistic about it. We're ready to go - just as soon as 2015 comes around."
The films, which also star Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey, Andy Serkis as Gollum, Elijah Wood as Frodo and Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, are based on JR Tolkien's epic fantasy novel.
The Hobbit films act as a prequel to Jackson's trilogy of films based on Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.CALGARY, Alberta – There is no question that geology is a subjective science that is open to interpretation. But every now and again, a geology professional takes liberties with this interpretation that can end up being very costly. This article reports a case to that very point.
Luke Jennings, Senior Geologist with Upstock Energy, presented an exploration strategy/proposal to senior executives that included a geological summary with a series of correlations on a poro-perm plot. The following quote is an excerpt from his presentation:
Only Amerada well 14/9-1 tested this play within closure on the crest of the Intra-Graben High. The Tithonian to Berriasian, late syn-rift unit had log-derived porosities up to 30%. Although permeabilities appear to be poor at the 14/9-1 well location, the prospectivity of the syn-rift succession cannot be ruled out elsewhere, especially where early good poro-perm characteristics have been maintained by early oil migration before the destructive process of later paleo-microbial diagenesis. I was able to find a strong best fit correlation on the poro-perm plot as shown in Figure 1:
After a number of hours of continued analysis and breaking down the poro-perm plot, Mr. Jennings was able to find a 2nd best fit correlation through the same data, as shown in Figure 2. Mr. Jennings continues,
It is very clear that the 2 best fit trends are not singing the same tune. Figure 1 indicates that the permeability increases strongly with porosity, yet the 2nd best fit depicted in Figure 2 suggests that permeability decreases slighly with increasing porosity. But I am a geologist, and the work I do does not really need to make any friggin’ sense. So in conclusion, having seen the effects of glacial ice and modern processes on Mount Desert Island, our geological overview of the region is now complete. A company endorsed field excursion to the Mount Desert Island region filled us with insight and a new perspective on the play. The geologic history of Mount Desert Island is a long one; rocks over 500 million years old present evidence for the island’s beginnings on the bottom of an ancient ocean floor, and then they were moved as rocks were back then, and subsequently altered by a process. Over millions of years, that somehow translates into a stratigraphical trap containing 180 MMbbl of oil in place. Armed with this definitive knowledge, I am therefore asking for $25MM for a 10 well drilling program for the 2014 Capital Year.
Mr. Jennings’ request was denied by management in short order, his position subsequently became redundant, and he was laid off.The dreams of building a real, valuable product in today’s ever-growing market is a thought sought by many.
Yet, these individuals are often limited by their own skill or knowledge.
For example, a person may have an amazing idea for an AI-based solution but the chances of that idea actually being built are extremely slim unless the person: a) has an educational background in AI or b) has the financial resources to do so.
There are people who fit in the first situation or the other; the vast majority, however, don’t fall into either category which leaves their ambitions akin to a pipe dream.
One might argue that the existence of online learning platforms (like Udemy or Lynda) are doing their part in overcoming this challenge but the truth is this – these platforms do not bring students from A to Z in building real, functional products.
Instead, most courses cover only the surface, causing many students to lose interest as they cannot actually apply and use what they’ve learned because the courses are so basic!
Even if they complete a full course, it is highly unlikely for students to have the practical skills needed to build a complete product.
Luckily, a startup in the industry is rapidly overcoming these obstacles and they’re already making waves in the online education scene, with no signs of slowing down.
Introducing LiveEdu
LiveEdu is a decentralized peer-to-peer project learning network for individuals to improve their job-related skills and knowledge in future technologies.
What makes LiveEdu different is that it doesn’t target the complete beginner; instead, LiveEdu focuses on individuals who already have basic skills but want to improve or learn more about a certain topic (think college students or working professionals).
Rather than focusing on theory, LiveEdu emphasizes the importance of application by using practical projects as a means to teach students to create real, functional products.
The platform also provides students useful project files to download and tinker around with to improve their skills even further.
Readers should note that LiveEdu is not the exclusive provider of projects taught on the platform. Instead, it acts as a network or platform for content creators to create their own educational projects and monetize that on LiveEdu.
Here are some of the things learners can expect from the LiveEdu platform:
The ability to watch and learn the process of developing a product from start to finish
Watch live or pre-recorded lessons
The ability to download projects files and resources for further practice
An interactive live-chat system to get instant answers to queries and questions
Be involved in a friendly and supportive peer-to-peer community
Unlike other startups in the blockchain industry, LiveEdu has already been in existence since 2015 with several reputable team members from Amazon and Y-Combinator (the platform itself is a Y-Combinator company) which shows that the LiveEdu team is more than capable of delivering on their promises.
Over 1,000,000 users from just under 200 countries have used LiveEdu since its inception, with the platform boasting over 200,000 pieces of value-packed content as of today.
In line with LiveEdu’s expansion and integration with the blockchain, LiveEdu has added six different premium topics to its platform: game development, data analytics, design, augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrencies.
LiveEdu divides its services into two parts: premium and non-premium projects. The team has decided to shift its focus on premium projects which will be tokenized and powered by the blockchain.
Premium projects are built exclusively on the basis of teaching; they are also guaranteed to be well-structured and educational to deliver maximum value to LiveEdu students.
What differentiates LiveEdu from its competitors is that no other platform offers the sheer amount of details covered in LiveEdu’s premium projects which are designed to build complete products from start to finish.
So, why did the platform decided to use the blockchain?
For starters, the blockchain will make processes currently available in LiveEdu to become much more democratized and efficient for all parties involved especially on demand and supply dynamics.
A decentralized peer-to-peer network also allows users from all over the world to connect and learn seamlessly, making the global scaling potential of LiveEdu virtually limitless.
As mentioned earlier, LiveEdu is a profitable existing business with an experienced team to boot.
Leading the team is the company’s CEO, Dr. Michael J. Garbade leads LiveEdu along with Alex Zhukov and Ilya Toka, two highly-respected individuals who’ve contributed greatly to LiveEdu since it first launched.
How does LiveEdu work?
The bread and butter of LiveEdu are the projects (premium and non-premium) available on the platform.
UI-wise, each practical project will include a live stream channel, a video project playlist, as well as a live chat window for instant answers to questions and requests.
If users miss out on live streams, they don’t have to worry too much about it as live streams are automatically archived by LiveEdu to be viewed at any time.
Content creators are not limited in their options as they can choose to either teach their lessons via a live stream or doing it offline – both ways work in LiveEdu.
With the interactive live chat, LiveEdu provides a level of interaction between students and teachers like never before; questions can be asked and answered directly in the live chat while learners also gain the ability to connect with other students in the community.
As already stated, premium projects are given more attention by the LiveEdu team to ensure quality is maintained for learners.
For instance, premium projects are streamed weekly on a schedule so that learners can organize their time for lessons. Projects are also moderated and checked strictly to maintain extremely high-quality standards among all projects.
One of the criteria to create premium projects is that a content creator must have at least 4 years of experience in his or her field to proceed; that alone shows you how much the team puts its focus on the quality of premium projects.
The LiveEdu team understands that the community wants to give their input on premium projects. Hence, they’ve created a system where requests can be made on LiveEdu where users can submit project suggestions which are then upvoted or downvoted by the community.
Bringing all of this features together is the platform’s utility token (ERC-20 compliant), the LiveEdu Education token or EDU for short.
EDU tokens are integrated into all of LiveEdu’s transactions and core modules. This means that it is used as a payment method for financial transactions as well as being used to reward users of the platform.
Every positive contribution of users in the LiveEdu platform is incentivized by EDU tokens to encourage a healthy ecosystem. Streamers, for example, have the advantage of guaranteed monthly payments (and for a lifelong period as well) when viewers watch their premium projects.
EDU tokens will also replace fiat payment methods as the de facto payment method for donations and subscriptions to content creators.
In the future, users can also expect to pay for subscriptions and services in the LiveEdu solely with EDU tokens; on the topic of payments, users who don’t have access to credit cards or PayPal accounts can purchase EDU easily with bank accounts and subsequently use the bought tokens in LiveEdu.
Uses of the EDU token
Aside from the features mentioned above, the EDU token has several other uses for it which include :
Paying for subscriptions
Downloading project files
Sending messages and voting on suggested projects
Submitting project requests
Requesting custom projects
Sending personal Q&A to streamers
Donations to content creators
Content creators in LiveEdu are also incentivized in the form of EDU tokens for their efforts. The team reserves and fairly distribute 13% of all tokens minted during the ICO in a 3-year period—one of LiveEdu’s biggest advantages over other platforms in the market.
As the LiveEdu ecosystem rewards everyone fairly, learners are also incentivized for their time spent on the platform.
Learners can earn EDU tokens for:
Watching live streams
Watching project video playlists
Monthly time-based viewership rewards
Submitting premium project suggestions
Inviting friends to the platform
Following projects
The LiveEdu token sale
Although the official token sale for LiveEdu begins only in January next year, the pre-sale for the EDU token is currently ongoing.
Token name: EDU
Token base: Ethereum (ERC-20)
Token supply: 100,000,000 (may vary depending on ICO outcome)
Token sale duration: 15th January, 2018 – 10th February, 2018 (pre-sale is currently LIVE with tiered bonuses)
Token sale target: $8,000,000 (hard cap)
Token exchange rate: 1 ETH = 3,300 EDU
LiveEdu’s Website
LiveEdu’s WhitepaperHinting at staging a sit-in in Raiwind like the one held at D-Chowk, Islamabad, Imran said he will announce strategy in this regard on April 24.
The PTI chief, while talking to media here, said the prime minister should have stepped down in the face of corruption allegations. He castigated that accusations are being leveled against Sharif family, but their ‘courtiers’ are furnishing explanations.
The skipper demanded the PM to tell how his son is residing in a house worth Rs 6.5 billion.
Imran Khan also mocked PM Nawaz Sharif by imitating his accent during address with the nation.
Moreover, he said that only an inquiry commission comprising of Supreme Court (SC) judges and forensic experts can rightly probe the allegations surfacing after Panama Papers leaks.
Comments
commentsResponding to Wallison’s Latest Defense of His Flawed Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Dissent
By David Min
July 2011
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originally published at American Progress.org
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Introduction
If you’ve been closely following the housing finance reform debate, you may have come across a pair of shrill blog posts penned by Peter Wallison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a Republican appointee to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. He responded to my February 2011 article, “Faulty Conclusions Based on Shoddy Foundations,” which criticized the research underlying Wallison’s dissent from the majority of the members of that commission, and his contention that U.S. affordable housing policies caused the global financial crisis.
In these blog posts on The American Spectator’s blog on May 24 and on AEI’s blog on May 26, Wallison criticizes ”Faulty Conclusions” as “fallacious,” “fraudulent,” and “deceptive”; claims that it contains a “fake” chart; and describes the article as a “political screed.”
As I describe below, these accusations are baseless and distract from the fact that Wallison does not actually address the main arguments of “Faulty Conclusions.” Wallison does not contradict the claim that his FCIC dissent depends critically on the categorization of millions of home mortgage loans as “high risk” that are not actually high risk. Wallison also fails to answer other serious issues with his arguments that were pointed out in “Faulty Conclusions.”
This issue brief will reexamine my core criticisms of Wallison’s dissent from the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and respond to his criticisms of my column “Faulty Conclusions.”
Background
Wallison, of course, wrote a lonely dissent from both the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission majority report and from his fellow Republican commissioners, in which he alone blamed the global financial crisis on U.S. affordable housing policies. This argument is clearly contradicted by the facts, including the following:
• Parallel bubble-bust cycles occurred outside of the residential housing markets (for example, in commercial real estate and consumer credit).
• Parallel financial crises struck other countries, which did not have analogous affordable housing policies
• The |
too.)
I thought it might be a public service, then — if a somewhat distasteful one — to publish a lengthy transcript from a video that appears unedited to me. The following excerpt is about four minutes in length, and you can navigate in the video to watch the whole 2 3/4 hour video if you wish. Make up your own mind about whether Milo Yiannopoulos appears to advocate older men having sexual relationships with boys as young as 13.
And if it appears that he does, you must decide whether that is an opinion that you want representing you as a conservative. [Discussion is NSFW.]
PaulsEgo: The whole consent thing, for me, is, it’s not this black and white thing that people try and paint it. Are there some 13-year-olds out there capable of giving informed consent to have sex with an adult? Probably. But I was also a 13-year-old. I hung around with 13-year-old guys, you know, when I was 13, and there were some of them that still thought girls were f*cking icky at 13. Like not many, but like, they were just coming out of that phase. I don’t know that I was ready at 13 to get f*cked in the *ss by a 28-year-old black drag queen is what I’m saying. So, you can’t, the reason these age of consent laws exist is because we have to set some kind of a barometer here.
Yiannopoulos: I completely understand…
PaulsEgo: We’ve got to pick an age and go, okay, look, this is the age where we can reasonably be assured you’re an adult, you can give informed consent, you understand the risks of pregnancy, all that bullsh*t.
Yiannopoulos: Of course, of course, and I think the law is probably about right, that’s probably roughly the right age, I think it’s probably about okay, but there are certainly people who are capable of giving consent at a younger age, I certainly consider myself to be one of them. People who are sexually active younger. I think it particularly happens in the gay world, by the way. And in many cases, actually, those relationships with older men — this is one of the reasons I hate the left, this sort of stupid, one-size-fits-all policing of culture, this sort of, this arbitrary —
Ben: You know, Milo —
T.J.: Let him talk.
Ben: Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I was just —
Yiannopoulos: This arbitrary — I’m just gonna — I’ll be quick. This arbitary and oppressive idea of consent which totally destroys, you know, the understanding that many of us have of the complexities and subtleties and complicated nature of many relationships. You know, people are messy and complex, and actually, in the homosexual world particularly, some of those relationships between younger boys and older men, those kind of coming-of-age relationships, the relationships in which those older men help those young boys to discover who they are, and give them security and safety and provide them with love and a reliable — a sort of a rock for when they can’t talk to their parents. Some of those relationships are some of the most —
Unknown: It sounds like priest molestation to me.
Ben: It sounds like Catholic priest molestation to me.
Yiannopoulos: And you know what? I am grateful for Father Michael. I wouldn’t give nearly such good head if it wasn’t for him.
Ben: Oh, my God. Oh, my God, I can’t handle it.
Unknown: What is wrong with you, Ben? Come on?
PaulsEgo: It’s funny because Ben gave me some homework on you, Milo, he gave a few videos to watch to brush up on my Miloisms, and one of the things you said in one of these clips was that transgenderism is the new, you know, frontier of, you know, rights, my wording is bad here, but, um, you know, it’s the new frontier of social progress and the next thing in line is gonna be pedophilia – and yet, here you are talking about how, look, you know, some of these kids that get diddled by these priests, I mean, it’s a good thing for them! They’re getting this love! Now they are also getting a d*ck —
Yiannopoulos: You’re misunderstanding what pedophilia means. Pedophilia is not a sexual attraction to someone 13 years old who is sexually mature.
PaulsEgo: OK, ephebophilia or whatever.
Yiannopoulos: Pedophilia is attraction to children who have not reached puberty. Pedophilia is attraction to people who don’t have functioning sex organs yet, who have not gone through puberty, who are too young to be able to understand the way their bodies —
Unknown: Ann Coulter.
Yiannopoulos: That is not what we’re talking about.
T.J.: Ann Coulter.
PaulsEgo: Sure, granted.
Yiannopoulos: You don’t understand what pedophilia is if you think that I’m defending it, ’cause I’m certainly not.
PaulsEgo: No, no, no. I’m not saying you’re defending it, I’m saying you’re walking the borderline.
Yiannopoulos: No it’s not. You said I was defending it, and you’re wrong.
PaulsEgo: OK, OK, fine. I retract my statement, Milo. I retract my statement. I shan’t slander you further. But you are advocating for cross-generational relationships here, can we be honest about that?
Yiannopoulos: Yeah, I don’t mind saying, I don’t mind admitting that, and I think particularly in the gay world – and outside, the Catholic Church, if that’s where some of you want to go with this – I think in the gay world, some of the most important, enriching and incredibly, you know, life-affirming, important, shaping relationships very often between younger boys and older men, they can be hugely positive experiences for those young boys, they can even save those young boys from desolation, from suicide, from drug addiction, all those things, provided they’re consensual. Provided they’re consensual.COLUMBUS, Ohio – C.J. Conrad walked out of Ohio Stadium after participating in Ohio State's Friday Night Lights camp last July glowing about the opportunity to work out in one of college football's most iconic venues.
Conrad was a rising tight end prospect of LaGrange (Ohio) Keystone who simply hoped he made a play or two, anything for the Ohio State coaches to notice who he was.
"It is great that a lot has changed since then," Conrad told Cleveland.com in a recent phone interview. "But this summer is going to be big for me."
Ohio State's coaching staff definitely knows who Conrad is, and the 2015 prospect was personally invited to watch spring practice on Saturday. During his visit, he spent quality alone time with Buckeyes tight ends coach Tim Hinton.
A four-star prospect whom Rivals.com rates the No. 6 tight end in the class, Conrad commands that type of attention now that he has scholarship offers from Arkansas, Duke, Kentucky, Mississippi, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech and others.
But Conrad still doesn't have an offer from Ohio State. Or Michigan. Or Michigan State. Or Penn State. You know, the Big Ten programs he said have really caught his attention. The Buckeyes, though, have told Conrad to be patient.
"Coach Hinton told me straight up that they invited me there for a reason and they wouldn't have invited me if I wasn't a someone who could earn an offer in the future," Conrad said. "So I am going to hit some of the camps and try and earn an offer, but that's OK. That's fine.
"I'm excited about that, really. It is competition and I love it, that's what sports is all about. I am going to be competing for an offer from The Ohio State University, and not a lot of people can say that. I am going to embrace it, have a good time and show them what I got."
Ohio State's top tight end target in the class was Avon (Conn.) Old Farms product Chris Clark, but he recently committed to North Carolina. Clark, however, still plans to visit Ohio State the weekend of April 18. Another tight end with an Ohio State offer who is expected to visit is Jefferson City (Mo.) Helias prospect Hale Hentges.
But Conrad plans to stay patient.
"I'm willing to wait and I am one of the top four tight ends they're targeting," Conrad said. "I have said since day one that I want to be at a school that fits me best, and I know that every school has something different about them. I am not just trying to get Ohio State, then once I get it, then commit.
"I have other schools I'm very interested in as well, like Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State and Kentucky. All those five, including Ohio State, it is going to be tough for me to pick which one.”
A 6-foot-4, 218-pound prospect, Conrad said he's a tight end that can block, but he is best utilized in the passing game. Conrad witnessed how the Buckeyes used their tight ends during spring practice, and he said his skillset would be a perfect fit on Ohio State's roster.
Because he's an in-state prospect, Conrad doesn't shy away from saying there's something special about Ohio State. But what was most important to Conrad was the conversation he had with Hinton.
"Coach Hinton is was honest with me and I appreciated that. I know where I stand," Conrad said. "I am willing to show that I am good enough to play at Ohio State, and having the opportunity to prove that this summer is exciting."Jason Hsu is on a mission to turn Taiwan into a Fintech hub. This includes the development of a robust Initial Coin Offering market – in stark contrast to several Asian neighbors like China and South Korea, two countries that banned all ICOs earlier this year. A Member of Parliament in Taiwan, Hus is a founding member of the Taiwan Fintech Association, founding Chairman of FutureX – an Asia wide policy think tank and more. Hsu is a vocal iconoclast that has embraced financial disruption and he wants his country to lead the way for financial innovation in the pan-Asian region.
Recently writing on Medium, Hsu explained the current position of Taiwan regarding ICOs describing it as a “three no-policies”: the Taiwan government does not encourage, prohibit or forbid it. Effectively, Taiwan and tokenized crowdsales are in a holding pattern. Hsu was recently quoted as taking an unabashedly supportive approach with cryptocurrencies, stating;
“Just because China and South Korea are banning, doesn’t mean that Taiwan should follow suit – there is a huge opportunity for growth in the future. We should emulate Japan, where they treat cryptocurrency as a highly regulated, highly monitored industry like securities.”
Where other countries see risk to big to bear, Hsu sees opportunity.
Recently, Crowdfund Insider caught up with Hsu to better understand his point of view. Our conversation is below.
In general, how would you describe the status of Fintech in Taiwan?
Jason Hsu: The status is that Taiwan has a vibrant startup community; however,the slow progress of de-regulation has hampered innovation and scaling of startups–particularly in Fintech space where regulations sometimes can be big hurdles to overcome.
What has the Taiwan government done to boost or improve the Fintech environment? What about capital formation?
Jason Hsu: The Legislative Yuan, Taiwan’s Congress, is in the process of reviewing Fintech Innovation Experimentation Act, which I, personally, also put forth a draft.
During my Q&A session with Premier and new FSC (Financial SecuritiesCommission) chairman Wellington Koo, I specifically urged the regulatory body to impose a hands-off approach to the nascent technology and allow technologies and industry to take shape before cracking down on it. The government should apply “wait and see” attitude towards Fintech related matters.
The Fintech Act will essentially include regulatory sandbox as well as cross-departmental support and incentive programs to attract international and local venture capital to invest in Fintech in Taiwan.
I am also working with FSC and New Taipei City government to set up a Fintech Hub.
Can you explain the “Financial Technology Innovation Experimentation Act”?
Jason Hsu: I first raised the issue of regulatory sandbox in the Finance Committee Legislative Yuan in May 2016 and advised the FSC to look into model drafts of UK’s Fintech law put forth by FCA.
Later on, a draft was created by FSC Taiwan called Financial Technology Experimentation Act, which essentially includes a regulatory sandbox. Several legislators including myself, also proposed respective drafts.
My version of the bill contains: a more lenient approach to Fintech startups with multiple extensions of their experiments, waiver rights of any wrongdoing that may otherwise commit during the period of experimentation, responsible innovation, and regulatory.
Recently several Asian countries have taken a hard stance on Cryptocurrencies. What is the position of Taiwan on Crypto?
Jason Hsu: Again, I advised the government not to ban cryptocurrencies and related activities like trading and ICOs. There are several ICO startups like Cobinhood, MaiCoin and BitoEx that are originated from Taiwan. I believe if we take advantage of the void left by China and South Korea some of successful Fintech companies can be born in Taiwan.
In my address to Premier and FSC, I also urged government to look at how other countries are dealing with crypto, for example Vietnam has just opened up for crypto trading and some Northern European countries like Sweden’s central banks is legalizing it.
Japan can be a good model to follow where its regulatory body allows licensed entities to trade cryptos.
Once we have legislative framework set up, we will be able to move into a healthy state. All in all, we should treat this as an opportunity rather than a threat.
What about the fast growing Initial Coin Offering sector? How is this evolving in Taiwan?
Jason Hsu: As mentioned above, there are several startups like Cobinhood and Maicoin and etc. are working on ICO related projects. Most of the trading activities are still happening among closed peer groups, which can be scandalous sometimes. That is why I called for authorities to start studying ways to allow crypto trading to be legalized.
As far as banking sector goes, E-sun bank uses G-coin, China Trust Bank joined R3, Fubon bank uses Ethereum… I have also been speaking with investment banks who now are keen in using ICOs as an alternative to raising capital for their clients.
In the foreseeable future, ICOs should have a high probability of becoming a strong option for startups to raise capital.
Where do you believe the Crypto / ICO market is heading? How active is Crypto in Taiwan?
Jason Hsu: Crypto is unique in a way that its decentralized ledger provides point-to-point transaction records. Speaking from anti-money-laundering (AML) point of view, I urge the Taiwan government to consider employing blockchain technology to de-risk potential fraud.
In terms of Crypto and ICOs, as long as the government can remain hands-off, I believe there can be great opportunities to build Taiwan as Fintech Hub in Asia.
I believe this is an opportunity for Taiwan as China is likely to tighten on any de-centralized money flow or information flow.
Our government must think smartly in capitalizing on this void and put forward-thinking legislations forth. If we play this right, Taiwan will be able to differentiate itself from the rest of countries in Asia.
What about Blockchain / Distributed Ledger Technology?
Jason Hsu: Blockchain and distributed ledger technology are widely discussed in Taiwan. In the private sector and startup community many applications have already been created. For example, a crypto-enabled cake shop called Coin Cake has recently opened in Kaohsiung, the Southern part of Taiwan. However, in the public sector the government has been slow to adopt Blockchain.
There are a couple of reasons to this: risk-aversion and non-creative bureaucracy system.
I believe that Blockchain technology, if adopted well, can help solve many problems facing today’s outdated governmental system. It can also be used in solving IP theft such has arts, music, entertainment and other intellectual property related issues.The Philippines has just become the first country to develop nationwide ride-hailing regulations, making it legal for app-based transportation services like Uber to operate anywhere in the nation.
In a statement posted online today, the country’s transportation department announced that it would publish more details this week. The move comes just a little over a year after Uber launched its service in the nation’s capital, Metro Manila, and after months of operating in the Philippines without formal regulations.
The new rules are a triumph for Uber, which is still facing regulatory resistance all over the world.
"We view technological innovation as a driver for progress, especially in transportation where it can provide safer and more convenient commuting options to the public," Jun Abaya, the Philippines’ Department of Transportation and Communications secretary, said. "App-based transport services help address the increasing demand for mobility spurred by rapid urbanization."
All the specifics of the regulations have yet to be finalized, but in general, the DOTC says cars that operate on these services must have a GPS system; must be sedans, Asian Utility Vehicles (AUVs), SUVs, or vans; and can't be more than seven years old. Operators will also be required to obtain certificates for each vehicle on the service, and drivers must be screened and accredited by Uber (or other ride-hailing services) and registered with the local transportation regulatory board.
A Triumph for Uber
The new rules are a triumph for Uber, which is still facing regulatory resistance all over the world. In India, Uber’s largest market outside of the US by number of cities covered, allegations late last year that an Uber driver raped a female passenger sparked an impassioned conversation about passenger safety that pushed the company to introduce new security features. Just last week, Uber ceased operations in Kansas because a new bill, which imposed stricter insurance and driver screening requirements, made it much tougher for the ride-hailing service to operate in the state. In the Philippines, where local governments don’t hold as much sway as the national government, it’s much easier for Uber to get sweeping regulations approval.
But Uber still faces challenges unique to the Phillipines. For one, Uber’s routing algorithm doesn’t work as well in Manila, which has some of the world's worst traffic. And as one writer in the Phillipines points out, Uber has been operating in the country a bit like a condo rental service; operators are buying small fleets of brand new cars and hiring individual drivers—essentially layering a new middleman on top of Uber itself. As the incentives Uber has put into place to spur growth are being phased out, drivers’ salaries are apparently taking a hit so that these fleet owners can break even.
Many locals do say that the service is often cheaper and more convenient than local cab services. But Uber drivers, regulators and the company itself still have work to do to find the right fit if Uber expects to keep growing in the Philippines—and the rest of the world.NEW DELHI: It could be a sign of solidarity from supporters, or an indicator of optimism about the impending assembly elections. Whatever the reason, a day after breakaway group AVAM accused AAP of money laundering, donations to the party surged. By 10pm on Tuesday, AAP had received donations worth about Rs 62.5 lakh - an increase of over 70% from the Rs 36.3 lakh received on Tuesday, according to the party's website.This the highest level of donations in the past 19 days and the 12th highest in 419 days since December 12, 2013, when the party began uploading donation data on aaptrends.com - the website dedicated to tracking AAP’s funding trends. It is also the second highest figure received in a day during the ongoing election campaign, after Rs 90 lakh on January 15.A comparison of the party’s donations during the present campaign, the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and the 2013 Delhi assembly elections provides interesting insights. If donations can be taken as a measure of popularity, then AAP would appear to be at its peak at present, at least in Delhi.Between January 1, 2015 and February 3, 2015, the party has received Rs 11.4 crore in donations, which more than 400% of the donations that it received in December 2014. From March 1, 2014 to April 7, 2014 it had received about 13.3 crore from its volunteers -- but the party was operating on a much larger scale as it contested in over 400 Lok Sabha seats, with the elections being spread out over a month. During that period too, donations increased by almost 400% compared with the preceding month.In November 2013, a month before the party contested its first election it received only Rs 3.2 crore as donations. In the 2013 elections the donations for November had decreased by 31% when compared to the previous month.Greens think they have a sure-fire way to bring Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersSenate Dems seek to turn tables on GOP in climate change fight Bernie Sanders Town Hall finishes third in cable news race, draws 1.4 million viewers Woman to undecided Biden: 'Just say yes' to 2020 bid MORE supporters around to Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE: Remind them of what 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 says he'd do to the Paris climate deal.
Democrats and environmentalists have made a political weapon out of presumptive Republican nominee Trump’s threat to end the Paris climate deal.
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The promise looks likely to linger in the general election, but it has a practical purpose right now, too: using Trump as a climate change boogeyman could serve to attract otherwise disillusioned Sanders supporters to her side.
“Talking about their very different view of environmental action, we see a very, very sharp contrast between the two,” Seth Stein, a spokesman for League of Conservation Voters, said of Trump and Clinton. “And we believe voters are going to see it as well.”
Clinton and Sanders waged a host of battles over environmental policies during their primary campaign, with Sanders saying Clinton is weaker than he is on issues like fracking and fossil fuel development.
Since Clinton claimed clinched the Democratic nomination this week, many Democrats, from President Obama on down, have looked to unify Sanders’ supporters with Clinton’s.
Kevin Curtis, the executive director of the NRDC Action Fund, said the spectre of what a Trump presidency would mean for the climate deal could help in that task.
“The primary is over. The conversation and the game now is how peace is made between the two principles and their supporters and how does that all come together,” he said. “Now the debate is: versus Trump, he’s going to roll back Paris. The choice is clear for anybody who cares about climate.”
Trump in May offered his sharpest position yet on the Paris deal, a landmark international accord that has countries set individual greenhouse gas reduction targets as a way to take on climate change.
“We’re going to cancel the Paris climate agreement — unbelievable — and stop all payments of the United States tax dollars to UN global warming programs,” Trump said during a speech on energy policy in North Dakota. Days earlier, he told Reuters the deal was unfair to the United States because other countries weren’t planning on cutting their emissions as quickly as the Obama administration proposed.
“This agreement gives foreign bureaucrats control over our energy and how much we use right here in America. So foreign bureaucrats are going to be controlling what we're using, and what we're doing on our land in our country,” Trump said. “No way, no way.”
Hatching the Paris climate deal was a major foreign policy victory for the Obama administration, and one both Democratic presidential candidates have said they would grow. So environmentalists naturally sounded alarms when Trump promised dropping out of the deal of the deal if he’s elected.
Officials — both American and international — have questioned whether Trump actually could end the deal. But his threat to even consider it added fuel to environmentalist concerns about his candidacy.
The Paris deal featured prominently in a string of endorsements Clinton won from green groups after Trump’s speech.
“The Republican nominee, Donald Trump, has called climate change a ‘hoax’ and said he will tear up the Paris climate agreement,” California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) wrote in an open letter endorsing Clinton.
“Hillary Clinton has the deep knowledge and diplomatic skills needed to fight for our future, preserve America’s leadership role in the Paris Climate Agreement and build upon that global framework to fight climate change,” the NRDC Action Fund wrote in its endorsement of her.
“Donald Trump, on the other hand, has recently outlined a disastrous and frankly nonsensical environmental agenda – suggesting that he would tear up the Paris climate agreement.”
“When he gets to specifics, Trump makes rash promises, like ripping up the Paris Climate Agreement, a landmark agreement that brought 196 countries together for the first time in history,” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in the group’s endorsement of Clinton this week.
“The gap on environmental and climate issues between Secretary Clinton and Donald Trump is the largest in U.S. political history.”
For Democrats, Trump’s Paris promise serves another purpose: they are already using it a tool with which to bludgeon the Republican’s understanding of foreign policy.
Attacking Trump’s temperament and understanding of the issues has already turned into an frequent hit for Clinton. John Podesta, her campaign chairman, told a gathering of LCV members on Wednesday that, “Donald Trump is a serious candidate for president but he is not a serious man,” citing, among other things, his environmental positions and contrasting them with Clinton’s.
“Hillary’s plan will more than fulfill the United State’s commitment in Paris and keep America at the forefront of the global fight against climate change,” he said.
“We have to make sure climate denial does not find home in the White House,” he said.
Stein, whose League of Conservation Voters endorsed Clinton in the fall, said the Paris deal will remain an issue deep into the general election.
“Paris is going to be one of those major proof points,” he said. “There are a lot of points — and this is a great one in making the contrast clear — but there are a lot of points in making it clear how different they are on the environment and environment protection.”The rapper Eminem can spit his rhymes at the same “rate of fire” as the Soviet RPK light machine gun. How do I know this? The mathematical geniuses with a lot of spare time over at Reddit’s r/TheyDidTheMath told me.
User icy954 took a sample of the track “Rap God” and worked out that one verse contains 159 syllables in 16 seconds, or 9.94 syllables per second. Converted into minutes, that becomes 600—exactly the same as the RPK.
Discovering the defense applications of rappers is just one example. Another user found that if humans evolved wings, they’d have a wingspan of 35 feet.
Posts come in two forms: They’re either self-submitted discoveries or requests for fantasy calculations. There’s always discussion as to the semantics within the work. In the thread about humans with wings, for example, one redditor asked how many would be grounded by obesity; another questioned how aerodynamic the humble Homo sapien actually is.
The subreddit is perfect for those odd thoughts that come to mind in the strangest places—in the shower or on the train—and now there’s a true outlet to answer your questions. There are many: Nearly 29,000 redditors are subscribed to r/TheyDidTheMath.
The top question of all time is “How much would it actually cost to produce a real life Truman Show?”; one brave member, IamGerino, took the time to answer it. His calculations were meticulous: He worked out that it would cost $2.1 billion a year to run and would need to air slightly more than a minute of ads a day to break even. But hidden within the numbers and equations was a message: “You are being watched,” a wonderful nod to the film.
The detail that goes into each answer is incredible.
Another popular post from the archives: How can video game characters carry so much in their pockets? A user called phencer42 took this prompt to the next level and worked out that Steve, the protagonist from Minecraft, can carry almost 50 million kilograms, while Dovakhin from Skyrim can only stick a measly 17,500 kilograms in his carrying sack. These are all questions I may ask myself while waiting on a long loading screen, but never would I have the effort to painstakingly work it out. (Then again, I also failed maths at school.)
That’s why r/TheyDidTheMath is so impressive: The subreddit takes questions scientists would scoff at and turns them into puzzles to solve instead. One of my favourite calculations was coincidentally added just in time for Valentine’s Day, telling redditors exactly how much chocolate pudding would be needed to fill a bathtub. (Yes, for sex.) The answer: 25 gallons if you make it yourself. But more frugal users advocated the use of instant pudding and milk to save on costs.
In the future, rather than simply forget about ludicrous questions that pop up when procrastination is clearly on the agenda, there is now an actual forum devoted to it. Fortunately for me, an entire subreddit of armchair mathematicians is eager to find out exactly how many drinks it takes to get a whale drunk.
Illustration by Jason ReedNEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Based on the reaction, Yahoo! (YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer is a complete idiot.
Kara Swisher of All Things D broke the news with a leaked memo: Yahoo! will stop allowing employees to work from home. Despite widespread (and unfounded) reporting that this is a hard-and-fast, black-and-white policy, a source tells me a procedure is likely in place for exceptions.
In the memo from Swisher's story, notice this line: If this policy impacts you, your management has already been in touch with next steps. From what I understand, the "next steps" are not a simple either/or, work in an office or quit.
I know of at least one employee who has petitioned direct management. This employee expects to hear back from Mayer in 30-60 days to see if the CEO approves a request to continue to work at home. This employee is a productive Yahoo! veteran. In some cases, Mayer might have no other choice but to grant exceptions.
Swisher followed up her scoop by surveying the tech landscape inside and outside of Yahoo!. This spawned two primary conclusions:
Marissa Mayer sucks. Or she's merely looking to create a culture of collaboration that (A) lacks at Yahoo! and (B) will spur the type of innovation we see from Google (GOOG).
Of course, general sentiment slants in the "Mayer sucks" direction.
Even the famous urbanist, author of The Creative Class and University of Toronto professor Richard Florida, thinks Mayer made a bad move:
As much as I love Florida and respect his work, he misses the point as well. Or at least he speculates past what might be the lead.
Florida claims the "good Yahoo! employees will leave, mediocre will stay." That's quite an assumption. If a CEO instituted this policy at a company other than Yahoo! -- one with relatively solid morale and startup culture intact -- he might have a point. Why come down on people operating on all cylinders and getting the job done?
If you're a Steve Jobs fan, you realize what's happening here. Mayer is cleaning up something Jobs always feared at Apple (AAPL) : A bozo explosion.
Over the years at Yahoo!, incompetent people hired more incompetent people who went on to hire even more incompetent people. These B-players maintained the status quo, while implementing all of the perks Silicon Valley and other tech staffers have come to expect and enjoy. At Yahoo!, working at home became expected, not a convenient consequence of competence.
Mayer is simply making another move -- in a long series of moves -- to clean up the mess. Firing people is a pain in the ass. And layoffs look bad.
Do you really think Mayer did not, in some way, communicate with the A-players (or at least their direct managers) ahead of making this move? She's using this "edict" to further streamline a bloated, self-entitled and largely ineffective segment of the workforce. That much should be obvious. And, based on what I mentioned earlier in this article, there very well could be exceptions. It will be interesting to see how Mayer handles these things case-by-case.
There might be contractual obstacles. Or solid employees who work in a city nowhere near a Yahoo! office.
As such, valuable A-players who work at home -- and are caught in an unfortunate crossfire -- know the score. It would not surprise me if Mayer (quietly) makes alternative arrangements with the A-players or asks for their patience and compensates them for their troubles in some other way.
Certainly, I am speculating just like Mayer's detractors, but, frankly, it's far more logical and rational speculation. I consider very real contexts from which Mayer might have made this decision. I do not cast her off as a bumbling fool who made an errant move. That's not the Marissa Mayer I have watched lead Yahoo! for the last 7-8 months, presiding over a roughly 35% increase in her company's stock price.
If Mayer misfired at all, it was by not properly anticipating how the media would spin this thing in the court of public opinion. Everybody from Richard Florida to Richard Branson couldn't run fast enough to jump on the bandwagon. Branson, another guy I have endless respect for, surprisingly simplifies the situation when he says, Give people the freedom of where to work and they will excel.
Sorry. As loyal as I am to Virgin America, I can't buy that. Has Branson paid any attention to Yahoo! over the last decade or so? They hardly constructed a culture of excellence.
As Twitter follower Mick McDonnal stated so concisely: If you are not familiar with current culture at Yahoo!, you're not in a position to criticize.
I thought the current culture was quite evident, but I guess I was wrong. Here's hoping Mayer stands her ground and handles this adversity in Steve Jobs' style. In this case, if she asks and does what Steve would do, she'll end up doing what's right.
--Written by Rocco Pendola in Santa Monica, Calif.Yes, the media and public are paying more attention to the Libertarian Party right now.
The Google News aggregation feature right now is showing 180 recently posted articles and opinion pieces from media outlets about the Libertarian Party and its convention in Orlando this weekend. Combinations of search terms incorporating candidate Gov. Gary Johnson and the Libertarian Party are ranking among the top 100 trending searches. (As I type this sentence it is ranked ninth, but the trends are updated extremely frequently and it bounces around)
That's not even the full picture. Google Trends calculates that over the past seven days, there's been an accumulation of more than 650 news articles that reference the party (though keep in mind, thanks to wire services, this probably includes multiple publishings in different media outlets of the same piece). The Wall Street Journal notes that 250 reporters have requested media credentials for the convention, as opposed to the 10 or 20 who covered it in 2012. Stories about the convention are showing up on the Google News page as one of the top items in the U.S. news section and its list of "Most Popular" stories.
To get an even better sense of context I decided to take a look at Google search trends over time both for the Libertarian Party and for Gary Johnson back in 2012. What did the searches look like then?
What is clear from a look at Google's charts is that there is definitely an increased interest in Johnson and the Libertarian Party now compared to this same point in time in 2012. The Libertarian Party sees a spike in interest in searches as each presidential election approaches, reaching its highest points in October and November. Eminently logical.
What's different this time is that the spike is starting to build earlier. Google's trends don't provide actual search numbers, but the number of searches for the "Libertarian Party" right now in May is four times as high as the number of searches in May 2012 and equal to the number of searches for the party in October 2012. That is to say, there are definitely, conclusively now a greater number of people searching for information about the Libertarian Party than the last time they held their national convention.
Gary Johnson is also seeing a similar early development for his search spike. In 2012, even after nomination, interest in him didn't start taking off until August. He's already beating his August numbers from back then.
But before getting too optimistic, we need to take a look at 2004. There was an even greater interest in learning more about the Libertarian Party back then, and a spike in searches in October 2004 remains higher than any subsequent presidential elections, including Johnson's last run. In the end, though, the Libertarian Party's candidate, Michael Badnarik, finished fourth behind Ralph Nader.
But even so, searches right now for May are actually higher than the interest at this time in May 2004. If this trend continues, the Libertarian Party could very well set a new interest record.Advice
The parents of Katie Cooper, a 22-year-old UC Santa Barbara student who was killed during the shooting and stabbing rampage in Isla Vista on May 23, 2014, will work to file an amended wrongful-death lawsuit against Santa Barbara County and the University of California at the request of a Santa Barbara judge.
Daniel and Kelli Anne Cooper of Chino Hills filed a civil suit in June, alleging negligence on the part of the county and UC Police related to a welfare check and other behavior signs that preceded the May massacre in which Elliot Rodger killed six UCSB students, including Cooper, before taking his own life.
In a tentative ruling this week, Judge Colleen Sterne said the complaint filed by Los Angeles-based law firm Treyzon & Associates didn’t meet the standard to continue, although she welcomed the chance to file a revised complaint by Nov. 10.
The Coopers alleged violation of mandatory duties and negligent hiring, training and supervision, along with general negligence.
Their attorney, Federico Castelan Sayre, told Noozhawk the matter was a difference of opinion.
Because the law affords public entities like the county and University of California immunity to litigation based on officer discretion, the judge doesn’t think the defendants are liable, Sayre said.
The complaint specifically focuses around a |
the all-male panel at Rep. Issa’s congressional hearing on birth control coverage last week, at which no woman who disagreed with him was permitted to speak, exposed the persistent belief that women simply do not know what is best for them and are not qualified to comment.
But it doesn’t stop at just keeping women from speaking.
In several states, “ultrasound laws,” which clearly violate the constitutional ban on imposing an “undue burden” on abortion rights, are being forced on women regardless of their medical necessity. These laws carry only one purpose, and that is to humiliate and emotionally manipulate women who seek an abortion.
Various so-called “personhood amendments” which could effectively outlaw hormonal birth control and all abortion, period, are shown to be wildly unpopular when put to a statewide vote. Such laws were rejected by huge margins by voters in Colorado and Mississippi. In Virginia the senate has decided to shelve similar legislation, no doubt due to the tremendous public pressure they’ve received from outraged citizens who are starting to get a clearer picture of just how far their lawmakers are willing to go to curtail their rights. Yet numerous other state legislatures are moving forward with forcing women to take a back seat to their biology.
It would appear that no matter how unpopular––or unconstitutional––these proposed laws are, there is a persistent and growing campaign in this country to undermine decades of progress for women. Women’s health and physical freedom are under attack in this country so that one party may try to win votes by staking a claim on the moral imperatives of the entire nation.
But we don’t live in caves anymore. And it has long been known that where women have the ability to control their own reproductive lives, standards of living rise, children are healthier, education levels rise, and women’s contributions to society increase. This is true in developing countries around the world, and in countries across Europe where low rates of teen pregnancy and infant mortality put ours to shame. When you keep women from exercising their right to physical self-determination, the actual consequences reveal themselves. It’s long past time we started focusing on the solutions that actually keep women healthy, instead of using basic aspects of women’s health as a tool of cultural, moral, and political control.Hacking into a vehicle's electronic system or exploiting its internal bugs would be punishable for some offenders by life in prison under legislation recently introduced in the Michigan Senate, according to Automotive News. The Republican-sponsored bills are an attempt to heighten regulation on the state's emerging connected and autonomous vehicle industry, but it could end up discouraging well-meaning security researchers from finding potentially dangerous bugs in vehicle systems.
"The potential for severe injury and death are pretty high"
Mike Kowall, the Senate majority floor leader and prime sponsor of the bills, told Automotive News that the penalty was so steep because the stakes of car hacking, in which attackers could remotely take control of a vehicle's transmission, brakes, and even steering, were so huge. "I hope that we never have to use it," Kowall said of the possible life sentence. "That's why the penalties are what they are. The potential for severe injury and death are pretty high."
Under the bill, hackers would only be sentenced to life in prison if they already have three felony convictions. Still, the idea of sending someone to die in prison for the crime of exploiting a vehicles' internal weakness may strike some as excessive, especially those in the security research community — so-called "white hat" hackers who make a profession out of looking for vulnerabilities and reporting them to companies.
There is a long history of researchers being sent to prison for doing this. Dmitry Sklyarov was a Russian programmer arrested by the FBI during a security conference in Las Vegas, where he was discussing a program to decrypt Adobe ebook files. Sklyarov was the first person to be criminally charged under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), though Adobe later dropped all charges against him.
the best people to stop hacks from happening are the hackers themselves
Lawmakers argue that their proposals are only intended to target malicious hackers. But the notion that car companies will be able to find all the bugs in their systems, especially as cars become more reliant on internal computers, seems far fetched. Tech companies in Silicon Valley, and even a few car and ride-sharing companies, have taken to hosting bug bounties, in which hackers can earn big bucks for finding flaws in the code. The implicit understanding is that the best people to stop hacks from happening are the hackers themselves.
The automotive industry has been on edge about security since last year, when Wired published a widely read report detailing an open vulnerability in Chrysler's UConnect system, allowing attackers to take control of certain parts of the vehicle. And last February, security researchers uncovered a bug in the companion app to the electric Nissan Leaf that could allow anyone to retrieve drivers’ trip histories, as well as manipulate the vehicles' heating and air conditioning systems.
While the states consider their own solutions, the US Senate is mulling a bill to require the auto industry to adopt standards to protect drivers' privacy and prevent potentially deadly hacks. And the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, under the US Department of Transportation, is currently developing template legislation for states to adopt to regulate the emerging self-driving car industry. The goal is to prevent states from adopting a "patchwork" of laws that ultimately stifle innovation, much like Michigan appears to be doing right now.A city in China has suspended the trade of live poultry after reports of human bird flu infections in neighboring regions.
The city of Suzhou, which is the second-largest city in the eastern province of Jiangsu, halted trading live poultry at Sunday midnight, People’s Daily reported on its website on Monday.
At least seven people have been infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu in China this winter. Two of them have died. The two deaths were reported in Anhui Province, west of Suzhou. Anhui has reported five human infections since December 8.
Officials in Anhui have also ordered a shutdown of some livestock markets and stepped up sterilization operations to prevent the virus from spreading.
About 100 kilometers southeast of Suzhou, in the major city of Shanghai, health authorities reported last week that a man had been diagnosed with the H7N9 strain as well.
In Fujian Province, authorities in the city of Xiamen halted poultry sales in one district on Thursday after a 44-year-old man was diagnosed with H7N9, state news agency Xinhua reported.
There have also been reports of human bird flu infections in Hong Kong and Macau over the past week.
The last major bird flu outbreak in China began in late 2013 and lasted until early 2014.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, health officials have detected the avian flu virus, but there have been no reports of any human infections yet.
South Korean health officials bury chickens at a poultry farm where the highly pathogenic H5N6 bird flu virus broke out in Haenam, South Korea, November 17, 2016. (Photo by Reuters)
Authorities have ordered precautionary measures to stop the virus from spreading. On Monday, South Korea’s armed forces took part in the country’s biggest-ever poultry cull to help stop the spread of the highly-contagious strain. Armed forces were ordered to destroy 1.6 million birds in affected areas within 24 hours.
The total number of birds destroyed will now reach 26 million since the outbreak was first confirmed.
The army’s mobilization comes amid fears of an epidemic.
The most well-known strain of avian influenza is the highly pathogenic H5N1 subtype, which has caused the death of hundreds of people affected across the world since the virus’ first human infection about 20 years ago in Hong Kong.Rock of Ages is a 2012 American musical comedy-drama film directed by Adam Shankman and based on the 2009 rock jukebox Broadway musical Rock of Ages by Chris D'Arienzo. Starring country singer Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta leading an ensemble cast that includes Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Malin Åkerman, Mary J. Blige, Bryan Cranston and Tom Cruise, the film features the music of many 1980s Rock and Glam Rock artists including Def Leppard, Journey, Scorpions, Poison, Foreigner, Guns N' Roses, Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, Whitesnake, REO Speedwagon, and others. The film's score was composed and conducted by Cliff Eidelman.
Originally scheduled to enter production in summer 2009 for a 2011 release, it eventually commenced production in May 2011 and was released on June 15, 2012. The film received mixed critical reviews and grossed only $59 million worldwide. However, Cruise was particularly lauded for his performance of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Wanted Dead or Alive". The related film soundtrack also did critically well, certified Gold in Canada.
Plot [ edit ]
In 1987, Sherrie Christian (Julianne Hough) arrives in Los Angeles from Oklahoma with dreams of becoming a singer. Meanwhile, barback Drew Boley (Diego Boneta) prepares for another night of work at The Bourbon Room ("Sister Christian/Just Like Paradise/Nothin' But a Good Time"). As Sherrie approaches The Bourbon, her suitcase is stolen. Drew tries to catch the robber, but fails. He comforts Sherrie and, upon learning of her situation, gets her a job at the Bourbon Room as a waitress.
The club's owner, Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin), and his right-hand man, Lonny Barnett (Russell Brand), are trying to find a way to pay off a tax debt that threatens the club. Hoping to raise enough money, Dennis and Lonny decide to book Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise), a detached and self-indulgent rock star preparing for his final gig with his band, Arsenal. That night, Drew tells Sherrie about his dreams of becoming a rock star, but that he has stagefright ("Juke Box Hero/I Love Rock 'n' Roll"). Upon hearing of Stacee's upcoming concert, Patricia Whitmore (Catherine Zeta-Jones), the religiously conservative wife of the mayor (Bryan Cranston), organizes a protest with other ladies in front of the Bourbon Room ("Hit Me with Your Best Shot")
Drew and Sherrie's relationship starts with their first date at the Hollywood Sign where Drew admits he has started writing a song for Sherrie ("Waiting for a Girl Like You"). On the night of Arsenal's final show, Dennis learns that their opening act has cancelled. Sherrie convinces him to use Drew and his band, Wolfgang Von Colt, as the replacement opener ("More Than Words/Heaven"). Meanwhile, Stacee's manager, Paul Gill (Paul Giamatti), schedules an interview between Stacee and Constance Sack (Malin Åkerman), a reporter for Rolling Stone.
During the interview, she mentions the rumors that Stacee is difficult to work with and implies that he was actually kicked out of Arsenal, a charge Stacee denies ("Wanted Dead or Alive"). Stacee asks Sherrie if she could bring him a bottle of scotch from his limo and she agrees. After the interview, Constance lashes out at him, claiming that he was once a great musician but now is on the verge of becoming a has-been. Stacee orders everyone out of the dressing room so he can settle things with Constance privately. Both recognize their attraction to each other and are about to have sex when Stacee sings ("I Want to Know What Love Is"). As Constance leaves the room ashamed of what she has done, Sherrie enters to give Stacee his scotch. Sherrie and Stacee collide and the bottle of scotch shatters on the floor. Drew is getting ready to open Arsenal's show when he sees Sherrie exit Stacee's room, where he infers that they had sex. Drew becomes angry at this and is inspired to sing ("I Wanna Rock") for the opening act. After he sings, Drew and Sherrie break up and Sherrie quits her job at the Bourbon Room. Drew attempts to run after Sherrie but Paul tells him to let her go and offers Drew a record deal since he was impressed with his performance as Arsenal sings their last song of the night ("Pour Some Sugar on Me").
An unemployed Sherrie takes refuge at a strip club bar known as the Venus Club, where she has no other choice but to work there ("Harden My Heart"). The club's owner, Justice Charlier (Mary J. Blige) offers Sherrie a job as a dancer ("Shadows of the Night/Harden My Heart"), but Sherrie instead chooses to wait tables. Sherrie soon realizes that she isn't making enough money as a waitress as Drew signs to Gill's record label ("Here I Go Again"). Back at the Bourbon Room, Dennis worries that the place will close and that he has "let everyone down." Lonny comforts him and proceeds to confess his love for him, learning that Dennis reciprocates. They kiss ("Can't Fight This Feeling"). Drew is disappointed in realizing that he has to be part of a hip-hop boy band called "The Zee Guys" as Joshua Zee and not a rock band as part of his record deal while Sherrie decides to be a dancer in the Venus Club ("Any Way You Want It").
Sherrie visits the Hollywood sign, where she finds Drew. They both reveal to each other their current occupations and realize things didn't turn out the way they'd planned. Sherrie tells Drew that she didn't have sex with Stacee and that she is going home to Oklahoma. As they part ways, Sherrie and Drew both lament the situation ("Every Rose Has Its Thorn").
Stacee realizes he has feelings for Constance and calls the Rolling Stone office in an attempt to find her, but the receptionist tells him that "she is covering Stacee Jaxx's show at The Bourbon Room" and Stacee, unaware that he was supposed to perform that night, rushes to the venue, where Lonny leads the patrons of the club against Patricia and her protest group ("We're Not Gonna Take It/We Built This City"). When Stacee arrives at the club, he recognizes Patricia and greets her. Lonny discovers that Patricia was once a groupie for Arsenal as displayed on their album cover, and exposes this to the public, ruining her reputation. Meanwhile, Drew has found all of Sherrie’s stolen records at the Tower Records they first visited together. He buys them back and drops them off for her at the strip club.
The Zee Guys start the show, but the rocker crowd rejects them, and Drew, spotting Sherrie in the audience, leaves the stage. The two reconcile and Drew also dismisses Gill, telling him rock 'n' roll will never die. Sherrie reunites Wolfgang Von Colt for the opening act, where she and Drew perform the song he wrote for her ("Don't Stop Believin'"). Meanwhile, while Stacee and Constance are having sex in the bathroom, Stacee hears the song and is moved by it.
Eight months later, Stacee, who has rejoined Arsenal, performs the song with Drew and Sherrie, who is now part of Wolfgang Von Colt, in a concert at Dodger Stadium in front of a crowd that includes Dennis, Lonny, Justice, a pregnant Constance, and Patricia, who has returned to her rock 'n' roll persona.
Cast [ edit ]
Additionally, Kevin Nash and Jeff Chase starred as Jaxx's bodyguards. Constantine Maroulis, who played Drew in the original Broadway cast, appears as the Capitol Records executive during "Any Way You'll Want It”. Several musicians also made cameo appearances throughout the film, including Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon, Sebastian Bach of Skid Row, Deborah "Debbie" Gibson, Nuno Bettencourt, Joel Hoekstra of Night Ranger and Porcelain Black. Eli Roth makes an appearance as Stefano, the Zee Guys' music video director, and T. J. Miller cameos as a Rolling Stone receptionist.
Musical numbers [ edit ]
Music used throughout the film (most notably Journey ), channels the film's 80s tone.
These songs appear in the film as sung by the original artists. These do not appear on the official soundtrack.
Score production and changes [ edit ]
In bringing the musical from stage to screen, many of the songs used in the original musical were either moved around, shortened, or removed, while some new songs were added to the film.
"Cum On Feel the Noize/We're Not Gonna Take It (Reprise)", "The Final Countdown", "High Enough", "I Hate Myself for Loving You/Heat of the Moment", "Keep on Loving You", "Oh Sherrie", "The Search Is Over", and "Renegade" were completely cut from the film, although the version of "Cum on Feel the Noize" by Quiet Riot was used as music for the end credits, and the intro to "Oh Sherrie" is heard briefly.
Similarly, many songs from the musical became mash-ups in the film or had sections of their original mash-up version removed in their film versions. "Just Like Paradise", "Nothin' but a Good Time", and "Sister Christian" all become one long mash-up instead of two individual songs ("Just Like Paradise/Nothin' but a Good Time" and "Sister Christian"). "Too Much Time on My Hands", originally mashed-up with "We Built This City", was removed, with "We're Not Gonna Take It", originally a full-length song in the musical, being mashed-up with "We Built This City" instead. "To Be with You" was removed from the mash-up that included "More Than Words" and "Heaven". The "I Wanna Rock (Reprise)" section originally mashed-up with "Any Way You Want It" was removed, with "Any Way You Want It" instead being the original full-length song.
Also, many songs from the musical were reordered in the film, mostly to accommodate character and storyline changes. "We Built This City", in its original mash-up form, and "We're Not Gonna Take It" were originally much earlier in the musical, giving depth to Regina. They were replaced with "Hit Me with Your Best Shot", another song sung by Regina in the musical, which now served to give more background to new character Patricia (as Regina was cut from the film), with both songs (in an abridged form) instead added to the climax of the film, as part of an anthem between Lonny and the rockers and Patricia and her conservative church group. "I Wanna Rock", originally the fourth song of the musical, was moved to after "I Want to Know What Love Is" (which in itself was changed from a duet between Sherrie and Jaxx to Jaxx and new character Constance), with the song now representing Drew's anger toward what he wrongly perceives to be Sherrie's infidelity. "Waiting for a Girl Like You" and "More Than Words/Heaven" switched order in the film version, in order to accommodate the changes in the relationship storyline between Drew and Sherrie. "Can't Fight This Feeling" was also placed before "Any Way You Want It" due to the restructure of storylines.
New songs added to the film include a mash-up of "Juke Box Hero/I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which replaced the original purpose of "I Wanna Rock" in the musical, "Undercover Love", which was used for Drew's short-lived boy band, and "Pour Some Sugar on Me", "Paradise City", and "Rock You Like a Hurricane" replacing "I Hate Myself for Loving You/Heat of the Moment" and serving as Arsenal's discography.
Production [ edit ]
Early development [ edit ]
After the success of the original Off-Broadway production, the film rights were sold to Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema.[3][4]
Casting [ edit ]
Tom Cruise played Stacee Jaxx in the film.[5] Shankman knew Cruise was in when he heard him on the first go around of his voice lesson, confirming he "actually has a fantastic voice."[6] Cruise had been singing five hours a day to prepare for his work as musician Stacee Jaxx. "It's this brilliant mashup, it seems, of Axl Rose, Bret Michaels, Keith Richards and Jim Morrison," Shankman said of what to expect from Cruise.[7][8] All of the actors sing their own parts in the film.[9] Cruise told People Weekly Magazine that he had always wanted to appear in a musical but he found the idea frightening because he was uncertain whether he could actually pull it off.[10] With Rock Of Ages, he told the interviewer, he had finally received his chance.
On February 14, 2011, it was announced that Mary J. Blige had signed on to play Justice Charler in the film.[11] On March 3, 2011, it was confirmed that Julianne Hough (of the 2011 remake of Footloose) would play the role of Sherrie, Drew's love interest.[12] On March 6, 2011, it was confirmed that Alec Baldwin would play the role of Dennis Dupree in the film.[13] On March 24, 2011, it was announced that Paul Giamatti would be in the film, playing the manager of Stacee Jaxx.[14]
Pretty Little Liars star Diego Boneta was confirmed to play the male protagonist, Drew Boley, on April 5, 2011.[6] Not wanting an older actor to act like he is 23, Shankman thought it better to go as authentic as possible, "and Diego is absolutely that. He is [a] kid who came to Los Angeles with a dream and who sings and has an amazing voice, and drive. And he's also as honest and sweet as you can possibly make him and he's authentically the age. It creates a piece of something on screen that I don't have to fabricate."[6] Of Boneta's audition, Shankman said, "It's that feeling you get when you realized you've discovered lightning in a bottle. It reminds me of when Zac Efron auditioned for Hairspray, Channing Tatum for Step Up, and Liam Hemsworth auditioned for The Last Song. When the guy walks in, the guy walks in!" Shankman also said he did not know that Boneta was a Latin music star until after he auditioned. "I have since seen him on stage and in his concerts, and he totally owns the room," Shankman said.[7] Constantine Maroulis (Drew Boley from the musical) made a cameo appearance in the film like Ricki Lake did for Hairspray.[6] On April 13, Russell Brand was confirmed to portray Lonny.[15] Both Anne Hathaway and Amy Adams declined to play a journalist who interviews Jaxx during the song "Wanted Dead or Alive" and is easily seduced by him. The two declined due to scheduling conflicts, with Hathaway filming The Dark Knight Rises and Adams filming Man of Steel.[15] Catherine Zeta-Jones joined the cast on April 20, and portrayed an original character added to the story line. The unnamed character is described as "the Villainess of the movie" who "wants to shut down rock’n roll in the great city of Los Angeles."[16] On May 1 Bryan Cranston joined the cast as the Mayor of Los Angeles, who is the husband of Catherine Zeta-Jones's character,[17] and Malin Åkerman completed the cast when she was added on May 3, 2011, taking the role initially offered to both Hathaway and Adams.[18]
Singer Porcelain Black made a cameo in the film, playing a 1980s hair metal singer. She performed one of the sole original tracks for the film, "Rock Angels".[19][20] "Rock Angels" was written and composed by Adam Anders and Desmond Child.[21] Professional wrestler Kevin Nash played Stacee's bodyguard.[22]
Filming [ edit ]
Principal photography began at Revolution Live, a small music venue in Fort Lauderdale, FL.[23] There was also filming in a Dania Beach Boomers. On July 18, filming took place at the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida, for a concert scene with "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Wanted Dead or Alive".
The scenes at the iconic Hollywood Sign were filmed at the Monarch Hill Renewable Energy Park, known to locals as "Mount Trashmore", in Pompano Beach.[23]
In June 2011, a full six-block section of N.W. 14th Street in Downtown Miami was decorated as a late 1980s version set of the Hollywood, California Sunset Strip complete with the Whisky-a-Go-Go, Frederick's of Hollywood, Tower Records, Angelyne Billboard along with other landmarks.
Release [ edit ]
The film is distributed by New Line Cinema under the rule of Warner Bros., and was released theatrically on June 15, 2012. The first official trailer was released on December 11, 2011,[24] attached to Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
Box office [ edit ]
On its opening weekend in theaters, the film grossed $14,447,269, ranking third place, behind the previous week's holdovers Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Prometheus. The film did, however, do slightly better business than the other newcomer, That's My Boy.[25]
Rock of Ages was a box office bomb, grossing $38,518,613 in North America and $20,900,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $59,418,613, failing to bring back its $75 million budget. However, the film still has the seventh-highest opening ever for a musical.[26]
Critical reception [ edit ]
The film received mixed reviews from critics, and has a critical evaluation of 41% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 215 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The site's consensus states: "its exuberant silliness is almost enough to make up for its utter inconsequentiality, but Rock of Ages is ultimately too bland and overlong to justify its trip to the big screen."[27] Metacritic reports a 47 out of 100 rating, based on 42 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[28]
However, most critics praised the performance by Cruise as Stacee Jaxx. For example, Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers wrote: "Rock of Ages is pretty fun despite a terrible script, bland leads and awful wigs, mainly thanks to a performance by Tom Cruise as fictional hair metal rocker Stacee Jaxx."[29]
Accolades [ edit ]
Home media [ edit ]
Rock of Ages was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 9, 2012. An extended cut is available on the Blu-ray,[34] however there is a 2-disc DVD set featuring the extended version (136 minutes); the film is then rated R for "some sexual violence", as opposed to the theatrically released PG-13.
This extended cut includes 13 additional minutes of footage, including "Rock You Like a Hurricane" edited back into the film, more risque humor from Russell Brand, and a few additional verses on "Waiting for a Girl/Boy Like You".
Soundtrack [ edit ]
The cover and track listing of the soundtrack was confirmed by Entertainment Weekly on April 30, 2012. The soundtrack was released on June 5, 2012.[36] It debuted at No. 15 on Billboard 200,[37] and peaked at No. 5 on that chart in its third week.[38] It also debuted at No. 1 on the Top Soundtracks chart. It sold 267,000 copies in the US in 2012, making it the second best-selling soundtrack album of the year.[39] It has sold 320,000 copies as of May 2013.[40] The film's score was composed and conducted by Cliff Eidelman.
"Paradise City" – Tom Cruise "Sister Christian" / "Just Like Paradise" / "Nothin' but a Good Time" – Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin "Juke Box Hero" / "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" – Diego Boneta, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Julianne Hough "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" – Catherine Zeta-Jones "Waiting for a Girl Like You" – Diego Boneta, Julianne Hough "More Than Words" / "Heaven" – Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta "Wanted Dead or Alive" – Tom Cruise, Julianne Hough "I Want to Know What Love Is" – Tom Cruise, Malin Åkerman "I Wanna Rock" – Diego Boneta "Pour Some Sugar on Me" – Tom Cruise "Harden My Heart" – Julianne Hough, Mary J. Blige "Shadows of the Night" / "Harden My Heart" – Mary J. Blige, Julianne Hough "Here I Go Again" – Diego Boneta, Paul Giamatti, Julianne Hough, Mary J. Blige, Tom Cruise "Can't Fight This Feeling" – Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin "Any Way You Want It" – Mary J. Blige, Constantine Maroulis, Julianne Hough "Undercover Love" – Diego Boneta "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" – Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Mary J. Blige "Rock You Like a Hurricane" – Julianne Hough, Tom Cruise "We Built This City" / "We're Not Gonna Take It" – Russell Brand, Catherine Zeta-Jones "Don't Stop Believin'" – Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Mary J. Blige
Certifications [ edit ]
Region Certification Certified units/Sales Canada (Music Canada)[41] Gold 40,000^ United Kingdom (BPI)[43] Gold 100,000^ *sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification aloneAppearing on political television shows Aug. 14, several members of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's campaign said a series of comments he made on the campaign trail were misconstrued by the media. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
Donald Trump’s always-cranky assessment of the media has been amended a bit this weekend, thanks to a New York Times article reiterating questions about Trump’s ability to suddenly emerge from his primary-campaign cocoon as a general election butterfly.
At a rally Saturday night, Trump disparaged the Times and reiterated his objection to how his events are covered. He continued the theme on Sunday morning on Twitter.
The failing @nytimes, which never spoke to me, keeps saying that I am saying to advisers that I will change. False, I am who I am-never said — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn't put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20% — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
My rallies are not covered properly by the media. They never discuss the real message and never show crowd size or enthusiasm. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
It’s that second tweet that’s most interesting to me. (In part because Trump has been talking about the “failing New York Times” and complaining about how crowd size isn’t covered for a long time.) (Oh, incidentally: The news media talks about his crowds regularly.)
So let’s assess this: “If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn’t put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20%.”
The “false meaning” complaint is pretty clearly about how his “Second Amendment people” comments were reported. On CNN on Sunday morning, Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, complained to Jake Tapper about that coverage, repeating the campaign’s insistence that Trump meant that gun owners could go vote to ensure a Trump victory. That clearly wasn’t what Trump was saying in the moment, since he was talking about judicial appointments after a Clinton win in the election.
Regardless, it’s worth asking what has changed from the primary to the general election in terms of Trump’s coverage. I’d suggest that not much has; in the primaries, he got a lot of extensive coverage of his rallies and a lot of scrutiny of the things that he said at them. But the polling showed him doing well, holding a lead.
What has changed is the polls we’re looking at, from primary voters to general. Trump got a core group of strong Republican supporters early in the primaries and held them. They responded well to his style and his message. He only cobbled together a majority of the party’s electorate at the end of the race; he ended up with less than a majority of the Republican vote.
That’s not the measuring stick anymore. That core of support is enough to keep him at about 40 percent in general election polls, but the media coverage that earned him his primary wins hasn’t done much to expand his base of support past that.
So Trump is doing the same thing but not winning. And since media is all he’s doing, the media gets the blame.
There are, literally, 25 messages coming out of each one. https://t.co/99GIKe2mk7 — Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) August 14, 2016
That’s the key point. Trump has the same ability as any other candidate to say precisely what he wants to any voter in any state: by advertising. He can buy ads in swing states and run 30- or 60-second spots making whatever case he wants in any language he chooses. He can send mail, he can knock on doors. He can, in other words, run a campaign. But he’s not.
He isn’t running any ads, spending zero dollars on television (and getting outspent by the Green Party and Libertarian candidates). He isn’t contacting voters on doors or on phones, and has hardly any field offices. He isn’t sending mail. He’s tweeting, he’s holding rallies, but not much else.
And he’s holding rallies in places like Connecticut, where he was Saturday. He told the crowd there that he was going to make a “big play” for the state, which one has to assume isn’t true. Trump won’t win Connecticut, a heavily Democratic state. There’s no point in his wasting campaign resources on the state (in the event that he starts expending resources anywhere) since it holds only a couple of electoral votes anyway. It’s simply baffling that he would hold an event there at all, even if he’s not serious about carrying the state. (He was there for a fundraiser, but that doesn’t mean that spending money and time on a rally makes sense.)
As Stuart Stevens, who ran Mitt Romney’'s 2012 campaign, puts it, the only resource in which Trump and Hillary Clinton are tied is time — the number of hours to Election Day. Trump spent a bunch of those hours in Connecticut.
Trump started raising money for his campaign only in late June, a month and a half after his last primary opponents dropped out. We don’t know what he spent money on in July, but we do know where he spent it through June — with almost nothing spent on ads that month.
Amazingly, we still hear mentions about how Trump is going to gear up for the general election, that he’s transitioning out of primary mode. Here is former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, in that Times article: “I think it is true that maybe it took him a little while to realize that we’re moving from a primary campaign to a presidential campaign,” Giuliani said.
You’re not moving between the two, guys! You’re in a general election — and that general election is half over.
Trump’s problem is not that the “disgusting and corrupt media” is putting false meaning into things he says. The problem is that Trump’s only messenger is himself, and that he says things that seem to objective observers inside and outside the media as questionable. Trump is mad at how his speeches are covered by the media because he can’t figure out why the strategy isn’t working the way it did during the primary season. He can put out any message he wants on TV or in mail or wherever he wants. It’s not free, but he can do it.
But for some incomprehensible reason, he won’t.Islamabad: A Pakistani politician has come under attack from colleagues after saying that the poor are meant to serve the rich.
Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob Khan Nasar, a Senator from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML)-Nawaz party, made the controversial comments at a meeting of a Senate committee on Thursday, the Dawn reported on Friday.
It all began when Taj Haider of the Pakistan People’s Party began a discussion on how Pakistan had become the property of the ruling elite and that all decisions were made in the interests of the rich.
“The poor of this country will never get to decide their own fate,” he said.
To this, Nasar said if everyone were to become wealthy, there would be no one to grow wheat or to work as labourers.
“This is a system created by God and He has made some people rich and others poor, and we should not interfere in this system,” he said.
Haider countered that socioeconomic classes were man-made and God had nothing to do with it.
Another senator, Mohammad Usman Khan Kakar, also said that God created all people equal and that the poor were not meant to serve the rich.
But Nasar said: “Once in China all people were considered equal, which did not work out well.
“Those who cannot get an education and cannot earn more have no right to live the life of a bureaucrat,” he said.The first aim of this survey was to provide data on intensity, frequency and localization of adolescent spinal pain as well as its consequences on daily life [9]. Pain intensity was reported on average as moderate, which is in line with former studies using the VAS for pain quantification [14,25], but higher than in a study that assessed pain intensity by six faces as suggested in the Young Spine Questionnaire [9] and rescaled it to a 0–10 scale [26]. Which of these two approaches to assess pain intensity in adolescents is preferable however needs further investigation as it might be dependent on age. Nevertheless, all these studies consistently found a linear relation between pain frequency and pain intensity [14,25,26]. In the present study, about one quarter of those adolescents with back pain indicated frequent pain of moderate or severe intensity, which is slightly more than in the study by Aartun et al. [26]. Although these results are not directly comparable due to |
one day - often for security or financial reasons, such as fishing boats operating outside assigned waters, or smuggling.
In a U.N. report issued earlier this year on alleged efforts by North Korea to procure nuclear weapons, investigators wrote that one ship carrying concealed cargo turned off its AIS signals to disguise and conceal its trip to Cuba.
It’s not clear how seriously the standards bodies treat the threat. Trend Micro’s Balduzzi said he and his colleagues were working with standards organizations, which he said would meet next year to discuss his research into AIS vulnerabilities.
The core standard is maintained by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in association with the IMO. In a statement, the IMO said no such report of vulnerabilities had been brought to its attention. The ITU said no official body had contacted it about the vulnerabilities of AIS. It said it was studying the possibility of reallocating spectrum to reduce saturation of AIS applications.
Yevgen Dyryavyy, author of the NCC report on ECDIS, was skeptical that such bodies would solve the problems soon.
First, he said, they have to understand the IT security of shipboard networks, onboard linked equipment and software, and then push out new guidelines and certification.
Until then, he said, “nothing will be done about it.”
($1 = 0.5949 British Pounds)Joel Edward McHale (born November 20, 1971)[1] is an American comedian, actor, writer, television producer, and television host. He is known for hosting The Soup and portraying Jeff Winger on the NBC/Yahoo! sitcom Community. He has appeared in the films Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011) and Ted (2012). He also starred in the short-lived CBS sitcom The Great Indoors.
Early life [ edit ]
McHale was born in Rome, Italy, where his father, Jack McHale, worked as Dean of Students at Loyola University Rome Center. His mother, Laurie, is from Vancouver, Canada; and his father is from Chicago, Illinois.[2] Of Irish and Norwegian descent,[3] he was raised Catholic. He grew up on Mercer Island, Washington, and briefly in Haddonfield, New Jersey, near Philadelphia, before returning to his native Washington state.[4] He attended Mercer Island High School.[5]
McHale received a bachelor's degree in History from the University of Washington (1995) and briefly belonged to Theta Chi.[6]
He was recruited to be on the rowing team but later joined the football team. Though most of his teammates received athletic scholarships, McHale was a walk on playing tight end for two years.[7] He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Professional Actors Training Program at the University of Washington. He is a fan of the Seattle Seahawks.[8]
Career [ edit ]
Comedy [ edit ]
McHale was part of the Almost Live! cast, a local sketch-comedy television show produced by Seattle's KING-TV (broadcast Channel 5). From 1993 to 1997, he was a member of the improv comedy group at Unexpected Productions, participating in Theatersports! at the Market Theater located in Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle.[9]
Acting [ edit ]
After earning his master's degree in acting, McHale moved to Los Angeles and landed small roles in Diagnosis: Murder, CSI: Miami, and Will & Grace. He played a TV reporter in the biopic Lords of Dogtown. He guest-starred as a cast member on the NBC improv comedy show Thank God You're Here during the pilot episode and had a guest role on an episode of Pushing Daisies. McHale also appeared in Spider-Man 2 in a small role as Mr. Jacks, a bank manager.[10]
In 2004 McHale began hosting The Soup, a satirical weekly television show on the "E!" television network. Throughout the show, he takes the audience through the oddities and ridiculous happenings of the week in television. He frequently appears as a co-host on Loveline. He has also had a long association with Circle X Theatre, where he has done several plays. McHale was a weekly guest on The Adam Carolla Show and Mickey and Amelia, and occasional guest on the Opie and Anthony Show.[11] He has been a judge on Iron Chef America. He was involved in the American version of the British TV show The IT Crowd.[12][13] McHale made a guest appearance on the finale of Last Comic Standing's sixth season, when he recapped the show's events in his typical format of jokes made popular on The Soup. He occasionally appeared on Countdown with Keith Olbermann in a humor sequence closing the show.
McHale starred in the sitcom Community,[14] which premiered in winter 2009, and continued to host The Soup.[15] McHale made an appearance on the first episode of the fifth season of Tosh.0. He played Rex in Ted (2012) and had a short guest stint on the FX show Sons of Anarchy. He played an NYPD officer in the supernatural horror film Deliver Us from Evil.[16] McHale appeared in 3 episodes between the tenth and eleventh seasons of The X-Files in 2016 and 2018, respectively.[17]
McHale played the lead role in the CBS sitcom The Great Indoors, which began airing in the Fall of 2016.[18][19]
In 2018, McHale was cast in the recurring role of Chris on the second season of the Netflix horror-comedy series Santa Clarita Diet.[20]
In December 2018, it was announced that McHale was cast as Sylvester Pemberton, the Golden Age Starman in the upcoming DC Universe series Stargirl.[21]
Hosting [ edit ]
McHale was the host at the 2014 White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner.[22] He hosted the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards and the 2015 ESPY Awards. In 2016, he appeared as an occasional co-host alongside Kelly Ripa in the ABC morning show Live! with Kelly. McHale hosted the 43rd People's Choice Awards on January 18, 2017 and the 2017 Webby Awards on May 15, 2017.[23]
In January 2018, it was announced that he would be receiving his own talk show on Netflix in February. The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale combines celebrity guests, pre-taped sketches and video clips in a half-hour series that focuses on pop culture and news from around the world.[24]
Personal life [ edit ]
McHale married Sarah Williams in 1996. They have two sons.[25][26][27] They live in Hollywood Hills, California.[28] McHale is also a fan of the LA Gladiators.[29]
Filmography [ edit ]
Film [ edit ]
Television [ edit ]
Video games [ edit ]
Year Title Role 2015 Lego Dimensions X-PO
Awards and nominations [ edit ]
Books [ edit ]cPanel Hosting Start your own website or transfer existing site on to our affordable Iceland based cPanel servers. Starting At €3.40 /mo View Plans Virtual Private Servers Enjoy the freedom of a private server without the cost of dedicated machine. Starting At €29.90 /mo View Plans Dedicated Servers Order top quality Dell dedicated servers customized for your needs, hosted in data centers located in Iceland. Starting At €199.00 /mo View Plans
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Bitcoin, PayPal, Wire Transfer, Cash by Mail accepted!“It’s still sinking in; we literally memed the absolute MADMAN into the White House.”
When all the votes were in, the loudest celebrations–like this comment on Reddit–might have been online. When Republicans and conservatives were faltering in their support for Donald Trump, one group stood up unwaveringly: the cyber warriors of the “alternative right.”
Trump’s online support was a complicated galaxy. Conservatives, right-wingers and conspiracy theorists all rallied round his flag. But the most vocal group, the group best versed in packaging their message and hurling it in a way irresistible to a media obsessed with the shocking and offensive, were the alt-right.
{snip}
Right-wing alternative media has exploded over the course of the year as Trump encouraged his supporters to “forget the press, read the Internet.” Infowars, Drudge Report and–above all–Breitbart.com have seen their readerships skyrocket. Breitbart received a record-breaking 37 million unique visitors in September. In a nod to its influence, its executive chairman Steve Bannon will now serve as Trump’s chief strategist.
Shades of conservatism aside, the alt-right are cultural rebels and nationalists whose firmament is the Internet.
If defining them is hard, their political agenda is clearer. Liberalism is the dirtiest word, and its trappings–feminism, political correctness, multiculturalism, “social justice”–are to be resisted. The establishment is corrupt and full of political cuckolds, or “cucks,” who have failed America through their cowardice.
Below this, there bubbles a more insidious layer: white racial superiority, racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim tendencies and a conspiratorial anger against the Jewish cabal that it claims runs the world.
Many of the more serious alt-right figureheads would distance themselves from some of these inflammatory ideas. But a glance through their main online playpens suggests they are a significant enough part of the group’s mindset.
Last week, their “God Emperor” ascended the throne to raucous applause from his digital supporters. “We actually elected a meme as president,” wrote one centipede on 4Chan, echoing a feeling that somehow their digital campaign had swung it for Trump. Thousands delighted in the schadenfreude, sharing images of miserable-looking Clinton supporters. Thousands others turned their eye to the future.
So what now for the alt-right? It’s clear that they are not going anywhere soon. In their minds their views have been validated, after all, and the process of “de-cucking” America can begin.
{snip}
In a year that has seen the establishment take two heavy beatings in the form of Brexit and Trump’s surprise victory, the alt-right will start to look further afield. Elections in the Netherlands and France have caught their eye: It’s time to Make Europe Great Again.
Dedicated forums for far-right candidates Geert Wilders (the Netherlands), Marine Le Pen (France) and Norbert Hofer (Austria) are in overdrive. “The American Meme Soldiers are here to help liberate France!!! Man your battlestations, fellow meme warriors!” goes one Reddit post. “Centipedes! We’re fighting on two fronts now. Get in there! Even if you don’t care about France, you need to care about stopping the liberal disease!” goes another.
{snip}
As Democrats wring their hands and ponder research showing how more millennial voters would have changed the electoral map (it’s very blue), they ignore the inconvenient truth that Trump’s digital covens included a host of young, digitally savvy politicos who radically redrew the way young people engage with politics.
Much of it was deplorable, of course, but it was also juvenile, idiosyncratic and perfectly suited to the channels of digital politics. The meme, when wielded by those who best understood its potency, emerged as the ultimate online weapon. The infographics, the data visualizations and the stale clips pulled from mainstream media were obliterated by the alt-right’s memes.
{snip}
Original Article
Share ThisHe spoke of RITE being both a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) and an official Group Training Organisation (GTO) "responsible for one of the largest regions in the world, extending across Queensland, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia". By this point, eyebrows were already being raised in the audience. "This is an area roughly the same size as Western Europe," the Minister said. "It's not uncommon for field staff to be away for months at a time delivering agricultural training to clients, many in Indigenous communities." Senator Ryan continued: "Six trainers traverse the country in mobile training units comprising a truck and trailer and everything the trainer needs including horses and motorbikes and can cover up to 80,000 kilometres in a year.
"Instead of training at a campus or having the participants go off-site, RITE goes on-site and looks for something of value to do in the community, everything from building market gardens, sheds, and barbecues for the community, as well as bore maintenance on the lands' tribal areas." If conference attendees thought the comments sounded familiar, they were right. Those words included in Senator Ryan's speech appear to have been lifted almost word for word from a March 2014 edition of the GTA's own journal Network. The minister made no reference to the article or even the quotes he seemed to have appropriated. But perhaps even more embarrassing for Senator Ryan was the fact that the training company he praised so enthusiastically, folded early last year.
A registry search showed RITE's status as an RTO to be cancelled and that its GTO registration expired in April 2015. A spokesman for GTA confirmed that RITE no longer existed. The spokesman also said Network magazine was produced internally by GTA staff. But he did not consider Senator Ryan's un-referenced use of the work to be plagiarism. "It's public information," he said. "We really welcome everything the minister had to say. He was very positive."
But others in attendance were not as understanding. "This is a well-informed network and we had a government minister trying to tell us something that just isn't the case," one said. "People from the region know the story, so you can imagine there was some murmuring going on." When contacted by Fairfax Media, Senator Ryan acknowledged the mistakes and apologised. "I was provided with a speech by staff in the Department of Education and Training to deliver at the Group Training Australia conference," he said.
"That speech was read and edited prior to my delivery of it by both staff in my office and myself. I have subsequently been alerted to sections of it allegedly being inappropriately copied and unacknowledged from another publication. "Issues regarding the conduct of one of the examples I referred to have also subsequently been brought to my attention. "Neither of these events should have occurred. I apologise for their occurrence and procedures have been put in place to ensure they do not occur again." The Department of Education and Training released a statement Monday night accepting responsibility and apologising to the minister. Follow us on TwitterLabour's new leader Jeremy Corbyn will not rule out backing Britain leaving the European Union, Chuka Umunna has claimed.
After refusing to resign, Mr Umunna was ousted from his role as shadow business secretary by Mr Corbyn after the pair clashed on key policy areas.
In a damning statement he revealed how the hardline leftwinger wants to leave open the possibility of joining the campaign to sever ties with Brussels.
Chuka Umunna has claimed new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn made clear he wanted to leave the door open to Britain leaving the EU
In an attempt to repair the damage, shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn today sought to claim that Labour would campaign to stay in the EU.
But the row lays bare the deep split over Europe and foreign policy which led to several senior figures refusing to serve under Mr Corbyn.
Mr Corbyn told the Parliamentary Labour Party today that Labour ‘can't just give (David) Cameron a blank cheque’ and any changes the Prime Minister secures ‘must be the right ones’.
Within hours of Mr Corbyn's extraordinary victory being announced, leadership rivals Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall led a frontbench exodus, joined by Rachel Reeves, Tristram Hunt, Emma Reynolds and Chris Leslie.
Mr Ummuna was widely reported to have joined them, after declaring in July that Mr Corbyn was 'unelectable' and said he would not be able to serve in his shadow cabinet.
However, Mr Umunna is refused to quit and waited to hear from the leader's office. Friends said: 'As far as we are concerned he is in the shadow cabinet until he is sacked.'
The sacking came last night after a face-to-face meeting between the two men ended without without finding common ground.
Mr Umunna said there were 'differences, not least on the European referendum' and he would find it 'difficult to abide by the collective responsibility that comes with serving in the Shadow Cabinet'.
And in a damning revelation he added: 'I cannot envisage any circumstances where I would be campaigning alongside those who would argue for us to leave – Jeremy has made it clear to me that he does not wholeheartedly share this view.'
Jeremy Corbyn, pictured leaving his London home this morning, is facing increasing pressure from Labour MPs over his foreign policy stances
David Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain's members of the EU before staging an in-out referendum by the end of 2017.
WITHIN HOURS, HIS FIRST U-TURNS Just hours after becoming Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn has been forced to announce his first U-turns. After three decades of campaigning for Britain's exit from Nato, allies said tonight he would no longer push this policy, or advocate withdrawal from the EU, despite having questioned Britain's membership for years. It also emerged that he might accept a place on Her Majesty's Privy Council – even though as a republican he has always said he would turn it down. But Diane Abbott, a hard-Left ally, said he remained opposed to the renewal of Trident. She said the apparent changes of tack were'red herrings' after deputy leader Tom Watson conceded there were differences on key foreign policy issues that would require compromises if the party was to unite behind the new regime. Mr Watson – whose role is seen as a crucial to secure party unity – accepted that he and many other MPs opposed Mr Corbyn over the renewal of Trident. But he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that the party could present a united front on Nato and membership of the EU, adding: 'These things have got to be worked out.' Miss Abbott told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend: 'I can say with confidence Jeremy is not taking us out of Nato and he is not taking us out of the EU, those are red herrings.'
The other Labour leadership contenders - Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall and Yvette Cooper - all argued that Brussels needs reform but would always vote to stay in.
But Mr Corbyn has repeatedly dodged questions on the issue, raising the spectre of a return to Labour's Euroscepticism of the 1980s.
On the eve of his landslide victory, he revealed how he backed Britain leaving the European Community in a referendum in 1975.
Voters were asked: 'Do you think the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community (Common Market)?' In the final result, 67 per cent of people voted to remain.
Asked at a campaign rally in North London how he voted in the 1975 referendum, Mr Corbyn told Reuters: 'I did vote and I voted 'No'.'
However, in an interview this morning Mr Benn sought to reassure pro-Europeans in the Labour party.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'Jeremy said, whatever differences we may have with some aspects of European policy, whatever reforms we want to see, we will stay to fight together for a better Europe. It's absolutely clear.'
Asked to confirm that this would be the case regardless of the renegotiation being undertaken by the Prime Minister, he said: 'Under all circumstances.'
A number of senior Labour for benches quit in part in protest at Mr Corbyn's stance on Europe.
Shadow communities secretary Emma Reynolds, writing for website Progress this week, said: 'The referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union will be the defining political event of this parliament. The outcome will determine the future of our country and place in the world.
'So this is not an issue that the Labour party or its new leadership can duck or fudge. As internationalists who believe in solidarity and collectivism, we should campaign unequivocally to remain a member.'
Mr Umunna was seen as a frontrunner to become Labour leader until he quit the race days after launching his campaign in May.
He was tipped to become shadow foreign secretary if Andy Burnham or Yvette Cooper won, but both were trounced by Mr Corbyn.
In the first round, Mr Corbyn won 59.5 per cent of the vote - 251,417 of the 422,664 votes cast - against 19 per cent for Mr Burnham, 17 per cent for Ms Cooper and just 4.5 per cent for Ms Kendall.
In an attempt to repair the damage, shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn today sought to claim that Labour would campaign to stay in the EU
Last night Mr Umunna said: 'If Jeremy's clear victory yesterday demonstrated anything, it was a desire for politicians to be true to what they believe – I want to abide by this.
'Also, Jeremy should be free to appoint a Shadow Cabinet committed to implementing the policies on which he campaigned in the contest – I clearly had some differences in view on how we build a more equal, democratic, free and fair society.'
Two weeks ago Mr Umunna appeared to open the door to serving in Mr Corbyn's team as he urged the party to unite behind whoever became leader.
He appealed for'solidarity' and insisted the party must 'accept the result of our contest when it comes'.
Listing his misgivings about Mr Corbyn's policies, he said it was important for the party to maintain its pro-European stance, adding he had 'grave concerns' about increasing national insurance for middle income families by 7 per cent.
He said he was concerned about Britain withdrawing from Nato, adding: 'I don't think you can go around nationalising things without compensation, when we often invest in these things in our pension funds.'What's Working:
Boots
RIL (Calls, SMS, Data)
Wifi
Bluetooth
Camera
Sensors
Flash
What's Not Working:
Mic
Video Recording ( Use Another Camera App)
Instructions:
Download the latest build and gapps.
Reboot to recovery.
Flash the latest build and gapps.
Reboot
Downloads:
Reporting Bugs:
Grab a logcat right after the problem has occurred. (Please include at least a few pages of the log, not just the last few lines, unless you know what you're doing.)
If it is a random reboot, grab /proc/last_kmsg. (Do not bother getting a logcat unless you can get it just before the reboot. A logcat after a reboot is useless)
If the problem disappears after running "setenforce 0" from a root shell, grab /data/misc/audit/audit log.
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[ROM][DEV][7.0] CyanogenMod 14 For Moto X [23/10/16], ROM for the Moto X
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Version Information
is a free, community built, aftermarket firmware distribution of Android 7.0 (Nougat), which is designed to increase performance and reliability over stock Android for your device.is based on thewith extra contributions from many people within the Android community. It can be used without any need to have any Google application installed. Linked below is a package that has come from another Android project that restore the Google parts. CyanogenMod does still include various hardware-specific code, which is also slowly being open-sourced anyway.All the source code for CyanogenMod is available in the CyanogenMod Github repo. And if you would like to contribute to CyanogenMod, please visit out Gerrit Code Review. You can also view the Changelog for a full list of changes & features.Remember to provide as much info as possible. The more info you provide, the more likely that the bug will be solved. Please also do not report known issues. Any bug not reported in the bug report format below may be ignored.7.x NougatLinux 3.4.xCyanogenModAlpha2016-10-232016-10-23Quote STOCKHOLM — January 3, 2014 — Paradox Interactive, a publisher of games and a jumper of turnstiles, today announced the forthcoming release of Marvellous Monorails, a new expansion for Cities in Motion 2, the transit-planning strategy game from Colossal Order. Paradox also announced that the entire Cities in Motion franchise will be released for Linux computers, allowing strategy and simulation fans to experience the game on an entirely new platform. Linux support will be added the same day the new expansion is released.
“We believe in Linux as a platform for the future of gaming,” said Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive. “Gamers who currently use Linux are a smart and demanding bunch, and they expect versatility and an experience that fits their personal preferences, which makes our games a great fit. We’re bringing Cities in Motion to Linux because we believe it’s just the type of game that Linux users will enjoy.”
In Marvellous Monorails, Cities in Motion 2 players can add five all-new monorail vehicles to their transit fleets, and give their cities a new look with elevated rails to carry them. Monorails, which work best on circular layouts, are ideal for inner-city connections, and offer a more affordable alternative to metro lines, with a choice of cars from big-and-slow to speedy-but-expensive.
In Cities in Motion 2, players must design, construct, maintain, and expand a multifaceted transit network that serves the needs of a growing city. Fleets of vehicles, including buses, trains, ferries and subways, must be assembled and set in motion on player-created tracks and routes, providing affordable and efficient transit between growing residential and commercial centers. As players engineer their systems, the city will grow dynamically around them, keeping players on their toes with increased population, congestion, and budgetary concerns.
To read more about Cities in Motion 2, visit: http://www.citiesinmotion2.com/
Paradox Interactive have now formally announced Linux support alongside a new expansion called "Marvellous Monorails" for Cities in Motion 2 You may remember we told you it would be coming back in August of 2013, well it's now finally coming closer to reality.Here is the full post below:It's really amazing to see just how many developers are now fans of Linux, with the CEO of Paradox saying things likethat's just gold.Can't wait to see more of it although it's another game that I never quite got why it's so popular? City building sims I get, but a transport network sim I don't see the fuss, let me know what you think to it!Trailer:Correction:
Of all the deductions woven into the sprawling U.S. tax code, few have been more fiercely guarded than the enormous tax break that lets homeowners deduct the interest they pay on their mortgages.
But as Congress and the White House negotiate the first major rewrite of tax laws in decades, changing the generations-old mortgage-interest deduction — which costs the government roughly $100 billion a year — has gone from far-off possibility to part of the conversation.
The outcome of that debate could have profound long-term effects on homeowners across the country — and particularly those in the Washington area, who tend to benefit from the tax break more than many other Americans due to the region’s hefty home prices and high incomes.
As the Obama administration and lawmakers on Capitol Hill scramble to defuse automatic spending cuts and tax increases set to take effect Jan. 1, a herd of sacred cows — from Social Security and Medicare to deductions for charitable giving and mortgage interest — are in danger of losing their untouchable status.
Members of both parties have largely steered clear of detailed proposals so far. But plans put forth in the past year by President Obama and Mitt Romney to place limits on annual total tax deductions are likely to crimp the mortgage-interest deduction for certain taxpayers. Top congressional Republicans also have expressed openness to limiting total tax deductions as part of an overall budget deal. In addition, the presidentially appointed Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission suggested scaling back the mortgage-interest deduction as part of its own set of tax-related proposals.
Current law allows homeowners to deduct the interest paid on mortgage balances up to $1 million, including on second homes, as well as on $100,000 worth of home-equity loans. The deduction overwhelmingly benefits wealthier families, partly because they tend to have larger mortgages and pay more interest, and partly because most low- and middle-income Americans do not itemize deductions on their tax returns. It also tends to favor homeowners on the East and West Coasts, as well as those in large cities such as Chicago, where average home prices are higher.
Edward Kleinbard, a tax expert and law professor at the University of Southern California, said the mortgage-interest deduction represents the kind of government “extravagance” that the country no longer can justify, given its fiscal troubles.
“We simply cannot afford wasteful government subsidy programs anymore, and this is one of the most important examples of that,” Kleinbard said. “It’s very much a subsidy to those Americans who need it least.”
True enough, said Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi, but the deduction nevertheless has become ingrained in the psyche of home buyers over generations, and reducing it would have real effects.
“It’s a very visceral thing for people,” Zandi said. “People account for it when they think about how much house they could afford to buy. You take that away, and house prices are going to weaken. They are going to decline.”
He said it is possible that any price declines could prove minor over the long term, and that the housing industry itself ultimately would benefit if the country were on a firmer fiscal footing.
“I think we’re going to get tax reform, and the [mortgage-interest deduction] is going to be part of it,” Zandi said. But he said any changes should be phased in over a period of years.
Neither the White House nor lawmakers have shown an inclination to scrap the deduction, which has been around in some form since 1913. Unlike some other deductions, it remained intact in the last major tax overhaul, in 1986. It is the most high-profile housing-related tax incentive, but not the only one. For instance, homeowners can deduct their local property taxes and are exempt from some capital gains taxes when selling a residence if they have lived there long enough.
Some researchers have argued that the tax break actually does little to boost home ownership, given that people affluent enough to benefit from the deduction are likely to buy homes even without it.
“It’s a clunky subsidy for home ownership,” said Ted Gayer, co-director of the economic studies program at the Brookings Institution. “It also subsidizes things we don’t want to subsidize, like borrowing a lot of money for your home.... It’s a tax credit for people who have large mortgages.”
Any efforts to shrink the mortgage-interest deduction are likely to face stiff opposition from real estate agents, home builders and others who argue that millions of middle-class Americans also benefit. Few special-interest groups are better equipped to wage an all-out campaign than the real estate industry, which has defended the tax break for decades as a driver of home construction and a key motivator of home ownership.
“It has always been NAR’s position that the [mortgage-interest deduction] is vital to the stability of the American housing market and economy,” Gary Thomas, president of the National Association of Realtors, said in a statement. “And we will remain vigilant in opposing any future plan that modifies or excludes the deductibility of mortgage interest.”
David H. Stevens, chief executive of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said many people in his industry expect that the mortgage-interest deduction will be part of the long-term debate over fixing the nation’s budget woes, and he acknowledged that it could face changes as part of an overhaul of the tax code.
But what he and other industry advocates don’t want, Stevens said, are sudden or drastic
changes to current policy as part of a last-minute effort to avert the “fiscal cliff” on Jan. 1. He said such a move would threaten the fledgling housing recovery, cause harm to the larger economy and put a dent in the pocketbooks of many middle-class Americans.
“We are by no means knee-jerk, reactionary on this subject,” Stevens said. “The greatest concern we have is that in a rush to deal with the fiscal cliff before the year’s end, it could lead to an environment where less-thoughtful decision-making could occur.... This is something that has to be managed extremely carefully. This could be stepping over dollars to save pennies if we do it too soon.”More than 25 million people are being caught in a so-called credit gap as lenders exploit the rule that only half of applicants for a credit card or loan have to be offered the headline rate.
In the past, lenders were able to advertise particular interest rates only if they expected at least 66pc of borrowers to qualify for it. But under European rules that came into force in February 2011, the proportion of applicants who need to qualify for a deal in order for it to be advertised dropped to just 51pc.
New research from Aqua Card has found that a third of people in full-time employment and 32pc who earn more than £50,000 could also struggle to get credit. This tightening of lending criteria will come as a surprise to older borrowers who previously met with no resistance when applying for loans.
Young adults are the most at risk of being declined credit – with 80pc of 18 to 24 year-olds failing to meet borrowing criteria set by lenders.
Those most at risk of being refused a loan include borrowers without a credit history, such as young people and immigrants. The most common reasons for people being declined credit are not being a home owner and having opened two or more credit accounts in the previous six months.
The report found that a clean credit history was essential not just for loan applications but also when setting up utilities contracts and taking out a mobile phone.
Sarah Willingham, founder of letssavesomemoney, said: "Finding out that a massive 25 million people are at risk of being declined credit due to a poor credit score is extremely alarming. If you have a damaged credit record and don't inquire why, you could end up paying more or, at worst, having limited access to credit."
James Corcoran of Aqua Card advised credit applicants to ensure they were on the electoral roll, paid all their bills on time and make sure there were no incorrect details on their credit record.
• What's your story? Email us at money@telegraph.co.ukTranscript for 'This Week' Exclusive: Iran's Foreign Minister Zarif
Thanks, jon, and more on that with the roundtable coming up today, the another top story the man in negotiating with nuclear deal, dr. Javad zarif is here. But first, terry moran on a dynamic week of diplomacy. Reporter: Absolutely, george, what we have seen this week represents the possibility of a stunning diplomatic breakthrough. But there's a lot of work to do. A week of head-spinning. In the making. Just now I spoke on the phone with rouhani. Reporter: So, with a 15-minute phone call, 34 years of bitter relations thawed ever so slightly. 1979 was the turning point, the shah of iran, a key american ally, toppled in a revolution. And a few months ago, the storming of the u.S. Embassy in iran. Enemies ever since. But the election of 64-year-old of rouhani in june brings hope. He's leashed a charm offensive on twitter and in interviews including with christiane amanpour |
Juan is a famous legendary character who has featured in many literary and musical works. These include Molière’s play Dom Juan, ou Le Festin de pierre (1665), Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni (1787), Lord Byron’s unfinished poem Don Juan (1819–1824) and George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman (1903). Traditionally Don Juan is depicted as an arrogant and aggressive libertine who is, ultimately, damned. In Byron’s version the portrayal is very different: his Don Juan (pronounced Joo-ann) is a naïve, passive young man. He is seduced, rather than being a seducer. Don Juan is divided up into 16 parts, termed ‘cantos’. The storyline begins with Juan’s upbringing and his education. At 16 he has an affair with a married woman, Donna Julia. His mother, Donna Inez, sends him away from his native Seville, but there is a shipwreck. Some of the survivors resort to eating Juan’s spaniel and his tutor! When Juan is washed ashore on an island, he has an affair with Haidée (the daughter of a pirate). The lovers are parted, and subsequently Haidée dies of a broken heart. Juan is sold into slavery in Constantinople, where the Sultan’s wife hides him in the harem, disguised as a woman. Juan manages to escape, then serves as a mercenary on the side of the Russians in the Russo-Turkish conflict. Byron conveys the horrors of war: ‘… the glow / Of burning streets, like moonlight on the water, / Was imaged back in blood, the sea of slaughter’ (Canto VIII, stanza 122). Juan is sent to St Petersburg with dispatches: here he becomes a favourite of Catherine the Great. When Juan falls sick, physicians recommend a change of climate; so Catherine sends him to England as an ambassador. Having dealt with a mugger, Juan settles to life in London. He is sought after by intellectuals, and also experiences the mad social whirl of a London ‘season’. Juan is invited to a country estate where he feels drawn to the hostess, Lady Adeline. The 16th Canto ends on a cliff-hanger: a Duchess disguised in a friar’s cowl enters Juan’s bedroom. Unfortunately Byron only managed to produce 14 stanzas of Canto XVII. His early death prevented the completion of Don Juan. Byron reckoned that the English characters were based on people he had known, and he derived great satisfaction from exposing their hypocrisy.
Don Juan, cantos 1-5 Byron’s Don Juan (1819-24) was seen as scurrilous, though Byron himself proposed that it attacked vice in society by highlighting it.
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Usage terms Public Domain
The narrator Don Juan is not really the hero of Byron’s poem: rather, the key character is the poem’s narrator. He has a very distinctive voice, presenting himself as cynical and world-weary. Frequently he digresses from the storyline. This is a chatty, urbane aristocrat, whose satirical views sound remarkably like Byron’s own! The disillusioned tone reflects Byron’s personal sense of disappointment and his frustration. In politics he was a Whig, but his party did not hold power. Don Juan gave him scope to tackle a range of his own concerns; to criticise and ridicule society and attack literary, political and religious figures. Byron once said: ‘There are but two sentiments to which I am constant – a strong love of liberty, and a detestation of cant’ (Countess Blessington, Conversations of Lord Byron, 1834). The poem’s narrator stresses his age. Nevertheless, throughout Don Juan there is a deliberate representation of the narrator/poet as hero. Byron plays with his readers by exploiting the identification of the poem with its creator. In Canto XI stanza 55 he writes: Even I – albeit it I'm sure I did not know it,
Nor sought of foolscap subjects to be king, –
Was reckon'd, a considerable time,
The grand Napoleon of the realms of rhyme.
The form The poem is classed as a mock-epic. Epics are usually long narrative poems about important people and significant events. Mock-epics make fun of this form of writing: they emulate the style, but the subject matter is trivial and the heroic figure is not a worthy one. Although the work as a whole has serious aspects as well as humorous ones, Byron decided to use comic verse for Don Juan. He chose ottava rima – an Italian form in which each stanza has eight lines, with the rhyme pattern abababcc: in other words, there are three sets of alternate rhymes, followed by a final rhyming couplet. The first six lines build up towards a joke, with the final couplet providing the punchline. For example, in stanza 22 of Canto I the narrator pokes fun at intellectual women (known as ‘bluestockings’). The stanza ends: ‘Oh ye lords of ladies intellectual, / Inform us truly, have they not hen-peck’d you all?’
The suppressed Dedication Don Juan has a lengthy Dedication. This was actually suppressed in Byron’s own lifetime, and was not published until the 1830s. It begins with an attack on the Poet Laureate, Robert Southey, and the other famous Lake District residents, Wordsworth and Coleridge. The second generation of Romantic poets felt that the older generation had become part of the Establishment – that they had ‘sold out’. Byron acknowledges that they have poetic talents and should be ‘duly seated on the immortal hill’ (stanza 6); however their egotism makes him ‘wish you’d change your lakes for ocean’ (stanza 5). He proceeds to praise Milton, a poet who stayed true to his principles. There was another reason for Byron’s intense dislike of Southey: he believed him to have spread a rumour about Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley forming ‘a League of Incest’, each having intercourse with both Mary Shelley and her stepsister. In Canto I, stanza 205, Byron must have revelled in taking his revenge: Thou shalt believe in Milton, Dryden, Pope;
Thou shalt not set up Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey;
Because the first is crazed beyond all hope,
The second drunk, the third so quaint and mouthey. The English Foreign Secretary, Viscount Castlereagh, is also denounced in the Dedication, as an ‘intellectual eunuch’, a ‘bungler’ and a ‘tinkering slavemaker’ (stanzas 11 and 14).
Manuscript draft of the Dedication and Canto I of Don Juan by Lord Byron Byron’s dedication to Don Juan, not included in the first edition, attacked poets such as Wordsworth and Southey, and political figures such as Lord Castlereagh, who was responsible for repressive measures in the UK. View images from this item (6)
Usage terms Public Domain
Don Juan, cantos 1-2 Murray’s first publication of Don Juan (1819) did not show the publisher’s name, nor did it include the dedication in which Byron attacked political and literary figures. View images from this item (6)
Usage terms Public Domain
Early reactions When Byron was working on the first part of his poem, he was conscious that it may be ‘too free for these very modest days’. Some of his friends voiced qualms about the content: for example, they feared that Donna Inez was blatantly identifiable as a portrayal of Lady Byron (even though the poet denied it). The publisher, John Murray, also advocated changes. In letters to John Cam Hobhouse and Douglas Kinnaird, Byron refused to allow ‘Donny Jonny’ to be interfered with, arguing that his poem should be ‘an entire horse or none’ (30 July and 19 January, 1819). He declared: ‘I will not give way to all the Cant of Christendom’.
Publication and reception Don Juan was published serially, like a novel. This enabled the poet to take note of his readers’ reactions as he proceeded. The first volume contained Cantos I and II and appeared in 1819. The names of the poet and the publisher were omitted. The irreverence and the risqué language and content deterred some potential purchasers. This was not appropriate reading material for ladies! One reviewer denounced it as ‘filthy and impious’. Wordsworth viewed Byron as dangerous: ‘I am convinced that Don Juan will do more harm to the English character, than anything of our time …’ (January 1820). However Cantos III-V, published in 1821, elicited this outpouring from Byron’s friend Percy Bysshe Shelley: ‘It sets him not above but far above all the poets of the day: every word has the stamp of immortality … it fulfills in a certain degree what I have long preached of producing something wholly new & relative to the age – and yet surpassingly beautiful’ (10 August 1821, to Mary Shelley). A different publisher brought out the subsequent volumes. John Hunt, a liberal, was prepared to take greater risks than Murray. For example, an outburst against Wellington had been suppressed from Canto III, but Hunt permitted its inclusion in Canto IX. Cantos VI–XIV came out in 1823, with XV and XVI following in 1824. As Fiona MacCarthy has pointed out in her book Byron: Life and Legend (Faber and Faber, 2003), ‘Shelley was to remain Don Juan’s staunchest admirer.’ He enthused: ‘Nothing has ever been written like it in English – nor if I may venture to prophesy, will there be.’
Letter from P B Shelley to Lord Byron, concerning Byron's poem Don Juan, 21 October 1821 In this letter dated 21 October 1821, Shelley shows his support for Don Juan, maintaining that Byron had to portray vice in order to attack it. View images from this item (4)
Usage terms © Estate of Percy Bysshe Shelley & Harriet Shelley
Held by © Estate of Percy Bysshe Shelley & Harriet Shelley
Written by Stephanie Forward
Dr Stephanie Forward is a lecturer, specializing in English Literature. She has been involved in two important collaborative projects between the Open University and the BBC: The Big Read, and the television series The Romantics, and was a contributor to the British Library’s Discovering Literature: Romantics and Victorians site and to the 20th century site. Stephanie has an extensive publications record. She also edited the anthology Dreams, Visions and Realities; co-edited (with Ann Heilmann) Sex, Social Purity and Sarah Grand, and penned the script for the C.D. Blenheim Palace: The Churchills and their Palace.Some 50,000 low-paid workers are set to receive a pay rise after new binding wage agreements for the contract cleaning and security sectors were signed into law.
For years, under the Joint Labour Committee system, employers and unions in a sector would agree legally binding pay and conditions for employees in a particular sector, with over 200,000 workers falling under such protection.
However in 2011, the Supreme Court struck down the system as unconstitutional.
From then, new recruits only enjoyed the basic protections of the Minimum Wage and Working Time legislation.
The Government has now reinstated the system with the required constitutional safeguards.
From today, the pay of around 30,000 contract cleaners will be €9.75 an hour for the first 44 hours - up from €9.50 under the old JLC, and an increase of 2.6%.
The first four hours of overtime will be paid at time and a half, and subsequent overtime will be paid at double time.
All hours on Sundays will be at double time.
The 20,000 employees in the security sector will see their basic pay rate rise from €10.01 under the old system to €10.75 - an increase of 7.4%.
All overtime over 48 hours will be at time-and-a-half.
The new agreements will also deal with terms and conditions including annual leave and sick pay - and the wage increases for both sectors will be payable with immediate effect.
The move comes as the new streamlined system of employment rights machinery centring on the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court comes into being today.The Egyptian Armed Forces issued a televised statement on Monday afternoon giving Egyptian political forces 48 hours to "fulfil the people's demands," otherwise the armed forces would present a political "roadmap" for the country that would include all political currents.
"The Egyptian Armed Forces will not become involved in politics or administration; it is satisfied with its role as is spelt out in line with democratic norms," read the statement, stressing that Egyptian national security was in "great danger" and referring to the armed forces' "responsibility" to step in if national security was threatened.
"The Egyptian Armed Forces have set a deadline, which ended yesterday [Sunday], for all political powers to reconcile and end the current crisis, but no progress has been made. Consequently, the Egyptian people have taken to the streets," the statement read.
"Wasting more time will mean more division and conflict, which is what the armed forces warned of and of which it continues to warn," the statement added.
According to the statement, the absence of national consensus is what led the people to take to the streets in full determination, "which has been praised on the internal, regional and global level."
The statement went on to warn that more time would only lead to greater polarisation, urging all parties to put the public interest first.
"The armed forces reiterates its call that the demands of the people be met," the statement read, giving political factions a 48-hour period "as a last chance to bear the historical burden that the nation is currently facing."
Short link:The Indianapolis Colts are hosting their mandatory mini-camp this week, and while they have 90 players on their offseason roster, they also have eight tryout players in this week.
Here’s the list of players, according to FOX59’s Mike Chappell. Earlier, we didn’t know for sure what positions those players were trying out at, but the Indianapolis Star’s Stephen Holder later tweeted those out too:
Phillip Adams, CB
Larry Donnell, TE
James Dray, TE
Andrew East, LS
Jeremiah George, ILB
Brandon Greene, TE
Shakiel Randolph, CB
Mark Thomas, WR
Several of the guys in mini-camp as a tryout actually have quite a bit of NFL experience, and some of them might be names that you recognize. Probably the most notable one is Larry Donnell, who spent the last five seasons with the New York Giants, where he played in 54 games (starting 27) and caught 110 passes for 969 yards and nine touchdowns, averaging 8.8 yards per catch. In 2014 he had a career year, playing in all 16 games and starting 12 of them as he caught 63 passes for 623 yards and six scores, averaging 9.9 yards per catch.
James Dray is another tight end with NFL experience, having played in 93 games (starting 38) during time spent with the Cardinals, Browns, Bills, and 49ers. He has caught 56 passes for 605 yards and three scores during his NFL career. And cornerback Phillip Adams has also played in a number of games, appearing in 78 and starting eleven during stints with the 49ers, Patriots, Seahawks, Raiders, Jets, and Falcons, though he didn’t play anywhere last year. He has recorded 128 tackles, 15 passes defensed, five picks, and a forced fumble during his time in the NFL.
So there are definitely a few players in particular who are notable, and at the very least they will provide some more competition this week in mini-camp and will give the Colts an opportunity to see more players, some of whom they might want to continue to work with and continue to have around. We’ll have to wait and see whether anything comes of these tryouts, but they’re at least getting the chance to work with the Colts in mini-camp this week.Although Senate Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd and his sometime Republican ally Richard Shelby continued to make noises on the Sunday talk shows about a possible bipartisan deal, both President Obama and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank have personally urged Dodd not to cut a deal with Republicans. I asked Frank point blank why Dodd would want such a deal, and he said--on the record--"I have no idea, but both President Obama and I have urged him not to."
This is a welcome sign that Obama realizes that public opinion is moving in the direction of tougher banking reform, and that he learned from the health debate that bipartisan compromise on key reform issues is a snare and a delusion. Kudos to Chairman Frank and to the President.
Assuming that Dodd doesn't cave, the Democrats still need 60 votes if Republicans decide to filibuster the motion to take up the bill. But with tide turning strongly against coddling Wall Street, it is hard to imagine that a few Republicans won't break ranks. If so, there may be no filibuster at all.
On one of the most contentious issues, derivatives reform, Maine Republican Senator Olympia Snowe sent a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid on Friday urging him to back Senator Blanche Lincoln's tough derivatives provision, which not only narrows exclusions in the draft legislation, but keeps big banks from trading derivatives for their own accounts. It's hard to imagine Snowe backing this measure and then joining in a filibuster to block consideration of the reform altogether. Here is part of her letter:
"I believe that strong derivatives regulation goes to the heart of an effective financial reform bill and that Chairman Lincoln's legislation is a strong step towards realizing this fundamental component to financial reform......I believe that we should err on the side of caution and finally bring full transparency to these markets once and for all and allow regulators to preemptively identify these damaged firms. "Accordingly, I believe the Senate should start with a comprehensive, strong derivatives reform proposal and defend attempts to weaken it, not the other way around and the legislation produced by the Senate Agriculture Committee includes the strongest safeguards and most robust transparency provisions on our expansive derivatives market. I urge the Majority Leader to incorporate these provisions into the regulatory reform bill."
Then we have the case of the accidental senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown, who is facing re-election in just two years. His special election last January was a fluke--a perfect storm of voter backlash against recession and a weak Democratic campaign. Brown ran as a kind of regular-guy economic populist. I can't believe that Brown will stand up for Wall Street against Main Street and vote to filibuster against even taking up the bill (Elizabeth Warren should run for the Democratic nomination to take him on in 2012. Now that would be one helluva race.)
In short, Republican leaders McConnell and Shelby are bluffing. They know they can't hold their troops, and that's why they so desperately want a deal with Dodd for a weaker bipartisan bill that Republicans can support.
If Dodd avoids such a deal, my hunch is that several Republicans will not support the filibuster and that debate will proceed. And once it does, there will be several votes on key strengthening amendments. These will also put Republicans in a bind.
Senator Chuck Grassley supported the Lincoln bill in the Agriculture Committee. Will he now join Snowe and vote to add it to the reform bill? How could Grassley vote to strengthen the derivatives position, but vote to block taking up the whole bill?
My sources tell me that one key Democrat, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, is actually somewhat more pro-banker than moderate and heartland senate Republicans when it comes to derivatives reform. He is sympathetic to Wall Street complaints that the Lincoln bill would eat into derivatives profits, and has weighted in on the side of watering down her bill. Happily, he doesn't vote, but President Obama should decide the administration position and not leave it to Geithner.
Two other key amendments: One will be offered by Senators Sherrod Brown, Ted Kaufman, Bob Casey and Sheldon Whitehouse, limiting the size of large banks; another by Senators Jeff Merkley and Carl Levin would write into law the Volcker Rule separating commercial banking from financial gambling. These will also put Republicans in a deliciously awkward spot--though they may also be opposed by pro-Wall Street Democrats such as Evan Bayh of Indiana and Mark Warner of Virginia. And watch closely to see how Chuck Schumer votes on these strengthening amendments. Schumer, once known as the senator from Wall Street, is remaking himself as a financial reformer in preparation for a possible run for majority leader against Dick Durbin should Harry Reid go down this November.
Bottom line: If the Senate Democratic Leadership can resist the snake oil of a bipartisan deal and if Obama personally works the phones and takes control of his own administration, the bill will probably get stronger as it works its way through Congress. This is the right kind of bipartisanship--a progressive bill so clearly demanded by public opinion that many Republicans don't dare to oppose it.
Even so, this bill is far from the final chapter of reform. While banks will not be able to do quite as much damage to the rest of the economy, entire areas of abuse such as credit rating agencies, hedge funds, and private equity are largely untouched and the basic business model of the financial conglomerates will be only partly constrained. Real mortgage relief is also put off for another day.
A little history is reassuring. For all of his personal resolve, it took Franklin Roosevelt seven years and several pieces of landmark legislation to complete the New Deal structure of financial regulation that kept Wall Street well harnessed until the late 1970s - including the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Public Utility Holding Act of 1935, ending with the Investment Company Act of 1940. Even in that golden age of reform, Wall Street wasn't tamed in a day.
If the Democrats don't extinguish the momentum with a premature bipartisan deal, public understanding and indignation are still building. Regulatory agencies are beginning to do their jobs, and Democrats are starting to sound like a progressive party. It's about time.The Unknown Child refers to an initially unidentified body recovered by the Mackay-Bennett after sinking of the RMS Titanic. The grave's headstone read "Erected to the memory of an unknown child whose remains were recovered after the disaster to the Titanic April 15th 1912".
Initial DNA testing in 2002 pointed to third class passenger Eino Viljami Panula as the probable individual; however subsequent testing in 2008 conclusively identified the child's remains as those of fellow third class toddler Sidney Leslie Goodwin.
The unknown child [ edit ]
The grave of the unknown child in Fairview Cemetery, in the winter.
The body of a fair-haired toddler was the fourth pulled from the ocean by the recovery ship CS Mackay-Bennett, on 17 April 1912. The description read:
NO. 4 – MALE – ESTIMATED AGE, 2 – HAIR, FAIR. CLOTHING – Grey coat with fur on collar and cuffs; brown serge frock; petticoat; flannel garment; pink woolen singlet; brown shoes and stockings. No marks whatever. PROBABLY THIRD CLASS[1]
The sailors aboard the Mackay-Bennett, who were very shocked by the discovery of the unknown boy's body, paid for a monument, and he was buried on 4 May 1912 with a copper pendant placed in his coffin by recovery sailors that read "Our Babe".[2] Before 2002 (when he was first, though mistakenly, identified through DNA testing), he was known simply as "The Unknown Child". His body, identified as that of a child around two years old, was initially believed to be that of either a two-year-old Swedish boy, Gösta Pålsson; or a two-year-old Irish boy, Eugene Rice, two other fair-haired toddlers who perished in the sinking.[3]
The grave is usually covered with stuffed animals and children's toys.
Identification and re-identification [ edit ]
The American PBS television series Secrets of the Dead initially identified the body as Eino Viljami Panula, a 13-month-old Finnish baby, based on DNA testing of three teeth and a small, weathered bone.[4][5] However, with improved DNA testing available in 2007, Canadian researchers at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay tested the child's HVS1, a type of mitochondrial DNA molecule, and it did not match the Panula family.[6] DNA extracted from the exhumed remains and DNA provided by a surviving maternal relative helped positively match the remains to Sidney, and the re-identification was announced on 30 July 2007.[4][7]
Although the bodies of two other children, both older boys, were recovered, it was Sidney who came to be a symbol of all the children lost in the sinking. He is buried in Fairview Cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a marker was recently added to the memorial with his name and dates of birth and death.[8] A pair of his shoes were donated to Halifax's Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in 2002 by the descendants of a Halifax police officer who guarded the bodies and clothing of Titanic victims.
Eino Viljami Panula [ edit ]
Eino Viljami Panula (10 March 1911 – 15 April 1912) was a young Finnish boy who died during the sinking of RMS Titanic. From 2002 to 2007, he was initially believed to be "The Unknown Child".
Eino was traveling with his mother, Maria Emilia Panula (born Maija Emelia Ketola-Ojala), and four older brothers, Ernesti Arvid (born 18 May 1895), Jaakko Arnold (born 8 February 1897), Juha Niilo (born 1 September 1904), and Urho Abraham (born 25 April 1909). Three other children died before the voyage: Juho Eemeli (23 October 1892 – 23 December 1892), Emma Iida (24 February 1901 – 8 April 1910) and Lyydia (17 June 1903 – 23 December 1903).[9][10]
The family was heading to Coal Center, Pennsylvania, to join their father, Juha. All six members perished in the disaster.
The American PBS television series Secrets of the Dead played a key role in the initial 2002 identification of Panula's identity as the "Unknown Child" when they featured the story of the unknown Titanic victim on an episode and traced the child's DNA to a Finnish woman by the name of Magda Schleifer whose grandmother's sister was Maria Emilia Panula. Another relative of the Panula family, Hildur Panula-Heinonen, has written several extensive articles related to the family.
On 1 August 2007 it was reported a test on the child's HVS1, a type of mitochondrial DNA molecule, did not match the Panula family.[11] The original DNA testing was proved wrong and researchers from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario identified the boy as a 19-month-old English child, Sidney Leslie Goodwin.
Eino Panula's body was never recovered.
Sidney Leslie Goodwin [ edit ]
Sidney Leslie Goodwin (9 September 1910 – 15 April 1912) was a 19-month-old English boy who died during the sinking of the RMS Titanic. In 2008, mitochondrial DNA testing by the Armed Forces lab revealed his identity. Sidney Goodwin was the only member of his family whose body has been recovered and subsequently identified.
Early life [ edit ]
The Goodwin family. From left to right: William, Frederick, Charles, Lillian, Augusta, Jessie. At the centre is Harold. Sidney is not present. All of the Goodwins perished in the sinking.
Sidney was born on 9 September 1910 in Melksham, Wiltshire, England. He was the youngest child born to Frederick Joseph and Augusta (née Tyler) Goodwin. Sidney had five older siblings – Lillian, Charles, William, Jessie, and Harold.[12]
SS New York and RMS Titanic [ edit ]
Frederick's brother, Thomas, had already left England and was living in Niagara Falls, New York. Thomas wrote to Frederick, telling him about the opening of a power station there. It has been speculated that the famed Schoellkopf Hydroelectric Power Station (Station A), due to open in 1912, would have been his employer had he lived. Frederick, a compositor, packed up his wife and six children to prepare for the move. They booked third-class passage on the S.S. New York out of Southampton, but due to a coal strike that year the vessel's passage was delayed, and they were transferred to the RMS Titanic.[13] They boarded the Titanic in Southampton as third-class passengers.
Not much is known about the Goodwins' activities during the voyage, except that they may have been separated by sex in opposite ends of the ship, Frederick and his older sons in the bow, and Augusta with Sidney and the girls in the stern. Harold also met and spent some time with Frank Goldsmith, who survived.
By the time the Goodwins received a warning about the collision with the iceberg, all the lifeboats had been launched. The entire family perished in the sinking.
In his book, The Night Lives On, historian Walter Lord devoted a chapter ("What Happened to the Goodwins?") to the family, using the fact that they were English to challenge the White Star Line's implication that such high numbers of third-class passengers perished because they could not understand the English language.[14]
Further reading [ edit ]
Geller, Judith B. (1998). Titanic: Women and Children First (1st ed.). W. W. Norton & Company.Scott Gottlieb, President Trump’s choice for head of the Food and Drug Administration, was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday in a 57 to 42 vote.
The former deputy commissioner of the FDA under George W. Bush will come to the job with strong views about what FDA reform might look like — unlike many of Trump’s other nominees.
He was also the most mainstream of Trump’s rumored FDA choices. Others included Silicon Valley insiders like Jim O’Neill and Balaji Srinivasan, who both have no background in medicine and seemingly little appreciation for how medical regulation works.
At Gottlieb’s senate confirmation hearing last month he promised science would prevail at the agency, according to AP, and he vigorously defended vaccines. “This has been one of the most exhaustively studied questions in history," he said. There “is no causal link between vaccination and autism.”
That an FDA commissioner would even be asked this question speaks to what a bizarre moment in history this is. But with this unequivocal statement about vaccine safety, Gottlieb set himself apart from the President, who has suggested vaccines may be harming people and causing autism, and from the seething populist movement that seems intent on undermining science and public health.
Still, he doesn’t come without controversy: Critics have pointed out that his web of ties to pharmaceutical companies may have compromised his ability to steer the FDA. Here’s what we might expect with Gottlieb taking the helm at FDA.
Gottlieb wants to speed up generic approvals to bring down the cost of drugs
One of Trump’s few talking points about medicine has to do with the cost of drugs. He has been aggressive about singling out pharmaceutical companies for “getting away with murder” with their “astronomical” prices.
One way to do this would be to bring cheaper generic drugs to market — and Gottlieb has been championing that idea for years, according to Bloomberg.
After a drug gets FDA approval, its manufacturer enjoys a period of monopoly through patent protection — which means it’s the only company allowed to make that drug, and so can generally demand higher prices. Once that exclusivity period is over, generic drugmakers can enter the market, offering low-cost copycats.
These medicines are drastically cheaper than their brand-name counterparts, mainly because generic drugmakers piggyback on all the research and development that was done by the original drugmaker. This means generic manufacturers don't bear the same R&D costs. They also don't spend much on marketing — a massive cost for pharma.
For instance, six tablets of the brand-name antibiotic Zithromax cost $150 — while the same amount of the generic version, azithromycin, costs about $10.
When brand-name alternatives — such as various types of hepatitis C treatments or even different insulin therapies — come onto the market, drug prices don’t drop dramatically. When competition from interchangeable generic products increases, they do.
As FDA head, Gottlieb may try to improve competition among cheaper generic products, which would help bring down drug costs. Here’s Bloomberg again:
At a March 6 speech during a conference in Orlando, Florida, Gottlieb also talked about overhauling the rules for complex generic drugs with which brand-name companies have been able to create “monopolies in perpetuity.” He also discussed the need to inject competition in situations where decades-old drugs are provided by one generic supplier, allowing speculators to buy the drug and jack up the price.
Gottlieb favors faster drug approvals
Trump has vowed to cut 75 to 80 percent of government regulations. “Instead of it being 9,000 pages, it’ll be 100 pages,” he told a group of pharmaceutical company executives in January, presumably in reference to the FDA’s guidance and rules.
One of the key notions underpinning Trump’s view of the FDA is that if the agency just got rid of some of the pesky restrictions for drug approval, we could have a golden age in drug development.
Gottlieb also has a track record of favoring faster drug approvals. In a 2012 article in National Affairs, he discussed how the agency’s “hunger for extreme certainty about how drugs work” had become too burdensome, and put up many hurdles for the FDA approving a drug for a rare disease called Hunter syndrome:
In an effort to satisfy an increasingly unreasonable hunger for statistical certainty on the part of the FDA, the trial imposed extraordinary hardships on the children and families involved. In order to approve the drug for use, the FDA required the trial to involve 96 patients with Hunter syndrome — some 20% of all Americans afflicted with the disease. Moreover, for the first time in such a study of enzyme-replacement therapy, the FDA also insisted that patients be randomly assigned to receive either the experimental drug or an inert placebo.
Trump and Gottlieb are not alone in their views. There’s been a push to drive down the evidentiary standards at the FDA by allowing lower-quality evidence to be weighted in drug approval decisions. The argument is that this would help bring new drugs onto the market more quickly, and help spur innovation.
But many independent researchers and public interest groups point out that the FDA is already the fastest regulatory agency in the world, particularly with the advent of expedited regulatory pathways for rare, serious, or life-threatening diseases.
The reason we don’t have more medical breakthroughs coming to the market, those researchers argue, isn’t because the FDA is too sluggish; it’s because discovering them is really, really hard. There’s mixed evidence on whether speedier review times have led to more drug innovation.
For what it’s worth, Gottlieb has said FDA needs to strake a balance among speed, good science, and safety. "We should reject a false dichotomy that it all boils down to a choice between speed and safety," he said in April.
Gottlieb would like to give more power to doctors to make decisions about drugs
In that National Affairs piece, Gottlieb also wrote, “The modern FDA is driven by a profound lack of confidence in the ability of doctors to make careful judgments. The agency regulates drug makers, but it does not regulate doctors.” The implication here is that the agency has become too paternalistic, and that doctors should have more discretion over the safety of drugs available and whether they would be helpful to patients.
Recent history suggests that undoing some of that regulation to put more power in the hands of doctors might not be a great move for patients.
The reason we have all these FDA scientists vetting data on drugs to make sure they are safe and effective is because it’s really hard for doctors to do that job by themselves.
The agency starting asking drug companies to prove their products were both safe and effective before they hit the market in 1962, after the infamous scandal around thalidomide, a morning sickness medication that caused severe birth defects. An FDA medical officer, Dr. Frances Kelsey, adamantly opposed allowing thalidomide to be sold in the US — saving American families from the pain wrought by the drug in many other countries.
Not only would it be extremely time-consuming to expect doctors to review clinical trials themselves, but it might also compromise patient safety, since the results of many clinical trials never see the light of day. (FDA reviewers have access to unpublished patient-level data that doctors don’t — and it’s their job vet it.)
Even still, there’s been a push by conservative and libertarian think tanks, such as the American Enterprise Institute (where Gottlieb has been a fellow) to roll back weighty regulations and give more power to doctors and patients.
Gottlieb has some serious conflicts of interest
One of the major sticking points around Gottlieb’s confirmation was what Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) called his “unprecedented financial entanglements” with the pharmaceutical industry.
Gottlieb has served on five pharmaceutical companies’ boards, including GlaxoSmithKline, and was recused from meetings and decisions while serving as FDA deputy commissioner because of these conflicts.
“Between 2013 and 2015, Gottlieb received a total of at least $413,000 from multiple pharma and medical device companies, most for consulting and speaking fees,” Public Citizen reported.
He’s also partner at a large venture capital firm, New Enterprise Associates, a senior principal at the investment bank TR Winston, and partner at the hedge fund Arcoda Capital Management — all health care–centric finance groups.
Days before the hearing, Endpoints News reported, “he carefully delineated ties to some two dozen biopharma companies he’s been working with over the past eight years of the Obama administration.” He also said he’d be an “impartial and independent advocate for the public health.”
But that may not be easy, Daniel Carpenter, a Harvard professor who wrote a history of the FDA, told Vox. “These are not relationships whose influence just disappears once he resigns from a corporate board.” He added: “He would be the most interest-conflicted commissioner in American history, by far.”
When compared with Trump’s other picks, though, Gottlieb — with his medical background and extensive FDA experience — seems like a prudent choice, which may have been the reason the administration threw out those other names. “It could have been worse,” said Gregg Gonsalves, a Yale research scholar. “We could have had a saber-toothed tiger guarding the |
Our reasoning with regard to him is as simple as it is definitive. We say: the man whose judgment is so perverted as to deny the existence of a one and only God, and to make up gods of different sorts, can only be the meanest expression of human degradation; to speak to him would be a humiliation for our intelligence and an insult to the grandeur of the Master of the Universe. The presence of such miscreants among us is the bane of our existence; their doctrine is a direct insult to the purity of our faith; contact with them is a defilement of our bodies; any relation with them a torture to our souls. Though detesting you, we have condescended to study your political institutions and your military organization. Over and above the new weapons that Providence procures for us through your agency, you have yourselves rekindled, the inextinguishable faith of our heroic martyrs. Our Young Turks, our Babis, our new Brotherhoods, all our sects, under various forms, are inspired by the same idea; the same necessity of moving forward. Towards what end? Christian civilization? Never! Islam is the one great international family. All true believers are brothers. A community of feeling and of faith binds them in mutual affection. It is for the Caliph to facilitate these relations and to rally the Faithful under the sacerdotal
standard. [25]
During the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid, the Ottoman Turks massacred over 200,000 Armenians between 1894—96. This was followed, under the Young Turk regime, by the Adana massacres of 25,000 Armenians in 1909, and the first formal genocide of the 20th century, when in 1915 alone, an additional 600,000 to 800,000 Armenians were slaughtered. [26] The massacres of the 1890s had an 'organic' connection to the Adana massacres of 1909, and more importantly, the events of 1915. As Dadrian argues, they facilitated the genocidal acts of 1915 by providing the Young Turks with 'a predictable impunity.' The absence of adverse consequences for the Abdul Hamid massacres in the 1890s allowed the Young Turks to move forward without constraint. [27]
Contemporary accounts from European diplomats make clear that these brutal massacres were perpetrated in the context of a formal jihad against the Armenians who had attempted to throw off the yoke of dhimmitude by seeking equal rights and autonomy. For example, the Chief Dragoman (Turkish—speaking interpreter) of the British embassy reported regarding the 1894—96 massacres:
[The perpetrators] are guided in their general action by the prescriptions of the Sheri [Sharia] Law. That law prescribes that if the "rayah" [dhimmi] Christian attempts, by having recourse to foreign powers, to overstep the limits of privileges allowed them by their Mussulman [Muslim] masters, and free themselves from their bondage, their lives and property are to be forfeited, and are at the mercy of the Mussulmans. To the Turkish mind the Armenians had tried to overstep those limits by appealing to foreign powers, especially England. They therefore considered it their religious duty and a righteous thing to destroy and seize the lives and properties of the Armenians. [28]
Bat Ye'or confirms this reasoning, noting that the Armenian quest for reforms invalidated their "legal status," which involved a "contract" (i.e., with their Muslim Turkish rulers). This
...breach...restored to the umma [the Muslim community] its initial right to kill the subjugated minority [the dhimmis], [and] seize their property... [29]
Kinross [30] has described the tactics of Abdul Hamid's agents, who deliberately fomented religious fanaticism among the local Muslim populations in Turkish Armenia, and the devastating results of this incitement:
It became their normal routine first to assemble the Moslem population in the largest mosque in a town, then to declare, in the name of the Sultan, that the Armenians were in general revolt with the aim of striking at Islam. Their Sultan enjoined them as good Moslems to defend their faith against these infidel rebels. He propounded the precept that under the holy law the property of rebels might be looted by believers, encouraging Moslems to enrich themselves in the name of their faith at the expense of their Christian neighbours, and in the event of resistance, to kill them. Hence, throughout Armenia, 'the attack of an ever increasing pack of wolves against sheep.'... Each operation, between the bugle calls, followed a similar pattern. First into a town there came the Turkish troops, for the purpose of massacre; then came the Kurdish irregulars and tribesmen for the purpose of plunder. Finally came the holocaust, by fire and destruction, which spread, with the pursuit of fugitives and mopping—up operations, throughout the lands and villages of the surrounding province. This murderous winter of 1895 thus saw the decimation of much of the Armenian population and the devastation of their property in some twenty districts of eastern Turkey. Often the massacres were timed for a Friday, when the Moslems were in their mosques and the myth was spread by the authorities that the Armenians conspired to slaughter them at prayer. Instead they were themselves slaughtered, when the Moslems emerged to forestall their design. The total number of victims was somewhere between fifty and a hundred thousand, allowing for those who died subsequently of wounds, disease, exposure, and starvation...In each of thirteen large towns the numbers of those dead ran well into four figures. In Erzurum, the bazaar of a thousand shops was looted and wrecked by the Moslems, while some three hundred Christians were buried the next day in a single massed grave...Cruelest and most ruinous of all were the massacres at Urfa, where the Armenian Christians numbered a third of the total population. Here in December 1895, after a two—months siege of their quarter, the leading Armenians assembled in their cathedral, where they drew up a statement requesting Turkish official protection. Promising this, the Turkish officer in charge surrounded the cathedral with troops. Then a large body of them, with a mob in their wake, rushed through the Armenian quarter, where they plundered all houses and slaughtered all adult males above a certain age. When a large group of young Armenians were brought before a sheikh, he had them thrown down on their backs and held by their hands and feet. Then, in the words of an observer, he recited verses of the Koran and 'cut their throats after the Mecca rite of sacrificing sheep.'...When the bugle blast ended the day's operations some three thousand refugees poured into the cathedral, hoping for sanctuary. But the next morning — a Sunday — a fanatical mob swarmed into the church in an orgy of slaughter, rifling its shrines will cries of 'Call upon Christ to prove Himself a greater prophet than Mohammed.' Then they amassed a large pile of straw matting, which they spread over the litter of the corpses and set alight with thirty cans of petroleum. The woodwork of the gallery where a crowd of women and children crouched, wailing in terror, caught fire, and all perished in the flames. Punctiliously, at three—thirty in the afternoon the bugle blew once more, and the Moslem officials proceeded around the Armenian quarter to proclaim that the massacres were over. They had wiped out 126 complete families, without a woman or a baby surviving, and the total casualties in the town, including those slaughtered in the cathedral, amounted to eight thousand dead.
A 1915 Ottoman Fatwa [31] believed to have been written by Sheikh Shawish (entitled, Aljihad, and translated into English, March 10, 1915) included a statement attached to its official United States consulate translation indicating, 'It was undoubtedly this and similar pamphlets which inspired the Jewish community of Alexandria' to contact the United States Consul General's office in Cairo. The calls to religiously motivated violence against non—Muslims, as sanctioned by Islam—jihad war—are unmistakably clear.
If you believe in God, in his faith and apostle, hear the words of our sages as recorded by his holy prophet. 'You believers take not the Jews and Christians as friends unto you, He who loves then shall be called one of them'. 'God shall not foster the tyrants'. You believers accept not unto you friends of these who abuse your faith and mock thereof. They are called unbelievers, and you hearken unto the words of God of you believe. Therefore if after you will put to heart to these sacred words, perhaps they have been spoken to you by God not to acquire unto us Jewish or Christian friends. From these holy words you will realize that it is forbidden us to approach those who mock our faith — Jews and Christians, for then God forbid, God forbid we shall be deemed by the almighty as one of them God forbid.... After all this how can we believe in the sincerity of your faith when you befriend and love unbelievers, and accept their Government without any rising without attempting to expel them from your country. Therefore arise and purify yourselves of such deeds. Arise to the Holy War no matter what it costs so as to carry into execution this sacred deed. It is furthermore said in the Koran 'If your fathers if children taken unto them friends of the unbelievers, estrange yourselves even from them.'... The Mohammedan religion enjoins us to set aside some money for Government expenses and for preparations of a holy war. The rest of your tithes and contributions you are duty bound to send to the capital of the Caliphate to help them to glorify the name of God, through the medium of the Caliph. Let all Mussulmans know that the Holy War is created only for this purpose. We trust in God that the Mohammedan lands will rise from humiliation and become faithfully tied to the capital of the Caliphate until, so as to be called 'the lands of Islam'. This is our hope and God help us to carry through our holy aims to a successful issue for the sake of our holy Prophet... A holy war is a sacred duty and for your information let it be known that the armies of the Caliph is ready and in three divisions, as follows: War in secret, war by word of mouth, and physical war. War in secret. This is the easiest and simplest. In this case it is to suppose that every unbeliever is an enemy, to persecute and exterminate him from the face of the earth. There is not a Mussulman in the world who is not inspired by this idea. However in the Koran it is said: 'That such a war is not enough for a Mohammedan whether young or old, and must also participate in the other parts of the Holy War. War by word of mouth. That is to say fighting by writing and speaking. This kind of war for example should pertain to the Mahomedans of the Caucasus. They should have commenced this war three or four months ago, because their actual position does not permit them to but the carrying on of such warfare. Every Mahomedan is in duty bound to write and speak against the unbelievers when actual circumstances do not permit him to assume more stringent measures, as for instance in the Caucasus. Therefore every writer must use his pen in favor of such a war. Physical war. This means actual fighting in the fullest sense of the word... Now let us mention here the means to be adopted in carrying on this holy war, as follows: Every private individual can fight with deadly weapons, as for example. Here is the following illustration of the late Egyptian Verdani who shot the unbelieving Butros Gal Pacha the friend of the English with a revolver. The murder of the English police Commissioner Bavaro in India by one of our Indian brethren. The killing of one of the officials of Kansch on his coming from Mecca by the Prophet's friend 'Abu Bazir El Pzachbi', peace be unto him! Abdallah ibn Aatick and four colleagues killed 'Abu Raafah Ibn El Hakiki'. The leader of the Jews of Khaybar so famous for his enmity to Islamism. This was executed by our Prophet's command, so did Avrala Ibn Ravacha and his friends when they killed Oscher Ibn Dawas one of the Jewish dignitaries. There are many instances of similar cases. Lord of the Universal What fails us now, and why should not some of us go forth to fight this sacred war for exalting thy glorious name?
An intrepid Protestant historian and missionary Johannes Lepsius, who earlier had undertaken a two—month trip to examine the sites of the Abul Hamid era massacres, returned to Turkey during World War I. He again documented the results of such invocations of jihad against non—Muslims, as espoused by Sheikh Shawish, during the period between 1914—1918. Lepsius wrote:
Are we then simply forbidden to speak of the Armenians as persecuted on account of their religious belief'? If so, there have never been any religious persecutions in the world...We have lists before us of 559 villages whose surviving inhabitants were converted to Islam with fire and sword; of 568 churches thoroughly pillaged, destroyed and razed to the ground; of 282 Christian churches transformed into mosques; of 21 Protestant preachers and 170 Gregorian (Armenian) priests who were, after enduring unspeakable tortures, murdered on their refusal to accept Islam. We repeat, however, that those figures express only the extent of our information, and do not by a long way reach to the extent of the reality. Is this a religious persecution or is it not? [32]
Finally, Bat Ye'or [33] places the continuum of massacres from the 1890s through the end of World War I, in an overall theological and juridical context, as follows:
The genocide of the Armenians was the natural outcome of a policy inherent in the politico—religious structure of dhimmitude. This process of physically eliminating a rebel nation had already been used against the rebel Slav and Greek Christians, rescued from collective extermination by European intervention, although sometimes reluctantly. The genocide of the Armenians was a jihad. No rayas took part in it. Despite the disapproval of many Muslim Turks and Arabs, and their refusal to collaborate in the crime, these masssacres were perpetrated solely by Muslims and they alone profited from the booty: the victims' property, houses, and lands granted to the muhajirun, and the allocation to them of women and child slaves. The elimination of male children over the age of twelve was in accordance with the commandments of the jihad and conformed to the age fixed for the payment of the jizya. The four stages of the liquidation— deportation, enslavement, forced conversion, and massacre— reproduced the historic conditions of the jihad carried out in the dar—al—harb from the seventh century on. Chronicles from a variety of sources, by Muslim authors in particular, give detailed descriptions of the organized massacres or deportation of captives, whose sufferings in forced marches behind the armies paralleled the Armenian experience in the twentieth century.
'Double Killing'— Ongoing Turkish Denial of the Armenian Genocide
Elie Wiesel has noted, appositely, that the final stage of genocide, its denial, is 'double killing'. Ignoring absurd and scurrilous allegations contained in Turkish propaganda screeds (for example, the May 27, 1999 eleven page document entitled, 'An Objective Look at House Resolution [HR] 155', submitted by the Turkish ambassador in Washington, D.C., to all United States Congressmen, which contained the mendacious claims that Armenians had murdered 100,000 Ottoman Jews, and 1.1 million Ottoman Muslims [34]), several persistent denialist rationales at least merit exploration and sound rebuttal, before being dismissed. Dadrian [35] has reduced these particular attempts to characterize the Armenian genocide as 'debatable' into the following three lines of argument (which he aptly terms 'disjointed'): (i) the Ottoman governments intent was merely to relocate, not destroy, the deportee population; (ii) in the context of the larger global conflagration, i.e., World War I, the Armenians and Turks were engaged in a civil war, which was itself directly responsible for heavy Turkish losses; (iii) Turkish losses during the overall conflict far exceeded Armenian losses.
Dadrian poses the following logical question as a preface to his analysis of the spurious claim that the Turks engaged in a 'benevolent relocation' of Armenian deportees:
...how did the Young Turk authorities expect to resettle in the deserts of Mesopotamia hundreds of thousands of dislocated people without securing the slightest accommodation or other amenities affording the barest conditions of subsistence for human beings? [36]
The sham of'relocation' was made plain by the Chief of Staff of the Ottoman Fourth Army who oversaw the areas designated to receive these forcibly transferred Armenian populations. He rejected the relocation pretense categorically in his memoirs stating '...there was neither preparation, nor organization to shelter the hundreds of thousands of deportees.' [37] This critical assessment from a key Ottoman official confirms the observations of multiple consuls representing Turkeys allies Austria and Germany (in addition to the US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Morgenthau). These diplomats maintained repeatedly that dispatching the victimized Armenian populations to such desert hinterlands sealed their fate—death and ruination. [38]. Moreover, the hundreds of thousands of deportees were not merely transferred from war zones, as claimed, but from all parts of the Ottoman Empire. Dadrian further observes,
As official documents unmistakably reveal (and American Ambassador Morgenthau confirms) only the rapid deterioration of Turkeys military situation and the resulting time constraints prevented the authorities from carrying out the projected comprehensive deportation and liquidation of the rest of the Armenian population. In the case of Istanbul, for example, then the capital of the Empire, by November 1915 already 30,000 Armenians had been surreptitiously, and by a system of quotas, removed, according to a confidential report to Berlin by German Ambassador Metternich. As to Smyrna, only forceful intervention of German General Liman Von Sanders, the regional military commander, stopped the completion of the deportation of that major mercantile harbor city's Armenian population. That intervention was triggered by the dispatch of Smyrna's first Armenian deportee convoy as ordered by the province's Turkish governor—general Rahmi. This intervention proved a mere respite, however, as in 1922 the insurgent Kemalists destroyed Smyrna in a holocaust that consumed large segments of the surviving Armenian population, as well. (emphasis added) [39]
Were the mass killings of the Armenians merely an unintended epiphenomenon of a 'civil war', characterized by one apologist [40] as '...a struggle between two nations for a single homeland'? Dadrian ridicules this argument by first highlighting the essential attributes of a bona fide civil war: the collapse of central government authority, creating a power vacuum filled by armed, antagonistic factions engaged in violent and sustained clashes. [41] This basic paradigm simply did not apply to wartime Turkey, whose Ottoman state organization,
...was not only fully functional but on account of its armed forces were able to wage for four years a multi—front gigantic war against such formidable enemies as England, France and Tsarist Russia. The wartime emergency measures, martial law and the temporary suspension of parliament were conditions which helped invest the executive branch of the Ottoman government with enormous and concentrated power, power that was more than enough to exercise dictatorship. Moreover, most able—bodied Armenian males were conscripted into the Ottoman Army long before Turkey intervened in the war. What was left of the Armenian population consisted by and large of terror stricken women, children and old me desperately trying to stay alive in an environment filled with the memories of past massacres, a consuming apprehension regarding new and impending disasters and burdened with all sorts of war—related hardships. [42]
The 'civil war argument' also hinges on the assertion that four specific Armenian uprisings—Shabin Karahisar (June 6—July 4, 1915), Musa Dagh (July 30—September 1915), Urfa (September 29—October 23, 1915) and in particular Van (April 20—May 17, 1915)—comprise a major, organized 'Armenian rebellion'. Reports by consuls of Turkeys wartime allies—Austria and Germany, debunk this argument. The Austrian Military Plenipotentiary to Turkey during World War I, in his memoirs [43], characterized the Van uprising as '...an act of desperation' by Armenians who '...recognized that [a] general butchery had begun in the environs of Van and that they would be the next [victims]'. Germany's consul in Aleppo, Walter Rossler, described the Urfa uprising in similar terms. Imbued with the recent memory of the brutal 1895 massacre, and the unfolding spectacle of mas murder in their vicinity during the summer of 1915, the Urfa Armenians made a hasty, last ditch effort to defend themselves. [44] German Ambassador Paul Count von Wolff—Metternich filed a 72—page report to his government in Berlin addressing all four of these uprisings. Metternich maintained that each of these uprisings was a defensive act attempting merely to ward off imminent deportation, and he stated bluntly '...there was neither a concerted general uprising, nor was there a fully valid proof that such a synchronized uprising was organized or planned.' [45] As Dadrian observes,
How could desperate groupings of people trying to stay alive by defending themselves be described as'rebels'supposedly bent on undermining a mighty state system intent on destroying them?...without exception these uprisings were improvised last—ditch attempts to ward off imminent deportation and destruction. Without exception they were all local, very limited, and above all, highly defensive initiatives; as such they were ultimately doomed to failure. The temporary success of the Van uprising was entirely due to a very fortuitous circumstance: the timely arrival of the advance units of the Russian Caucasus army. A delay of one or two days in this movement might well sealed the fate of the defenders. [46]
Dadrian concedes that regardless of their justification (underscored in wartime German, Austrian, and US consular reports of the sustained historical record of Armenian oppression and episodic massacre by the Turks),
Individual Armenians and even some small groups of Armenians in very isolated cases resorted to espionage, sabotage, and other anti—Turkish hostile acts...[and]...several thousands of Armenians from all over the world, including several hundred former Ottoman subjects, rushed to the Caucasus to enroll in the ranks of the Russian Caucasus army to fight against the Turks; the majority of them were, however, Russian subjects. [47]
In his concluding remarks on the civil war apologetic, Dadrian poses, and then addresses this 'ultimate question':
...does the ensemble of these facts warrant a decision to deport and wantonly destroy an entire population? The answer should be no for a variety of reasons but in one particular respect that answer is cast into special relief. The reference is to a host of other ethnic and nationality groups and individuals who likewise indulged in such anti—Turkish hostile acts during the war, including sabotage, espionage and volunteering for service in the armed forces of Turkey's enemies. Foremost among these were the Kurds, who like the Armenians, were engaged in pro— as well as anti—Turkish activities. On the eastern front several of the spies caught by the Turks were themselves Turks; so were a number of Greeks operating in the west of Turkey. Nor can one exempt the Jews who provided two distinct volunteer corps fighting the Turks at two different fronts, the Dardanelles (in 1915) and Palestine (in 1918). Moreover, one fo the largest wartime espionage networks, the NILI in Yaffa, Palestine, which was caught by the Turks, was run by a small Jewish group. An yet, a relatively mild, if not insignificant and inconsequential treatment was accorded to them by the Turkish authorities. These authorities at that time did not think it prudent to extend their operations of ethnic cleansing to these nationalities and minority groups and thereby compound the already existing problems arising from the ongoing mass murder of the Armenians. [48]
Lastly, Dadrian dismisses as 'blatant sophistry' the non—sequitur Turkish claim of 2.5 million victims in the 1914—1922 period because it includes (and conflates)
... disparate categories of events such as losses in World War I, losses in the post—Turkish campaign for independence, as well as losses due to epidemics, malnutrition and succumbing to the rigors of the elements... What is fundamental in all these losses is that overwhelmingly they are the byproducts and the results of warfare with Turkey's external enemies. These warfare losses are cryptically blended, juxtaposed and composed with the number of victims of an organized mass murder. Indeed, the two categories are collapsed whereby victim and victimizer groups are subsumed under a single, undifferentiated category, having been leveled almost beyond differentiation, and no longer discernible as separate, if not antithetical, categories. [49]
Conclusion
The Ottoman Turkish destruction of the Armenian people, beginning in the late 19th and intensifying in the early 20th century, was a genocide, and jihad ideology contributed significantly to this decades long human liquidation process. These facts are now beyond dispute. Milan Kundera, the Czech author, has written that man's struggle against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. [50] In The Banality of Indifference, Yair Auron [51] reminds us of the importance of this struggle:
Recognition of the Armenian genocide on the part of the entire international community, including Turkey (or perhaps first and foremost Turkey), is therefore a demand of the first order. Understanding and remembering the tragic past is an essential condition, even if not sufficient in and of itself, to preventing the repetition of such acts in the future....
Yet ninety years after the events of April 24, 1915, the Turkish government persists in its denials of the Armenian genocide, abetted by a well—endowed network of unsavory political and pseudo—academic sycophants operating with the imprimatur of morphing geostrategic rationales—formerly, 'Turkey as a bulwark against Communism', and now, 'Turkey as a bulwark against radical Islam'. This leeway afforded Turkey is both illogical and morally indefensible. West Germany was arguably a much more direct and important ally against the Soviet Communist bloc, while each successive post—World War II West German administration, from Adenauer through Kohl, made Holocaust denial a punishable crime. Moreover, there is burgeoning evidence, available almost daily, that both Turkey's government under the Muslim ideologue Erdogan (see here as well) and large swaths of the Turkish media and intelligentsia (see, 'Turkish Media Project') hardly qualify as 'bulwarks against radical Islam'. Indeed, Turkey's contemporary Islamic'revival' is of particular relevance to the tragic events that transpired between 1894 and the end of World War I, because the Armenian genocide was in large measure a jihad genocide. But most importantly, there is a compelling moral imperative which transcends the flimsy geopolitical considerations used to rationalize and sustain Turkey's ongoing campaign of genocide denial. Professor Deborah Lipstadt, the renowned Holocaust scholar, and author of Denying the Holocaust, and History on Trial (which recounts her crushing defeat of Nazi—sympathizer David Irving's 'libel' suit), in conjunction with twelve other leading genocide scholars, elucidated the corrosive immorality of genocide denial in this 1996 statement:
Denial of genocide—whether that of the Turks against the Armenians or the Nazis against the Jews—is not an act of historical reinterpretation. Rather, it sows confusion by appearing to be engaged in a genuine scholarly effort. Those who deny genocide always dismiss the abundance of documents and testimony as contrived or coerced, or as forgeries and falsehoods. Free speech does not guarantee the deniers the right to be treated as the 'other' side of a legitimate debate when there is no credible 'other side'; nor does it guarantee the deniers space in the classroom or curriculum, or in any other forum. Genocide denial is an insidious form of intellectual and moral degradation... [52]
Dr. Bostom is an Associate Professor of Medicine and author of the forthcoming, The Legacy of Jihad on Prometheus Books
Notes
[1] Balakian, Reverend K., Hai Koghkotan. Trouakner Hai Mardirosakroutiunen. Berlinen Tebee Zor 1914—1920 (The Armenian Golgotha. Episodes from the Armenian Martyrilogy. From Berlin to Zor 1914—1920), vol. 1. Vienna, 1922.
[2] Dadrian, V. 'The Quest for Scholarship in My Pathos for the Armenian Tragedy and its Victims', in Pioneers of Genocide Studies, S. Totten and S. Jacobs, editors, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2002, pp. 239—240.
[3] Dadrian, V. 'The Signal Facts Surrounding the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish Denial Syndrome', Journal of Genocide Research, 2003, Vol. 5, p. 273.
[4] Germany Foreign Ministry Archives Turkei 183/38, A23991, or R14087, K. no. 81/B.1645; Germany Foreign Ministry Archives Botschaft Konstantinopel 170, J. no. 3841,'secret' report of 23 August 1914; Joseph Pomiankowski, Der Zusammenbruch des Ottomanischen Reiches, Graz, Austria: Akademischer Druck— u. Verlag, 1969, p. 160.; and Henry Morgenthau, Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1918, pp. 302—304. Morgenthau's 10 July report is in US National Archives, RG59, 867.4016/74; all cited in Dadrian, V. 'The Armenian Genocide: An Interpretation', in Winter, J., editor, America and the Armenian Genocide of 1914, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, p.63, footnotes 18—21.
[5] Uras E., The Armenians and the Armenian Question in History, 2nd ed., (Istanbul, 1976), p.612
[6] Akcam T., Turkish National Identity and the Armenian Question, (Istanbul, 1992), p. 109.
[7] Hovanissian R., Armenia on the Road to Independence, (Berkeley, CA, 1967), p. 51.
[8] Dadrian V., 'The Armenian Question and the Wartime Fate of the Armenians as Documented by the Officials of the Ottoman Empire's World War I Allies: Germany and Austria—Hungary', International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, (2002), Vol. 32, Pp. 59—85.
[9] Dadrian V., 'The Armenian Question and the Wartime Fate of the Armenians', p.60.
[10] Dadrian V., 'The Armenian Question and the Wartime Fate of the Armenians', p.76
[11] Dadrian V., 'The Armenian Question and the Wartime Fate of the Armenians', p.76, with specific primary source documentation, p.84 n.109.
[12] Dadrian V., 'The Armenian Question and the Wartime Fate of the Armenians', p.76, with specific primary source documentation, p.84 n.109.
[13] Dadrian V., 'The Armenian Question and the Wartime Fate of the Armenians', p.77, with specific primary source documentation, Pp.84—85 n.111.
[14] Dadrian V., 'The Armenian Question and the Wartime Fate of the Armenians', p.77.
[15] Davison R., "Turkish Attitudes Concerning Christian—Muslim Equality in the Nineteenth Century", The American Historical Review (1954), Vol. 54, Pp. 844—864.
[16] Bat Ye'or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam, (Cranbury, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996) 522 Pp.
[17] Dadrian V., Warrant for Genocide: Key Elements of Turko—Armenian Conflict, (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1999), p. 39.
[18] Dadrian V., 'The Armenian Question and the Wartime Fate of the Armenians', p.61, with specific primary source documentation p.79, n.11
[19] Dadrian V., 'The Armenian Question and the Wartime Fate of the Armenians', p.61, with specific primary source documentation p.79, n.11
[20] Davison R., "Turkish Attitudes Concerning Christian—Muslim Equality in the Nineteenth Century", p.855.
[21] Bat Ye'or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam, Reports by British Diplomats [1850—1876], Pp. 395—433.
[22] Dadrian V., 'The Armenian Question and the Wartime Fate of the Armenians', Pp.61—62, with specific primary source documentation, p.79 n.14.
[23] Dadrian V., 'The Armenian Question and the Wartime Fate of the Armenians', Pp.61—62, with specific primary source documentation, p.79 n.15.
[24] Davison R, "The Armenian Crisis, 1912—1914", The American Historical Review, (1948) Vol. 53, Pp. 482—483.
[25] Servier, A. Islam and the Psychology of the Musulman, translated by A. S. Moss—Blundell, London, 1924, pp. 241—42.
[26] Dadrian V., The History of the Armenian Genocide, (Providence, RI: Bergahn Books, 1997), Pp. 155, 182, 225, 233 n.44; Auron Y., The Banality of Indifference, (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2000), p. 44.
[27] Dadrian V., The History of the Armenian Genocide, Pp. 113—184.
[28] Dadrian V., The History of the Armenian Genocide, p. 147, with primary source documentation p. 168 n.199.
[29] Bat Ye'or, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam, (Cranbury, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1985) Pp. 48,67, 101.
[30] Lord Kinross, The Ottoman Centuries—The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire, New York: Morrow Quill Paperbacks, 1979, pp. 559—560.
[31] U.S. State Department document 867.4016/57, March 10, 1915.
[32] Gabrielan M.C., Armenia: A Martyr Nation, (New York, Chicago: Fleming H. Revell, Co., 1918), p. 269.
[33] Bat Ye'or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam, p. 197.
[34] Dadrian, V. The Key Elements in the Turkish Denial of the Armenian Genocide: A Case Study of Distortion and Falsification, The Zoryan Institute, Cambridge, MA, 1999, pp. 18—19.
[35] Dadrian, V., 'The Signal Facts Surrounding the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish Denial Syndrome', pp. 274—275.
[36] Dadrian, V., 'The Signal Facts Surrounding the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish Denial Syndrome', p. 275.
[37] Orgeneral Ali Fuad Erden, Birinci Dunya Harbinde Suriye Hantiralari [Syrian Memoirs of World War I], Vol. 1 p. 122; cited in, Dadrian, V., 'The Signal Facts Surrounding the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish Denial Syndrome', p. 275.
[38] Dadrian, V., 'The Signal Facts Surrounding the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish Denial Syndrome', p. 275.
[39] Dadrian, V., 'The Signal Facts Surrounding the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish Denial Syndrome', p. 275.
[40] Lewis, B., The Emergence of Modern Turkey, London: Oxford University Press, 1961, p. 350.
[41] Dadrian, V., 'The Signal Facts Surrounding the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish Denial Syndrome', p. 275.
[42] Dadrian, V., 'The Signal Facts Surrounding the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish Denial Syndrome', pp. 275—276.
[43] Pomiankowski, J., Der Zusammenbruch des Ottomanischen Reiches, p. 160.; cited in Dadrian, V., 'The Signal Facts Surrounding the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish Denial Syndrome', p. 276.
[44] Germany Foreign Ministry Archives Turkei 183/40, A35040, Rossler's November 8, 1915 report; cited in Dadrian, V., 'The Signal Facts Surrounding the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish Denial Syndrome', p. 276.
[45] Germany Foreign Ministry Archives Turkei 183/40, A25749, September 18, 1916 report, p. 14; cited in Dadrian, V., 'The Signal Facts Surrounding the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish Denial Syndrome', p. 276.
[46] Dadrian, V., 'The Signal Facts Surrounding the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish Denial Syndrome', p. 276.
[47] Dadrian, V., 'The Signal Facts Surrounding the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish Denial Syndrome', p. 277.
[48] Dadrian, V., 'The Signal Facts Surrounding the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish Denial Syndrome', p. 277.
[49] Dadrian, |
leave knowing that Motorola is in great hands - now and in the future," he said, adding he has "no doubt" that Lenovo and Motorola will be a "force for good" in the mobile industry.
UPDATE 2: Dropbox founder and CEO Drew Houston has confirmed Woodside's hiring: “We’ve long admired Dennis’s leadership at Google and Motorola where he ran multi-billion dollar businesses and built amazing organizations around the world. We’re so happy to welcome Dennis to our team — I can’t imagine a better person to help us bring Dropbox to global scale.”SunEdison, an international solar power provider, recently announced it has activated the first two of 15 planned solar rooftop systems in Ontario, Canada, that take advantage of the province’s controversial feed-in tariff program.
According to SunEdison, first two systems will generate more than 3.2 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of clean energy over a 20-year period. In total, the 15 projects represent over 2.3 megawatts (MW) of capacity, and have the potential to offset an estimated 9.8 million kilograms of CO2 sent into the atmosphere. That’s the equivalent of removing 5,515 cars from the road for one year. The systems are planned for commercial structures owned by GE Capital Real Estate in cities and towns in the greater Toronto area, including Vaughan, Brampton, Burlington, Markham and Mississauga, with additional systems located in London.
These projects are not without controversy. Both fall under Ontario’s lightning-rod feed-in tariff (FIT) program. Under the program, which began in 2009, participants are paid a fixed-price for the electricity they generate over a 20-year contract period.
The FIT program has become an issue in the upcoming Ontario general election. The Progressive Conservative Party is against the FIT program saying that it costs taxpayers too much money. They have promised to cancel a pending deal with Samsung if victorious. If the New Democratic party wins the election, they say they will stop offering new FIT contracts with a capacity of more than 30 MW to private, for profit companies. Instead, they say that these large FIT projects would be operated by the province of Ontario. In addition to the domestic controversy, the Ontario FIT has been called protectionist by some countries.What looks like a tiny mechanical ostrich chasing after a car is actually a significant leap forward for robot-kind.
The clever and simple two-legged robot, known as the Planar Elliptical Runner, was developed at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola, Florida, to explore how mechanical design can be used to enable sophisticated legged locomotion. A video produced by the researchers shows the robot being tested in a number of situations, including on a treadmill and running behind and alongside a car with a helping hand from an engineer.
In contrast to many other legged robots, this one doesn’t use sensors and a computer to help balance itself. Instead, its mechanical design provides dynamic stability as it runs. “All the intelligence is in the physical design of the robot itself,” says Jerry Pratt, a senior research scientist at IHMC who leads the team that developed the robot. Pratt's group at IHMC is working on a range of different robots.
The design might feed into future systems. “We believe that the lessons learned from this robot can be applied to more practical running robots to make them more efficient and natural looking,” Pratt adds. “Running will be eventually useful for any application that you want to do quickly and where wheels can't work well.”
Pratt previously led a team that participated in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, a contest that saw robots try to perform a series of tasks in an environment designed to simulate a nuclear disaster. The challenge showcased some spectacular technology, but numerous mishaps and falls also highlighted the difficulties robots face dealing with unfamiliar, real-world situations. Many of the robots involved in that challenge used two legs, but some were unable to walk over sand or uneven ground (see “Why Robots and Humans Struggled with DARPA’s Challenge”).
The Planar Elliptical Runner has a single motor that drives the legs, and the elliptical motion of its legs together with its body shape provide inherent stability. The robot runs at 10 miles per hour, but if it were the size of a human it would travel at 20 to 30 miles an hour, the researchers say.
There is a small but growing interest in finding commercial uses for legged robots.
Boston Dynamics, a prominent robot maker owned by Alphabet, has shown two- and four-legged systems carrying boxes around warehouses and delivering packages outdoors. A company spun out of the University of Oregon by Jonathan Hurst, a professor of mechanical engineering, has developed another ostrich-inspired system called Cassie. Researchers at the University of Michigan led by Jessie Grizzle, a professor there, are developing advanced algorithms that allow for more efficient and graceful dynamic locomotion. Machines that balance themselves dynamically can traverse difficult terrain, but they are complex, expensive, and power-hungry.
“Robots with legs will be particularly useful in places where you want a human presence, but it's too dangerous, expensive, or remote to send a real human,” Pratt says. “Examples include nuclear power plant decommissioning and planetary exploration. These are very small, niche, markets, though.”Medieval Europe lent itself to odd rules, especially when it came to those which governed the title and transfer of land. Dukes and lords would treat tracts of land, small and huge alike, as currency, trading them for produce, textiles, and in some cases, peace from other warring factions. Sometimes, the results are complicated. Other times, they can be downright comical.
The perfect example? Welcome to Baarle-Hertog, Belgium.
Located on the border of Belgium and the Netherlands, the main part of the municipality, called Zondereigen, is tucked neatly within the well-known and obvious borders of the nation. But travel about five miles northeast into the Netherlands and you’ll re-enter Baarle-Hertog, and, by extension, Belgium. And then you’ll leave it again, and re-enter, and leave it again, and re-enter, and…
Well, let’s just look at the map. All the yellow areas, below, are in Belgium; the rest is the Netherlands.
The detached part of Baarle-Hertog is actually scattered pieces intertwined with a Netherlands municipality called Baarle-Nassau. In total, there are about two dozen pieces of Baarle-Hertog, with the largest (excluding Zondereigen) containing six distinct areas of Baarle-Nassau within its limits. The divisions are so minute that some, like the one pictured here, appear no larger than a Little League baseball field.
Some houses and business are divided between the two nations, which has lead to a bunch of oddities, such as residential buildings split in half (for example, seen here) and retail establishments with beer straddling the line between the two nations. Buildings pay taxes based on where their front doors are located, which has resulted in shops moving their doors as a tax dodge of sorts. At one point, Dutch laws required that restaurants close by a certain hour, so divided eateries would move patrons to the Belgian side of the shop to continue their meals. But all of these pale in comparison to the ridiculous scheme allegedly perpetrated by a bank in 1971.
According to Futility Closet, the bank in question was involved in laundering money, but was shielded from authorities due to the Baarle’s quirky geography. The entrance to the bank was in the Netherlands, which meant that only Dutch officials had legal authority to enter. But the bank’s safe was in Belgium — outside of the jurisdiction of the Dutch. The two nations ended up collaborating on a joint investigation to finally obtain the necessary evidence to defeat the crooked bank.
Bonus fact : The northernmost part of the contiguous 48 United States is the Northwest Angle, in Minnesota. But it is not truly contiguous with the rest of the main part of the nation; as seen in this map, to get there by land, one has to enter into Manitoba, Canada.
From the Archives: The Geopolitical Babushka Doll: A country inside a country inside a country.
Related: Choose your own coffee mug: Belgian or Dutch.TORONTO — The day after David Price dominated the Rangers back in early July, Christian Vazquez sat at his locker and broke down the pitcher's success in simple terms.
"He was elevating his fastball and changing eye levels," Vazquez said. "That’s the key right now in baseball. Everybody's pitching up. Nobody's expecting that high fastball, so they're swinging."
One of baseball's dominant trends over the last few years has been the evolution of hitters' swing paths and plate approaches. More and more hitters have sold out for home runs and become more adept at hitting for power down in the strike zone; Toronto's Josh Donaldson and Washington's Daniel Murphy have turned improved launch angles on their swings into consistent MVP consideration.
As hitters have evolved, pitchers have had to revise their repertoires. And one major key has been the high fastball.
"Across baseball, there's an obvious shifting mentality," assistant pitching coach Brian Bannister said. "Most teams are willing to make sacrifices here and there. They're willing to play for the home run, and to get that more often, it requires bigger swings that are designed to produce elevation on the ball."
Few teams have made that readjustment as aggressively as the Red Sox. Boston throws the third-most four-seam fastballs in baseball. According to Fangraphs, the Sox get more value out of their fastballs than any other team.
"We talk about it a lot. I feel like we talk about it more than others," pitching coach Carl Willis said. "For years and years, it was always, 'Get the ball down.' The teachings of swing paths now has gotten a little different, and hitters adjust."
"You're just always trying to be one step ahead and have a game plan for what they're trying to do to you," Bannister said. "If they're not aware of something up, then they can just keep that swing that’s tailored toward a low pitch going throughout the entire at-bat. If they never have to feel like they have to cheat with their hands, they get really comfortable.
"With how strong guys are and how well-equipped they are with the data and the launch angles, you're just giving them three chances to hit a home run off you."
Just take one look at the composition of Boston's bullpen. In the past, the Sox had constructed a pen full of strike-throwers who worked down in the zone. Koji Uehara, Junichi Tazawa and Edward Mujica complemented well-located fastballs with splitters that darted under a swing. Burke Badenhop was an old-fashioned relief sinker-baller.
Currently, Red Sox relievers are almost all hard-throwing four-seam guys up in the zone. Craig Kimbrel plays his curveball off his fastball up, much like Drew Pomeranz in the rotation. Joe Kelly switched out his two-seamer for a four-seamer when he made the move to the pen.
"Pitchers have had to readjust their concept of what hitters are trying to do against them," Bannister said.
***
Rick Porcello didn't get it at first. In his first few years in the majors, Porcello's concentration was on precisely locating his two-seam sinker down in the strike zone. What need did he have for a four-seam fastball above the zone?
"We'd call it, and it would just be something that I didn't understand the effect it would have on a hitter," Porcello said of a high fastball. "So I didn't have confidence in it, I didn't trust it, and I didn't really use it all that much."
But as Porcello matured, and as he spent more time talking to veteran hitters in both Detroit and Boston, he began to realize the limits of his previous approach — limits exacerbated by the changes hitters were making to their approach around that time.
"That’s the part of the game as a pitcher that you don't necessarily understand at times — what they're seeing in the box and how it impacts even setting up the next pitch. It's kind of learning what can screw those guys up, and then going out and applying it with confidence and being able to throw it effectively and repeatedly."
"You have to get hitters to back off somehow," Bannister said of going up in the zone. "Having multiple weapons and multiple places you can go in the strike zone to get a ground ball or get a swing-and-miss is huge nowadays."
Recognizing the significance of throwing a high fastball was just the first step for Porcello. Being able to actually do it required a whole lot of work — accounting for many of the growing pains he experienced in 2015 with the Red Sox.
"It took time to learn how to throw that pitch," Porcello said, noting that he now feels physically stronger than he did earlier in his career. "An elevated fastball at 88 to 90 is not going to get it done. But at 93, coming off an 88 sinker at the bottom of the zone, that’s a big difference. That’s separation of eye levels and velocities, and it acts as two different pitches."
Porcello excelled in 2016 when those fastballs remained discrete pitches. The high fastball was especially effective for him because of the way it complemented his arsenal.
"A hitter's approach against a sinkerballer is to get him up," he said. "So anything that you throw elevated in the zone, they're going to fire at it. A fastball up, out of the hand, it looks like something they want to fire at. Next thing you know, it's above the barrel.
"It's not rocket science."
Porcello also altered his curveball heading into last season, slowing it down and increasing the vertical break to add depth that would play off a high fastball more effectively. He went from a 4.92 ERA to the Cy Young.
Few pitches work with that high fastball better than a depth curveball.
"It makes their offspeed that much more effective being able to [throw a high fastball]," said Jackie Bradley, Jr. "What makes the pitches that are elevated a lot tougher to hit is just because, in the back of a hitter's head, he might throw me something soft. So I want to give myself more time, which ends up making you late on the fastball."
"Nowadays, they're swinging at [high fastballs] more than ever," Drew Pomeranz said. "Definitely the curveball helps. When I started throwing more curveballs, they started playing off of each other more. That’s the name of the game these days."
It can be more difficult for hitters to adjust to changes up and down the strike zone than inside and outside.
"Obviously working east and west is important," said Willis, "but guys who can throw a depth breaking ball, it really creates a lot of deception with that fastball up in the zone. It makes it challenging for the hitter to determine where that ball is going to be."
"Once hitters get about 80 to 100 at-bats, I think they have a clearer understanding of where the strike zone ends east and west," manager John Farrell said. "But when you throw a pitch up at the eyes of a hitter, there's an urge to address it."
Porcello's inconsistency this season can be attributed at times to his inability to maintain his two fastballs as discrete pitches. When his sinker elevates or his four-seamer isn't consistently on top of the zone, "visually it doesn't have the same effect on a hitter."
"I've gotten into high pitch counts because I haven't had the separation on the fastballs," he said. "If I'm not doing that, it turns into a battle where you're pumping heaters and guys are fouling it off. You're scratching your head.
"It goes back to that separation. It's a fine line that makes all the difference in the results."
Porcello thought for a moment about the way pitching continues to evolve, musing about how en vogue cutters were just a few years ago, before hitters adjusted to them.
"It's the beautiful part about the game," he said. "There's never an exact answer that always works. It's adjusting and changing."William Fiennes contradicts recent claims about the demise of fiction – insisting writers are finding new ways of telling stories
Reports that the literary novel might be dead, or at least in steady decline, are wide of the mark, the judging chairman of the Folio prize has said as he announced a shortlist of eight writers for the award, including Ali Smith and Colm Tóibín.
William Fiennes said on Monday he had been struck by how many novelists were “reaching out for new ways of telling stories” and experimenting with form – evidence surely that the novel was “flourishing with life”.
Five women and three men from the UK, Ireland, US, Canada, Kenya and India were named on the shortlist of a literary prize now in its second year.
The prize was created as a reaction to perceived weaknesses of the Man Booker prize and gathered steam in the aftermath of the much-criticised shortlist of 2011, which contained six books that all, as one judge said, “zipped along”.
The Folio prize aims to recognise the best English-language fiction – regardless of form, genre and geography, and was won in its first year by the American short-story writer George Saunders.
All eight books this year can safely be described as novels, with Smith’s How to Be Both becoming a book award regular. It was runner-up in the Booker prize and won the Costa novel award and the Goldsmiths prize.
It will compete with Tóibín’s Nora Webster, set in 1960s Ireland; Ben Lerner’s 10:04; Miriam Toews’ All My Puny Sorrows; Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor’s debut novel Dust; Akhil Sharma’s Family Life; Rachel Cusk’s Outline; and Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation.
These books all say something true about human experience in a way that feels like something new William Fiennes
The judges read 80 books over five months and Fiennes admitted expecting to find themes of content – war in the Middle East, perhaps, or the aftermath of the financial crash – but instead he found trends in form, with novels seeking “new ways of telling stories”.
The novels all have universal themes, he said, exploring big subjects such as war, grief, family life, love and the mystery of art.
“It is easy to say something new, it is easy to say something true. These books all say something true about human experience in a way that feels like something new,” he said.
“There’s dazzle and wildness and experiment hand in hand with a deep core commitment to human struggles and fervours and longings.”
They were “intellectually heavyweight books without being heavy”, he added. “These books are a delight to read but they are really intellectually engaging and challenging.”
Unusually, the Folio prize has decided to be transparent and name all the books it considers, which means we know that big names such as Martin Amis, Sarah Waters, Peter Carey and Booker-winner Richard Flanagan all failed to make the shortlist. As did Will Self, who last year sparked debate about the state of the novel when he gave a lecture in which he lamented that difficult literary fiction was an art form dying before our eyes.
The shortlist will be particularly pleasing for the publishers Faber and Granta, both of which have three writers represented.
Fiennes said it was a diverse list, but not deliberately so, chosen after seven hours of judging sessions that included the writers AM Homes and Mohsin Hamid skyping from New York and Lahore respectively. The other judges are Rachel Cooke and Deborah Levy.
All eight books are now in contention for the £40,000 prize to be awarded in central London on 23 March.Grosjean joined Haas for its debut season last year and it was widely accepted that one of his goals in racing for the American team was to try to secure a seat at Ferrari, which powers Haas' cars.
However, team owner Haas says the Frenchman is to stay with the squad for a third consecutive season and hopes to benefit from the continuity.
"We will run with the same drivers that we have this year again next year. That is a given," Haas told the official F1 website.
"And given the other continuity aspects, we should be better racers next season."
Magnussen joined Haas from Renault this year, replacing Esteban Gutierrez in the team's line-up after the Mexican failed to score a point in 2016.
Haas believes the decision to replace Gutierrez has paid off for the team, with Magnussen having scored 11 points to Grosjean 18 so far.
"Esteban was a good driver. He was as fast as Romain [Grosjean] in practice, but I think that Kevin has an edge in terms of race experience," Haas said.
"He can score points and that was the key for bringing him on board. Kevin can grab points and Romain can too.
"We now have 29 points. Last year around this time we also had 29 points, but did not score for the rest of the season. So now if we can score another 29 points by Abu Dhabi, that would be a great position."Eight years ago, when I moved to London to run this newspaper's European bureau, I found my domestic life unfolding in the epicentre of a cultural upheaval – some were already calling it a civilizational clash – that would dominate the politics of Europe, and then of North America, for years to come.
By that point, my North London neighbourhood had changed. The sidewalks of its haphazard shopping street, Holloway Road, were peppered with women in hijab (and occasionally full niqab) and men in beards and shalwar kameez. Pubs and fish-and-chips shops had been displaced by Turkish kebab houses, money-transfer joints and Internet cafes with opaque Arabic signs.
This had been an immigrant neighbourhood for 140 years, but these latest immigrants attracted more attention. It sometimes seemed as if Islam were everywhere. Our after-school babysitter, a French girl from an Alpine village who had been partial to all-night raves, abruptly converted to the faith of her Algerian friends and took to covering her head and praying five times a day. It made her no less attentive to our children, but more sombre and less willing to eat our food.
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Even as my children befriended the Usamas and Leilas in their primary-school classes and the parents of those children became our doctors and shopkeepers, the neighbourhood showed a more ominous face. Our local Muslim house of worship, the Finsbury Park Mosque, was raided by hundreds of police just before my arrival. Its imam – a one-eyed, hook-handed Egyptian-born former mujahedeen fighter who called himself Abu Hamza and was known in the tabloids as "hooky mullah" – was arrested on 16 charges of incitement of murder, terrorism and race hatred after harbouring al-Qaeda activists and delivering sermons calling for the murder of non-Muslims in Islamic lands.
And then, less than a year later, suicide bombs tore through the public-transit system, blowing both legs off one of my neighbours. The attacks were committed by British-born Muslims from Leeds who didn't appear all that different from some of the guys we saw on Holloway Road.
Given those experiences, who wouldn't look askance at the new neighbours? The appearance of visibly different immigrants from a minority religion, who tended to be poor and prone to conservative beliefs, was enough of a shock – that their influx coincided with the rise of an extremist political movement obsessed with Western presence in the "land of Islam" and bent on violence made it seem more than just shocking.
For a while, I myself would cast a sidelong glance at the bearded guy on the bus and think, "Could he be one?" I'd look at the packs of children accompanying the covered women and wonder if our values – especially of gender and sexual equality – would someday become a minority creed. For all of us, it was hard not to quietly ask: Were these pockets of violence and radicalism an inevitable extension of these immigrants' everyday beliefs? Were they all potential extremists, commanded by their religion to resist cooperation and integration? Was it always going to be like this?
A surging 'Muslim tide'
It was around that time that a new "Muslim tide" argument appeared on blogs, YouTube videos, in newspaper columns and bestselling books, offering an easy "yes" to these questions.
Yes, it said, these immigrants are different from earlier groups. They are driven by their religion, not by the laws and social codes of their new homes. They are reproducing at an unusually rapid pace, with fertility rates far higher than those of exhausted Western populations, and are poised to become a majority. And, yes, that is a danger because they are loyal not to their host society but to Islam, which, as these writers and activists see it, is not so much a faith as an ideology of conquest.
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These claims began with obscure blog posts and work by hardcore anti-Muslim activists, but around 2005 they spread to popular books by authors such as Bruce Bawer, Christopher Caldwell and Thilo Sarrazin. Eventually, they also erupted into national politics in a dozen countries.
They turned single-issue politicians, such as the Dutch anti-Muslim firebrand Geert Wilders, into powerful figures. They became a motif in Quebec politics: "Muslim tide" rhetoric lay behind Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois's push to ban Muslim garb, as it did behind Saguenay mayor Jean Tremblay's declaration that PQ candidate Djemila Benhabib was trying to "dictate how we behave" and impose her non-Christian "rules" on his province.
The "Muslim tide" was a dominant trope in the U.S. Republican Party's leadership race, with at least four major candidates parroting Newt Gingrich's line about a secret plot among ordinary Muslims to impose "stealth sharia" on America. This summer, a circle of Congressmen made claims, on no credible evidence, that the most prominent Muslim officials in the U.S. government are somehow tied to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
Perhaps not coincidentally, violent attacks on mosques have increased sharply. And this week, a guilty verdict was handed down to Anders Behring Breivik, who produced the Muslim-tide ideology's first terrorist atrocity. When he killed 77 people in a truck bombing and shooting spree in Oslo last summer, he left behind a 1,518-page manifesto that explained his act: Most of it was a pastiche of passages by activists such as Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Gisele Littman and Canadian Mark Steyn – none of whom has ever explicitly advocated violence, but whose visions of a civilizational invasion became his justification for mass killing.
His manifesto also included the words used in his legal defence: "The individuals I have been accused of illegally executing are all … supporters of the anti-European hate ideology known as multiculturalism, an ideology that facilitates Islamisation and Islamic demographic warfare … I must be must be allowed to prove that I executed these traitors in order to prevent them from continuing to contribute to the ongoing process of cultural and demographical genocide and extermination."
The millions of otherwise moderate and reasonable people who have bought, and sometimes enjoyed, books by the same authors who inspired Mr. Breivik probably don't believe their more ornate notions of a Muslim-immigrant plot to take over the West. Rather, they are seeking a narrative to explain the simultaneous appearance of Muslim immigrants and Islamic political violence in the headlines.
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The Catholic scare
The unease I felt on the sidewalks and buses of our London neighbourhood was not a novel sensation.
If I had lived there a dozen decades earlier, I would have watched the streets fill with suspicious-looking men and women wearing identity-concealing head scarves. Their families were widely believed to belong to an alien civilization. They segregated themselves from the native-born population, were guided by a deeply conservative religion that seemed at odds with modern values, and had the world's highest reproduction rate. And they were using my neighbourhood to plot a wave of terrorist attacks that killed more Londoners and caused more political alarm than the jihadist attacks of the new millennium.
Today, the Irish Catholics I'm describing are simply part of the neighbourhood's mix, their pubs and churches an integral part of London's culture. But for seven decades, Roman Catholics and East European Jews were widely regarded as disloyal, impossible-to-integrate members of an outside civilization. And not just in Britain: If you lived in Canada or the United States in 1950, you would have been aware of a certain type of immigrant seemingly determined to impose their values on their new home – guided by a religion that was not so much a faith as an ideology of conquest.
One of the bestselling books of the period, American Freedom and Catholic Power by Paul Blanshard, argued that Catholic culture is "a survival of mediaeval authoritarianism that has no rightful place in the democratic American environment." The book was endorsed by Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein, and had great influence in Congress and academia.
In Canada, Italians, along with most other southern European Catholics, were classed as "non-preferred." One government memo of the time said of the Italian Catholic worker: "even his civilization seems so different that I doubt if he could even become an asset to our country." Outside of Quebec, it was quite normal to describe Catholic immigrants as an unwelcome and dangerous addition – and their "civilization" probably appeared (and in some ways was) more alien to Anglo-Americans than that of most urban Muslims today.
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These statements sound like grotesque religious prejudice today, but to many they seemed well-justified at the time. After all, most Catholic countries had fallen to fascism or religious extremism; Catholic immigrant neighbourhoods were crime-ridden, violent and impoverished; and the worst acts of North American terrorism to that point had been committed by people from Catholic backgrounds. Who wouldn't look askance at their Catholic neighbours?
We have forgotten this history. And we have forgotten that the same things were said about the waves of East European Jewish immigrants before the war. The phrase "Judeo-bolshevism" was that era's equivalent to today's "Islamo-fascism," and was frequently directed against Jewish immigrants.
Part of this was classic anti-Semitism, but from 1880 onwards there was a new anti-Semitism directed at Jews as immigrant outsiders: They wore odd clothes, were poor and generally illiterate, clustered themselves in self-segregated neighbourhoods, were almost all Orthodox and culturally conservative, were associated in the public mind with crime and radicalism, and were reproducing at a great pace. These seemingly commonsense observations about Eastern Jews soon allowed much of the Western public to blandly tolerate the greatest mass murder in history.
If we want to avoid repeating history, we need to recognize its patterns around us.
And then, the facts
One reason why the "Muslim tide" hypothesis has gone unchecked for so long is because we simply didn't know much about the immigrants from Muslim-majority countries in our midst. They were too new: Almost half of Canada's million Muslims, for example, are immigrants, two thirds of whom arrived after 1990.
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But the last three or four years have seen a revolution in our understanding of Muslim populations in the West, with a dozen large-scale studies, surveys and projections providing a detailed picture of this minority group – their activities, beliefs, integration patterns and sources of political extremism and moderation. These studies show that many ideas behind the "Muslim tide" (including some held by Muslims themselves) are myth, not fact.
Behind the "Muslim tide" myth lie three core beliefs. First is the claim that their populations are growing so rapidly that Muslims will become majorities everywhere. Because Muslim immigrants tend to come from poor, rural regions prone to overpopulation, they often arrive with large families and have many children soon after settling in their new country. This has created the perception that they will soon swamp countries with low fertility rates.
But this is a gross misinterpretation of what is happening to Muslim populations. Muslim-majority countries are experiencing the fastest decline in fertility and population growth in the world. Witness Iran, the world's only Islamic theocracy, where mothers had an average of 7 children each in the 1980s; that number has now dropped to 1.7, below the averages in France and Britain (at least 2.1 is required for a country to have population growth). In Turkey, the average has fallen to 2.15 children; in Lebanon, to 1.86; in the United Arab Emirates, 1.9. In Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, the family size is about to slip below two children.
This rapid decline in fertility is even more pronounced among Muslims who migrate to the West. Muslims in Canada have on average 2.4 children per family. That's above Canada's average of 1.7, but it appears that Muslims born in Canada – that is, the children of immigrants – go on to have only about two children each. And by the next generation, they will be close to the Canadian average.
Claims that Europe will be overrun by a "Muslim majority" are based on similar misreadings. The most comprehensive projections of Islamic populations indicate that Europe's Muslim population will reach about 7.1 per cent by 2030, at which point Muslims on the continent will be averaging only 2 children per family. The total Muslim population could peak at around 9 per cent, but better education and citizenship policies would make it lower.
Falling fertility rates are a sign of integration: They entail the use of birth control, the empowerment of women and a broadly secular understanding of the world. And they point to a broader (if not universal or consistent) pattern of integration – dispelling a second core belief of the "Muslim tide," which holds that Muslims are less likely, or interested, in integration than previous groups.
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Indeed, a major 2009 study of Canadian immigrants found that skin colour, not religion, is the determining factor in integration: "If anything," it concluded, "South Asian and Arab and West Asian Muslims report somewhat higher levels of integration than co-ethnics in other religions."
And while Muslims are currently more conservative on issues such as tolerance of homosexuality and the rights of women, their views are vastly more liberal than in their countries of origin – and tend to align with Western views in the second generation. As far as identifying themselves as Muslims first and Canadians (or Americans or Britons) second, they say this about as much as devout Christians do. And they express loyalty to their home country and its secular institutions at the same, sometimes greater, rates as native-born citizens.
This is not entirely a rosy picture. Muslim immigrants in some places – notably Britain – are lagging behind in cultural integration. Like Jewish and Catholic immigrants before them, they are experiencing pockets of isolation and conservatism, and the economic effects of discrimination and lack of fluency. Anti-semitism and obsessions with the Middle East are far too popular among the second generations in many countries.
But what we see is not a vast historic exception, rather a repeat of the pattern followed by earlier religious-minority immigrants.
Eating kebabs in London
That is all well and good, you might say, but what about the suicide bombers? Islamic extremism in the West remains a serious threat, even if it has diminished from its peak a decade ago.
Here, too, we have a new understanding. A number of very large new studies of the views and motives of terrorists and extremists – including an expansive one by the British intelligence agency MI5 – has confirmed what terrorism experts have long believed: That extremism is a political movement, based on territorial ambitions (specifically, a belief in the inviolate "land of Islam") not rooted in the religious beliefs of the wider community.
Over and over, we find that those driven to extremism are not very religious and not very tightly linked to their surrounding immigrant communities; they tend to be middle-class loners, often with criminal histories. The most devout, while culturally conservative, are the least politically extreme.
What does distinguish Islamic extremists in the West is their belief that "Islam" and "The West" are distinct and separate entities that should never meet. This belief in a clash of civilizations, ironically, is the one thing that unites Islamic extremists with the "Muslim tide" authors and politicians. Christopher Caldwell, Thilo Sarrazin and Melanie Phillips all express admiration for the strength and coherence of Islamic "civilization" and despair for what they see as an overly secular West. Mr. Breivik was an outright admirer of Osama Bin Laden. And no wonder: What unites the ideologies of al-Qaeda and of the "Eurabia" and "Muslim tide" writers is a common belief that there is one creature called "the Muslim" and another called "the Westerner."
Yet there is no such distinction. Muslims are adopting the universal values of our society in the same way (not always easy) as other religious minorities.
The shisha bar and the kebab shop are becoming part of Western culture, much like espresso and Yiddish expressions – but there is no threat to our core values.
If we believe that our culture is so weak that it can be threatened by a small group of generally poor and vulnerable immigrants, then what is it worth?
That became apparent in London. I soon realized, as I came to know the Pakistanis and Turks around me, that they and their children are the principal victims of both of these political ideologies. Islamic extremism is a threat to Muslim families. The "Muslim tide" literature, and the distrust it provokes, only amplifies this threat. We need to fight back against both of these dangerous belief systems.
Adapted from The Myth of the Muslim Tide: Do Immigrants Threaten the West?
Doug Saunders is The Globe's international-affairs columnist. He just completed eight years as the paper's London-based European bureau chief.By Monday afternoon, the unrelenting rains had transformed Johnson Creek into a roaring chocolate-brown torrent and Logan realized his "home" was in serious trouble.
The 55-year-old homeless man frantically dug a foot-deep trench around his tent, which he'd put up on the bank of Johnson Creek not far from Southeast 82nd Avenue. He also tied the top of his tent to the Douglas Fir that towered over his site. He secured his other belongs the best he could, including a new box of food, into two grocery carts.
"I figured I had an hour," said Logan, who declined to give his last name. "I went to the service center to get a meal. When I got back, only the tent was left. I saw my food box floating away."
For most Oregonians, the intense weather of the last two days was little more than an annoyance -- snarled commutes, clogged down |
, social norms, and spectacular illusions are no longer (if they ever were) able to keep us in line. Force decisive, violent, and often deadly is the primary means used, by an ever-increasing array of military and paramilitary troops, to prevent us from attacking the ruling order we know is a mortal danger to all of life. Fearful of tables turned, the ruling class uses goon squads to attain, protect, and defend their tenuous positions of power and disappearing wealth.
For most of us in the West, the daily face of that enforcement is the police: sheriffs, deputies, officers, Bobbies, peelers, cops, narcs, informants, pigs. Pigs throughout the world have a clear and oft-repeated goal: to serve and protect one they accomplish quite well. They serve and protect their own interests particularly their interest in maintaining a position of authority and power, thus recreating the dominant order with every public contact. They serve and protect the machinery of civilization the institutions, infrastructure, designers, maintainers, button-pushers, and apologists from the likes of us. They serve and protect bourgeois and elite class order from the criminalized individual of lower standing who refuses to conform, cooperate, contribute to the greater good, follow orders, fall in line, get with the program, play by the rules, obey the law.
Understanding civilization’s frontline offense and defense is crucial to developing successful strategies for our engagement in this undeclared, 10,000-year über war Operation Civilization. This study is intended as a strategic assessment of the pig situation in present-day America. It looks at the origin, structure, focus, technology, and weaponry, as well as the social-political-economic apparatus inherent to the law and order system. Finally, it intends to highlight the always-present, ever-escalating, and often-violent resistance against the totality that required an institutionalized and increasingly pervasive mechanism of control.
1. The Imperial Origins of Swine Fever
The history of civilization is the history of conquest murder, rape, robbery, lies and wholesale destruction. It is the history of the domestication of all of Earth’s inhabitants starting with the human. As settled agricultural societies replaced nomadic hunter-gatherer and small-scale cultivating tribes, self-appointed patriarchs (and occasional matriarchs) battled in the name of greed, glory, or God — for control of Everything. Rigid hierarchical order was enforced creating two classes of people the rulers and the ruled, the master and slave, the haves and the have-nots, the rich and the poor, the civilized and the savage, and eventually the righteous and the criminal. As new empires expanded their reach across the globe, defending their booty grew increasingly difficult. With both offensive and defensive armies constantly overextended, there were simply not enough loyal men left to enforce compliance within the conquered, but resistant, lower class.
Imperial Rome introduced the world to geopolitical divisions in the form of the city-state; and with a few more imaginary lines, they divided these areas into wards and precincts. This was done, in no small part, for the convenience of policing. Vigiles of 7 squads, each containing 1000 freedmen, monitored the precincts for fire and other human disruptions to the social order. Three cohorts of police, under the control of the army, augmented the less-than-loyal freedmen guards. The emperors had their own squads, the Praetorian Guard, the personal bodyguards to the generals and the political henchmen of the emperors. The Guard carried out political assassinations, assisted in the ascension of new emperors, created their own strategic disorders, and eventually wielded the imperial power themselves. The Guard was of course, eliminated. New controls were imposed on the new controllers and innovation a harbinger of civilization had arrived in force.
Armed with weapons, money, and God, imperialists spread their spectacular vision of civilization obedience to the invisible (moral imperatives, religious dogma, imaginary lines drawn); discipline of the sword, truncheon, gallows, and especially of the marketplace; politics of identity and pocketbook; and cultural commodification along with the means of enforcing this nightmare, everywhere they conquered.
In 9th century Britain, King Albert, in the face of growing internal strife and frequent incursions of competing empire-driven armies, divided the vast lands into sections called shires, to better force the ‘king’s peace’. This omnipresent version of peace is based on his Book of Laws comprised of Christian morality including the Ten Commandments and a need to criminalize, for the ruled, those acts important to furthering the authority and power of the rulers. All peasant men of the shire were required to guard their tithing (area). They reported to a hundredman who was in turn commanded by the shire reeve, a local appointee of the King ‘paid’ through bribes, fines, and confiscations of his own determination. This sheriff had to swear “to keep the peace of our Lord the King well, and lawfully according to your powers, and shall arrest all those who shall make any contest, riot, debate or affray, in breaking of the said peace.” This first politipig exists today, still as an elected or appointed political position whose primary responsibility is to serve and protect his position, followed by the responsibility for establishing the prevailing socioeconomic order through various methods of coercion.
“...it is more enlightening to understand what can be called everyday forms of peasant resistance: foot dragging, dissimulation, feigned ignorance, false compliance, manipulation, flight, slander, theft, arson, sabotage, and isolated incidents of violence, including murder, passed off as crime. These forms of struggle stop well short of outright collective defiance, a strategy usually suicidal for the weak. While these kinds of resistance are often a form of individual protection or self-help, they are not trivial. They limit the imperial aspirations of lords, monarchs, colonialists, nationalistic parties, and dictatorships of the proletariat.”
— Forrest D. Colburn, Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance
Feudalism was the predominant socioeconomic system in medieval times. Through right of noble birth, and rewards granted for conquering new territory, the landed gentry created fiefdoms and built heavily guarded manors while the newly landless peasants were indentured to their lords. William the Conqueror demanded greater centralized control of his empire and its inhabitants. While the sheriff still enforced local order, he now reported to the comes stabuler (master of the horse). This constable was essentially the local military representative of the crown. He too was officially unpaid, but, like the sheriff, he found ways to keep himself well fed. For the next 200 years, depending on the social and political climate, the law and order machine shifted between greater and less-centralized control. But, it always remained ineffective against the rabble that had not yet learned that to act against the crown and manor was to act against God himself. Those who rebelled openly especially en masse were likely to have someone getting ‘medieval’ on them, with the newest technologies of torture. Less detectable acts of resistance were more widespread insurgents conducted a myriad of (mostly) individual acts to gain what was needed, or to just fuck with those who were destroying their life. Poaching the act of the peasant asserting his/her traditional claim to the land’s wood, water, food, and medicine was common. If authorities encountered the poacher, other peasants acted in solidarity, often outnumbering the lawmen, who might find their cottages torched when they returned home. They were also beaten and often murdered for enforcing the foreign and unwelcome order. General non-compliance was used to mitigate the increasing demands for their pittance and labor, and for their unquestioning obedience. The struggle of the peasants to regain self-sufficiency and their desire for more autonomy (implied in the direct and active resistance) formed the very basis of the pigs’ existence.
“Crime is the necessary condition of the very existence of the State, and it therefore constitutes its exclusive monopoly, from which it follows that the individual who dares commit a crime is guilty in a two-fold sense: first, he is guilty against human conscience, and, above all, he is guilty against the State in arrogating to himself one of its most precious privileges”.
— Mikhail Bakunin, Ethics: Morality of the State
The commons were being enclosed and traditionally held lands stolen, all converted to private property. The peasants were increasingly forced to work for others in order to pay rents on land they and their ancestors had occupied for centuries. An increasing number relocated to the new cities to slave for the new merchants. The ruling classes imposed rents, taxes, fines, fees, dues, and other economic bonds of wage-slavery, ensuring a steady income, and even steadier labor pool. By the early 13th century, over half the adult male population was working for wages in the urban factories of the growing merchant class or as laborers on the large farms of the lords of the manor. Together with the peasant and slave, the oppressed proletariat was ripening for revolt.
Other rebellions were fomenting as well. With the opportunity for greater wealth and power presenting itself in rising local and international trade and the newly recognized value of rents and land speculation, ranks of the nobility and merchants sought to limit the power and wealth of the crown. To temporarily thwart the inevitable, King John sealed the Magna Carta in 1215 a ‘charter of liberties’.
This document forms the basis of American law and includes such liberal deceptions as: no taxation without representation, trials by a jury of one’s peers, punishments that fit the crime, and the most absurd lie, that no one is above the law.
Liberated from the threat of poverty by exhibiting loyalty to the masters and granted (or taken by the always-successful violent force) sufficient means to create the illusion of a more independent life, the merchant class began to create petty-kingdoms of their own on and by the backs of the laboring class. While sharing the fear of the peasant class rebellion with the ruling class, they had their own special fear as well. The bourgeois were (and remain today) desperately afraid of losing the material wealth and prestige they gained through their own ‘hard work’ (and no small amount of deceit, theft, and aristocratic loyalty payments) and being forced to return to the ranks of the non-special, barbaric, proletarian class.
With the ruling center in constant flux and disarray, a return to locally controlled protection and order was called for. In 1285, the part-time parish constabulary was augmented by the watch and guard system that required all able-bodied townsmen to take a turn protecting the closed village/town gates from sundown to sunrise. Using the Saxon hue and cry system, the watchmen alerted the residents who were required, under the threat of punishment, to join in the apprehension of ‘criminals’ resistant, fellow members of the proletariat who liked to express their revolting joy under the cover of night.
By 1361, with the signing of the Justices of the Peace Act, centralized state control was re-established. Lords of the manor were given the authority to maintain order and law on behalf of the crown. With parish constables as their appointed agents, these justices of the peace (JPs), sought to stop the rabble from ‘stealing’ food, wood, water, and land. Incarceration in newly built prisons, brutal physical punishment, and public killing rituals were broadly applied to even small infractions. In 1381, when the Parliament meeting in secret out of fear of the exploited classes’ reaction — proposed a new poll tax, the first major peasant revolt erupted in the streets of London. For three days built-up tensions were released in riotous splendor until quelled by the killers in the crown’s army. Following the many wars and power struggles for control of Europe of the 15th century, the 16th century saw increased rebellions against the loss of land and ability to make a livelihood without oppression. In 1549 thousands of peasants tore down hedges and fences that had enclosed the common land in Norfolk. 13,000 troops were called to stop the rebellion. Thousands of peasants were killed and injured and the leaders executed for treason. Murder by the State for treason, theft, and witchcraft was instituted; with the single largest day of execution occurring in 1649 when 23 men and 1 woman were killed for burglary and robbery.
Crime continued to rise as the poor and oppressed fought for sustenance and relief from abject poverty. Some were confused about whom to target and brutalized fellow wage-slaves. The creative types took advantage of the middle class naiveté and property theft became an independent business of its own. The 18th century marked the rapid creation of institutions designed to ‘encourage’ civilized order. A reward program that offered forty pounds per thief captured was instituted and quickly became a new market for the innovative. Thieves set up other thieves and claimed the rewards. The ‘it takes a thief to catch a thief’ mentality was born out of the desperate attempt to hang on to every material manifestation that defined the elite’s social standing.
Frequent working class riots led to the 1715 Riot Act; if 12 or more people gathered unlawfully or for purposes of disturbing the peace, a lawman would ‘read them the Riot Act’. Those who had not dispersed an hour later would be guilty of a felony. Peasants began using disguises, including blackened faces, while poaching in the woods. This led to the 1723 Blacks Act which made disguises, while worn in the woods, a crime punishable by hanging to death [bet you’d like that, eh pigs?]. In 1729 Thomas de Veil, a former soldier, became the first police commissioner in London, taking up office at #4 Bow Street and meting out severe sentences. Oliver Cromwell introduced a mounted cavalry operating by merciless savagery to enforce order in the busy streets of London, increasingly torn by economic uncertainty, deepening oppression, and continuous religious and laboring class struggles.
Exploration and colonization of the ‘New World’ may have been inspiring the adventuring nobility and speculative industrialists and merchant-capitalists at the end of this era, but it inspired only dread in the proletariat, as deportation to the new ‘prison colonies’ became the favored punishment for this increasingly criminalized class.
In 1748 Henry Fielding became the next police commissioner, promptly putting 15 men with pistols on the crowded streets. Induced with the payment of ‘blood money’, these Bow Street Runners guaranteed their capitalist clients a fifteen-minute response to calls for help. These red-vested pigs served and protected the interests of the middle class for ninety years. The new bourgeoisie needed their own pigs to guard their new bourgeois neighborhoods and new bourgeois businesses. The West India Merchants funded the first large-scale private police force, the Thames River Police, to guard the busy port from looters. The fearful middle class also created private street patrols, paid with a percentage of recovered stolen property; establishing the bounty system and making theft doubly profitable. This community-supplied and unarmed force remained the norm in Britain until the end of the 18th century.
The situation was very different for the persistently resistant Irish colony where the communities preferred to supply constant, often violent resistance to English control instead of assisting in its own oppression. The first paid, highly organized, centralized, and militarized force was established with the Dublin Police Act of 1786. With the signing of the 1800 Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland the United Kingdom was official, but not welcomed gracefully by the original inhabitants of Ireland. In 1812, Robert Peel, a middle class Tory, was appointed Secretary for Ireland with a formal constabulary. This protestant force, whom the Irish rabble called peelers, was the paramilitary predecessor of the ever-mutating Swine Fever, serving and protecting the Reforming interests of the Empire.
Beginning in early 1811, textile workers began to meet in secret, at night, practicing tactics and maneuvers for an attack on the newly mechanized mills whose owners were cutting their already meager wages. By March, several attacks were occurring every night and were expanding to other factory-targets throughout Britain. Despite the offer of rewards and the deployment of four hundred new constables, the rebels known as Luddites maintained their pressure through early 1812. Frustrated by the continued, successful attacks, over 12,000 military troops were called into the target areas. The Frame Breaking Act of February 1812 made industrial sabotage (from the sabot a wooden shoe thrown into the mill machinery to halt its operation) a capital crime. The Luddite response — an attack on a textile factory guarded by armed militia. They followed this attack a week later by killing a factory owner. On April 20th thousands of workers attacked another mill being protected by armed guards. Several workers were killed three days later the factory owner’s house was burned to the ground. Three days later a factory was burned. Four men were executed for the act, including a 12-year-old. By summer of 1812, twenty-three men were sentenced to death and thirteen transported to the prison colony in Australia for attacks on cotton mills. While attacks on the textile industry (continuing into 1817) did not stop the machinery, they proved that the wage-slaves were not only going to fight the oppression, but had the intelligence, creativity, decentralized organization, and popular proletariat support to wage their own offensive and defensive campaigns. The capitalists whined and cried for more civil troops to serve and protect them.
Peel was promoted to Home Secretary and promptly established a public police system in London. The Metropolitan Police Act of 1829 established the first Office of Police, which was headed by two commissioners, Charles Rowan (son of an Irish landowner) and Richard Mayne (son of a JP). Within two weeks, a plan for a new force was presented (and swiftly enacted). The first official pigpen was organized like a military unit, including a strict hierarchical organization with 6 divisions (with headquarters); sections and beats (named thus for the cadence required for a street cop to complete his rounds in 15–20 minutes, about 2.5 miles per hour); 1000 candidates; a uniform design and manufacturer; a pay scale; a General Instruction Book written by a former Bow Street Runner; a weapon (truncheon); and communication system (a rattle). The recruits came from the working class; usually agricultural, but always from outside of London. These cops — so-named for their tactics and derived from the verb caper, meaning to abduct or nab — were traitors hated by other members of their class and were unceasingly threatened and attacked. When Secretary Peel developed a passion for the Sandy Back pigs found in Ireland, he began to breed them himself, creating the Tamworth pigs and a new name for his army. These paid and specialized forces were required to “maintain order, predictability, and continuity of gesellschaft” a society of the corporation/of the common good. In 1830, the Swing Riots by farm workers in southern England sought higher wages and the end to mechanization; 9 people were executed and hundreds imprisoned. This year also marked the first murder of an official pig when a Division G cop was stabbed to death.
With the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act authorizing other urban areas to establish their own police forces and the County Police Act in 1839 giving Justices of the Peace full control over public forces in the rural areas, no corner of the British Isles was free from Swine Fever.
By 1840, a middle class revolution, inspired by the bourgeois revolution in the North American colonies, threatened an end to monarchical power in England in favor of an elitist democracy. Industrial-capitalist economics with its inherent backbreaking, time-stealing, freedom-squashing, life-controlling mechanisms had nearly completed its replacement of the mercantile system. The peasant and wage-slave raged to break free, and attacked the bosses, lords, and cops with increasing fervor; and anarchists and socialists agitated for an end to the monarchy in favor of a classless society.
The forerunner of the modern police was fully established; organized and committed to serve and protect the domesticating order according to their masters’ plan. Increasingly complex connections between the military, international police, federal cops, secret police, paramilitary police forces, private pigs, and volunteer citizen traitors enforcing this horror of Civilization were developing, just out-of-view. The Political Era of Swine Fever was just beginning, and the simple, land-based, relatively autonomous lives of the original inhabitants of Britain gone forever. Or are they?
2. The Colonial Petri Dish
“For a warrior to succeed, she must practice dissimulation and move only when real advantage can be gained. She ponders and deliberates before moving. Whether he moves alone or with others can only be determined by the circumstances. When on the move he is as rapid as the wind, compact as the forest. When she attacks she is like fire, falling like a thunderbolt. When he needs to stand strong he is as immovable as a mountain. Always their plans are kept dark and impenetrable as night.”
— Sun Tzu, Art of War
The sight, or other sense of a cop, induces a visceral reaction in most everyone, regardless of their actual illegality. This is one measure of the efficiency with which most have internalized the Civilized authority. Cops re-present this order, ensuring that we remember: we are watched; ranked according to a vague and massified set of criteria; and that our ability to fulfill our needs and desires is limited by the many forces Civilization brings to bear. As both symbol and enforcer, the pig serves to remind us of the many ways we deviate from the expectations of those whom they protect. It is the degree to which we have been assimilated/ domesticated/ civilized into the dominant order that influences our reaction to the pigs as well as the pigs’ reaction to us.
The ruling classes of 19th century England saw themselves as lawful, moral, righteous, and specially endowed with a destiny to enlighten and transform the rest of the world. Consequently, they needed to envision and portray their new security forces as also having a measure of these qualities. Generally unconcerned with their own legal status, the elite required cops to enforce predictable behavior amongst the inferior. Then, as now, the non- or poorly assimilated often present their refusal in a manner that creates fear in those whom the cops serve and protect. If occasionally this servant and protector of the people had to issue a polite summons to one of their class, to address some minor infraction, it was, of course, annoying — but an annoyance one could deal with. Often their Bobbie was depicted as a rotund, somewhat ‘dumb’-looking, unarmed pig — more bluster than substance, more swagger than confidence.
This was not the Bobbie (or his cousin, Officer Friendly) the criminalized classes saw. The cops they encountered often expressed their own frustrations with the paradox they were presented with each time they took to the beat — the unresolvable reality that they enforce an order that also requires them to be subservient, monitored, and controlled. Those who are designated as born-criminals and those not accepting this unnatural lifeway know, with every sense, that the cop and their ilk are a particular danger to anyone who chooses to go where no authoritarian can ever be free to go. Our reaction to the sight, feel, smell, sound, or other sense of a pig’s too close presence, perhaps, indicates an instinct not yet suppressed — to fight or to flee, to survive and thrive.
As the number of dissidents and the intensity of their resistance exceed manageable levels, police adopt more clearly military tactics to maintain order (and its main deviation from the military imperative — law). With its ever-expanding net of interlocking chains of command — police, soldiers, teachers, bureaucrats, priests, scientists and so on — the Machine dictates strategies for commanding and controlling the unassimilated populations.
A strategic formula — employed by these compliant controllers who use flexible tactics prioritized and reordered as needed — was developed and improved over the centuries. The schema to expand Civilization remains — as yet — still viable, with technological improvements providing the main shift in corollary tactics. Applied by all the institutional automatons, the modus operandi is more or less as follows: Eliminate (massacre, starve, exterminate, sicken); Provoke fear (threaten, bully, make examples of, beat, brutalize); Identify (classify, count, massify, demonize, criminalize); Infiltrate (survey, comprehend, disrupt, divide); Assimilate (convert, pacify, civilize, domesticate); Recruit (induct, create traitors, provide replacements); Incarcerate (on reserves and reservations, in ghettos, tent cities, hotspots, prisons, jobs); Educate (indoctrinate, socialize, politicize, train); Enforce (monitor, intimidate, control, roundup); Expropriate (annex, seize, take over, confiscate, steal, possess).
The multi-faceted, multi-fronted, and multi-jurisdictional attacks we’re witnessing today are the hyperextension of the industrial-capitalist/imperial-colonial attacks of the 17-19th centuries. The successes of that era are being applied and failures corrected on the technological-capitalist/globalized-neocolonial stage. It is our challenge as anarchist/anti-civilization warriors to understand, target, eliminate, and stay safe from the mechanisms of this crippling Death Machine.
In the many European and American colonies of ‘occupation’, ‘pacification’, and ‘protection’, paramilitary police forces are a key element in this war of global domination and warrant our attention.
The British Empire — India: Identifying the Criminals
“What was common to all these schools of thought [Platonic, Evangelical, Utilitarian, Romantic, Enlightened Despotism] was the supposition that it was Britain’s mission to rule, and India’s duty to submit; and that just as Indians were incapable of governing themselves, much less anyone else, so the British had been gifted with eminently good sense, courage, manliness, a sense of action, and active habits of thought to preside over the destinies of a nation far removed from their shores.”
— Vinay Lal, Criminality and Colonial Anthropology
The British East India Company ruled India for over one hundred years, beginning in???, expanding its control and markets in silk, tea, indigo, and opium, generating the capital necessary for expansion and for new estates, businesses, and political power back home. This was made easier by an earlier conqueror that had effectively divided the population into a religious-based, hierarchical (and completely internalized) system of order. This caste system (from casta, Portuguese for breed or race) fixed individuals to a specific position and expectation depending on their ancestral lineage, skin color, religious practice, and occupation.
However, the task of assimilating indigenous and conquered peoples is never completely successful and there are always those who will continue their attacks on the foreigners bent on confiscating their ancestral lands and who deny their way of life. In India, these were called the Criminal Tribes, the many and varied nomadic peoples who were/are collectivized and ordained as criminal because their “...ancestors were criminals from time immemorial who are themselves destined by the usage of caste to commit crime and whose dependents will be offenders against the law, until the whole tribe is exterminated or accounted for in the manner of the thugs.”
The aforementioned Thugs (Anglicized from Thugee) were a particular sub-caste of men and women, who used secretive means to identify, ‘befriend’, strangle, rob, and bury wealthy travelers. Colonial police estimated that up to 40,000 were killed each year. This was of great concern to the Company and Crown whose personages (along with their Hindu and Muslim merchant/political allies) were often on the roads exploring their new Jewel in the Crown. India’s first police department, the Thugee and Dacoity (armed robbery) Department, employed ethnic profiling, surveillance, and native informants (classified according to reliability as ‘innocent/artless’, ‘accomplice’, ‘false’, ‘spiteful’, and the most desirable ‘honorable’) and infiltrators to eliminate over 1400 Thugee and imprison thousands in work reserves.
When the criminals adopted impersonation tactics to avoid the increased punishment meted out to habitual offenders, new technological advances provided solutions. The People of India Project, under the control of the Political and Secret Department of the military, stated, “Each Local Government is expected to collect into one collection such photographic likenesses of the races and classes within its borders as it may obtain and furnish a very brief notice of each. The likenesses are to be sent to the Central Committee of the London Exhibition in Calcutta.” This project was used to identify characteristics that could be assigned to an entire tribe or caste and also helped those innovators experimenting with surveillance techniques in order to learn the secret codes and languages used by the ‘criminal gangs’.
In the late 1800’s, a British colonial judge in India invented the fingerprint identification system. This was further enhanced by a British cop who, with his traitorous Indian associates in the Bengal police, perfected the means of fingerprint classification along with a telegraphic code used to transmit the results to concerned agencies. In 1887, fingerprinting technology was adopted throughout India as a conclusive means of identifying the criminal castes and tribes. Fingerprinting was not introduced to the British homeland security forces until 1901, where it was first described as “hopelessly inaccurate, ludicrous, dangerous and completely un-British,” an attitude that prevailed until the technique was widely accepted, with credit for this innovation attributed to Scotland Yard.
When British educated Mahatma Gandhi (who at one point stopped a popular rebellion because of “overly aggressive” attacks on the traitorous pigs) led the upper castes towards ‘independence’, they further embraced the Enlightened order of policing.
Today, the Criminal Tribes, renamed the Denotified and Nomadic Tribes, are frequently targeted by the cops as prime suspects while simultaneously viewed as ‘primitives’ in need of being raised up by the social justice do-gooders. Inspiringly, the indigenous people of India continue to resist both.
The British Empire — Africa: Recruiting the Natives
“...the acceptance of native political authority always implied a British redefinition and limitation of the role of African political powers and radical mutations of traditional practices whenever they were considered repugnant in light of European conceptions. Further, the principle of indirect rule was considered secondary to the overall political and economic objectives of colonial rule. Political paternalism replaced indirect rule when local politics did not resemble appropriate government in the eyes of the British authorities and when it conflicted with Company Rule which sought to make colonial conquest a commercially viable enterprise.”
— Mathieu Deflem, Law Enforcement in British Colonial Africa
Before the Berlin Conference of 1884, a ‘mere’ ten percent of the African continent was in the hands of the competing empires of Europe. Indigenous humans, gold, diamonds, and ivory were amongst the commodities deemed useful for expanding wealth and capitalism. The conference resulted in a mandate for colonial powers to prove “effective occupation” in order to gain international recognition of territorial claims and to ‘permit’ direct rule by the occupiers. Consequently, the civilizing powers could not tolerate any acts of defiance that might imply ‘ineffective occupation’. The goals of both military and police — often interchangeable forces — were clear: pacify the natives, protect economic interests, symbolize and enforce the legitimacy of the colonial political authorities, and maintain sufficient order so as to permit access to and expansion of new territories.
Using ethnic security maps, British occupiers determined which tribes could be used, with proper supervision, to self-police tribal territories for the Crown. In the Nyasaland territory, the Yao ethnic community was deemed to be a martial tribe and recruited to protect and serve the masters needs. In the Gold Coast, the Hausa tribe formed the unofficial Hausa Constabulary, a paramilitary police force possessing the necessary qualities supportive of control, combat, and enforcement, recruited even before the official proclamation of the colony. The police, regardless of ethnicity, were considered an intrusive alien force and attacked as traitors to the native African communities.
By the end of the “Scramble for Africa”, ninety percent of the continent was in European hands with Britain the dominant owner. Through apartheid and other brutal strategies, Africa remained under official occupation well into the 20th century. As long as native peoples can be recruited and trained as enforcers of their master’s order, the possibility of ‘effective occupation’ remains.
The America Empire — Internal Colonies: Incarcerating the Savages
“Indians are the most peaceful people, traditionally, you would ever wish to encounter. But, if you tell any people — to their perpetual suffering, agony, disenfranchisement, dispossession, disallowal of hope — that they are irrelevant long enough, they may just prove to you, in desperation, their relevance by utilizing violence. If they blow your brains out, you see, there’s no question they’re relevant. This applies to Indians, Palestinians, people of the inner cities, anyone who is oppressed.”
— Ward Churchill, Listening to the Land
Prior to the Columbus invasion, over 15 million indigenous people are estimated to have lived in what is now America. By 1894, all but 250,000 were eliminated directly and ‘indirectly’ by the conquering powers. The remaining people, from many varied and distinct tribal cultures, were identified as a single homogenous unit, negatively denoted as savage and primitive, and forced into prison-reserves. Cultural genocide programs in boarding schools and ‘proper’ homes picked up where military genocide left off, as Indian children were abducted and inserted into civil and Christian institutions. Educators and religious evangelists attempted to whitewash the memory of diverse and ancient languages, lifeways, and spiritual connections. Some of the newly domesticated were returned to the prison-reserves to spread the gospel of Civilized behavior.
By the mid-twentieth century, when the Empire renewed its attacks, many believed there were no more ‘real’ Indians. But the strong and diverse response to the colonizer’s first attacks was re-ignited when the fuels necessary to stoke the engines of the Death Machine — uranium, oil, coal, and natural gas — were discovered on reservation land, prompting aggressive expropriation. Using many forms of active and direct resistance, members of the American Indian Movement as well as others focused on getting treaty rights and national sovereignty upheld. Their actions prompted a military assault by the traitorous ‘Guardians of the Oglala Nation’. These GOONs used U.S. military artillery in the 1973–1976 bloodbath on the Pine Ridge Reservation on behalf of the Empire. Using intelligence provided by the FBI’s COINTELPRO operatives, SWAT and other paramilitary pigs temporarily curtailed the struggle for Indian autonomy. But, as the opening words above and the ongoing native resistance to genocide and incarceration remind us, the spirit cannot be whitewashed and the fight is far from over.
“The only way to police a ghetto is to be oppressive... They represent the force of the white world, and that world’s criminal profit and ease, to keep the Black man corralled up here, in his place. The badge, the gun in the holster, and the swinging club make vivid what will happen should his rebellion become overt... He [the cop] moves through Harlem, therefore, like an occupying soldier in a bitterly hostile country, which is precisely what, and where he is, and is the reason he walks in twos and threes”.
— James Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name
The first militarized forces in urban North America were mounted patrols used in southern cities to keep slave populations from uprising. Once ‘freed’, the neo-slaves were quickly segregated into ghettos, prisons, rural work farms, and urban factories. As on the reservations, inner city African communities are riddled with unemployment, poverty, and by a particular hopelessness, both induced and soothed by the drugs supplied by a myriad of overt and covert sources. Liberals, feeling the effects of the “white man’s burden” and bourgeois white guilt, launched hundreds of programs designed to socialize this ‘violent underclass’. No attempt was made, until after WWII, to induct Africans into local pigpens. As an L.A. pig admitted to an investigating commission, decades later, most cops simply did not view blacks as individuals, therefore could not discern the law-abiding from the lawless — a charge easily applied to the pigs themselves.
Riots, gangs, and even National liberation movements echo the anger and frustration of millions who can no longer bear a life of imprisonment and neo-slavery. Modern police forces in segregated areas were hyper-militarized before their counterparts in ruling class communities and commercial areas. Heavily armed, armored, and specially trained in urban warfare by U.S. military Special Forces, Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) units conduct regular raids in ghettos, inner cities, and ‘hotspots’ of Black (and Latino) enclaves. Urban warfare, the new primary frontline in this war, requires practice and continual improvements. Military exercises, such as Garden Plot, aim towards a coordination of the full war apparatus — National Guard, military, federal intelligence, local, state, and federal cops to quell the ever-growing urban unrest. In 1992, the pigs that attacked Rodney King were exonerated and the upgraded urban war machine deployed. But the machine is not infallible and potential weaknesses are occasionally revealed for our exploration. A provocative example; on the night of these 1992 L.A. riots, a California State Guardsman was arrested by local cops with materials necessary for concocting Molotovs.
The American Empire — Iraq and the Homeland: Invoking Fear
“Insurgency can be extricated from the ‘placenta of common crime’ in which the state attempted to place it by establishing its identity as a violence which is public, collective, destructive and total in its modalities. These are, of course, the very attributes of the violence characteristically deployed by the modern nation-state. What name shall we give to that violence? Surely not insurgency? In what language shall we speak of the crimes of the state?”
— Vinay Lal, Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India
In 2004, as the UN’s Decade of the World’s Indigenous People closes, the American Empire and its British partner apply the age-old formula to neutralize native, indigenous, and improperly civilized peoples. In Iraq (as in Afghanistan), all imperial forces — military, police, social, religious, and economic — are being employed in the crusade to secure total control over the (nearly) decimated people. After more than a decade of genocidal sanctions and biochemical and conventional warfare reduced the population by millions, the ongoing military incursion seeks to complete the mass elimination phase of the formulaic strategy. Using superior technology — ‘smart bombs’, ‘precision artillery’, and a steady (if increasingly reluctant) supply of dehumanized |
. As previously announced, Aphex Twin’s unreleased 1994 album Caustic Window surfaced online as a vinyl test pressing, which the owner was selling for $13,500. After striking a deal with extremely dedicated fan forum We Are The Music Makers, James, and James’ label, a Kickstarter was set up that would provide backers with a digital copy of the 70-minute album. Now that time has come, and the album is already available on Youtube. My immediate impression is it’s a pretty fascinating record, acting almost like a stepping stone from the ambient techno of SAW 80-92, but starting to resemble the sound design and timbres of Richard D. James Album. Listen to all of Caustic Window below.
The only physical copy of Caustic Window is now up for auction on eBay with proceeds going to James and a charity chosen by WATMM. Check that out right here.I would like to write a short post about my old attempt to create new amazon and share this old and unfinished project with you.
6 or 7 years ago two friends decided that they need to create something. Of course you should never start small. We decided to have some kind of mini amazon for our little country. Amazon for sure is very complicated system so ours had to be too! You need to be scalable and have a lot of modules if you wanna be big don’t you? So we did. Just look at our open sourced version. So many modules before even starting. JSF and JEE was overshoot for our problem too. Jeez it took ages to get anything done. All this modify/redeploy cycle took way too much time and project was moving pretty slow. When you start something without any plan it seems that everything is possible, but after a while we started thinking about other issues like logistics, partners, payments etc. You know, stuff not related to programming. Soon it became clear that our start up won’t even start properly. So we cut our losses and moved on. Was I sorry? Not a bit. I learned a ton, had fun, and actually after putting project to sourceforge was able to transition to freelancing.
Main lessons learned – never over engineer and always have a plan. Also if you have bad situation you can still make something good out of it. I would say you should never be afraid of failing. The only way to learn is by making mistakes. If you make one – so fucking what? Sure you can read a book – “don’t do this, don’t do that”, but if you fail at something that leaves little scar somewhere inside your brain. That scar makes you superior to the ones who doesn’t have it. Now you KNOW and they just know. This means it is unlikely that you will repeat same mistake later while people with knowledge but without experience might (especially under stress). The younger you are the less costly your mistakes usually are the more of them you should do. That is my opinion.
I’ve spent few days and converted that old project to much simpler version with new JSF version and spring instead of EJB. It builds to a single jar and can be started up on tomcat in few seconds. I uploaded it to github here. Of course it is not finished, untested and have bugs (probably some more after migration) but if you are interested in e-commerce with spring and jsf it might be worth taking a look.
Here are few screenshots of the design we wanted to use created by our friend:
AdvertisementsJupiter is sporting a glowing bruise after getting unexpectedly whacked by a small solar system object, according to astronomers using the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawai'i.
A spectacular new mid-infrared image is available for download.
The new feature on Jupiter was first seen by Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley on July 19th. The object that caused the impact scar could have been a small comet or asteroid. Using the SL9 impacts as a guide, the impacting object was probably just a few hundreds of meters in diameter. Such small bodies are nearly impossible to detect near or beyond Jupiter unless they reveal cometary activity, or, as in this case, make their presence known by impacting a giant planet. The impact site is dark in visible-wavelength images.
With the superb angular resolution of the Gemini observations, the data show the impact site in remarkable detail. "The structure of the impact site is eerily reminiscent of the larger Shoemaker-Levy 9 sites 15 years ago," remarked Heidi Hammel (Space Science Institute), who was part of the team that supported the effort at Gemini. In 1994, Hammel led the Hubble Space Telescope team that imaged Jupiter when it was pummeled by a shattered comet. "The morphology is suggestive of an arc-like structure in the feature's debris field," Hammel noted.
"We utilized the powerful mid-infrared capabilities of the Gemini telescope to record the impact's effect on Jupiter's upper atmosphere," said Imke de Pater (University of California, Berkeley). "At these wavelengths we receive thermal radiation (heat) from the planet's upper atmosphere. The impact site is clearly much warmer than its surroundings, as shown by our image taken at an infrared wavelength of 18 microns."
The Gemini images were obtained with the MICHELLE spectrograph/imager, yielding a series of images at 7 different mid-infrared wavelengths. Two of the images (8.7 and 9.7 microns) were combined into a color composite image by Travis Rector at the University of Alaska, Anchorage to create the final false-color image. By using the full set of Gemini images taken over a range of wavelengths from 8 to 18 microns, the team will be able to disentangle the effects of temperature, ammonia abundance, and upper atmospheric aerosol content. Comparing these Gemini observations with past and future images will permit the team to study the evolution of features as Jupiter's strong winds disperse them.
"The Gemini support staff made a heroic effort to get these data," said de Pater. "We were on the telescope observing within 24 hours of contacting the observatory." Because of the transient nature of this event, the telescope was scheduled as a "Target of Opportunity" and required staff to react quickly to the request. Tom Geballe and Chad Trujillo helped plan the observations, Rachel Mason programmed the observing plan for MICHELLE and the telescope, and Paul Hirst and Tony Matulonis performed the observations. Additional members of the team are Glenn Orton and Leigh Fletcher from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.Lady Gaga Reveals She Has Fibromyalgia, Postpones European Tour Dates
Enlarge this image toggle caption Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images
Last Tuesday, pop megastar Lady Gaga revealed on Twitter that she suffers from a debilitating disorder called fibromyalgia. Today, the singer shared more about her struggle on her social media, and the concert company Live Nation announced that Gaga will be postponing the European leg of her "Joanne" tour.
Gaga shared her diagnosis in advance of the premiere of Gaga: Five Foot Two, a Netflix documentary debuting on Sept. 22 which touches upon her struggles with chronic pain.
Fibromyalgia is a disorder that is characterized by symptoms including chronic muscle pain and often-debilitating fatigue. According to the National Institutes of Health, about 5 million American adults have fibromyalgia — and between 80 and 90 percent of those affected are women.
Patients also experience a variety of other challenges, including sleep disruption, headaches, intolerance to medications and abdominal, bowel and bladder issues. Many patients also report suffering from "fibro fog," which affects short-term memory.
Frustratingly, the cause of fibromyalgia is currently unknown, though it is thought to be due to a variety of coexisting factors, including possible genetic mutations, infections or illnesses, and physical or emotional trauma that together either trigger or aggravate the condition.
Moreover, there is no cure. As the Mayo Clinic explains, "No one treatment works for all symptoms." Patients are generally encouraged to pursue self-care strategies including physical therapy, yoga, meditation and eating well; there are also medications that many patients find effective in addressing certain symptoms related to fibromyalgia.
In a series of tweets posted last week, Gaga elaborated a bit upon her current treatment, and added: "I ask for your grace and understanding, and promise that I will come back and perform for you soon."
In the past, Gaga has been open and vocal about various challenges that she faces. Last December, she posted an open letter in which she shared that she has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; in 2014, during an interview with Howard Stern, she addressed having been raped at age 19.
In all, 18 performances in Europe, starting Sept. 21 in Barcelona and ending on Oct. 28 in Cologne, Germany have been postponed. As of now, Gaga's next set of shows in the U.S., beginning Nov. 5 in Indianapolis and lasting through Dec. 18 in Inglewood, Calif., are scheduled to go on as planned.
This morning, Gaga posted a longer open letter to her social media about her health. She wrote that "trauma and chronic pain" are keeping her from living normally and working as an artist. But she added that she is working closely with her doctors so that she can get back to what she plans to doing for the next "60 years or more": performing for her fans.DeMarco Murray is not struggling because of scheme fit or bad play calling. Murray is struggling because he is not the same player he was last year in Dallas.
Patrick Causey, on Twitter @pcausey3
Chip Kelly finally relegated DeMarco Murray last week in the win over the New England Patriots, treating Murray like a glorified third string running back.
The carry differential was drastic and sent a clear message: Murray will no longer garner the majority of touches simply because of his oversized contract:
Name Carries Yards Y/A Darren Sproles 15 66 4.4 Kenjon Barner 9 39 4.3 DeMarco Murray 8 24 3.0
It was a move I have advocated for since after the Eagles win over the Saints. Murray has struggled all season and has not looked like the same running back that led the NFL in rushing last year.
Without question, Murray has been out performed by his backfield counterpart, Ryan Mathews. Murray has averaged 3.5 yards per carry this year, ranking 41st among qualifying running backs, according to ESPN. Mathews, on the other hand, has averaged an impressive 5.7 yards per carry, which ranks first in the NFL. Add in the upgrade Sproles provides catching passes out of the backfield, and an argument can be made that Murray is the third best running back on this team.
For whatever reason, Kelly stuck with Murray despite his struggles. It raised legitimate questions over whether Kelly the GM was hamstringing Kelly the coach because he refused to admit his mistake signing Murray to a massive free agent contract.
But all bets were off after the Eagles were embarrassed on national television during Thanksgiving. With the season on the brink, Kelly promised to reevaluate everyone’s role with the team, and he upheld that promise by cutting Miles Austin and marginalizing Murray’s role with the team.
And while we can quibble over the length of time in which it took Kelly to make these moves, he still deserves credit for admitting his mistake and not allowing his ego to cost the team anymore games.
Some, including ESPN.com’s Ed Werder, have attempted to blame Murray’s lack of production on scheme fit issues with Chip Kelly’s offense. Werner raises two principal points in support of his theory: (1) Murray is running out of the shotgun too often and is much better suited for running under center; and (2) Kelly is calling too many outside zone runs when Murray is a better runner between the tackles.
Here’s the only problem: the numbers don’t support this.
Let’s start first with the direction in which Murray is running, courtesy of ESPN.com.
2015 Murray Splits:
Play Direction Att Yds Avg Lng TD Right Side 21 59 2.8 9 0 Left Side 22 74 3.4 21 0 Middle 50 220 4.4 30 1 Left Sideline 39 127 3.3 24 1 Right Sideline 31 89 2.9 20 2
As you can see in the chart above, the 2015 numbers generally support Werder’s position: the only direction in which Murray is relatively competent this season are runs up the middle, averaging 4.4 yards per carry. Murray struggles getting to the outside (sideline runs) just as often as he struggles running between the tackles but to a specific side of the line (side runs).
Seems like Werner might be onto something right? Not so fast.
Look at his numbers from 2014. Murray’s worst production in 2014 were runs up the middle, while he excelled on outside runs.
2014
Play Direction Att Yds Avg Lng TD Right Side 115 540 4.7 27 6 Left Side 122 582 4.8 51 1 Middle 58 189 3.3 22 5 Left Sideline 48 294 6.1 44 0 Right Sideline 49 240 4.9 23 1
You can also view Murray’s numbers in 2013 (here), 2012 (here) and 2011 (here). You will see that Murray has not consistently struggled with runs to the outside. His numbers are fairly even throughout his career, save for minor differences that can likely be explained by a difference in talent at specific spots on the Cowboys offensive line (much like you will see the Eagles running backs excelling running behind Jason Peters over other positions).
In other words, we cannot blame Murray’s lack of production on Kelly calling too many outside runs.
So what about this whole running under shotgun theory? To Werder’s credit, Murray has run more from under center throughout his career, to the tune of 841 to 256 carries, per ProFootballReference.com. And as anyone who has played football will tell you, there is a difference between running under center versus running in the shotgun. So some growing pains were to be expected.
But looking at Murray’s production throws cold water on Werder’s theory: Murray has never struggled running from shotgun before in his career.
Here are Murray’s numbers from 2015:
Formation Att Yds Avg TD Shotgun 133 491 3.7 3 Under Center 24 51 2.1 1
As you can see, Murray has actually done worse running under center this season than he has running from the shotgun formation, a fact that has been conveniently ignored by Murray’s supporters.
Now, here are Murray’s numbers from 2014:
Formation Att Yds Avg TD Shotgun 36 170 4.7 2 Under Center 356 1,675 4.7 11
While Murray ran under center much more frequently than from shotgun, he did not experience any drop off in production. And before you yell “small sample size” at me, consider the following averages per carry for Murray throughout his career, again courtesy of ESPN.com:
2013
Shotgun: 5.2
Under Center: 5.1
2012
Shotgun: 4.0
Under Center: 4.1
2011
Shotgun: 6.5
Under Center: 5.4
I don’t want to discount the difference between running under center versus the shotgun, but the numbers just don’t back up the idea that Murray is better suited under center.
And while training camp proclamations don’t carry much weight, I did find the following comments from Murray in August to be interesting, courtesy of Zach Berman of the Philadelphia Inquirer:
“Murray said he actually gets to ‘see more of the field’ when it’s a shotgun formation.
‘I get to see a lot of the things the offensive line are doing, and hear their calls and really know where the ball should go in different fronts,’ Murray said.”
Perhaps this was hyperbole. Murray certainly wouldn’t be the first, nor the last, player to ever speak rosily about his new team and scheme, especially when he is attempting to ingratiate himself to the entire fan-base. But there has to be a certain element of truth to these statements as well, which are backed up by the good production Murray has had from the shotgun formation over the years.
This is about the time where I turn to the tape to show you what I mean. But I’ve done this a number of times so far this season, and I don’t want to keep recycling the same material I’ve discussed at length before. Simply put, Murray is not decisive or explosive when he has a clear running lane, he tries to do too much instead of taking the easy yards, and, for whatever reason, he is not making smart decisions when given adequate blocking by the line.
The Cause of Murray’s Struggles
So why is Murray struggling if it is not scheme fit issues? I don’t mean to beat a dead horse, but this point seems to be lost on a number of people who refuse to acknowledge that his drop of production is directly related to the heavy workload he experienced last season.
Murray carried the ball an absurd 497 times last year, including the playoffs, putting him directly within the cross hairs of the “Curse of 370.”
BleacherReport.com provides the full analysis of the Curse of 370 here, but the essential take-away is this: whenever a running back carries the ball over 370 times in a single season, he experiences a significant drop off in production the following year.
More specifically, of the 28 running backs in NFL history that have eclipsed the 370 carry mark:
12 saw their production drop by half or more the following year;
the following year; 19 missed time due to injury the following year;
5 missed at least half the year ;
; The average drop-off in production: a ridiculous 39.2%;
Perhaps the best illustrator is the following chart that shows the dropoff in production the year after a running back has eclipsed 370 carries:
Name Att Yards Avg TD DeMarco Murray 163 569 3.5 4 Larry Johnson 178 581 3.3 0 Terrell Davis 67 211 3.1 2 Jamaal Anderson 19 59 3.1 0
Put another way, Murray’s drop off in production was a predictable outcome. That is why I advocated against the move this offseason. Kelly already had enough weapons at his disposal with Ryan Mathews and Darren Sproles. He could have satisfied the third running back spot with much cheaper alternatives: running backs are routinely found at the tail end of the draft or via undrafted free agency.
Kelly invested too heavily in the running back position generally, and compounded that mistake by investing in a running back coming off a historic usage rate. This puts the Eagles in a bind not only for this season, but also next year as well.
Which brings me to the final, most important question:
What Should the Eagles Do?
The question of whether Murray is the best option for the Eagles moving forward was never really in doubt. At this point in his career, Murray is the third best option on this team. With Mathews healthy, an argument can even be made that Kelly should scratch Murray from the lineup and roll with Mathews, Sproles and Barner.
But the real problem comes next season, when Murray is due $8 million and cutting him would carry a $13 million cap hit.
For most of the season, I have considered it a lock that Murray would be back given that cap hit. Indeed, Murray’s $13 million dead cap hit represents 9% of the $143 million salary cap. It would be a dangerous proposition to rob an NFL franchise of that capital given the amount of holes on the Eagles roster.
But the more we see and hear from Murray, the more legitimate the discussion becomes about whether the Eagles should move on from Murray after this season.
Let’s start with the low hanging fruit: Murray has consistently thrown his teammates and coaches under the bus. Against Atlanta, Murray demonstrably yelled at the coaches while walking off the field, something that was caught on national television.
And how can we forget this look from Murray, which became an internet sensation?
If looks could kill, demarco murray would be in jail. Poor Bradford @JermichaelF88: 😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/Gn6iM9Fpea" — Clarence Hill (@clarencehilljr) September 22, 2015
Seemingly every time something goes wrong on offense, Murray is quick to show his disgust:
When someone like DeSean Jackson or LeSean McCoy pulled these kind of stunts, it was front page news and used by their detractors as proof positive for why Kelly got rid of them.
For whatever reason, Murray was given a pass. But his latest antics — going over Chip Kelly’s head to complain about his playing time to owner Jeffry Lurie — was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. Think of it this way: the Eagles just pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year, beating Tom Brady and the Patriots at home. But instead of talking about that great win and the positive momentum it can carry forward, we are instead talking about Murray’s plane ride visit with Lurie.
While Murray has said all the right things publicly, he is clearly prioritizing his happiness and need for touches over the good of the team. And it has the trickle down effect of taking all the attention away from a huge win and placing it on Murray’s lack of touches.
If Murray is this unhappy now, after one game of being demoted, how unhappy will he be if this continues the rest of this season? And what if he is no longer the lead guy next year? Will Murray idly sit by and collect a paycheck? Or will he become a locker room cancer?
As hard as it would be for the Eagles to move his contract, they need to consider all options this offseason. Murray is not the running back he was last year and it is unreasonable to expect his production to improve given his age and high usage. Even if the Eagles have to eat a significant portion of his contract, it might be an addition by subtraction if they can somehow move him to another team.
Otherwise, all of the effort Kelly put into fostering a great locker room — or “culture” — will fall to the wayside.
UPDATE/CONCLUSION
I appreciate all the responses I’ve received to this article. Some of you have disagreed with my ultimate conclusion, while others might have misinterpreted what I am saying. So I wanted to clarify one thing: I am not discounting the effect that the new system or running out of the shotgun has on Murray. As I stated above, I am sure it has SOME impact on his success this year.
But, there is overwhelming evidence that suggests Murray’s just not as good as he used to be. The numbers above clearly show this. And as I’ve covered before, the tape supports this conclusion as well. Add in the history of running backs that have seen their production fall off a cliff after getting 370+ carries in a single season, and I think we are making a mistake if we assume the system change is the MAIN cause of his struggles.
AdvertisementsRandomly assign to each member of your team (colleagues, friends or family) a person to whom they anonymously give a gift.
This tradition is also known as " Kris Kringle " in Ireland, " Wichteln " or " Engerl und Bengerl " in Germany, " Amigo invisible " in Spain and " Cacahuète " in Belgium.
Everything is now setup. Just go buy a gift for your peer before your party. Merry Christmas!
After Rudolph shuffled the users, we throw at each participant a private message with his peer name and an optional admin message.
We show you all the users in your team (excluding the bots, because they don't do nice gifts). Just select the ones which will take part to your Secret Santa.
Click on one of the "Run on Slack" or "Run on Discord" buttons above to authorize Secret Santa to access your account.
Each user will receive a private message to inform them of their peer name. You can provide an optional message to inform your team about budget or deadline.
Why do I need this app?
At JoliCode, we do a Secret Santa every year. Before this application, we had to ask someone from outside the company to be our "Secret Santa", running a script to dispatch users and sending emails to everyone.
This time is gone! Because all our collaborators are on Slack, we can just select them from this interface and the application does all the work to shuffle users and to inform them of their peer name.“Historians may look back and write about how willing we are to sacrifice our children and jeopardize future generations with a massive experiment that is based on false promises and flawed science just to benefit the bottom line of a commercial enterprise.” So said Don Huber in referring to the use of glyphosate and genetically modified crops. Huber was speaking at Organic Connections conference in Regina, Canada, late 2012.
Huber is an emeritus professor in plant pathology at Purdue University in the US and has worked with the Department of Homeland Security to reduce the impact of plant disease outbreaks. His words are well worth bearing in mind given that a new study commissioned by Friends of the Earth Europe (FoE) and GM Freeze has found that people in 18 countries across Europe have been found to have traces of glyphosate in their urine (1).
Friends of the Earth Europe commissioned laboratory tests on urine samples from volunteers in 18 countries across Europe and found that on average 44 percent of samples contained glyphosate. The proportion of positive samples varied between countries, with Malta, Germany, the UK and Poland having the most positive tests, and lower levels detected in Macedonia and Switzerland. All the volunteers who provided samples live in cities, and none had handled or used glyphosate products in the run-up to the tests.
The Influence of the Biotech Sector on Safety and Regulation
Although ‘weedkiller in urine’ sounds alarming, Tom Sanders, head of the nutritional sciences research division at King’s College London, says the levels found are unlikely to be of any significance to health because they are 300 times lower than the level which might cause concern. Alison Haughton, head of the Pollination Ecology Group at Rothamsted Research, said that if FoE and GM Freeze want their work to have scientific credibility and provide a genuine contribution to the debate on pesticide residues, they should submit their work for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
Valid points, you might think. But FoE believes that there is sufficient evidence to suggest environmental and health impacts from glyphosate warrant concern. It wants to know how the glyphosate found in human urine samples has entered the body, what the impacts of persistent exposure to low levels of glyphosate might be and what happens to the glyphosate that remains in the body. New research published in the journal Entropy sheds disturbing light on such concerns (discussed later in this article).
In 2011, Earth Open Source said that official approval of glyphosate had been rash, problematic and deeply flawed. A comprehensive review of existing data released in June 2011 by Earth Open Source suggested that industry regulators in Europe had known for years that glyphosate causes birth defects in the embryos of laboratory animals. Questions were raised about the role of the powerful agro-industry in rigging data pertaining to product safety and its undue influence on regulatory bodies (2).
In the same vein, FoE says there is currently very little testing for glyphosate by public authorities, despite its widespread use, and authorities in Europe do not test for glyphosate in humans and tests on food are infrequent. Glyphosate was approved for EU-wide use in 2002, but FoE argues that the European regulatory agencies did not carry out their own safety testing, relying instead on data provided by the manufacturers.
Of course there are certain scientists (usually with links to the agro-industry) who always seem to be strident in calling for peer-reviewed evidence when people are critical of the biotech sector, but then rubbish it and smear or intimidate the scientists involved when that occurs, as has been the case with Dr Arsad Pusztai in the UK or Professor Seralini in France. It is therefore quite revealing that most of the data pertaining to glyphosate safety came from industry studies, not from peer-reviewed science, and the original data are not available for independent scrutiny.
Increasing Use
With references to a raft of peer-reviewed studies, FoE also brings attention to the often disturbing health and environmental dangers and impacts of glyphosate-based herbicides throughout the world (1). The FoE study also highlights concerns around the increasing levels of exposure to glyphosate-based weed killers, particularly as the use of glyphosate is predicted to rise further if more genetically modified (GM) crops are grown. It is after all good for business. And the biggest producer of glyphosate is Monsanto, which sells it under the brand name ‘Roundup’.
“The figures don’t lie; GMOs drive glyphosate sales.” (3)
Despite its widespread use, there is currently little monitoring of glyphosate in food, water or the wider environment. The FoE commissioned study is the first time monitoring has been carried out across Europe for the presence of the weed killer in human bodies. FoE Europe’s spokesperson Adrian Bebb argues that there is a serious lack of action by public authorities and indicates that this weed killer is being widely overused.
This certainly needs to be addressed not least because the prediction concerning increasing exposure to glyphosate is not without substance. The introduction of Roundup Ready crops has already resulted in an increase of glyphosate use. Using official US government data, Dr Charles Benbrook, research professor at the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University, states that since 1996 the glysophate rate of application per crop year has tripled on cotton farms, doubled in the case of soybeans and risen 39 percent on corn (4). The average annual increase in the pounds of glyphosate applied to cotton, soybeans, and corn has been 18.2 percent, 9.8 percent, and 4.3 percent, respectively, since herbicide tolerant crops were introduced.
Glyphosate is used on many genetically modified crops. 14 new GM crops designed to be cultivated with glyphosate are currently waiting for approval to be grown in Europe. Approval of these crops would inevitably lead to a further increase of glysphosate spraying. In the US, biotech crops, including corn, soybeans, canola and sugarbeets, are planted on millions of acres annually.
Increasing Dangers
Evidence suggests that Roundup could be linked to a range of health problems and diseases, including Parkinson’s, infertility and cancers, according to a new peer-reviewed report, published recently in the scientific journal Entropy (5). The study also concluded that residues of glyphosate have been found in food.
These residues enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne chemical residues and toxins in the environment to disrupt normal body functions and induce disease, according to the report, authored by Stephanie Seneff, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Anthony Samsel, a science consultant. The study says that negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body.
In 2010, the provincial government of Chaco province in Argentina issued a report on health statistics from the town La Leonesa. The report showed that from 2000 to 2009, following the expansion of genetically-modified soy and rice crops in the region (and the use of glyphosate), the childhood cancer rate tripled in La Leonesa and the rate of birth defects increased nearly fourfold over the entire province (6).
Professor Huber also notes the health risks associated with the (increasing) use of glyphosate. He says a number of plant pathogens are emerging, which when consumed could impact human health. Based on research that he alludes to (he refuses to make his research public or identify his fellow researchers, who he claims could suffer substantial professional backlash from academic employers who received research funding from the biotechnology industry), Huber notes that the use of glyphosate changes the soil ecology, killing many bacteria, while giving other bacteria a competitive advantage. This makes plants highly susceptible to soil borne diseases. At the same time, glyphosate has a negative effect on a number of beneficial soil organisms (7).
Huber’s concerns about the impact of long term use of glyphosate on soil sterility are similar to concerns expressed by Elaine Ingham, a soil ecologist with the Rodale Institute, and also research carried out in by Navdanya in India (8).
As for GM crops, Huber says they have lower water use efficiency, tend to be nutrient deficient, have increased bud and fruit abortion and are predisposed to infectious diseases and insect damage. He suggests that Roundup Ready crops, treated with glyphosate, have higher levels of mycotoxins and lower nutrient levels than conventional crops.
“… you could say that what you’re doing with glyphosate is you’re giving the plant a bad case of AIDS. You’ve shut down the immune system or the defense system.” Professor Ron Huber (7)
He concludes that, when consumed, the GM crops were more likely to cause disease, infertility, birth defects, cancer and allergic reactions than conventional crops.
Huber claims that consumption of food or feed that was genetically modified could bring the altered genes in contact with the microbes in the guts of the livestock or people who eat them. He feels this increases diseases, such as celiac disease, allergies, asthma, chronic fatigue syndrome, diabetes, gluten intolerance, irritable bowel disease, miscarriage, obesity and sudden infant death syndrome.
While none of these findings conclusively prove that plant (or animal) diseases are caused by the glyphosate, Huber feels safety evaluations have been inadequate, suggesting that previous (GM sector) research was substandard and extremely misleading in its interpretation of results – or worse.
With some hugely powerful players involved here, many of whom have successfully infiltrated important government and official bodies (9), much of the science and the ensuing debate surrounding glyphosate is being manipulated and hijacked by vested interests for commercial gain.
“… publishing in this area can also be difficult. I know from the International Symposium on Glyphosate that they had to find a journal publisher outside this country (the US) to publish the research data and symposium proceedings. It’s pretty hard to get it published in the States. There are also some hazards to publishing if you’re a young researcher doing research that runs counter to the current popular concepts. A lot of research on safety of genetic engineering is done outside of this country because it’s difficult to gain access to the materials, or the statements you have to sign to have access to those materials stating that you won’t publish without permission of the supplier. I think the 26 entomologists who sent their letter to EPA in 2009 stated it aptly when they said that objective data wasn’t available to the EPA because the materials haven’t been available to them or that they’re denied the opportunity to publish their data.” Professor Ron Huber (7)
Notes
1)http://www.foeeurope.org/sites/default/files/press_releases/foee_media_briefing_glyphosate.pdf
2) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/24/roundup-scientists-birth-defects_n_883578.html
3) http://www.globalresearch.ca/genetic-engineering-and-corporate-agribusiness-gmos-and-the-impacts-of-glyphosate-herbicide/5337096
4) http://www.organic-center.org/reportfiles/13Years20091126_FullReport.pdf
5) http://www.nationofchange.org/study-links-monsanto-s-roundup-autism-parkinson-s-and-alzheimer-s-1367764115
6) http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-147561-2010-06-14.html
7) http://farmandranchfreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/don-huber-may2011-acres.pdf
8) http://www.i-sis.org.uk/BtCottonKillsSoilandFarmers.php
9) http://rense.com/general33/fd.htmPeople are feeling disenfranchised by politics, with political parties in general and the illusion of choice that our political spectrum offers.
Often people are presented with the 'least bad' option and resort to voting for a party they do not truly believe in, nor feel represents them, simply because they feel an obligation to engage in the voting process or because they view it as the lesser of two evils.
Why not allow people to vote against the party they dislike the most, rather than for the party they dislike the least? The principle of 'one person, one vote' would remain unchanged, but that one vote could be used for a party, or against a party.
Every vote against, cancels out a vote for. This would allow even the most disillusioned voters to express their preferences and would give a voice to the most hardened cynics.
It's a simple idea. They're often the best ones.The Meritocrats Did a Really Bad Job
Ivan Krastev, a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, had an interesting NYT column on the disenchantment of the European public with the meritocrats who have been largely running governments there for the last three decades. Krastev's main conclusion is that the public doesn't identify with an internationally-oriented group of meritocrats who possess skills that are easily transferable from their home country to other countries.
While this lack of sufficient national identity may play a role in the dislike of the meritocrats, there is a much simpler explanation: they have done a horrible job. Much of Europe continues to suffer from high unemployment, or low employment rates, almost a decade after the collapse of housing bubbles sent the continent's economy in a downward spiral. The meritocrats deserve the blame for both the weak recovery and allowing dangerous bubbles to grow in the first place. In most countries, most of the population has seen declining incomes over the last decade in spite of the substantial technological progress we have seen over this period.
Incredibly, Krastev writes of this failure of the meritocrats as though it is just something that happened as opposed to something they did.
"But what happens when these teams start to lose or the economy slows down? Their fans abandon them."
Of course the economy didn't just slow down, the meritocrats mismanaged it. It is not surprising that the public would want to turn away from experts who perform badly in their area of expertise, even if they might be really smart. The fact that almost none of the experts acknowledge their failure and instead look to blame it on impersonal forces, like technology, is not likely to further endear them to workers who are used to be held responsible for the quality of their work |
adornments. They determined to improvise for me a bedroom in this part of the castle, and for this purpose they chose the smallest room, a kind of boudoir, which, although somewhat faded and decrepit, is none the less charming. I must describe it for you as well as I can, so that you may understand the strange vision which I underwent, a vision which fulfilled me for a whole night, without ever leaving me the leisure to note the flight of the hours."This boudoir is very small, very narrow. From the height of the cornice the ceiling arches itself to a vault; the walls are covered with narrow, long mirrors, separated by panels, where landscapes, in the easy style of the decorations, are painted. On the frieze on the four walls various allegorical figures are represented, some in attitudes of repose, others running or flying; above them are brilliant birds and flowers. Behind the figures a trellis rises, painted so as to deceive the eye, and following naturally the curve of the ceiling; this ceiling is gilded. All the interstices between the woodwork and the trellis and the figures are then covered with gold, and at the centre the gold is only interrupted by the geometrical network of the false trellis; you see that that resembles somewhat a very distinguished cage, a very fine cage for a very big bird. I must add that the night was very fine, very clear, and the moon brightly shining; so much so that even after I had put out my candle all this decoration remained visible, not illuminated by my mind's eye, as you might think, but by this lovely night, whose lights clung to all this broidery of gold, of mirrors, and of patchwork colours."I was at first much astonished to see great spaces spread themselves out before me, beside me, on all sides. There were limpid rivers, and green meadows admiring their own beauty in calm waters: you may guess here the effect of the panels reflected by the mirrors. In raising my eyes I saw a setting sun, like molten metal that grows cold. It was the gold of the ceiling. But the trellis put in my mind the idea that I was in a kind of cage, or in a house open on all sides upon space, and that I was only separated from all these marvels by the bars of my magnificent prison. In the first place I laughed at the illusion which had hold of me; but the more I looked the more its magic grew great, the more it took life, clearness, and masterful reality. From that moment the idea of being shut up mastered my mind, without, I must admit, too seriously interfering with the varied pleasures which I drew from the spectacle spread around and above me. I thought of myself as of one imprisoned for long, for thousands of years perhaps, in this sumptuous cage, among these fairy pastures, between these marvellous horizons. I imagined myself the Sleeping Beauty; dreamt of an expiation that I must undergo, of deliverance to come. Above my head fluttered brilliant tropical birds, and as my ear caught the sound of the little bells on the necks of the horses which were travelling far away on the main road, the two senses pooling their impressions in a single idea, I attributed to the birds this mysterious brazen chant; I imagined that they sang with a metallic throat. Evidently they were talking to me, and chanting hymns to my captivity. Gambolling monkeys, buffoon-like satyrs, seemed to amuse themselves at this supine prisoner, doomed to immobility; yet all the gods of mythology looked upon me with an enchanting smile, as if to encourage me to bear the sorcery with patience, and all their eyes slid to the corner of their eyelids as if to fix themselves on me. I came to the conclusion that if some faults of the olden time, some sins unknown to myself, had made necessary this temporary punishment, I could yet count upon an overriding goodness, which, while condemning me to a prudent course, would offer me truer pleasures than the dull pleasures which filled our youth. You see that moral considerations were not absent from my dream; but I must admit that the pleasure of contemplating these brilliant forms and colours and of thinking myself the centre of a fantastic drama frequently absorbed all my other thoughts. This stayed long, very long. Did it last till morning? I do not know. All of a sudden I saw the morning sun taking his bath in my room. I experienced a lively astonishment, and despite all the efforts of memory that I have been able to make I have never been able to assure myself whether I had slept or whether I had patiently undergone a delicious insomnia. A moment ago, Night; now, Day. And yet I had lived long; oh, very long! The notion of Time, or rather the standard of Time, being abolished, the whole night was only measurable by the multitude of my thoughts. So long soever as it must have appeared to me from this point of view, it also seemed to me that it had only lasted some seconds; or even that it had not taken place in eternity."I do not say anything to you of my fatigue; it was immense. They say that the enthusiasm of poets and creative artists resembles what I experienced, though I have always believed that those persons on whom is laid the task of stirring us must be endowed with a most calm temperament. But if the poetic delirium resembles that which a teaspoonful of hashish confection procured for me I cannot but think that the pleasures of the public cost the poets dear, and it is not without a certain well-being, a prosaic satisfaction, that I at last find myself at home, in my intellectual home; I mean, in real life."There is a woman, evidently reasonable; but we shall only make use of her story to draw from it some useful notes, which will complete this very compressed summary of the principal feelings which hashish begets.She speaks of supper as of a pleasure arriving at the right moment; at the moment where a momentary remission, momentary for all its pretence of finality, permitted her to go back to real life. Indeed, there are, as I have said, intermissions, and deceitful calms, and hashish often brings about a voracious hunger, nearly always an excessive thirst. Only, dinner or supper, instead of bringing about a permanent rest, creates this new attack, the vertiginous crisis of which this lady complains, and which was followed by a series of enchanting visions lightly tinged with affright, to which she so assented, resigning herself with the best grace in the world. The tyrannical hunger and thirst of which we speak are not easily assayed without considerable trouble. For the man feels himself so much above material things, or rather he is so much overwhelmed by his drunkenness, that he must develop a lengthy spell of courage to move a bottle or a fork.The definitive crisis determined by the digestion of food is, in fact, very violent; it is impossible to struggle against it. And such a state would not be supportable if it lasted too long, and if it did not soon give place to another phase of intoxication, which in the case above cited interprets itself by splendid visions, tenderly terrifying, and at the same time full of consolations. This new state is what the Easterns call Kaif. It is no longer the whirlwind or the tempest; it is a calm and motionless bliss, a glorious resignèdness. Since long you have not been your own master; but you trouble yourself no longer about that. Pain, and the sense of time, have disappeared; or if sometimes they dare to show their heads, it is only as transfigured by the master feeling, and they are then, as compared with their ordinary form, what poetic melancholy is to prosaic grief.But above all let us remark that in this lady's account (and it is for this purpose that I have transcribed it) it is but a bastard hallucination, and owes its being to the objects of the external world. The spirit is but a mirror where the environment is reflected, strangely transformed. Then, again, we see intruding what I should be glad to call moral hallucination; the patient thinks herself condemned to expiate somewhat; but the feminine temperament, which is ill-fitted to analyse, did not permit her to notice the strangely optimistic character of the aforesaid hallucination. The benevolent look of the gods of Olympus is made poetical by a varnish essentially due to hashish. I will not say that this lady has touched the fringe of remorse, but her thoughts, momentarily turned in the direction of melancholy and regret, have been quickly coloured by hope. This is an observation which we shall again have occasion to verify.She speaks of the fatigue of the morrow. In fact, this is great. But it does not show itself at once, and when you are obliged to acknowledge its existence you do so not without surprise: for at first, when you are really assured that a new day has arisen on the horizon of your life, you experience an extraordinary sense of well-being; you seem to enjoy a marvellous lightness of spirit. But you are scarcely on your feet when a forgotten fragment of intoxication follows you and pulls you back; it is the badge of your recent slavery. Your enfeebled legs only conduct you with caution, and you fear at every moment to break yourself, as if you were made of porcelain. A wondrous languor -- there are those who pretend that it does not lack charm -- possesses itself of your spirit, and spreads itself across your faculties as a fog spreads itself in a meadow. There, then, you are, for some hours yet, incapable of work, of action, and of energy. It is the punishment of an impious prodigality in which you have squandered your nervous force. You have dispersed your personality to the four winds of heaven -- and now, what trouble to gather it up again and concentrate it!It is time to leave on one side all this jugglery, these big marionettes, born of the smoke of childish brains. Have we not to speak of more serious things -- of modifications of our human opinions, and, in a word, of the morale of hashish?Up to the present I have only made an abridged monograph on the intoxication; I have confined myself to accentuating its principal characteristics. But what is more important, I think, for the spiritually minded man, is to make acquaintance with the action of the poison upon the spiritual part of man; that is to say, the enlargement, the deformation, and the exaggeration of his habitual sentiments and his moral perception, which present then, in an exceptional atmosphere, a true phenomenon of refraction.The man who, after abandoning himself for a long time to opium or to hashish, has been able, weak as he has become by the habit of bondage, to find the energy necessary to shake off the chain, appears to me like an escaped prisoner. He inspires me with more admiration than does that prudent man who has never fallen, having always been careful to avoid the temptation. The English, in speaking of opium-eaters, often employ terms which can only appear excessive to those innocent persons who do not understand the horrors of this downfall -- enchained, fettered, enslaved. Chains, in fact, compared to which all others -- chains of duty, chains of lawless love -- are nothing but webs of gauze and spider tissues. Horrible marriage of man with himself! "I had become a bounden slave in the trammels of opium, and my labours and my orders had taken a colouring from my dreams," says the husband of Ligeia. But in how many marvellous passages does Edgar Poe, this incomparable poet, this never-refuted philosopher, whom one must always quote in speaking of the mysterious maladies of the soul, describe the dark and clinging splendours of opium! The lover of the shining Berenice, Egoeus, the metaphysician, speaks of an alteration of his faculties which compels him to give an abnormal and monstrous value to the simplest phenomenon."To muse for long unwearied hours, with my attention riveted to some frivolous device on the margin or in the typography of a book; to become absorbed, for the better part of a summer's day, in a quaint shadow falling aslant upon the tapestry or upon the floor; to lose myself, for an entire night, in watching the steady flame of a lamp, or the embers of a fire; to dream away whole days over the perfume of a flower; to repeat monotonously some common word, until the sound, by dint of frequent repetition, ceased to convey any idea whatever to the mind; to lose all sense of motion or physical existence, by means of absolute bodily quiescence long and obstinately persevered in: such were a few of the most common and least pernicious vagaries induced by a condition of the mental faculties, not, indeed, altogether unparalleled, but certainly bidding defiance to anything like analysis or explanation."And the nervous Augustus Bedloe, who every morning before his walk swallows his dose of opium, tells us that the principal prize which he gains from this daily poisoning is to take in everything, even in the most trivial thing, an exaggerated interest."In the meantime the morphine had its customary effect -- that of enduing all the external world with an intensity of interest. In the quivering of a leaf -- in the hue of a blade of grass -- in the shape of a trefoil -- in the humming of a bee -- in the gleaming of a dew-drop -- in the breathing of the wind -- in the faint odours that came from the forest -- there came a whole universe of suggestion -- a gay and motley train of rhapsodical and immethodical thought."Thus expresses himself, by the mouth of his puppets, the master of the horrible, the prince of mystery. These two characteristics of opium are perfectly applicable to hashish. In the one case, as in the other, the intelligence, formerly free, becomes a slave; but the word rapsodique, which defines so well a train of thought suggested and dictated by the exterior world and the accident of circumstance, is in truth truer and more terrible in the case of hashish. Here the reasoning power is no more than a wave, at the mercy of every current and the train of thought is infinitely more accelerated and more rapsodique; that is to say, clearly enough, I think, that hashish is, in its immediate effect, much more vehement than opium, much more inimical to regular life; in a word, much more upsetting. I do not know if ten years of intoxication by hashish would bring diseases equal to those caused by ten years of opium regimen; I say that, for the moment, and for the morrow, hashish has more fatal results. One is a soft-spoken enchantress; the other, a raging demon.I wish in this last part to define and to analyse the moral ravage caused by this dangerous and delicious practice; a ravage so great, a danger so profound, that those who return from the fight but lightly wounded appear to me like heroes escaped from the cave of a multiform Proteus, or like Orpheus, conquerors of Hell. You may take, if you will, this form of language for an exaggerated metaphor, but for my part I will affirm that these exciting poisons seem to me not only one of the most terrible and the most sure means which the Spirit of Darkness uses to enlist and enslave wretched humanity, but even one of the most perfect of his avatars.This time, to shorten my task and make my analysis the clearer, instead of collecting scattered anecdotes I will dress a single puppet in a mass of observation. I must, then, invent a soul to suit my purpose. In his "Confessions" De Quincey rightly states that opium, instead of sending man to sleep, excites him; but only excites him in his natural path, and that therefore to judge of the marvels of opium it would be ridiculous to try it upon a seller of oxen, for such an one will dream of nothing but cattle and grass. Now I am not going to describe the lumbering fancies of a hashish-intoxicated stockbreeder. Who would read them with pleasure, or consent to read them at all? To idealise my subject I must concentrate all its rays into a single circle and polarise them; and the tragic circle where I will gather them together will be, as I have said, a man after my own heart; something analogous to what the eighteenth century called the homme sensible, to what the romantic school named the homme incompris, and to what family folk and the mass of bourgeoisie generally brand with the epithet "original." A constitution half nervous, half bilious, is the most favourable to the evolutions of an intoxication of this kind. Let us add a cultivated mind, exercised in the study of form and colour, a tender heart, wearied by misfortune, but still ready to be made young again; we will go, if you please, so far as to admit past errors, and, as a natural result of these in an easily excitable nature, if not positive remorse, at least regret for time profaned and ill-spent. A taste for metaphysics, an acquaintance with the different hypotheses of philosophy of human destiny, will certainly not be useless conditions; and, further, that love of virtue, of abstract virtue, stoical or mystic, which is set forth in all the books upon which modern childishness feeds as the highest summit to which a chosen soul may attain. If one adds to all that a great refinement of sense -- and if I omitted it it was because I thought it supererogatory -- I think that I have gathered together the general elements which are most common in the modern homme sensible of what one might call the lowest common measure of originality. Let us see now what will become of this individuality pushed to its extreme by hashish. Let us follow this progress of the human imagination up to its last and most splendid serai; up to the point of the belief of the individual in his own divinity.If you are one of these souls your innate love of form and colour will find from the beginning an immense banquet in the first development of your intoxication. Colours will take an unaccustomed energy and smite themselves within your brain with the intensity of triumph. Delicate, mediocre, or even bad as they may be, the paintings upon the ceilings will clothe themselves with a tremendous life. The coarsest papers which cover the walls of inns will open out like magnificent dioramas. Nymphs with dazzling flesh will look at you with great eyes deeper and more limpid than are the sky and sea. Characters of antiquity, draped in their priestly or soldierly costumes, will, by a single glance, exchange with you most solemn confidences. The snakiness of the lines is a definitely intelligible language where you read the sorrowing and the passion of their souls. Nevertheless a mysterious but only temporary state of the mind develops itself; the profoundness of life, hedged by its multiple problems, reveals itself entirely in the sight, however natural and trivial it may be, that one has under one's eyes; the first-come object becomes a speaking symbol. Fourier and Swedenborg, one with his analogies, the other with his correspondences, have incarnated themselves in all things vegetable and animal which fall under your glance, and instead of touching by voice they indoctrinate you by form and colour. The understanding of the allegory takes within you proportions unknown to yourself. We shall note in passing that allegory, that so spiritual type of art, which the clumsiness of its painters has accustomed us to despise, but which is realy one of the most primitive and natural forms of poetry, regains its divine right in the intelligence which is enlightened by intoxication. Then the hashish spreads itself over all life; as it were, the magic varnish. It colours it with solemn hues and lights up all its profundity; jagged landscapes, fugitive horizons, perspectives of towns whitened by the corpse-like lividity of storm or illumined by the gathered ardours of the sunset; abysses of space, allegorical of the abyss of time; the dance, the gesture or the speech of the actors, should you be in a theatre; the first-come phrase if your eyes fall upon a book; in a word, all things; the universality of beings stands up before you with a new glory unsuspected until then. The grammar, the dry grammar itself, becomes something like a book of "barbarous names of evocation." The words rise up again, clothed with flesh and bone; the noun, in its solid majesty; the adjective's transparent robe which clothes and colours it with a shining web; and the verb, archangel of motion which sets swinging the phrase. Music, that other language dear to the idle or the profound souls who seek repose by varying their work, speaks to you of yourself, and recites to you the poem of your life; it incarnates in you, and you swoon away in it. It speaks your passion, not only in a vague, ill-defined manner, as it does in your careless evenings at the opera, but in a substantial and positive manner, each movement of the rhythm marking a movement understood of your soul, each note transforming itself into Word, and the whole poem entering into your brain like a dictionary endowed with life.It must not be supposed that all these phenomena fall over each other pell-mell in the spirit, with a clamorous accent of reality and the disorder of exterior life; the interior eye transforms all, and gives to all the complement of beauty which it lacks, so that it may be truly worthy to give pleasure. It is also to this essentially voluptuous and sensual phase that one must refer the love of limpid water, running or stagnant, which develops itself so astonishingly in the brain-drunkenness of some artists. The mirror has become a pretext for this reverie, which resembles a spiritual thirst joined to the physical thirst which dries the throat, and of which I have spoken above. The flowing waters, the sportive waters; the musical waterfalls; the blue vastness of the sea; all roll, sing, leap with a charm beyond words. The water opens its arms to you like a true enchantress; and though I do not much believe in the maniacal frenzies caused by hashish, I should not like to assert that the contemplation of some limpid gulf would be altogether without danger for a soul in love with space and crystal, and that the old fable of Undine might not become a tragic reality for the enthusiast.I think I have spoken enough of the gigantic growth of space and time; two ideas always connected, always woven together, but which at such a time the spirit faces without sadness and without fear. It looks with a certain melancholy delight across deep years, and boldly dives into infinite perspectives. You have thoroughly well understood, I suppose, that this abnormal and tyrannical growth may equally apply to all sentiments and to all ideas. Thus, I have given, I think, a sufficiently fair sample of benevolence. The same is true of love. The idea of beauty must naturally take possession of an enormous space in a spiritual temperament such as I have invented. Harmony, balance of line, fine cadence in movement, appear to the dreamer as necessities, as duties, not only for all beings of creation, but for himself, the dreamer, who finds himself at this period of the crisis endowed with a marvellous aptitude for understanding the immortal and universal rhythm. And if our fanatic lacks personal beauty, do not think he suffers long from the avowal to which he is obliged, or that he regards himself as a discordant note in the world of harmony and beauty improvised by his imagination. The sophisms of hashish are numerous and admirable, tending as a rule to optimism, and one of the principal and the most efficacious is that which transforms desire into realisation. It is the same, doubtless, in many cases of ordinary life; but here with how much more ardour and subtlety! Otherwise, how could a being so well endowed to understand harmony, a sort of priest of the beautiful, how could he make an exception to, and a blot upon, his own theory? Moral beauty and its power, gracefulness and its seduction, eloquence and its achievements, all these ideas soon present themselves to correct that thoughtless ugliness; then they come as consolers, and at last as the most perfect courtiers, sycophants of an imaginary sceptre.Concerning love, I have heard many persons feel a school-boy curiosity, seeking to gather information from those to whom the use of hashish was familiar, what might not be this intoxication of love, already so powerful in its natural state, when it is enclosed in the other intoxication; a sun within a sun. Such is the question which will occur to that class of minds which I will call intellectual gapers. To reply to a shameful sub-meaning of this part of the question which cannot be openly discussed, I will refer the reader to Pliny, who speaks somewhere of the properties of hemp in such a way as to dissipate any illusions on this subject. One knows, besides, that loss of tone is the most ordinary result of the abuse which men make of their nerves, and of the substances which excite them. Now, as we are not here considering effective power, but motion or susceptibility, I will simply ask the reader to consider that the imagination of a sensitive man intoxicated with hashish is raised to a prodigious degree, as little easy to determine as would be the utmost force possible to the wind in a hurricane, and his senses are subtilised to a point almost equally difficult to define. It is then reasonable to believe that a light caress, the most innocent imaginable, a handshake, for example, may possess a centuple value by the actual state of the soul and of the senses, and may perhaps conduct them, and that very rapidly, to that syncope which is considered by vulgar mortals as the summum of happiness; but it is quite indubitable that hashish awakes in an imagination accustomed to occupy itself with the affections tender remembrances to which pain and unhappiness give even a new lustre. It is no less certain that in these agitations of the mind there is a strong ingredient of sensuality; and, moreover, it may usefully be remarked -- and this will suffice to establish upon this ground the immorality of hashish -- that a sect of Ishmaelites (it is from the Ishmaelites that the Assassins are sprung) allowed its adoration to stray far beyond the Lingam-Yoni; that is to say, to the absolute worship of the Lingam, exclusive of the feminine half of the symbol. There would be nothing unnatural, every man being the symbolic representation of history, in seeing an obscene heresy, a monstrous religion, arise in a mind which has cowardly given itself up to the mercy of a hellish drug and which smiles at the degradation of its own faculties.Since we have seen manifest itself in hashish intoxication a strange goodwill toward men, applied even to strangers, a species of philanthropy made rather of pity than of love (it is here that the first germ of the Satanic spirit which is to develop later in so extraordinary a manner shows itself), but which goes so far as to fear giving pain to any one, one may guess what may happen to the localised sentimentality applied to a beloved person who plays, or has played, an important part in the moral life of the reveller. Worship, adoration, prayer, dreams of happiness, dart forth and spring up with the ambitious energy and brilliance of a rocket. Like the powder and colouring-matter of the firework, they dazzle and vanish in the darkness. There is no sort of sentimental combination to which the subtle love of a hashish-slave may not lend itself. The desire to protect, a sentiment of ardent and devoted paternity, may mingle themselves with a guilty sensuality which hashish will always know how to excuse and to absolve. It goes further still. I suppose that, past errors having left bitter traces in the soul, a husband or a lover will contemplate with sadness in his normal state a past over-clouded with storm; these bitter fruits may, under hashish, change to sweet fruits. The need of pardon makes the imagination more clever and more supplicatory, and remorse itself, in this devilish drama, which only expresses itself by a long monologue, may act as an incitement and powerfully rekindle the heart's enthusiasm. Yes, remorse. Was I wrong in saying that hashish appeared to a truly philosophical mind as a perfectly Satanic instrument? Remorse, singular ingredient of pleasure, is soon drowned in the delicious contemplation of remorse; in a kind of voluptuous analysis; and this analysis is so rapid that man, this natural devil, to speak as do the followers of Swedenborg, does not see how involuntary it is, and how, from moment to moment, he approaches the perfection of Satan. He admires his remorse, and glorifies himself, even while he is on the way to lose his freedom.There, then, is my imaginary man, the mind that I have chosen, arrived at that degree of joy and peace where he is compelled to admire himself. Every contradiction wipes itself out; all philosophical problems become clear, or at least appear so; everything is material for pleasure; the plentitude of life which he enjoys inspires him with an unmeasured pride; a voice speaks in him (alas, it is his own!) which says to him: "Thou hast now the right to consider thyself as superior to all men. None knoweth thee, none can understand all that thou thinkest, all that thou feelest; they would, indeed, be incapable of appreciating the passionate love which they inspire in thee. Thou art a king unrecognised by the passers-by; a king who lives, yet none knows that he is king but himself. But what matter to thee? Hast thou not sovereign contempt, which makes the soul so kind?"We may suppose, however, that from one time to another some biting memory strikes through and corrupts this happiness. A suggestion due to the exterior world may revive a past disagreeable to contemplate. How many foolish or vile actions fill the past! -- actions indeed unworthy of this king of thought, and whose escutcheon they soil? Believe that the hashish-man will bravely confront these reproachful phantoms, and even that he will know how to draw from these hideous memories new elements of pleasure and of pride!Such will be the evolution of his reasoning. The first sensation of pain being over, he will curiously analyse this action or this sentiment whose memory has troubled his existing glory; the motive which made him act thus; the circumstances by which he was surrounded; and if he does not find in these circumstances sufficient reasons, if not to absolve, at least to extenuate his guilt, do not imagine that he admits defeat. I am present at his reasoning, as at the play of a mechanism seen under a transparent glass. "This ridiculous, cowardly, or vile action, whose memory disturbed me for a moment, is in complete contradiction with my true and real nature, and the very energy with which I condemn it, the inquisitorial care with which I analyse and judge it, prove my lofty and divine aptitude for virtue. How many men could be found in the world of men clever enough to judge themselves; stern enough to condemn themselves?" And not only does he condemn himself, but he glorifies himself; the horrible memory thus absorbed in the contemplation of ideal virtue, ideal charity, ideal genius, he abandons himself frankly to his triumphant spiritual orgy. We have seen that, counterfeiting sacrilegiously the sacrament of penitence, at one and the same time penitent and confessor, he has given himself an easy absolution; or, worse yet, that he has drawn from his contemplation new food for his pride. Now, from the contemplation of his dreams and his schemes of virtue he believes finally in his practical aptitude for virtue; the amorous energy with which he impresses this phantom of virtue seems to him a sufficient and peremptory proof that he possesses the virile energy necessary for the fulfilment of his ideal. He confounds completely dream with action, and his imagination, growing warmer and warmer in face of the enchanting spectacle of his own nature corrected and idealised, substituting this fascinating image of himself for his real personality, so poor in will, so rich in vanity, he ends by declaring his apotheosis in these clear and simple terms, which contain for him a whole world of abominable pleasures: "I am the most virtuous of all men." Does not that remind you a little of Jean-Jacques, who, he also having confessed to the Universe, not without a certain pleasure, dared to break out into the same cry of triumph (or at least the difference is small enough) with the same sincerity and the same conviction? The enthusiasm with which he admired virtue, the nervous emotion which filled his eyes with tears at the sight of a fine action or at the thought of all the fine actions which he would have wished to accomplish, were sufficient to give him a superlative idea of his moral worth. Jean-Jacques had intoxicated himself without the aid of hashish.Shall I pursue yet further the analysis of this victorious monomania? Shall I explain how, under the dominion of the poison, my man soon makes himself centre of the Universe? how he becomes the living and extravagant expression of the proverb which says that passion refers everything to itself? He believes in his virtue and in his genius; can you not guess the end? All the surrounding objects are so many suggestions which stir in him a world of thought, all more coloured, more living, more subtle than ever, clothed in a magic glamour. "These mighty cities," says he to himself, "where the superb buildings tower one above the other; these beautiful ships balanced by the waters of the roadstead in homesick idleness, that seem to translate our thought 'When shall we set sail for happiness?; these museums full of lovely shapes and intoxicating colours; these libraries where are accumulated the works of science and the dreams of poetry; this concourse of instruments whose music is one; these enchantress women, made yet more charming by the science of adornment and coquetry: all these things have been created for me, for me, for me! For me humanity has toiled; has been martyred, crucified, to serve for pasture, for pabulum to my implacable appetite for emotion, knowledge, and beauty."I leap to the end, I cut the story short. No one will be surprised that a thought final and supreme jets from the brain of the dreamer: "I am become God."But a savage and burning cry darts from his breast with such an energy, such a power of production, that if the will and the belief of a drunken man possessed effective power this cry would overthrow the angels scattered in the quarters of the heaven: "I am a god."But soon this hurricane of pride transforms itself into a weather of calm, silent, reposeful beatitude, and the universality of beings presents itself tinted and illumined by a flaming dawn. If by chance a vague memory slips into the soul of this deplorable thrice-happy one -- "Might there not be another God?" -- believe that he will stand upright before Him; that he will dispute His will, and confront Him without fear.Who was the French philosopher that, mocking modern German doctrines, said: "I am a god who has dined ill"? This irony would not bite into a spirit uplifted by hashish; he would reply tranquilly: "Maybe I have dined ill; but I am a god."But the morrow; the terrible morrow! All the organs relaxed, tired; the nerves unstretched, the teasing tendency to tears, the impossibility of applying yourself to a continuous task, teach you cruelly that you have been playing a forbidden game. Hideous nature, stripped of its illumination of the previous evening, resembles the melancholy ruins of a festival. The will, the most precious of all faculties, is above all attacked. They say, and it is nearly true, that this substance does not cause any physical ill; or at least no grave one; but can one affirm that a man incapable of action and fit only for dreaming is really in good health, even when every part of him functions perfectly? Now we know human nature sufficiently well to be assured that a man who can with a spoonful of sweetmeat procure for himself incidentally all the treasures of heaven and of earth will never gain the thousandth part of them by working for them. Can you imagine to yourself a State of which all the citizens should be hashish drunkards? What citizens! What warriors! What legislators! Even in the East, where its use is so widely spread, there are Governments which have understood the necessity of proscribing it. In fact it is forbidden to man, under penalty of intellectual decay and death, to upset the primary conditions of his existence, and to break up the equilibrium of his faculties with the surroundings in which they are destined to operate; in a word, to outrun his destiny, to substitute for it a fatality of a new kind. Let us remember Melmoth, that admirable parable. His shocking suffering lies in the disproportion between his marvellous faculties, acquired unostentatiously by a Satanic pact, and the surroundings in which, as a creature of God, he is condemned to live. And none of those whom he wishes to seduce consents to buy from him on the same conditions his terrible privilege. In fact every man who does not accept the conditions of life sells his soul. It is easy to grasp the analogy which exists between the Satanic creations of poets and those living beings who have devoted themselves to stimulants. Man has wished to become God, and soon? -- there he is, in virtue of an inexorable moral law, fallen lower than his natural state! It is a soul which sells itself bit by bit.Balzac doubtless thought that there is for man no greater shame, no greater suffering, than to abdicate his will. I saw him once in a drawing-room, where they were talking of the prodigious effects of hashish. He listened and asked questions with an amusing attention and vivacity. Those who knew him may guess that it must have interested him, but the idea of thinking despite himself shocked him severely. They offered him dawamesk. He examined it, sniffed at it, and returned it without touching it. The struggle between his almost childish curiosity and his repugnance to submit himself showed strikingly on his expressive face. The love of dignity won the day. Now it is |
311.10.3.13" /e 12/31/2016 /sv MyLocalKey1.pvk MyLocalKey1.cer
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\x86\pvk2pfx" -po -pvk MyLocalKey1.pvk -spc MyLocalKey1.cer -pfx MyLocalKey1.pfx
certutil -user -addstore Root MyLocalKey1.cer
Now I'll sign my Appx.
NOTE: Make sure the Identity in the AppxManifest matches the code signing cert's CN=Identity. That's the FULL string from the cert. Otherwise you'll see weird stuff in your Event Viewer in Microsoft|Windows\AppxPackagingOM|Microsoft-Windows-AppxPackaging/Operational like "error 0x8007000B: The app manifest publisher name (CN=HanselmanVB6, O=Hanselman, L=Portland, S=OR, C=USA) must match the subject name of the signing certificate exactly (CN=HanselmanVB6)."
I'll use a command line like this. Remember that Visual Studio can hide a lot of this, but since I'm doing it manually it's good to understand the details.
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\x86\signtool.exe" sign /debug /fd SHA256 /a /f MyLocalKey1.pfx Project1.appx
The following certificates were considered:
Issued to: HanselmanVB6
Issued by: HanselmanVB6
Expires: Sat Dec 31 00:00:00 2016
SHA1 hash: 19F384D1D0BD33F107B2D7344C4CA40F2A557749
After EKU filter, 1 certs were left.
After expiry filter, 1 certs were left.
After Private Key filter, 1 certs were left.
The following certificate was selected:
Issued to: HanselmanVB6
Issued by: HanselmanVB6
Expires: Sat Dec 31 00:00:00 2016
SHA1 hash: 19F384D1D0BD33F107B2D7344C4CA40F2A557749
The following additional certificates will be attached:
Done Adding Additional Store
Successfully signed: Project1.appx
Number of files successfully Signed: 1
Number of warnings: 0
Number of errors: 0
Now I've got a (local developer) signed, packaged Appx that has a VB6 app inside it. If I double click I'll get the Appx installer, but what I really want to do is sign it with a real cert and put it in the Windows Store!
Here's the app running. Pretty amazing UX, I know.
It's early days, IMHO, but I'm looking forward to a time when I can go to the Windows Store and get my favorite apps like Windows Open Live Writer, Office, Slack, and more! Now's the time for you to start exploring these tools.
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Sponsor: Big thanks to Redgate for sponsoring the feed this week. Discover the world’s most trusted SQL Server comparison tool. Enjoy a free trial of SQL Compare, the industry standard for comparing and deploying SQL Server schemas.BEIJING — A court in southeastern China has sentenced a Protestant pastor to 14 years in prison and his wife to 12 years after convicting them of corruption, financial crimes and gathering people to disturb social order, an official provincial newspaper reported on Friday.
The sentences for the pastor, Bao Guohua, and his wife, Xing Wenxiang, were among the harshest imposed recently on clergy members and their associates in China. The newspaper reported that a court had sentenced an additional 10 people who were members of Mr. Bao’s church or a Christian group in the same city, Jinhua, in Zhejiang Province, but it did not give details of those sentences.
The newspaper, Zhejiang Daily, also said that the court had ordered the confiscation from Mr. Bao of 600,000 renminbi, or about $92,000, and fined him $15,300. It said his wife also had $92,000 confiscated and received a fine of less than $14,000.
In the last two years, Zhejiang has been carrying out a campaign to limit the influence there of Christian churches and groups. Christianity has a relatively strong presence in the province, where President Xi Jinping once served as the Communist Party chief.Rev. Al Sharpton blasted President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE on Saturday for appearing to encourage police to be "rough" with suspects during his Friday speech to law enforcement in Long Island, New York.
The legendary civil rights advocate accused Trump of supporting "police violence" in his remarks to officers, and pointed out Trump's use of an anti-Irish slur.
"As if the reprehensible statement by President Donald Trump encouraging police violence wasn't enough," Sharpton wrote on Instagram. "He used a slur against Irish regarding "Paddy Wagons."
As if the reprehensible statement by President Donald Trump encouraging police violence wasn't… https://t.co/bUWIQGiSGP — Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) July 29, 2017
The post was included along with a video of Sharpton speaking to members of his organization, the National Action Network, which fights for civil rights.
In the video, Sharpton said he is not anti-law enforcement,or trying to protect gangs by speaking out against Trump. Trump's speech concerned gang violence by the MS-13 group.
"We are not adverse at all to stopping criminal behavior that preys on our community first and foremost," Sharpton told the crowd.
"The problem in our community is those who we trust to fight crime, they must be held accountable if they go over the line and commit a crime," he continued.
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In his remarks to officers Friday on Long Island, Trump appeared to endorse rougher treatment of suspects by police officers.
"When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddywagon, you just see them thrown in, rough, I said, ‘Please don't be too nice," Trump said Friday.
“Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over?” the president continued. “Like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody. Don’t hit their head? I said, ‘You can take the hand away, OK?’”
The Suffolk County Police Department, which operates on Long Island, responded to Trump's remarks, saying they don't tolerate "roughing up of prisoners."
“The SCPD has strict rules & procedures relating to the handling of prisoners. Violations of those rules are treated extremely seriously,” the department tweeted Friday.
“As a department, we do not and will not tolerate roughing up of prisoners.”On 12th January 1510, at a private joust at Richmond Park, Henry VIII jousted for the first time as king.
He and his good friend William Compton attended the joust in disguise so that nobody knew the king was taking part. However, this led to panic when one of the disguised men was injured and a man who did know that the king was taking part cried out “God save the king”:
The king was forced to reveal his identity to settle people’s fears that he had been injured. It was Compton who had been seriously hurt. Chronicler Edward Hall records the event:
“The kyng ranne never openly before, and there were broken many staves, and greate praise geven to the two straungers, but Specially to one, whiche was the kyng: howebeit, at a course by misfortune, sir Edward Nevell Esquire, brother to the Lorde of Burganie,- did runne against Master Cumpton, and hurte hym sore, and was likely to dye. One persone there was, that knew the kyng, and cried, God save the king, with that, all the people wer astonied, and then the kyng discovered hymself, to the greate comforte of all the people.”
William Compton survived the accident and served the King as his Groom of the Stool until Wolsey’s Eltham Ordinances forced his resignation. He died in June 1528 after contracting sweating sickness.
Henry VIII suffered two nasty jousting accidents and you can read more about them in the following articles:
Notes and Sources
Hall’s Chronicle, Edward Hall, p513
Categories: Henry VIIIThe whiskey company Ardbeg found differences in the taste of whiskey after it spent two years on the International Space Station.
After spending more than two years in a weightless environment, whiskey distillate on the International Space Station (ISS) tastes different from samples on Earth, a whiskey company reported.
Scotch whiskey company Ardbeg rocketed the samples into space along with an ISS crew at the invitation of NanoRacks LLC, the company that manages experiments on the U.S. side of the station.
Shortly after launch, in January 2012, astronauts broke open the glass separating the distillate (which is usually put into oak barrels to mature) and oak wood shavings, modeling the whiskey-making process where the substance is normally put in oak barrels to mature. At the same time, they ran a parallel test on Earth.
Although there were a few differences observed after the whiskey had spent 971 days in space, the biggest one was how many small molecules from the wood, called wood extractives, had made their way into the samples. The levels of wood extractives were much higher than they would have been if the whiskey had matured in barrels on Earth, due to the larger amount of surface area available when using wood shavings instead.
"I was expecting a little different flavor. However, when myself and my team went to nose and taste the samples... I was quite astonished at how different the samples were," Bill Lumsden, Ardbeg's director of distilling, said in a YouTube video about the experiment.
Although the results are quite new, Lumsden pledged to try to find ways to incorporate the new flavor into his whiskey. He also said he hopes to send more samples to the space station for "something more advanced" but didn't elaborate on what that might be.
This is the first such experiment for a whiskey maker in space, the company said, but there have been many other experiments involving beer and liquor.
Just last month, Japan's Tokyo-based Suntory Global Innovation Center launched five different samples of booze to the International Space Station aboard a Japanese cargo ship as part of an experiment to study how whiskey "mellows" in space.
Among other recent experiments, an 11-year-old's concoction flew on the ISS, and another company launched yeast on a sounding rocket that was later collected to form the basis of a beer.
Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Original article onCastleford capture Monaghan
Posted: Tuesday 27th October 2015 - 5:58 AM
Castleford Tigers can confirm that Joel Monaghan has joined the team on a two-year deal.
Monaghan was released by Warrington Wolves at the end of last season and was linked with a number of other teams before choosing to join the Tigers.
He is a prolific try scorer having bagged 114 tries in 118 Super League appearances for the Wolves including 17 in 2015.
The former Australian international and New South Wales State of Origin star played nine years in the NRL before moving to England. Two spells at Canberra Raiders sandwiched a two year spell with Sydney Roosters.
Monaghan is excited over the prospect of joining the Tigers: “I’m really excited. This is a team that are challenging for trophies and top fours. Cas are a very good coached side and they are a very good bunch of blokes. I know a couple of the guys but I’m looking forward to preseason and getting to know the rest of them.
“I’m looking forward to being on the other side of the fans, it’s a great place down here at the Jungle and a very hard place for teams to come and get a win,” said Monaghan. “When I told my dad I’d signed here he was happy because whenever he comes over the Jungle is always his favourite ground to come to.”
Tigers coach, Daryl Powell, is happy to have a great player like Monaghan on board for 2016:“Joel Monaghan is a high quality and experienced winger to add to our back line. He is a proven try scorer with good leadership skills and i expect him to help drive our standards in 2016.”
Steve Gill, Tigers Chief Executive, spoke about the signing of Monaghan, saying:"Joel’s credentials speak for themselves, NSW State of Origin and the Green and Gold shirt of Australia are not easily come by, and even his time in the UK he has been a prolific try scorer. He will be good for us both on and off the field, and we look forward to him establishing himself within the squad and within the town."
Pictured with Castleford Tigers Acting Chairman, Ian FultonStory highlights Mothers of addicts say they go through a range of emotions -- from guilt to sadness to anger
The Addict's Mom now has over 20,000 members, with chapters in every state
Moms of addicts are working together to raise awareness of what they say is an epidemic
For those who can't afford rehab, jail is their treatment, says The Addict's Mom founder
Seven years ago, Barbara Theodosiou, then a successful entrepreneur building a women's business mentoring group, stopped going to meetings, leaving the house and taking care of herself. She grew increasingly distraught.
"You almost wake up and get this haunting feeling, this horrible feeling that my God, I just wish I wasn't going to live today," said Theodosiou, a mother of four from Davie, Florida. "Not that you would take your life but you're so scared."
Petrified, really, but not for herself. For her children.
Theodosiou learned two of her four kids were addicted to drugs.
"I found out within six months that both my sons were addicts and like every other mother, I just wanted to go into bed and never get out."
Her older son, Peter, now 25, took prescription drugs and then escalated to heroin. Her younger son, Daniel, now 22, started what's called robotripping, where he would take large quantities of cough medicine to get high.
She says she first noticed signs of problems when her younger son was 16.
Barbara Theodosiou first noticed her son Daniel might have a problem with drugs when he was 16.
"I was taking Daniel to school one day and he was just like almost choking. I thought he was having a panic attack," she said. A short time later, the school called and said staff members thought Daniel was on drugs.
"I was like, 'There's no way.'... I have talked to my children my whole life about drugs."
Within just months, after a call from her son Peter's roommate, her husband went to his house and found needles all over the place.
"If you know about addiction then when you find this out, you realize not only are you in for the fight of your life, but this is not something that gets fixed in six months. This could go on," she said.
"It's like having someone punch you in the stomach.... You're never the same from the second you find out."
Barbara Theodosiou's son Peter was addicted to heroin. He has been in recovery for 3½ years.
How does the mother of an addict cope? How does she juggle the incomprehensible challenge between supporting a loved one and not enabling their habit? And how does she deal with the stigma of having a child who is an addict?
In my in-depth interviews with Theodosiou and other mothers of addicts across the country, they made it very clear that being the mother of an addict is an incredibly lonely and isolating place, and that often the only people who understand what they're going through are other mothers who are going through it themselves.
The fear of getting the call
Theodosiou's son Daniel overdosed three times that first year she realized he was using and nearly died each time.
One day, she returned to her house and saw police officers out front. "I remember pulling up and my heart was beating... I was just going to faint right there."
The police officer asked if she was Daniel's mother. "For sure, I thought he was going to tell me Daniel was dead, and it ended up Daniel overdosed again, and again he was in the hospital."
Melva Sherwood of Vermilion, Ohio, got that unimaginable call on October 3, 2012. Her son Andrew, 27 at the time, died of an overdose of heroin. It was his son's fifth birthday.
Melva Sherwood's son Andrew died from a heroin overdose in October 2012. He was 27.
"It was 11:30 at night. I was sound asleep and it was October. All the windows were open, and the entire neighborhood knew what had happened," said Sherwood, who says she screamed "at the reality of it, that it was over, that it was done."
"I have a friend who lives down the street, and she said it was horrifying to hear."
The blame game
Many mothers immediately beat up on themselves when they learn their children are battling addiction.
Brenda Stewart of Worthington, Ohio, says it was heartbreaking realizing two of her three kids were addicts. Her son Jeremy, now 29, used prescription drugs and then heroin, and the drug of choice for Richard, now 31, was crystal meth, she said.
Brenda Stewart with her sons Richard and Jeremy, who both battled addiction and are now doing well.
"I've been going to counseling for years to figure out what I did wrong. It's just like, 'What did I do?'" said Stewart, who has adopted Jeremy's two children, ages 5 and 7.
"And then you come to find out through tons of counseling and parents' groups and everything else that this is something you didn't do to your children. And that's the hardest thing to get away from because you always feel responsible."
Debbie Gross Longo, whose son started using drugs at 13 and taking prescription drugs at 15, says the powerlessness of being an addict's mom is worse than people might imagine.
Debbie Gross Longo's son started taking prescription drugs at 15.
"As a mother, it's been hell," said the mom of four in Stony Brook, New York. "It's like having a child that you cannot help and sitting on the edge of your seat all at the time because you know something might happen."
Viewing addiction as a disease was instrumental, many mothers say, in helping understand they didn't cause their child's addiction and couldn't fix it either.
"When you really start to understand that it is a disease... you can start looking at your child in a different way, loving them for who they are and hating the disease," said Stewart.
Sadly, the stigma of having a child with addiction is all too real and incredibly painful. Announce to your community your child has a disease like cancer and people will jump to help, said mothers I interviewed. Not so when you tell them your child is an addict.
"There are no little girls selling cookies for addiction. Nobody has bumper stickers on their car," said Theodosiou.
Her son Daniel was in the church group. "When they found out he was an addict, the entire church shunned him. He was completely not invited anywhere."
'The hardest thing in the entire world'
Every mom I spoke with talked about the intense struggle between supporting their addicted child or children and not enabling their destructive habit.
It is "the hardest thing in the entire world," said Theodosiou, who said it was only after seven years and 30-plus stints in rehab that she knew she had to make a drastic change.
"All of these people were telling me you have to stop enabling Daniel. You need to let Daniel go. You need to just stop.... I had to actually face leaving Daniel on the street," she said.
"I finally spoke to a pastor and an addiction specialist who told me that... the last person in the world who could ever help Daniel is me."
Sherwood, who lost one son to a drug overdose and has another son who battled drug addiction, said she was never able to cut off her children completely, but she set limits.
Melva Sherwood's son Aaron works full-time in marketing and sales and may pursue a career in nutrition.
"As far as enabling, I think you need to lay it on the table for them. This is what you can do. Here are your options but I'm not going to sit here and let you take advantage of me and lie to me," said Sherwood, who is a registered nurse and the owner of a business providing caregivers for in-home assisted living.
Stewart, whose two sons were addicts, said she eventually realized the longer she enabled her children, the longer they weren't going to face the consequences.
"It took the line in the sand, telling them I love them and if they were ever ready to get the help and really wanted it that I'm here for them... but I'm not going to set up another appointment," she said.
But the enabling isn't just about the addicts, said Stewart. Parents need to realize they are enabling themselves and are risking losing everything by thinking they can save their children.
"There are moms losing their lives to save their children.... They're spending their whole paycheck trying to take care of their child. They're not taking care of themselves. That's just a ripple effect."
Finding support from other moms
Theodosiou went through the range of emotions that most mothers of addicts experience: the guilt followed by the intense sadness and then the anger.
"It's just a very, very sad and a very lonely place," she said.
Then, one day about a year and a half into her new kind of normal with two sons who were addicted, she had a conversation with God.
"I said, you know, God, if my sons are going to be living this life and be destroyed by this, I'm going to tell every mother and help every mother I can think of. I'm not going to keep it a secret."
She headed to Facebook and started a group called The Addict's Mom in 2008.
Her friend thought she was insane.
"She was like, 'Are you crazy? You are going to go on Facebook and say that you are an addict's mom?' And I said, 'You know what, I am and I know there have to be a million mothers just like me who are addicts' moms.'"
CNN"s Kelly Wallace did lengthy interviews with mothers across the country whose children battled addiction.
Stewart is the state coordinator in Ohio for The Addict's Mom.
"It's given me a place that I feel at home, a place that I feel I can give back," she said. "I also understand the parent's pain and for me if I can help one parent ease that pain, then I've done something."
Sherwood, who's an administrator for the Facebook group, said the online community was an "unbelievable eye opener."
"It was just like somebody turned on the light in the closet," she said. "It gave me such comfort to... be able to put something out there online at any time during the day and have 20 people respond back with, 'Hey, we know. We've been where you're at. We feel for you. We're praying for you.' "
"It definitely was a life-changing experience."
'If you can't afford it, jail is your treatment'
Besides providing invaluable comfort and support, The Addict's Mom is a resource center with information on low and no-cost rehabs, psychologists and sober living environments. This month, the group is launching weekly online video meetings where mothers can call in from all over the country and talk with experts on addiction.
The group has also launched offshoots, including The Addict's Mom Healthy Moms, where the focus is solely on helping the mom live a healthy life ("We don't even talk about the addict there," said Theodosiou) and The Addict's Mom Grieving Moms for mothers who lost children to addiction. It's also started The Addict's Dad for fathers and a group called The Addict for the addicts to talk directly with each other.
A big focus now, the moms I interviewed said, is raising awareness about the problem of drug addiction and finding affordable solutions.
"There is treatment if you're rich and if you can afford it," said Theodosiou. "If you can't afford it, jail is your treatment."
The Addict's Mom is starting programs in states including New York, Kentucky and Ohio, where moms go into schools and educate students about addiction. The member moms are also flexing their lobbying muscles, advocating for laws such as legislation that allows a judge to order a person into treatment if a family member feels that person is a danger to himself or others.
"Our children are dying and at such an alarming rate," said Theodosiou, noting how the day before our conversation there were two posts on The Addict's Mom with reports that two children died.
"We are seeing an alarming rate of death in our society. We have to break the stigma. It's a disease,'" said Theodosiou. "They are not bad people. We have to get the word out."
Looking forward
Raising awareness and helping other mothers drives members of The Addict's Mom, but they are also always mindful of the lifelong battle their children are facing.
Sherwood's surviving son is doing well, she said, working full-time in marketing and sales, and planning to take a nutritional coaching course for a possible career in nutrition.
"Today, I have my son back as he learns and implements the plan he has put into place with nutrition, exercise and being with those that truly love him and support his journey toward a better life," said Sherwood. "What more could a parent ask for!"
Stewart's son Jeremy has been in recovery for over two years. He's engaged, is getting ready to buy a house and is very active with his two children. "Our hope is that in the very near future they are back with their father," said Stewart, who currently cares for her son's kids. Her older son, Richard, is also doing well, and has been in treatment since the end of June.
Gross Longo's son, now 25, had been in recovery for six months and just recently relapsed. He entered a detox program and is starting again on the road to recovery, his mother said.
"I am once again heartbroken," she said. "(My son) is doing what he needs to do to get well, but do you understand how this is a day-to-day, year-to-year fight?"
Before her son's relapse, Gross Longo told me she was so pleased about his recovery but also very cautious.
"They could change on a dime," she said. "They could be doing wonderful for five years... and then one evening it's gone."
Theodosiou's older son, Peter, has been in recovery for 3½ years and is a recent college graduate. He will soon begin a master's program in speech pathology.
Her younger son, Daniel, had been in rehab for five weeks -- his longest time ever in treatment -- but recently relapsed, breaking the condition of his release from jail so he is back behind bars.
"I am really sad about Daniel," said Theodosiou.
Despite her son's setback, she continues to advocate for other moms of addicts, but also gets some much needed help for herself.
A few days before our conversation, a member of The Addict's Mom called her and expressed concern.
"She said, 'Barbara, we're worried about you.' And I said, 'Why?' And she said, 'Because you have to take care of yourself. You help so many other people.'"
"I still struggle with being OK and with my own issues and they help by reminding me, by being there, by being able to talk to them, by sharing resources and supporting me."Tenants on a London housing estate where protests erupted after it was bought by a consortium including a Tory MP’s property company say they fear eviction before Christmas after the new owners rescinded a deal to delay huge rent rises.
The New Era estate in Hoxton, a 1930s square of flats in a fast-gentrifying part of east London, which had until now provided affordable rents to local people, was bought this year by Westbrook Partners, a US-based private property investment group that has been targeted by officials in New York over lack of repairs and overcharging.
Westbrook passed management of the homes to the Benyon Estate, co-owned by the Conservative MP Richard Benyon and run by his brother, which bought a small stake. However, on Friday, following a wave of negative reports about their plans for the estate, the Benyons announced they were pulling out as residents had “made it clear that they do not welcome our involvement”.
As residents celebrated an apparent victory in a campaign that has attracted support from Russell Brand among others, on Saturday four Hackney councillors hand-delivered letters warning of Westbrook’s new plans.
The councillors, including Philip Glanville, Hackney’s cabinet member for housing, said they had previously urged Benyon and Westbrook not to increase rents on the estate to market values, which in some cases would lead to a rise from about £600 a month to nearer £2,400, calling such a move unacceptable.
The letter said they had secured an agreement not to increase rents again until 2016. However, it added: “Since this week’s departure of the Benyon Estate we understand the council have now been informed that Westbrook no longer plan to honour that plan, and have been told that their plan is to refurbish the current estate in its entirety and then rent all the properties without secure tenancies at market rent levels, with no affordable housing.”
Lyndsey Garratt, 35, an NHS care coordinator who has been one of the leaders of the New Era campaign, said the councillors had told her that Westbrook’s intention appeared to be to remove existing families as fast as it could before renovating the estate and renting the flats at market rates to new tenants.
Of the 93 New Era flats, she said, all but seven or eight were rented on contracts with two-week break clauses, meaning families could be evicted before Christmas. The earlier promises about no new rent rises had never been formalised, she added.
Garratt said: “According to Hackney council the evictions could be asap. They’re in the process of organising a meeting between us and Westbrook, even though I can’t really see them coming down here.”
Residents would resist, she said: “The bottom line is that the support for us has been incredible. The momentum is growing on a daily basis. The idea that they’re going to evict all these families in the next few months – it’s just nuts. It’s not going to happen. I think it shows signs of weakness by Westbrook that they’re acting in such a desperate way.”
Garratt said she had seen no support from the local Labour MP, Meg Hillier, or the mayor of London, Boris Johnson. “Boris seems happy for people to come into London, start buying up property and kick people out,” she said. “So he’s going to be getting targeted by us, unless he steps up and does something about it.”
The estate – three separate four-storey buildings – was constructed in the mid-1930s as affordable family homes and remained in the same ownership until this year. Details of the sale to the Westbrook-led consortium are unclear.
While much of the initial focus was on Benyon Estate, the MP’s company has argued it was unfairly maligned and became involved mainly to help temper Westbrook’s actions. In a statement to the Guardian, the firm – which has owned properties in the area for more than 150 years after the brothers’ great-great-great uncle first developed the area known as De Beauvoir Town – said: “We accepted the invitation to become involved, and to take this comparatively small stake, because we thought we could play a positive role that would benefit our partners, our tenants and the local community. But it’s impossible to play that kind of role when the tenants don’t want you there.”
Attention has now shifted to Westbrook, a multinational company whose London portfolio of properties also includes Dolphin Square, a block of 1930s apartments in central London long popular with MPs.
In April, Westbrook was labelled a “predatory landlord” by tenants in Three Borough Pool, a group of 44 buildings in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan.
After protests outside New York city hall, the US attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, forced Westbrook and the three other owners of Three Borough Pool to make repairs to the 1,592 properties, resolve thousands of building violations and provide tenants with more than $1m in rebates for illegal fees and overcharges.
Staff who answered the phone at Westbrook’s London office last week said they did not know who was able to speak to the press and were unwilling to ask colleagues. The London operation is headed by a British national, Mark Donnor, a 40-year-old chartered surveyor with an interest in racing classic cars. He could not be reached for comment.
In a statement on Sunday the owners of the estate said they had appointed property services firm Knight Frank to take over the management of the estate in place of Benyon. The company would work with Knight Frank “to assess its plans for the future of the estate”, it said, adding that as yet no rents had risen beyond 10%.
The statement was issued on behalf of Hoxton Regeneration Ltd, which is officially separate from Westbrook but has senior Westbrook staff as its only directors.The Navi Mumbai Police on Monday arrested Rajesh Patil, nephew of former Maharashtra finance minister Eknath Khadse, in the kidnapping case of assistant police inspector (API) Ashwini Raju Gore aka Ashwini Bidre.
According to a report in The Hindu, the police made the arrest after questioning Patil for hours over two days in connection with Bidre's disappearance. She was last seen on 15 April, 2016. A missing person complaint was registered on 14 July, 2016, and a case of kidnapping was filed on 31 January this year.
Patil was arrested from Jalgaon, Khadse's stronghold. According to a report on Mumbai Mirror, the police said that Patil, son of Khadse's sister, owned several businesses including hotels, construction and farms in Jalgaon.
The police had earlier arrested the main accused, inspector Abhay Kurundkar of the Thane Rural Police, who allegedly had an affair with Bidre, the report said.
According to a police official quoted by The Free Press Journal, "The call records of Patil, Kurundkar and Bidre show that they were at the same place on the day she was last seen. Several calls were exchanged between Patil and Kurundkar and they were with Bidre at her last location at Mira-Bhayander. It is not yet known whether Bidre is alive or dead."
Kurundkar has been remanded to police custody until 15 December. According to the report, he and Patil had met when the former was posted in Jalgaon. Khadse was quoted by The Free Press Journal as saying, "The police should conduct a fair inquiry. I am confident that Patil will come out clean."
Patil has been charged with kidnapping or abducting in order to murder (Section 364), criminal intimidation (Section 506 (2), adultery (Section 497) and voluntarily causing hurt (Section 323) of the Indian Penal Code.
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.Hello everyone!! Kahotan here! (@gsc_kahotan)
I can’t believe that the first month of 2017 is already coming to an end…
WonFes is really just around the corner now!
Anyway, today I’m going to be taking a look at…
Nendoroid Link: Breath of the Wild Ver.!
From ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’, the latest addition to the popular The Legend of Zelda series comes a Nendoroid of the main character, Link! He comes with two face plates including a smiling face as well as a shouting expression for combat scenes. Optional parts include a large selection of items including his bow and arrow, quiver, sword, sheath and shield allowing you to recreate various situations in Nendoroid size! The Sheikah Slate that appears in-game is also included for a huge selection of parts to choose from! Enjoy the brand new design of Link in your collection with Nendoroid Link: Breath of the Wild Ver.!
A Nendoroid of Link from the latest Legend of Zelda game!
The game hasn’t even been released yet but it is coming up very soon! From The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild comes a Nendoroid of Link!! ☆
◆◆ The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 3rd Trailer ◆◆
Those lovely big eyes, the mostly blue outfit, pointy ears and round shield… Link has been captured so perfectly in Nendoroid size!♪
Along with the gentle smiling face you can see above, he also comes with a shouting expression which allows for a more combat-orientated scenes!
He comes complete with his sword which can be displayed held like this and can also be sheathed away on his back! ヽ(*´∀｀)ノ
The shield can also be stored away on his back, and the center part of the shield can be removed in order to attach the stand while the shield is on his back!
In addition, I get the feeling that his bow and arrow is going to be rather important in this game, and this they are included together with the quiver at his hips!
You can even pose him first pulling out and arrow like above, and then nocking the arrow and then getting ready to fire like below! ヽ(ﾟ◇ﾟ )ﾉ
▲ A special hand to hold the bow and another
for the arrow is included for quick and easy posing!
Another item that has appeared in the trailer already and is included with the Nendoroid is none other than the Sheikah Slate! ♥
(I can’t wait to find out all the things the Slate will do in the game!!)
But that’s not all!! We wanted to give Link way more optional parts, so this time we are also releasing a DX Edition which will help bring out the atmosphere of the series even more!!
Nendoroid Link: Breath of the Wild Ver. DX Edition!
From ‘The Legend of Zelda: |
the one the army was looking for, the one which had burst through the Gush Etzion Junction checkpoint. In his interrogation the impromptu checkpoint commander also stated that his men were not in danger.
Sharpshooter Avi’s version, of course, is different. Its relationship to reality, however, is tenuous. He claims to have fired four bullets, the first one in the air – but the trackers found four hits in the vehicle. He claims to have been the first to fire – but the rest of the soldiers present testified that the first shooter was the checkpoint commander, who fired in the air. He claims that the soldiers were at risk of being run over; the others deny it. He claims that he fired at the wheels – but no wheel was hit, and all of the bullet holes are in the upper-left part of the vehicle. From which, we can conclude – as the trackers immediately did – that Avi fired at the back of Masri’s neck. Avi further claims that there were gunshots coming from the vehicle. Politely put, this is a hallucination. If we are to be cruel and accurate, this is an attempt by a killer to cover up the killing.
Avi “claims?” No, he claimed. This was a long time ago. Avi said the above to MPCID (Military Police Criminal Investigative Department) interrogators in March 2011, two months after the killing. On March 17, 2011, the Operational Affairs Prosecution demanded that the case be wrapped up and the case file was sent to them. On July 2012 we learned that this simple case was transferred to the MPCID for further investigation. It was closed on October 9, 2013; that is two years and nine months after the incident, based on the military prosecution’s recommendation that it be closed for lack of evidence.
Our attorneys, Assnat Bartor and Emily Schaeffer, disagreed with the claim that there is not enough evidence in the case, since the chain of events is rather clear. They appealed this strange decision on January 20, 2014 – precisely three years to the day after Sharpshooter Avi chanced upon Masri and ended his life.
We demand the prosecution of Avi for killing; the decision to close the case, given the evidence, seems to us to be extremely unreasonable. Legally, it certainly is. As for the way the IDF treats its soldiers, this is merely the coverup we’ve grown accustomed to. Somewhere in the West Bank, on some tower, stands another Avi; perhaps he, too, is a sharpshooter. And he knows that were he to kill an innocent man against his orders, nothing would come of it. Needless to say, the public will not hear of this minor incident; just another day in the occupation.
And the Spirit of the IDF? Well, if the Military Prosecution doesn’t take it seriously, why should Avi?
Related:
Near impunity for IDF soldiers who kill Palestinians
The consequences of a culture of liesIn 2016, Major League Baseball announced that it would be severing ties with Majestic Athletic, its official uniform supplier. Majestic is based in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, and it looked as if its 500 factory workers would soon be out of work. Even worse, MLB said it would be switching to Under Armour, a Baltimore-based company which nonetheless manufactures 63 percent of its wares in Asia. This was not a good look for newish MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, and it would have gone down as yet another in a long line of attempts by Manfred to ruin the game of baseball.
However, in Donald Trump’s America, jobs don’t leave the U.S. that easily. On Tuesday, MLB announced that Majestic had been purchased by Fanatics, a sports merchandise and apparel retailer based in Florida. Furthermore, Fanatics and Under Armour will partner with MLB as part of a joint 10-year agreement that makes them the exclusive providers of both official game-worn uniforms and fan gear. This will keep the entire manufacturing operation in Easton, Pa.
Under Armour confirmed the victory of U.S. jobs, with a statement saying, “The men and women of Easton will continue to play a major role in building Under Armour’s MLB team apparel business. Under Armour is both committed to and proud of the tradition of manufacturing MLB on-field uniforms in the United States.” But the real hero here is Fanatics. Fanatics is also an official partner of the NFL, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, NCAA and more sports leagues. They also make great baseball paraphernalia. Especially since it is all made in the U.S.
You can check out their selection of MLB merchandise here.Mike Pettine says that the Cleveland Browns will have an answer to one of the NFL's biggest offseason questions -- Johnny Manziel or Brian Hoyer? -- in a little over a month.
The first-year head coach told reporters Monday that the Browns expect to name their starting quarterback by their third preseason game, which takes place Aug. 23 against the St. Louis Rams.
Rookie Johnny Manziel is competing for Cleveland's starting quarterback job this preseason. The Browns expect to name their starter by their third preseason game, according to coach Mike Pettine. AP Photo/Mark Duncan
Whether the Browns choose Manziel, a Heisman Trophy-winning rookie, or Hoyer, a six-year veteran and Cleveland-area native, still is a matter of debate.
Pettine told reporters that the Browns have not established an exact deadline for naming a starter, although they would prefer to make a decision soon.
He planned to meet with offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains to discuss the competition between Manziel and Hoyer.
"It's definitely still up in the air," Pettine said, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. "It could be sooner, and that's something we're going to discuss in that meeting. It'll be before the third preseason game. I just don't have a date. I don't know if I'll set a date and kind of paint ourselves into a date, but it will be sooner than the third preseason game."
Pettine discussed a wide range of topics involving Manziel on Monday, asserting that the rookie's off-the-field activity will be "a nonstory" once training camp starts. Pettine also praised Manziel's work ethic this offseason.
"He's been very humble," Pettine said. "He's been great in the meeting rooms. Worked hard -- worked hard in the weight room; one of the best guys in the weight room. Asked the right questions. I think he's ahead of the learning curve."
Pettine also said that he wants to hold a "fair" competition between Manziel and Hoyer, who led Cleveland to two straight wins last season before suffering a season-ending knee injury in his third start.
"We want to make it as open and fair a competition as we can," Pettine said, according to the Beacon Journal. "But you've got to be careful then, too, because you've got a guy that's potentially your starter, and you have supporting-cast issues, whether that's in a preseason game or whether you can control it a little better in practice. Then the issue that I talked about before is kind of finding that sweet spot date" for naming a starter.
Pettine left open the possibility that Hoyer and Manziel could each get a start in the first and second preseason games.
"That's something that hasn't been decided yet," Pettine told ESPN.com on Monday. "That might be something that potentially could come out of the scrimmage [at the University of Akron on Aug. 2]. 'Hey, both are playing well, let's go ahead and let one start the game one start the other.'
"There are a lot of different ways we can approach it, but there will be a lot of thought to it."
The Browns' training camp begins Saturday at the team's training facility in Berea, Ohio.
ESPN.com Browns reporter Pat McManamon contributed to this report.MLS Commissioner Don Garber spoke to Yahoo about the Columbus Crew’s ongoing situation where owner Anthony Precourt is considering moving the franchise to Austin, Texas in 2019.
[ MORE: RBNY hammer Chicago in playoffs ]
Garber spoke at length about the Crew’s record as one of the most successful teams in MLS over the past few years and about Precourt’s drastic approach in trying to force a new stadium deal in downtown Columbus, Ohio with talk of possible relocation.
With the MLS commish stating talks about the Crew’s future were lined up in the coming days, something very interesting cropped up.
However, perhaps the most interesting nugget was that Garber mentioned the same four MLS expansion cities as he did during his address at the 2017 MLS All-Star Game in Chicago back in August.
Of course, Garber has mentioned multiple expansion cities in various media appearances in 2017 but it seems quite significant that the same four cities keep cropping up.
“We will make the decision to add two [expansion teams] this December. We have 12 cities who have submitted bids to be in the final four. We are going through a very comprehensive process. Just the other day the City of Nashville has been very supportive and has gotten both the elected folks as well as the people in the community to get behind public support for a stadium very close to downtown. Cincinnati is doing a similarly great job. Great progress in Sacramento and Detroit. Lot of activity and over the next years we will become a 28-team league.”
With 12 cities vying for the next four expansion places in MLS (the contenders, in no particular order are Cincinnati, San Antonio, Nashville, Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte, St. Louis, Detroit, Sacramento, San Diego, Tampa Bay, Phoenix and Indianapolis) the fact that Garber has mentioned the same four cities on multiple occasions may give some locations hope over others.
Reports have suggested that Nashville has jumped right to the top of the list in recent months after MLS’ visit to Tennessee’s capital city, but with trips lined up in the next few months to other potential expansion cities there will likely be similar positive vibes around their chances.
Looking at it from the outside, the four cities Garber mentioned appear to be right at the top of the list of expansion cities.
Cincinnati has FC Cincinnati behind the bid who are breaking attendance records all over the place in USL and have a solid owner, fanbase and everything is set up for them to step right into MLS. Sacramento has the same and an awesome soccer specific stadium site lined up, while Detroit is also working hard on a stadium deal and Nashville’s growing reputation as a sports town (helped largely by the Predators’ run to the Stanley Cup finals) has seen their strong ownership group work closely with the mayors office to negotiate a stadium plan.
Between now and December it will be intriguing to see the two cities who arrive in MLS but if I had to select two right now it would be Cincinnati and Sacramento due to their large fanbases, success in USL and their geographic locations to link up several current MLS cities with new regional rivals.
That’s just my take.
Follow @JPW_NBCSportsOSLO (Reuters) - Climate records back to Viking times show the 20th century was unexceptional for rainfall and droughts despite assumptions that global warming would trigger more wet and dry extremes, a study showed on Wednesday.
Buffalos graze in dried-up Chandola Lake in Ahmedabad, India, March 30, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave
Stretching back 1,200 years, written accounts of climate and data from tree rings, ice cores and marine sediments in the northern hemisphere indicated that variations in the extremes in the 20th century were less than in some past centuries.
“Several other centuries show stronger and more widespread extremes,” lead author Fredrik Ljungqvist of Stockholm University told Reuters of findings published in the journal Nature. “We can’t say it’s more extreme now.”
Pinning down links between global warming and rainfall is vital to planning billion-dollar investments in everything from irrigation for food production to flood defenses along rivers.
Ljungqvist said many existing scientific models of climate change over-estimated assumptions that rising temperatures would make dry areas drier and wet areas wetter, with more extreme heatwaves, droughts, downpours and droughts.
The 10th century, when the Vikings were carrying out raids across Europe and the Song dynasty took power in China, was the wettest in the records ahead of the 20th, according to the researchers in Sweden, Germany, Greece and Switzerland.
And the warm 12th century and the cool 15th centuries, for instance, were the driest, according to the report, based on 196 climate records. Variations in the sun’s output were among factors driving natural shifts in the climate in past centuries.
Ljungqvist said the findings did not mean current climate change, blamed on rising man-made greenhouse gas emissions, was less of a threat than thought.
“Absolutely not,” he said, adding that the pace of warming had increased in recent years and that the 20th century was the warmest in the records.
Last December, 195 nations agreed to shift from fossil fuels and aim for zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2100 to rein in rising temperatures.
Other climate experts who were not involved in the study said it highlighted complexities in predicting global warming.
“This paper adds to the growing evidence that the simple paradigm of ‘wet-gets-wetter, dry-gets-drier’ under a warming climate does not apply over land areas,” said Ted Shepherd, a professor at the University of Reading.
James Renwick, of Victoria University of Wellington, said it was always hard to match century-long data with recent decades of warming.
“We know that human-induced climate change is already affecting the hydrological cycle”, he wrote, with evidence such as recent drought in Syria that he said was the worst in 900 years.Don Damond hugs a supporter in the front yard of his south Minneapolis home after a press conference on Monday.
Updated: July 17, 4:30 p.m. | Posted: July 16, 10:22 a.m.
Minneapolis officials are vowing to find answers after a woman was fatally shot by police over the weekend in the city's Fulton neighborhood.
Justine Ruszczyk was shot and killed by Minneapolis police late Saturday night. Courtesy Stephen Govel
Around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, two Minneapolis police officers responded to a 911 call of a possible assault. One officer shot and killed the woman, Justine Ruszczyk.
Ruszczyk, who went by the name Justine Damond in her professional life, is originally from Australia. Friends said she taught yoga and meditation. She was to be married in August.
"Our hearts are broken and we are utterly devastated by the loss of Justine," Don Damond, her fiancé, told reporters Monday afternoon.
"It was Justine who called 911 on Saturday evening reporting what she believed was an active sexual assault occurring nearby," he added. "Sadly, her family and I have been provided with almost no additional information from law enforcement regarding what happened after police arrived. We lost the dearest of people and we are desperate for information."
Mayor Betsy Hodges said she was "heartsick" after police shot a woman in south Minneapolis on Saturday. Hodges spoke at a City Hall press conference the next day and was joined by City Council member Linea Palmisano (left) and assistant Minneapolis Police chief Medaria Arradondo (right). Tim Nelson | MPR News
Later on Monday, Thomas Plunkett, an attorney representing Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor, confirmed that Noor was the officer who shot Ruszczyk. In a statement, Plunkett said Noor expressed condolences to Ruszczyk's family and friends. "He takes their loss seriously and keeps them in his daily thoughts and prayers."
Many details of the shooting remain unclear.
Late Sunday afternoon, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges and Assistant Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said they had few other details to share.
Following the 911 call, Arradondo said, officers arrived at the scene, and when it became a shooting he alerted the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which now leads the investigation.
The scene in south Minneapolis where Justine Ruszczyk, also known as Justine Damond, was killed by a Minneapolis police officer was filled with flowers, letters and note cards. Maria Alejandra Cardona | MPR News
The BCA said the two officers did not have their body cameras turned on, nor did the squad camera record the fatal shooting.
In a Monday afternoon update, the agency said investigators found no weapons at the scene. The officers involved in the incident are on standard administrative leave and the BCA is requesting interviews.
Minneapolis Police Chief Janeé Harteau called the shooting "clearly a tragic death" and acknowledged the family's pain and the questions being asked in the community.
"I have many of the same questions and it is why we immediately asked for an external and independent investigation into the officer-involved shooting death," she said in a statement.
A neighborhood resident stops by the memorial for Justine Ruszczyk on Monday. Maria Alejandra Cardona | MPR News
• Open thread: The latest Minneapolis police shooting
One of the key questions: Why were officers' body cameras not turned on?
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman told reporters his understanding is that there is no video or audio evidence.
"We would like police officers to turn on their body cameras," said Freeman, who'll review the evidence for possible charges once the BCA completes its inquiry.
"They were driving up an alley, the victim approached the car," Freeman said. "That's not necessarily a time you must, but frankly I think it's a time you should" start the body cameras.
Mourners left dolls, books, flowers and photographs Monday in memorial of Justine Ruszczyk near the entrance to the alley where she was shot and killed. Evan Frost | MPR News
The Australian government said it's helping Ruszczyk's family monitor the investigation. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Monday released a statement on behalf of her family saying, "We are trying to come to terms with this tragedy and to understand why this has happened."
The BCA said the shooting happened north of the 5100 block of Washburn Avenue South in the city's Fulton neighborhood.
At a gathering Sunday night, friends and neighbors said the victim was a peaceful person.
"Peace flowed through her," said neighbor Melinda Barry. "She was a lovely, lovely person. And we want to remember Justine tonight, and call for answers, but we want just to remember and respect Justine, tonight, and her family, and share our love for her family, and how much we want to wrap our support around them."
Don Damond speaks to the media during a press conference about the death of his fiancé, Justine Ruszczyk, from the front yard of a neighbor's south Minneapolis home on Monday. Evan Frost | MPR News
Cindi Claypatch said she knew Ruszczyk well from their involvement at the Lake Harriet Spiritual Community Center in South Minneapolis.
"It's like when you're in the presence of a room with somebody who's in a nice feeling, you rise whether they open their mouth or not... she was really shiny, she was very bright," added Claypatch.
"Justine was all about love, just bringing your biggest heart forward, no matter what you're doing in life," said Eduardo Drake, who also knew her from the Lake Harriet Spiritual Community Center.
He brought flowers to the vigil and wrote a message in chalk for his friend.
Tears run down Zach Damond's face as his father Don, speaks about the death of his fiancé. Evan Frost | MPR News
"Her loss, for me, is just a personal reminder that we shouldn't waste time on petty gripes or complaints," he said. "We should just find a way to love, bigger and better, because we don't know when the people we care about may not be there anymore."
Friends and community members say they want transparency as the investigation continues.
"I am heartsick and deeply disturbed by last night's officer-involved shooting," Hodges said in a statement posted Sunday.
On Monday, Hodges, who represented the neighborhood where the shooting happened when she served on the City Council, acknowledged that people are frustrated by the early pace of the probe.
"We are doing the best we can to cooperate with the BCA, while also pressing them to release as much information as they can as quickly as they can," she wrote in on Facebook.
"I have the same questions you do, and I seek the same answers you seek," she added. "This process is difficult, but I want to be sure we get this right."
Correction (July 17, 2017): An earlier version of this story misspelled Justine Ruszczyk's last name.A ship is seen passing beneath the Mackinaw Bridge July 27, 2008 as seen from Mackinaw City, MI.The Mackinac Bridge straddles the Straits of Mackinac connecting Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas. Building it took three years, 2,500 men, 85,000 blueprints, 71,300 tons of structural steel, 466,3000 cubic yards of concrete, 41,000 miles of cable wire and millions of steel rivets and bolts. AFP PHOTO/Karen BLEIER (Photo credit should read KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images)
Environmental activists say Michigan’s tourism slogan -- “Pure Michigan” -- may no longer be accurate unless the state takes stronger action to prevent a 62-year-old oil pipeline from rupturing in a sensitive waterway.
The pipeline, called Line 5, is owned by the Canadian energy company Enbridge, carrying nearly 23 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids every day. It passes between the state’s upper and lower peninsulas, along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. East of the pipeline is the iconic Mackinac Bridge, depicted on many of the state’s license plates, and Mackinac Island, an historic, no-cars resort area.
A coalition of local businesses, municipalities, Native American tribes and environmental and conservation advocates -- the “Oil and Water Don’t Mix” coalition -- are concerned that the straits’ strong currents and corrosion-causing forces could cause the pipeline to rupture, creating a catastrophic oil spill that would spread into the Great Lakes, which contain a fifth of the world’s fresh surface water.
Those who want Enbridge to repair, replace or remove the pipeline have a powerful example of what could go wrong: A newer Enbridge pipeline ruptured in 2010, spilling 1 million gallons of heavy crude oil into the Kalamazoo River -- the largest and most expensive onshore oil spill in U.S. history. Cleanup is ongoing. Enbridge and the state reached a $75 million settlement last week to restore or create damaged wetlands on top of the $1 billion the company has spent to clean up the oil.
Enbridge pipelines experienced more than 1,000 leaks in the U.S. and Canada from 1999 to 2013.
The Line 5 section that runs under the straits is part of Enbridge’s 1,900-mile Lakehead network. It does not carry the heavy bitumen oil drawn from Canada’s oil sands region, which is what spilled into the Kalamazoo River.
For the past year, environmental advocates have demanded more state oversight, through public hearings, press releases and rallies. They cite the fact that it took 17 hours for Enbridge to respond to the Kalamazoo River spill.
The coalition wants Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration to subject Enbridge to state laws enacted after the pipeline's construction that contain tougher safety standards. Those laws would force Enbridge to guarantee that continued operation of the pipeline wouldn't impair public uses of the lakes.
A leader in the “Oil and Water Don’t Mix Coalition” is Aaron Payment, the tribal chairman of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, who have fishing rights in the straits. Payment said he believes a spill is imminent and could force evacuations of Mackinac Island, home of a number of tribe members, and harm fishing.
“Water is the lifeblood of our Mother Earth; it’s our duty and responsibility as American Indians to protect the environment so we take this threat that the Enbridge pipeline represents personally,” Payment told HuffPost.
The coalition’s major push is for the state to subject the pipeline to the Great Lakes Submerged Lands Act. The 1955 law demands “the private or public use of such lands and waters will neither substantially affect the public use thereof nor impair the public trust or interest of the state.” The permitting process Enbridge would be subjected to under the act would allow the government to explore whether the company should decommission the pipeline, reroute it or replace it.
The demand for state intervention comes as federal oversight of the oil and gas industry is waning. Jeffrey Wiese, associate administrator for pipeline safety at the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, said in 2013 that the regulatory process he oversees is "kind of dying” because it was unable to enforce federal safety rules with fines. The National Transit Safety Board corroborated that opinion, finding that the agency bore some responsibility for the 2010 Kalamazoo River spill because it delegated too much responsibility to Enbridge to assess its own pipeline's risks.
Safety concerns about Line 5 have been mounting since 2013, when Enbridge upgraded pumps along the pipeline and increased the oil flow by 10 percent (or 2.1 million additional gallons per day).
Last year, Enbridge admitted in correspondence with the state that it had not complied with the state’s original easement requirement that allowed the pipeline to be built. In that agreement, Enbridge said the pipeline would have anchor structures installed every 75 feet along its length at the bottom of the straits to prevent sections from dislodging.
The agreement requires Enbridge hold $1 million in liability insurance for Line 5, but environmental advocates say the requirment should be much higher.
The company declined to respond to questions from HuffPost.
Enbridge agreed to install more anchors, after the state requested. The state attorney general and the Department of Environmental Quality convened a state task force to study permitting issues for pipeline upgrades and replacement and emergency preparedness. The task force is expected to release its recommendations in June.
Those recommendations will arrive just after the high-profile Mackinac Policy Conference. The conference brings nearly 2,000 business, civic and political leaders -- including the governor -- to Mackinac Island from May 26 to May 29. The environmental coalition is planning rallies and public hearings as conference participants arrive to draw attention to the vulnerability of the region to a spill.
Mackinac Island's local government has expressed concerns about the pipeline to Snyder’s administration. In a letter, Mayor Margaret Doud asked Snyder to ensure that the company was in full compliance with the easement and wrote that she “cannot stand by and simply hope the pipelines pose no threat.”
To counter concerns, Enbridge has emphasized the economic benefits of Line 5. The company noted in its presentation before the Michigan government task force last year that 15 percent of total U.S. oil imports arrive via the Lakehead system and that the company pays millions in state taxes each year.
Any leak on the Line 5 pipeline could be isolated in three minutes, the company insists. In testimony to Congress before the 2010 spill, Enbridge vice president for U.S. operations Richard Adams said that the company’s response time could be “instantaneous.”
Gary Street, a chemical engineer affiliated with the Michigan environmental group For the Love of Water who used to work for the Dow Chemical Co., has reviewed what’s publicly accessible about the Line 5 pipeline. But there's not enough public information to show the pipeline's integrity.
“Enbridge will tell you that these lines are as good today as they were when they were put in -- but they don’t share information to back that up,” Street said. “It’s basically, ‘Trust us.’ But nothing lasts forever.”
Street and other engineers said they're especially worried about corrosion. The acidic excrement of a freshwater mollusk, the zebra mussel, may eat away at the protective coating on the pipelines, according to university researchers and government agencies. The NTSB said that the 2010 spill was the result of multiple small corrosion-fatigue cracks that gradually grew together. Street and others said they believe the mollusks could exacerbate that process.
Researchers at the University of Michigan released a simulation last year that used Enbridge’s worst-case scenario of a 1 million gallon spill to demonstrate how quickly currents in the straits could spread spilled oil to Mackinac Island and then onto lakes Huron and Michigan -- just 12 hours, to reach the island, and about a day to reach the the lakes. The study concluded that the Straits are “the worst possible place” for an oil spill in the Great Lakes region.
“While we’ve heard several times that this administration doesn’t want to see another spill on their watch, we haven’t seen great strides or measures taken to protect the waters,” Liz Kirkwood, executive director of For the Love of Water, told HuffPost.
Kirkwood said legal action to force the state to demand more of the company isn’t “off the table,” though the coalition is trying to work collaboratively with the state.
Kelly Thayer, the coordinator of the “Oil and Water Don’t Mix” campaign, said citizens will be forced to lead on the issue if the state government doesn’t.Before financial institutions have collapsed over the past several months, they have come to the Financial Accounting Standards Board, pleading for a change in mark-to-market accounting rules so that they can continue to appear to be solvent on their balance sheets.
Robert Herz, head of the FASB, told a panel of lawmakers Thursday that the loudest critics of fair market accounting practices have been the very same banks that have gone belly up when regulators would not let them adjust their accounting.
"There seems to be a clamoring for changing mark-to-market rules that seems to come largely from institutions that may be insolvent," Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) said to Herz at a meeting of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises.
Grayson said that, from Herz' testimony, it seemed that "there may be institutions that are insolvent and they haven't been forced to write down their books to the point [of insolvency] yet, and those are maybe the same institutions that are asking us to modify the mark-to-market rules so that they won't have to admit that they're bankrupt. Is that correct?"
Herz said that it was.
"I share your point of view and I will tell you that I get calls and visits from some of those institutions that are now in government hands, about two weeks before they get taken over, trying to get the accounting changed," he said.
"Clearly some of the most vocal opponents of fair value and mark-to-market have been some of those institutions that ultimately failed and have had to have billions of taxpayer dollars put into them."
Mark-to-market accounting requires banks to value an asset at its most current market value. In a frozen market, where assets can't be sold for anything more than a fire-sale price, that value is extremely low, forcing banks to write-down a loss on their balance sheets. With a loss on the books, the bank can lend less money and is required to raise capital to meet regulatory lending standards. With enough losses on the books, the bank is no longer solvent.
The exchange comes at about the 4:40 mark in this video:
Grayson, reached in Florida, said the he was grateful for Herz' candidness and insisted that changing mark-to-market accounting rules was no way to get out of the current economic mess.
"That's representative of exactly the kind of thing that's put us in this position in general," he said. "We have people who break every rule in the book and then they think that the answer to their problems is to break more rules. It's given us some real insight into the human nature and the pathology of the people who have created these problems for America."
Just as the the institutions Herz referred to were requesting accounting changes, large banks are again calling for modifications.
"Why are we having this conversation now at all?" Grayson asked. "I think the real reason this has come up now is because a lot of the institutions are genuinely insolvent and don't want to admit it. The people who are in charge of those institutions don't want to have to give up their multimillion-dollar jobs and turn companies over to receivers who will see all the mistakes they have made."The current inquest into the police killing of Jermaine Carby should serve as a powerful reminder about the deadly consequences of institutional discrimination within the force. Unfortunately, the larger issues raised by this case, specifically, how police deal with blacks and people with mental health issues, likely will not be addressed within the confines of the inquest's recommendations.
We may never know how many black people with mental illness have been killed by cops, since such data is not collected; however, recent reports show that black men are grossly overrepresented. One Toronto study found that more than 66 per cent of fatal police shootings between 2000 to 2006 involved black people, although blacks formed only 6.7 per cent of the population.
Since 2013, police have taken the lives of at least three black men undergoing mental health crises in Toronto and Peel Region alone. This trend reveals that if you are both dark-skinned and mentally ill you may be doubly at risk of police violence.
The highest profile among these deaths was Andrew Loku, a South Sudanese man with a history of mental illness, who was shot and killed by Toronto police inside his housing complex in July 2015. Less than a year prior to that, in September 2014, 33-year-old Carby, a black man with a history of suicide attempts and depression, was shot and killed by a Peel region officer. And before those two tragedies, Ian Pryce, a black man with paranoid schizophrenia, was also shot and killed by a Toronto cop during a confrontation in November 2013.
In addition to training, a preventive approach that incorporates social service provision is needed to reduce such confrontations with police in the first place.
When the inquest into Pryce's death wrapped up in April, one of the recommendations to police was that officers get immediate support from a mental health professional when dealing with someone in a mental health crisis. Had this happened, I wonder if both Carby and Loku would still be alive today.
But Toronto and Peel Region Police are not the only organizations to fail in their obligations. The Toronto Police Association has also missed the problem completely. During the public outcry over Loku's death, the union ignored its responsibility to protect minority communities and the mentally ill, demanding more tasers instead of more comprehensive training for members in community relations and mental health first aid. It is clear from these tragic incidents that police have a shallow understanding of systemic racism and mental illness and that officers would benefit from education on such issues.
In addition to training, a preventive approach that incorporates social service provision is needed to reduce such confrontations with police in the first place. An essential component to this approach would be increased funding for mental health services targeting black and marginalized communities.
Such services function with an understanding of cultural sensitivities as well as the effects of marginalization within these populations. Those who are marginalized by society due to race may have difficulty accessing services, find it hard to obtain housing or face discrimination when applying to jobs. In the case of refugees, they may also have experienced traumas in their home countries and continue to suffer the psychological effects after arriving in Canada. This was likely the case for Loku whose mental illness may have been triggered by living through the conflict in South Sudan. All of these experiences can negatively impact one's emotional and psychological well-being, leading to mental health problems.
While police have been quick to lay to rest the notion of systemic racism within the force, pointing the finger instead at a mental health crisis, one does not preclude the other. A clear association exists between these two seemingly disparate issues.
When Const. Ryan Reid approached Carby's vehicle on Sept. 24, 2014 for the purpose of "carding" (a random spot search by police), instead of identifying and deescalating the situation of a man suffering depression, it seems that Reid only saw a "crazy, angry, black man" and drew his weapon, shooting Carby seven times; three of those bullets entering his chest, forearm and back.
Through ongoing protests Black Lives Matter Toronto have done the most to highlight the interconnected nature of mental health and racism in their protests, and the need to address both simultaneously. Officials and policy-makers must follow their lead.
Carmelle Wolfson is a writer and editor in Toronto who is currently considering a career in mental health services. Her work can be found at www.carmellewolfson.com.
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ALSO ON HUFFPOST:CHARLESTON, SC - The first victory in Fireflies franchise history goes down in the record book as a special one. On Saturday night, Thomas McIlraith, Alex Palsha and Johnny Magliozzi combined to no-hit the Charleston RiverDogs at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park. With the help of catcher Jose Garcia, the trio struck out 13 batters and led Columbia to a 9-0 win.
"Boy, I was trying not to think about it [in the ninth]," Manager Jose Leger laughed. "This was special. McIlraith led the way with good command of his stuff. Palsha's fastball looked great, and gave us two good innings, and Magliozzi, he was in sync."
Saturday was McIlraith's first start of the season and the Texan cruised through six innings, allowing just two walks and striking out six.
Palsha was the first arm called upon out of the pen. He faced six batters in the seventh and eighth innings and struck out four. With plenty of offensive support - a 9-0 lead - Magliozzi took the rubber for the start of the ninth. He fanned the side to clinch the no-hitter.
The trio finished in style, too. McIlraith, Palsha and Magliozzi struck out 10 of the final 13 RiverDogs batters.
"And a lot of credit to [Jose] Garcia," Leger mentioned. "He called a great game. And the pitcher's followed his plan."
Not to be forgotten, another franchise-first occurred in the top of the first inning. With two runners aboard, David Thompson bashed the first home run in franchise history to give the Fireflies an early 3-0 lead.
Vinny Siena helped the visitors pad the lead in the fourth inning. His sacrifice fly plated Kevin Kaczmarski to make it a 4-0 ballgame. Siena's hot start continued - he reached base twice more on Saturday and now owns a.538 on-base percentage.
Columbia added another run in the fifth and took control for good in the sixth. Kaczmarksi doubled - one |
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Singapore 049318Two hunters both stood up at the same time in their flat-bottom boat in northern Minnesota, with one losing his balance and fatally shooting his partner over the weekend as they each took aim at the same target, authorities said Monday.
Adam E. Poole, 23, of Nevis, Minn., died late Saturday afternoon on a river connecting 3rd and 4th Crow Wing Lakes, about 15 miles east of Park Rapids, according to the Hubbard County Sheriff’s Office.
“They both stood up in the boat in an effort to shoot at a duck,” a statement from the Sheriff’s Office read. “The hunting partner lost his balance, and the shotgun he was carrying discharged. Poole was struck in the head and died from his injuries.”
Authorities say they are treating Poole’s death strictly as an accident. The Sheriff’s Office has not released the name of the hunting partner who joined Poole on the outing in the 14-foot aluminum boat.
While "there is nothing in Minnesota law that would prohibit standing up in a boat," said Sheriff Cory Aukes, "flat-bottom boats are not as stable as some others, and therefore being careful while standing is very important."
The sheriff added that the two made the situation trickier because they were both standing up at the same time.
This makes "stability even more difficult as each person is fighting, in a way, the other's movements," Aukes said.
Mike Hammer, education program coordinator with the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR), said, “Anytime you are on the water, it’s going to be unstable. The main thing is to keep in mind is zones of fire because you are in a confined space.”
The reality is, Hammer added, that most waterfowl hunters in boats “are standing, depending on the height of the vegetation. It doesn’t take much to lose your balance by somebody shifting their weight.”
Hammer recommends to hunters in the same watercraft to take aim “back to back” and be “seated and have your feet firmly planted on the bottom of the boat.”
Poole was married a month ago, according to his Facebook page, which includes a photo of himself and his wedding party wearing hunting camouflage tuxedo vests.According Evan Daniels, a basketball recruiting analyst for Scout.com, Virginia Tech will land the Maryland transfer.
Seth Allen will transfer to Virginia Tech, per a source. Quality pick up for Buzz Williams.— Evan Daniels (@EvanDaniels) May 10, 2014
Maryland transfer Seth Allen on why he committed to Virginia Tech. "I love Buzz (Williams). It's as simple as that."— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) May 10, 2014
According to a release by the University of Maryland, in two seasons with the Terps, Allen played in 56 games and averaged 9.8 points, 2.5 assists and 2.1 rebounds, while missing 14 games to injury.
The Washington Post's Alex Prewitt transcribed an interview Allen gave with Baltimore's WNST radio. If you want details from Allen's perspective about the transfer, it's worth the time to read.Feds Planning Massive For-Profit Family Detention Center
Federal officials are planning a new for-profit family detention lockup for immigrant children and their parents in South Texas. The 2,400-bed “South Texas Family Detention Center”—as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is referring to it—is slated for a 50-acre site just outside the town of Dilley, 70 miles southwest of San Antonio.
The detention center is part of the Obama administration’s response to the surge in children and families from Central America crossing the Texas-Mexico border. In a statement to the Observer, ICE spokeswoman Nina Pruneda said the facility was intended “to accommodate the influx of individuals arriving illegally on the Southwest border.”
The property is part of Sendero Ranch, a “workforce housing community,” better known in the oil patch as a “man camp” for oilfield workers. Sendero Ranch is owned by Koontz McCombs, a commercial real estate firm connected to San Antonio mogul Red McCombs. Loren Gulley, vice president for Koontz McCombs, said the company is still negotiating the deal but Corrections Corporation of America—the world’s largest for-private prison company—is expected to run the detention center, and Koontz McCombs would lease the existing “man camp” to ICE. A detailed site map provided to Frio County shows a large fenced campus, including both residential housing as well as a gym, chapel and “community pavilions.” The “man camp” has enough space to temporarily house 680 detainees while new structures are being built, ICE spokesman Bryan Cox said.
Frio County Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Flores said local officials had recently met with CCA and the landowner but no one from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The massive facility would double the existing federal capacity for immigrant families and is certain to anger immigrant advocates who say a for-profit lockup is inappropriate for families, especially young children. They point to the failed experiment with detaining immigrant families at T. Don Hutto Family Residential Center, a CCA-run facility about 45 minutes northeast of Austin. The Obama administration removed families from the former jail in 2009 after numerous allegations of human rights abuses, accounts of children suffering psychological trauma and a federal lawsuit filed by the ACLU and the University of Texas Law School Immigration Clinic.
“Given the shameful history of family detention at Hutto, it’s beyond troubling that ICE would turn back to Corrections Corporation of America to operate what would be by far the nation’s largest family detention center,” said Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership, a nonprofit that opposes for-profit prisons. “While little kids and their families will suffer in this remote private prison, far away from legal or social services, this multi-billion-dollar private prison company stands to make enormous profits.”
Cox, the spokesman for ICE, wouldn’t confirm or deny CCA’s involvement, saying negotiations for the project were ongoing. “We’re in negotiations,” Cox said. “We haven’t signed a contract with anybody yet.” He said the number of beds and other details of the project could change.
Gulley, the Koontz McCombs vice president, said there was no time frame to close the deal but, he said, “if it does happen, it will happen fairly quickly.”
The Obama administration has pledged a ”truly civil” detention model for housing undocumented immigrants, though immigrant advocates have said progress has been halting at best. The influx of unaccompanied minors from Central America has sent private-prison company stocks soaring, while it has helped derail the administration’s commitment to reforming the Bush-era detention system.
Just in the past month, activists were in a fury because federal immigration officials refused to release from a Karnes County detention center a 7-year-old Salvadoran girl so she could get treatment for a life-threatening cancer. The girl and her mother had fled violence in El Salvador that the mother said prevented the girl from getting treatment. After mounting pressure, ICE finally relented and freed the girl and her mom. The Karnes facility was unveiled in 2012 as a model for a more humane approach to detention.
Over the summer, ICE converted a law enforcement training center in Artesia, New Mexico to a detention center housing immigrant families, many of whom are seeking asylum. Attorneys working at the remote facility told the Observer the conditions are poor and that the government is doing whatever it can to deport people as quickly as possible, returning some folks to the extreme violence and persecution they were fleeing
Libal said he was not impressed by the Obama administration’s promise to make the familiy facilites more like residential living center than jails.
“The stories that are coming out [of Karnes] would show that…detaining families has the exact same effect it had at Hutto, the exact same disastrous impact on families.”
County officials said they were generally supportive of the project, though County Commissioner Pepe Flores said he worried that the city’s water supply might be stretched. “We can furnish the water,” he said, “but later on it might put a dent on the economic development.”
“They come in here and tell us, ‘We want your input on this and that,’ but the bottom line is they’ll do it anyway.”1.Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2.Guide reproduction wisely – improving fitness and diversity.
3.Unite humanity with a living new language.
4.Rule passion – faith – tradition – and all things with tempered reason.
5.Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6.Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7.Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8.Balance personal rights with social duties.
9.Prize truth – beauty – love – seeking harmony with the infinite.
10.Be not a cancer on the earth – Leave room for nature – Leave room for nature.
— The Georgia Guidestones
This evening I will appear on the season finale of the History Channel’s new series Brad Meltzer’s Decoded. I was interviewed for that program to discuss my findings on the Georgia Guidestones monument located in Elbert County, Georgia.
I will briefly summarize my research in this article. For more background information on the Georgia Guidestones, see my original piece here.
In November, 2009, I uncovered incontrovertible evidence linking the Georgia Guidestones to the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world completed last year and nearly 30 years after the Guidestones were erected. This secret foreshadowing of the remarkable tower in Dubai stunned me and led me to dig much deeper into the meaning of the strange Georgia monument modeled after Stonehenge.
It is immediately evident to even the most casual observer possessing only rudimentary understanding of modern occult beliefs that the Georgia Guidestones is the product of theosophy, a term that encompasses the Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Alice Bailey’s New Age movement and overtly Satanic cults inspired by Aleister Crowley.
It is written hieroglyphically with numbers and images; and the Apostle often appeals to the intelligence of the Initiated. “Let him who hath knowledge, understand! Let him who understands, calculate!” he often says, after an allegory or the mention of a number.
– Albert Pike, Morals and dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
Recognizing the theosophical inspiration for the Georgia Guidestones, I knew that numerological messages might be hidden within the design of the monument since numerology is very important to theosophists. Given that much of the monument was built by proxy – the mysterious designer, “R.C. Christian,” provided the metric dimensions for the monument, the specifications of its astrological features, a model and a list of his ten guidelines for a post-apocalyptic world – it was most likely that messages would be encoded into the dimensions or raw proportions of the Georgia Guidestones component stone slabs.
The stories surrounding the origins of the Georgia Guidestones are murky and inconsistent, but one thing that is not in dispute is that R.C. Christian specified the dimensions of the Guidestone slabs in meters, which was an oddity in Georgia back in 1979 when he met with Joe Fendley, Sr., the 32-degree Freemason who owned the granite finishing company that eventually built the monument. The diagram below illustrates the metric dimensions (and resulting proportions) specified by R.C. Christian for each of the monument’s three component groups.
Note that taking measurements of the slabs by hand is tricky due to their rough-hewn, rock-pitched surfaces formed by men bashing them into shape with sledgehammers. R.C. Christian specified this primitive finish to provide the monument with an ancient appearance. Fortunately, R.C. Christian disclosed the two primary metric dimensions of the four Guidestones in his book Common Sense Renewed. Each Guidestone was designed to be two meters wide by five meters tall. The remaining metric dimensions of the various Georgia Guidestones components are then evident by examination of the English unit measurements provided at the site. Additionally, we carefully measured the thickness of the English language Guidestone by hand and it was precisely 0.5 meters from finished edge to finished edge.
The metric measurements specified by R.C. Christian are then:
Capstone: 0.5m x 2m x 3m
Center “Gnomen” stone: 0.5m x 1m x 5m
Each of the four Guidestones: 0.5m x 2m x 5m
The corresponding proportions then become:
Capstone: 1 : 4 : 6
Center “Gnomen” stone: 1 : 2 : 10
Each of the four Guidestones: 1 : 4 : 10
If any component would have an encoded numerological message then it would be the four Guidestones. Each of the Guidestones has the proportion of 1:4:10, which immediately brought to mind the date January 4, 2010. I then discovered that the Burj Dubai would be opened on that date. The Burj Dubai, now called the Burj Khalifa, is by far the tallest building in the world and it strongly resembles Babylonian ziggurats, the building style that many believe was used for the Tower of Babel.
We also discovered that the former emir of Dubai, Sheik Maktoum bin Rashad al Maktoum, died unexpected during an Australian trip on January 4, 2006 (1/4/6) which corresponds to the proportions of the Capstone of the Georgia Guidestones (1:4:6). The death of Sheik Maktoum led to the ascendency of his brother, Sheik Mohammed, to become ruler of Dubai. Sheik Mohammed is directly responsible for the construction of the Burj Dubai, now called the Burj Khalifa. Sheik Mohammed’s building spree was a pursuit that nearly drove Dubai into receivership before being bailed out by Sheik Khalifa, the leader of neighboring Abu Dhabi.
Still, while those two connections were extraordinary, they were not beyond chance, so I looked for an indisputable connection between the two constructions. The most significant aspect of the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world by over 1,000 feet, was its soaring height, so I tried to see if the height of the tower were also encoded into the Georgia Guidestones.
For numerology to carry any weight, the messages have to be encoded in obvious ways. The most obvious way to encode the height of the Burj Khalifa is by combining the proportions of the three component groups. I did this as follows:
Capstone: 1 + 4 + 6 = 11
Center “Gnomen” stone: 1 + 2 + 10 = 13
Each Guidestone: 1 + 4 + 10 = 15, but there are four Guidestones so taking this into account: 1 + 4 + 10 + 4 = 19
Oddly enough, the three derived numbers are all prime. Multiplying them together, I got:
11 x 13 x 19 = 2,717
I initially derived this number in November, 2009, and all sources at that time claimed the height of the Burj Dubai was only 2,684 feet. Most damningly, the 2010 Guinness Book of World Records, which we purchased in late November, also listed the tower’s height at 2,684 feet, some ten meters short of the number I derived.
Because any encoded numerological message had to be “hidden in plain sight” for it to have any meaning, I resolved myself at that time to the fact that the height of the Burj Dubai was not encoded into the Georgia Guidestones and that any connection between that strange monument and the Burj Dubai was tenuous.
However, on January 4, 2010, Sheik Mohammed had a surprise for the world: the actual height of the tower, renamed on that day as the “Burj Khalifa” in honor of the sheik who bailed out Dubai from bankruptcy only a few days earlier, was not 2,684 feet as had been widely believed, but was actually 2,717 feet, the exact value I had derived from the Georgia Guidestones over a month earlier!
Moreover, 11, 13 and 19 are the prime factors of 2,717, a very special set of numbers that simply constitute another way of writing “2,717.”
Combined with the two other connections to the Burj Khalifa mentioned earlier, there is no doubt that the Georgia Guidestones was designed with specific numerological links pointing directly to the Burj Khalifa. Again, those three links are as follows:
1. The capstone points to the unexpected death of Dubai’s Emir, Sheik Maktoum, on January 4, 2006.
2. The Guidestones contain the encoded date, January 4, 2010, the completion date of the Burj Khalifa.
3. The exact height of the Burj Khalifa, 2,717 feet, is encoded in an obvious fashion within the proportions of the Georgia Guidestone components.
The now indisputable connection between the two enigmatic structures provided me with motivation to understand their symbolic meaning along with the intentions of the powerful people who built them.
You might have noticed that I did not provide the significance of the proportions of the Gnomen Stone, the tall, thin central slab of the monument. Its proportions are 1:2:10 which sum to be 13. The number “13” is specifically significant when combined with the fact that the pseudonym for the monument’s designer was “R.C. Christian,” a transparent claim by him to be a follower or even an incarnation of Christian Rosenkreuz (Rosy Cross), the founder of Rosicrucianism who some claim has appeared throughout the centuries, perhaps most notably as the Count of St. Germaine, one of the fomenters of the French Revolution.
The central pillar of the Georgia Guidestones is a representation in granite of the number “13,” the number that signifies the “Hidden Hand” of the Rosicrucians. The Rosicrucians identify with this number because, they claim, it takes 12 identical spheres to completely conceal a thirteenth. The 12 outer spheres represent the visible world, while the inner thirteenth sphere signifies the “Hidden Hand” of the Rosicrucians working in secret to manipulate events in our history.
So the “13” encoded into the central Gnomen Stone is a calling card of the Rosicrucians.
The symbolic meaning of the Burj Khalifa is unambiguous: it is the completion of the second Tower of Babel, a pursuit the Rosicrucians, Freemasons and their ilk have sought for millennia.
Understand at this point that Rosicrucians are an ill defined group. They are very secretive and it is unclear which formal organization, if any, is the legitimate heir to the Rosicrucian legacy.
Most people today who identify themselves as Rosicrucians are not much more than avid Dungeons & Dragons role-playing fans who like pretending to be modern-day wizards as grownups. Moreover, the various groups and chapters snipe at each other, refuting the legitimacy of other Rosicrucians.
However, one person who was apparently a bona fide Rosicrucian initiate was Sirhan Sirhan, the deranged man who was convicted for killing U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy. Today, Sirhan Sirhan is the poster child for “mind control,” a concept explored in the infamous CIA MK-Ultra experiments and an idea popularized in the 1959 motion picture The Manchurian Candidate (and remade in 2004).
I have spent time researching the Rosicrucians in an attempt to better understand their connection to the Georgia Guidestones. While I do not believe all of these ideas, I share them with you so that you have in your hands some of the more well-known ideas surrounding this mysterious cult.
Interestingly, the Rosicrucians have been accused of practicing a form of mind control called “assumption” where members of the order are told to take over the minds of world leaders and other people to further Rosicrucian goals and obtain personal objectives.
More openly, Rosicrucians claim to practice magic. They brag that they can travel outside their bodies through a process called “astral projection.” In fact, they claim to not only travel to other planets through astral projection, but also to view the subatomic realm with this occult practice. However, they incorrectly maintained for years that all bodies in both domains were perfect spheres.
Historically, the Rosicrucians were probably formed in Germany by the remnants of the enigmatic and immensely powerful Knights Templar. The Rosicrucians are suspected in later establishing speculative Freemasonry in Scotland.
Francis Bacon and his wizard-like progenitor, John Dee, are both widely believed to have been Rosicrucians. Some accuse Bacon of formulating a vision of the New World as the “New Atlantis,” the reestablishment of the antiquarian society that holds an important position in theosophy.
The Rosicrucians are the preeminent theosophists, predating and directly influencing other modern occult groups. Theosophists claim that civilized mankind stretches much further back into antiquity than conventional archeologists and anthropologists accept. Before the Babylonians and Egyptians, a powerful country held sway over the world called Atlantis. With its destruction (described in various fantastic ways), survivors fled to the four corners of the globe and formed the Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations along with establishing civilizations eastwards into Iran and the Indus valley. These founders are called the “Aryans.”
Many people today still believe the Aryans existed. In fact, “Iran” essentially means “Land of the Aryans.” There is even some linguistic evidence supporting the existence of a mother “Aryan” language that gave birth to many different languages from Europe to the Indian Subcontinent.
They were white men, as we are, the superior race in intellect, in manliness, the governing race of the world, the conquering race of all other races. They called themselves Arya, the Aryans, the Warlike, or, some think, the Noble… we owe not one single truth, not one idea, in philosophy or religion to the Semitic race… it is a fact indisputable.
– Albert Pike, Lectures of the Arya
Hitler believed that Aryan decedents were still alive in his time. He and his Nazi brethren claimed the Aryans were the blond-haired, blue-eyed Europeans of Germany and Nordic countries who migrated westwardly from India and Iran. This is why Nazism has the strange confluence of Druidic and Hindu influences. In fact, the swastika was partially important to the Nazis because it was a symbol that connected the Druids, Hindu, Iranian and other ancient, purportedly Aryan cultures.
Central to theosophy is the belief that all modern religions are remnants of the true Aryan religion. Theosophists try to find analogues to Biblical figures in other religions. For some of them, God is Zeus, Satan or Lucifer is Poseidon, and particularly important, Enoch is Thoth or Hermes. In fact, this last relation is the foundation of Hermeticism, a particularly incisive angle on Theosophy that serves as the heart of Rosicrucianism.
LUCIFER, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darkness! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable blinds feeble, sensual, or selfish Souls? Doubt it not!
– Albert Pike, Morals and dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
Most theosophists are harmless, but the highest orders of Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism take a sinister position opposing Christianity. For them, God is an oppressive being who attempted to keep Adam and Eve ignorant and subservient in the Garden of Eden. Satan or Lucifer is viewed by them as a liberator and bringer of knowledge. These are the Luciferians.
Stand in awe of him, and sin not, speak his name with trembling … It is Satan who is the god of our planet and the only god…
– Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society
This veneration for Lucifer is captured in the number 322 used by the Masonic “Skull and Bones” command and control order. The Georgia Guidestones monument was officially completed on March 22 (3/22), 1980. “322” is important to the highest orders of Rosicrucians and Freemasons because it points to Genesis 3:22. Genesis 3:22-3:24 states:
22 And the LORD God said, |
can only remember what a “chi square analysis” is on a good day, and you have enough trouble remembering the difference between case control studies and cohort studies, you’re probably not going to be able to follow the entire debate and pick apart exactly where one of them goes wrong.
But you know, on a good day I remember my chi-square analyses, I get the difference between case control and cohort studies right, and then I can read an R. A. Fisher paper and think “No, smoking is still bad.”
What about Glymour on IQ?
There’s a consensus among researchers in the field that IQ is useful and means what people think it means. And there’s a lot of research backing that up, same way as there’s a lot of research backing up the link between smoking and cancer.
On the other hand, Glymour seems to be well respected and intelligent, and he says things like:
Factor models assume that observed variables that do not influence one another are independent conditional on all of their common causes, an assumption that is a special case of what Terry Speed has called the Markov condition for directed graphical models. The rank constraints – of which vanishing tetrads are a special case – used in factor analysis are implied by conditional independencies in factor models, conditional independencies guaranteed by the topological structure of the graph of the model, no matter what values the linear coefficients or factor loadings may have. To exclude more latent variables when fewer will do, Spearman needed only to assume that the vanishing tetrads do not depend on the constraints on the numerical values of the linear coefficients of factor loadings, but are implied by the underlying causal structure. It is known that the set of values of linear parameters (coefficients and variances) that generate probability distributions unfaithful to a directed graph is measure zero in the natural measure on parameter space.
Even on my absolute best day, if I swallowed like an entire jar of modafinil, and then another jar of piracetam, and I looked up every one of those words in a dictionary, and took two or three hours to puzzle it out, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t bring myself to generate an understanding of that paragraph and sustain it for more than thirty seconds.
But there are thirty pages of that kind of thing, and then at the end it says “therefore, you should disbelieve in IQ and probably also all other research in the social sciences.”
Also, it mentions how research on IQ must be rejected because it might encourage the Republicans, whose plans will lead to a nation where “Ku Klux Klan schools, Aryan Nation schools, the Nation of Northern Idaho schools, Farrakhan schools, Pure Creation schools, Scientiology schools, and a thousand more schools of ignorance, separation, and hatred bloom like some evil garden, subsidized by taxes.” So clearly there’s some political motivation at work as well.
(Also: Anissimov! Did you realize you could get your Northern Idaho secessionist schools to be tax-subsidized? You should totally look into that!)
So I have to ask – am I being informed of deep methodological truths that are being neglected? Or am I being Eulered?
I don’t have a good way of answering this. The way I try to deal with it in practice is seeing if I can route around the objection.
Like it’s clear that Diderot’s best option wasn’t to try to argue that (a+b^n)/n didn’t equal x. Far better for him would have been to ask why, if (a+b^n)/n = x, this necessarily proved God. Even if Diderot wasn’t smart enough to understand the precise algebra involved, he might have been able to at least get the impression that what it was doing was defining X in terms of other quantities. So he might have been able to ask “Why does a certain definition of the meaningless quantity X disprove God?” even if, for example, he didn’t know what exponentiation was and couldn’t parse “b^n”.
My reaction to the Glymour paper was to try to figure out what it was trying to prove with all its statistics. My conclusion was that it was trying to prove that doing correlations adjusted for confounders didn’t always remove all the confounders.
I don’t have the mathematical ability to know whether Glymour’s argument is correct, but luckily I already don’t believe adjusting for confounders does a good job of removing confounders:
I will come out and say it: I do not trust the practice of “adjusting for confounders”, at least not the way this study does it. You are adjusting for an imperfect measurement of the confounders you can think of. If you find that there is lingering correlation, then either your hypothesis is true, or you didn’t adjust for confounders well enough.
So I tried to route my argument around Glymour’s objection. I said that even assuming Glymour had discovered something terrible and shameful about the way correlations and regressions were done in the social sciences, this doesn’t come close to debunking all research on IQ. My particular argument was:
The example I gave of good IQ research, which you said you’re not convinced is actually being done, is the connection between lead poisoning and poor life outcomes, mostly proven through IQ. Let me discuss what this research looks like and why it’s not just one guy running a correlation through SPSS without any awareness of possible confounders. First of all, there’s a LOT of evidence that growing up in neighborhoods with high lead concentration is correlated with lower IQ as an adult. This is all regressed for the usual things like socioeconomic status. Fine. That seems vulnerable to exactly the problems you describe. For example, maybe rotting houses expose people to more lead, and poor people are more likely to live in rotting houses, and poor people’s kids go to poorly funded schools that don’t teach them test-taking skills, so their IQ looks low Then they found a dose-dependent effect – ie the more lead you were exposed to, the worse the IQ drop was. Still pretty confoundable – if for some reason poor people used more lead (for example), poorer people might use even more lead (and have factors causing lower IQ test scores) Then they found that when different states removed lead from gasoline, childhood outcomes rose in a very predictable pattern. There was a dramatic improvement a certain number of years after the lead was banned – for example, maybe California banned lead in 1960, and in 1965 outcomes started to rise dramatically; Oregon banned lead in 1965, and in 1970 outcomes started to rise dramatically; Washington banned lead in 1970, and in 1975 outcomes started to rise dramatically. Once again, this could be confounded. Maybe liberal states were more likely to ban lead first, and also more likely to increase school funding first. Then they found that levels of lead in the air at time T was correlated suspiciously closely with crime at time t+1 – like if you line up the two graphs, every tiny little uptick and downtick match perfectly. Then they found that lead exposure during pregnancy decreases the head circumference of infants, which seems a little less malleable by things like poor school funding than IQ is. Then they found like thirty other things. I admit every one of those pieces of evidence is a correlation. But even though the correlation between lead levels in a neighborhood and crime in that neighborhood could be confounded by unobserved factors, lead levels in an era and crime in that era could be confounded by unobserved factors, lead regulatory regimes and crime in the area covered by that regulatory regime could be confounded by unobserved factors, and lead exposure during pregnancy and head circumference could be confounded by unobserved factors – at some point you have to say that we’re starting to rack up a lot of coincidences, and maybe we should just admit the theory has a point. And once you come up with some solid result, like the one with lead – then that becomes your basis for other results. Childhood lead poisoning causes brain damage thus lowering IQ? That lends credence to the idea that IQ is a useful measuring tool for some kind of brain health. Lead both decreases IQ and increases crime in a dose-dependent way? That lends credence to causal interpretations of the observation that IQ and crime are closely correlated. Once you’ve gone through this process enough times and you find that all of your results kind of fit together, you have what’s starting to look like a pretty impressive scientific edifice. So I think the criticism that IQ research (and social science in general) is just based on drive-by correlations and regressions, then accepting whatever they say, is a big oversimplification.
Obviously this tactic would not have worked if the point I had wanted to defend was that the particular statistical practice of correlation and regression used in the social sciences was valid.
But the whole point of this Eulering issue is that I am not a statistician. I should not be in the business of trying to defend regression unless I know enough about it to do so coherently and intelligently.
The problem here only occurs when sophisticated math is used to attack nonmathematical ideas, like the existence of God, or lead causing increases in crime. And presumably these ideas should be complicated and diverse enough that hopefully no one mathematical argument knocks down the entire edifice. True things should usually reveal their truth through multiple different arguments, and it would be very odd if math could demolish all of them at the same time.
I admit this is not a very satisfying solution to worries about Eulering. I don’t think there will be any general solution, but rather a toolkit of different useful tricks, some of which I will try to go into further in the future.Burnt medicine bottles are seen at a hospital damaged during the fighting between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants in eastern Mosul, Iraq, May 7, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi forces faced stiff resistance from Islamic State in northwest Mosul on Sunday after opening a new front against the militants there in a push to rout them from the city after seven months of fighting.
Trapped in a steadily shrinking area of the city, the militants are fighting back with a barrage of suicide car bombs and snipers concealed amongst hundreds of thousands of civilians they are effectively holding hostage.
Having gained a foothold in the northern Musherfa district last week, Iraqi forces are trying to push down into the handful of remaining districts held by Islamic State in Mosul, including the Old City.
The Iraqi military said on Saturday the Musherfa district had been fully retaken, but officers told Reuters on Sunday there was still fighting there and smoke could be seen rising over the area by a Reuters reporter in east Mosul.
“Fighting Daesh in Musherfa with a large number of families still locked in their houses is making the battle more complicated,” said a colonel from the ninth armored division, which is taking part in the offensive, referring to Islamic State by its Arab acronym.
The new push from the northwest began last week after other fronts in the city’s southern districts stalled around the Old City where the iconic mosque from which Islamic State leader proclaimed a modern-day caliphate is located.
Iraqi forces are backed by a U.S.-led coalition which is carrying out airstrikes and advising them on the ground.
Iraqi officers said additional reinforcements from the Rapid Response Division had arrived in northwest Mosul on Sunday to help clear areas on the banks of the River Tigris that bisects the city.
“The brigade will participate in the battle to retake Hawi al-Kanisa and also help the ninth army division step up pressure on Daesh fighters,” said a Rapid Response officer on condition of anonymity.As you’re surely already aware, Disney Infinity 3.0 released today! While there’s still some deals on 1.0 and 2.0, I know the big deals you guys are looking for right now are for 3.0, so I’ll focus on that first.
Firstly, a big thanks to Jason at Infinity Inquirer, who put together an impressive list of deals yesterday for launch day. He’s made my job easier this week, so definitely give his site some love. The most important deals to be aware of for 3.0 today come from Best Buy, Target, and Toys R Us.
At Best Buy, they’re offering buy 3 DI items, get the 4th free of equal or lesser value for free. Users have also reported that DI 3.0 qualifies for Best Buy’s $10 preorder incentive, but it’s obviously too late to get that now if you didn’t preorder. Target is running 2 for $20 on figures (~30% off), while TRU has 40% off any three figures with the purchase of a starter, as well as buy one, get one 50% off on all figures (2 for $22.49).
Toy Box Takeover Expansion
“Syndrome has got his hands on Merlin’s magic wand, and now all of the Toy Box is in danger in this Disney Infinity: 3.0 Edition Toy Box Takeover Expansion Game.”
If you preordered a Disney Infinity 3.0 starter, you likely are eligible to get the Toy Box Takeover Expansion for free (I know for sure it was offered at Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target, while TRU’s website listed it as “online only”). Make sure to check with your customer service rep when you pick up your preorder, because many people have reported that their expansion was not included when they got their stuff.
Significant Deals
Buy 3 Disney Infinity Items, get 4th free (Best Buy) Also, an extra 20% off with Gamers Club Unlocked
2 of any Disney Infinity figures for $20 (Target)
40% off any 3 Disney Infinity figures with the purchase of 3.0 starter (Toys R Us)
Buy one, get one 50% off any Disney Infinity figures (Toys R Us)
$10 Xbox Live card with preorder of Xbox One 3.0 starter (Microsoft Store)
Using these deals, you can get all of the figures for $152.57-175.95, depending on whether you have GCU (thanks again, Infinity Inquirer!).
Amazon
Best Buy
Release day deals: Buy One Get One Free on all Disney Infinity items
Disney Store
Gamestop
Microsoft Store
3.0 starter for Xbox One for $64.99 (purchase bonus: $10 Xbox gift card)
Sam’s Club
Target
Release day deals: 2 for $20 on Disney Infinity Figures With coupon, $10 off $50 and $25 of $100 in Star Wars products (not yet confirmed for Infinity products)
Toys R Us
Walmart
Not ready to jump in on DI 3.0 yet? Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered: there’s still some other good deals this week.
Firstly, it’s worth noting all of the above deals, except for TRU’s which requires a 3.0 starter purchase, are valid on 1.0 and 2.0 items. You’ll also want to keep an eye on Gamestop’s buy two, get three free on preowned items, which still runs until late September. Speaking of Gamestop, they’ve currently got power disc capsules for 97 cents, and they’re even in stock! This is the lowest price I’ve ever seen them, and they’re sure to not last long (they’ve been out of stock on the site for weeks), so get them while you can!
Best Buy‘s still running Barbossa for $2.99 and the Cars play set for $7.99, so if you’ve been holding off on getting those last bits of your 1.0 stock, well, what are you waiting for? You won’t see a lower price on those items new. They’ve also got all toy box starters for $29.99, but that’s not the best deal on any platform. The Microsoft Store is continuing to run $5.99 deals on Anna and Sorcerer’s Apprentice Mickey, with free shipping on both.
Toys R Us has backed off of its major 1.0 deals from the past few weeks to make room for some DI 3.0 deals. As a result, aside from what I’ve already reported, there’s not much to say about them this week. Amazon‘s got the Sidekick pack (Mrs. Incredible, Barbossa, and Mike Wazowski) for $14.45. See saw TRU offering it for less than $8 for the past two weeks, so you’ll probably see a lower price on that in the future. That said, it’s still a good deal, as it’s quite a bit cheaper than you get the figures individually (Mrs. Incredible is over $20 by herself!).
Lastly, Amazon’s offering the PS3 collector’s edition for $65.72 this week. While that’s not quite the lowest price I’ve ever seen it, it’s only about $8 higher, so this is still an excellent deal, especially if all you’re after is that Frost Giant base, and it qualifies for free shipping.
See any mistakes or anything I missed? Drop me a line here or on Reddit and let me know!
Mickey Mouse Figure Giveaway
In celebration of 3.0, we’re continuing our figure giveaways this week with Mickey Mouse! Enter below for your chance at the figure of this classic Disney icon.
Mickey Mouse Figure
Olaf Figure Giveaway
Congratulations to Justin D., (beagle…@yahoo.com), winner of the Olaf figure giveaway! An email has been dispatched, so check your inbox.
Olaf Figure
Note: If you do not respond to our attempts to contact you within one week, I will perform a new drawing and award the prize to someone else, so please don’t delay in responding! You may want to keep an eye on your spam folder as well, depending on how tightly regulated your inbox is.
These deals were last updated at 3:21 PM CDT, August 30, 2015.
Table of Contents
Best Deals of the Week (non-3.0)
Amazon
Best Buy
Disney Store
Gamestop
Kmart
Microsoft Store
Sam’s Club
Target
Toys R Us
Walmart
DI PC Trial Characters
Best Deals of the Week
(Editor’s choice deals highlighted in Bold)
Buy two preowned figures, get three free (Gamestop)
Buy 3 Disney Infinity Items, get 4th free (Best Buy)
2 of any Disney Infinity figures for $20 (Target)
40% off any 3 Disney Infinity figures with the purchase of 3.0 starter (Toys R Us)
Buy one, get one 50% off any Disney Infinity figures (Toys R Us)
Power disc capsules: $0.97 (Gamestop)
Disney Infinity 1.0 Deals
Disney Infinity 2.0 Deals
Power discs: Disney Originals power disc pack: $3.39 (Walmart) Marvel Rare power disc pack: $3.46 (Walmart) Marvel Super Heroes power disc pack: $4.23 (Walmart)
Toy Box Game discs: Disney Originals: $18.99 (Walmart) Marvel Super Heroes: $13.43 (Walmart)
Figures: $10 and under figures (Amazon, Sam’s Club — in-store, Walmart)
Figure Packs: Aladdin and Jasmine toy box pack: $19.23 (Amazon, Walmart)
Play Sets: Avengers: $19.48 (Amazon, Target) Guardians of the Galaxy: $23.38 (Walmart) Spider-Man: $26.90 (Walmart)
Marvel Starter packs: PS3: $29.97 (Walmart) PS4: $30.58 (Amazon) Wii U: $37.99 (Amazon) Xbox 360: $39.99 (Walmart) Xbox One: $39.99 (Walmart)
Collector’s Editions: PS3: $65.72 (Amazon) PS4: $79.99 (Amazon)
Toy Box Starters: PS3: $25.99 (Amazon) PS4: $24.92 (Amazon) Wii U: $28.85 (Amazon, Walmart) Xbox 360: $23.99 (Amazon, Target) Xbox One: $25.65 (Amazon, Target)
Power disc capsule for $6.09
Disney Infinity 1.0 Deals
Disney Infinity 2.0 Deals
Disney Infinity 1.0 Deals
Disney Infinity 2.0 Deals
Best Buy is also offering a Nick Fury figure with a specialized display case for $17.99.
Disney Infinity 1.0 Deals
Disney Infinity 2.0 Deals
Gamestop is also offering a Rocket Raccoon figure with a specialized display case for $19.99 and a Captain America figure with specialized display case for $19.99.
Disney Infinity 2.0 Deals
1.0 figures: Anna for $12.99 Elsa for $12.99
Disney Infinity 2.0 Deals
Target is also offering a Stitch figure with a specialized display case for $17.99.
Disney Infinity 1.0 Deals
Disney Infinity 2.0 Deals
Power disc albums for $5.49
Disney Infinity 1.0 Deals
Disney Infinity 2.0 Deals
Disney Infinity 1.0 Deals
Disney Infinity 1.0 Deals
Disney Infinity 2.0 Deals
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Check Out The Best Disney Infinity Deals This Week! Click Here!WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Plaintiffs can file suit under the Fair Housing Act for practices that have a discriminatory effect, even if the accused wasn't purposely discriminating, the Supreme Court said Thursday in a 5-to-4 decision. In "Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project," the court considered whether the Fair Housing Act, which bars refusal to sell or rent housing based on characteristics such as race and sex, allows suits based on disparate impact. Disparate-impact claims are used to show that a practice's effects are discriminatory, even if the accused wasn't intending to discriminate. "Suits targeting unlawful zoning laws and other housing restrictions that unfairly exclude minorities from certain neighborhoods without sufficient justification are at the heartland of disparate-impact liability," according to the court. The decision was a surprise, wrote SCOTUSBLOG, a site that closely tracks the court: "This is a big deal for housing rights and civil rights groups."
Have breaking news sent to your inbox. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Bulletin emails. Sign up here.A.M. Ahad/Associated Press
As if it needed conformation, Dale Steyn cemented his reputation as a legendary bowler on Thursday when he claimed his 400th Test scalp. He achieved the landmark in the joint-second fastest time—tied with Sir Richard Hadlee behind Muttiah Muralitharan. Steyn is the fastest to the landmark in terms of balls bowled.
Steyn has been the mainstay of the South African attack for a good few years now. His energy, accuracy and ability to set batsmen up have been key to South Africa’s success over the last decade.
Nobody on the list of bowlers to take 400 wickets has a strike rate anywhere near as good as Steyn’s. He is the only one with a strike rate below 50. While this might become less impressive as his career goes on, it is still a remarkable stat. It is even more remarkable when you consider Steyn plays in an era when more and more runs are scored on average per innings.
Steyn can also boast the fact he has more wickets on the subcontinent than any other bowler from outside the area.
You could spend days finding stats that highlight just how impressive Steyn’s record is, but all you really need to do is watch him.
Through it all, Steyn has remained humble, and stats aren’t exactly at the top of his priority list.
“I have never been a stats person,” he said about the achievement. “It’s nice to have these numbers, but I have had a lot better moments in my cricketing career. Winning games for my country has always been objective number one so the jobs not over yet. It’s cool. It’s nice to have 400.”
The South African pace ace didn’t even think he would ever get to this point in his career. And for a kid who preferred skateboarding to cricket in his early years, perhaps that’s not too much of a surprise. Luckily for South Africa, Steyn is now like a jack-in-the-box and never wants to stop.
“I want to play every game,” he said when asked about his next target. “I want to bowl again tomorrow and I want to bowl again the next time South Africa pick me. Anything can happen—I don’t set targets. I would’ve been happy if I had taken just one wicket in my international career. It’s enough to play for South Africa and take wickets for South Africa, and then I managed to get 400. I never thought that that would happen...ever in my life.”
Earlier this year, Steyn caused uproar when he said that he doesn’t want to “waste” balls bowling in Bangladesh, and after taking his 400th wicket, he admitted he went through a period in which he fell out of love with bowling.
“I love what I am doing right now, even if it’s in 40-degree heat and the ball is staying ankle high,” he said. “It’s [the ball] not bouncing and there’s no seam and it’s very slow, [but] I would rather be here than anywhere else right now. There was a period [after the IPL] when I actually didn’t want to have a ball in my hand. I think I just needed maybe two or three weeks to get that love back again.”
South Africa fans will be pleased the legend is back doing what he does best. With tough tours away to India and at home against England to come, Steyn has plenty of opportunities to enhance his legendary reputation even further.
All quotes obtained first hand.It is possible to protect the rights of the complainants in Sweden and Assange's rights against political persecution, but a vindictive thirst for vengeance is preventing that
(updated below - Update II)
Earlier this week, British lawyer and legal correspondent for the New Statesman David Allen Green generated a fair amount of attention by announcing that he would use his objective legal expertise to bust what he called "legal myths about the Assange extradition." These myths, he said, are being irresponsibly spread by Assange defenders and "are like 'zombie facts' which stagger on even when shot down."
In addition to his other credentials, Green – like virtually the entire British press – is a long-time and deeply devoted Assange-basher, and his purported myth-busting was predictably regurgitated by those who reflexively grasp onto anything that reflects poorly on western establishmentarians' public enemy No1. It's really worth examining what Green argued to understand the behavior in which Assange detractors engage to advance this collective vendetta, and also to see how frequently blatant ideological agendas masquerade as high-minded, objective legal expertise.
But before getting to that, let us pause to reflect on a truly amazing and revealing fact, one that calls for formal study in several academic fields of discipline. Is it not remarkable that one of the very few individuals over the past decade to risk his welfare, liberty and even life to meaningfully challenge the secrecy regime on which the American national security state (and those of its obedient allies) depends just so happens to have become – long before he sought asylum from Ecuador – the most intensely and personally despised figure among the American and British media class and the British "liberal" intelligentsia?
In 2008 – two years before the release of the "collateral murder" video, the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, and the diplomatic cables – the Pentagon prepared a secret report which proclaimed WikiLeaks to be an enemy of the state and plotted ways to destroy its credibility and reputation. But in a stroke of amazing luck, Pentagon operatives never needed to do any of that, because the establishment media in the US and Britain harbor at least as much intense personal loathing for the group's founder as the US government does, and eagerly took the lead in targeting him. Many people like to posit the US national security state and western media outlets as adversarial forces, but here – as is so often the case – they have so harmoniously joined in common cause.
Whatever else is true, establishment media outlets show unlimited personal animus toward the person who, as a panel of judges put it when they awarded him the the 2011 Martha Gellhorn prize for journalism, "has given the public more scoops than most journalists can imagine." Similarly, when the Australian version of the Pulitzers – the Walkley Foundation – awarded its highest distinction (for "Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism") to WikiLeaks in 2011, it cited the group's "courageous and controversial commitment to the finest traditions of journalism: justice through transparency," and observed: "So many eagerly took advantage of the secret cables to create more scoops in a year than most journalists could imagine in a lifetime."
When it comes to the American media, I've long noted this revealing paradox. The person who (along with whomever is the heroic leaker) enabled "more scoops in a year than most journalists could imagine in a lifetime" – and who was quickly branded an enemy by the Pentagon and a terrorist by high U.S. officials – is the most hated figure among establishment journalists, even though they are ostensibly devoted to precisely these values of transparency and exposing serious government wrongdoing. (This transparency was imposed not only on the US and its allies, but also some of the most oppressive regimes in the Arab world).
But the contempt is far more intense, and bizarrely personal, from the British press, much of which behaves with staggering levels of mutually-reinforcing vindictiveness and groupthink when it's time to scorn an outsider like Assange. On Tuesday, Guardian columnist Seumas Milne wrote a superb analysis of British media coverage of Assange, and observed that "the virulence of British media hostility towards the WikiLeaks founder is now unrelenting." Milne noted that to the British press, Assange "is nothing but a'monstrous narcissist', a bail-jumping'sex pest' and an exhibitionist maniac" – venom spewed at someone "who has yet to be charged, let alone convicted, of anything."
Indeed, the personalized nature of this contempt from self-styled sober journalists often borders on the creepy (when it's not wildly transgressing that border). Former New York Times' executive editor Bill Keller infamously quoted an email from a Times reporter claiming that Assange wore "filthy white socks that collapsed around his ankles" and "smelled as if he hadn't bathed in days." On the very same day WikiLeaks released over 400,000 classified documents showing genuinely horrific facts about massive civilian deaths in the Iraq war and US complicity in torture by Iraqi forces, the New York Times front-paged an article purporting to diagnose Assange with a variety of psychological afflictions and concealed, malicious motives, based on its own pop-psychology observations and those of Assange's enemies ("erratic and imperious behavior", "a nearly delusional grandeur", "he is not in his right mind", "pursuing a vendetta against the United States").
A columnist for the Independent, Joan Smith, recently watched Assange's interview of Ecuadorean president Rafeal Correa and offered up this wisdom: "He's put on weight, his face is puffy and he didn't bother to shave before his interview with Correa." And perhaps most psychologically twisted of all: a team of New York Times reporters and editors last week, in its lead article about Ecuador's decision to grant asylum, decided it would be appropriate to include a quote from one of Assange's most dedicated enemies claiming that when the WikiLeaks founder was a visitor in his apartment, he "refused to flush the toilet during his entire stay" (faced with a barrage of mockery and disgust over their reporting on Assange's alleged toilet habits, the NYT sheepishly deleted that passage without comment).
It is difficult to think of anyone this side of Saddam Hussein who triggers this level of personalized, deeply ingrained hatred from establishment journalists. Few who spew this vitriol would dare speak with the type of personalized scorn toward, say, George Bush or Tony Blair – who actually launched an aggressive war that resulted in the deaths of at least 100,000 innocent people and kidnapped people from around the globe with no due process and sent them to be tortured. The reaction Assange inspires among establishment media figures is really sui generis.
It is vital to note, as was just demonstrated, that this media contempt long pre-dates, and exists wholly independent of, the controversy surrounding the sex assault allegations in Sweden, and certainly long pre-dates his seeking of asylum from Ecuador. Indeed, given that he has not been convicted of anything, to assume Assange's guilt would be reprehensible – every bit as reprehensible as concluding that the allegations are a CIA ruse or that the complainants' allegations should be dismissed as frivolous or inherently untrustworthy.
It would be genuinely nice to think that the same British government that refused to extradite the mass rapist Augusto Pinochet has suddenly developed a devoted passion for ensuring that alleged sex assault offenders are brought to justice – just as it would be nice to believe that the sudden interest in denouncing Ecuador's press freedom record was driven by some newly discovered and authentic concern in the west for civil liberties protections in South America. But as Milne put it last night with great understatement: "such posturing looks increasingly specious." As he rhetorically asked:
"Can anyone seriously believe the dispute would have gone global, or that the British government would have made its asinine threat to suspend the Ecuadorean embassy's diplomatic status and enter it by force, or that scores of police would have surrounded the building, swarming up and down the fire escape and guarding every window, if it was all about one man wanted for questioning over sex crime allegations in Stockholm?"
Like those who suddenly discover the imperatives of feminism when it comes time to justify the war in Afghanistan, or those who become overnight advocates of gay rights when it comes time to demonize the regime in Tehran, or those who took a very recent interest in Ecuadorean press freedoms, these sex assault allegations -- as serious and deserving of legal resolution as they are -- are being cynically exploited as a political weapon by many who have long despised Assange for reasons entirely independent of this case.
* * * * *
There are several obvious reasons why Assange provokes such unhinged media contempt. The most obvious among them is competition: the resentment generated by watching someone outside their profession generate more critical scoops in a year than all other media outlets combined (see this brilliant 2008 post, in the context of the Clintons, about how professional and ego-based competition produces personal hatred like nothing else can).
Other causes are more subtle though substantive. Many journalists (and liberals) like to wear the costume of outsider-insurgent, but are, at their core, devoted institutionalists, faithful believers in the goodness of their society's power centers, and thus resent those (like Assange) who actually and deliberately place themselves outside of it. By putting his own liberty and security at risk to oppose the world's most powerful factions, Assange has clearly demonstrated what happens to real adversarial dissidents and insurgents – they're persecuted, demonized, and threatened, not befriended by and invited to parties within the halls of imperial power – and he thus causes many journalists to stand revealed as posers, servants to power, and courtiers.
Then there's the ideological cause. As one long-time British journalist told me this week when discussing the vitriol of the British press toward Assange: "Nothing delights British former lefties more than an opportunity to defend power while pretending it is a brave stance in defence of a left liberal principle." That's the warped mindset that led to so many of these self-styled liberal journalists to support the attack on Iraq and other acts of Western aggression in the name of liberal values. And it's why nothing triggers their rage like fundamental critiques of, and especially meaningful opposition to, the institutions of power to which they are unfailingly loyal.
* * * * *
With that context established, let us return to David Allen Green. The attacks on those who have defended Assange's extradition and asylum arguments has depended on the disgusting slander that such advocates are indifferent to the allegations of sexual assault made against him or, worse, are "rape apologists."
The reality is exactly the opposite. I have spoken to countless Assange defenders over the last couple of years and not a single one – literally not one – is dismissive of the need for those allegations in Sweden to be taken seriously and to be legally and fairly resolved. Typifying this view is Milne's column last night, which in the midst of scorning the attacks on Assange, embraced "the seriousness of the rape allegations made against Assange, for which he should clearly answer and, if charges are brought, stand trial."
That is the view of every Assange defender with a platform that I know of, including me (one can certainly find anonymous internet commenters, or the occasional named one, making actual, horrific rape apologist claims, but one can find stray advocates saying anything; imputing those views to Assange defenders generally would be like claiming that all Assange critics want to see him illegally shot in the head or encaged for life because some prominent American and other commentators have called for this).
Not only Assange defenders, but also his own lawyers and the Ecuadorean government, have worked relentlessly to ensure that he faces those allegations in Sweden. They have merely sought to do so in a way that protects him from extradition to the US to face espionage charges for his journalism – a threat that could send him to prison for life (likely in a torturous super-max facility), and a threat only the wilfuly blind could deny is serious and real.
In their New York Times op-ed this week, Michael Moore and Oliver Stone correctly argue that it is "the British and Swedish governments that stand in the way of [the sex assault] investigation, not Mr Assange." That's because, they note, Assange has repeatedly offered to be questioned by Swedish authorities in London, or to travel today to Sweden to face those allegations if he could be assured that his doing so would not result in his extradition to the US to face espionage charges.
Time and again, "Correa said Ecuador never intended to stop Assange from facing justice in Sweden. 'What we've asked for is guarantees that he won't be extradited to a third country,' he said |
a Cuban-American who left the country as a child, Ms Crespo says people like her are uniquely placed to take advantage of the expansion in Cuban tourism.
"My generation doesn't have the same anger [towards the Castro government] as our parents did. I want to be able to help Cuba, to be part of the solution."
Getting ready
Of course, the key question at this stage is whether the country's ageing tourist infrastructure can cope with such a sharp spike in visitors.
The number of US visitors - 600,000 annually, a figure that includes many Cuban-Americans visiting relatives - is expected to rise further. The number of non-US tourists could also double over the same period.
Image copyright AFP Image caption The number of tourists from Europe has also been increasing
There is a palpable sense of urgency among some European and Canadian tourists to try and experience Cuba "before the Americans arrive".
The Cuban government says it has prepared for the boom with an airport expansion plan and new luxury hotels under construction in both Havana and popular beach resorts like Varadero.
"We all have to get ready, little by little", says Alfredo Lachos, the general manager of the luxury Iberostar Parque Central Hotel in Old Havana.
"Our brand has been working for years to prepare for an expansion like this. I think we're ready."
New opportunities
But it is already getting difficult to find available rooms in the hotels or reserve tables at popular restaurants - particularly during high season.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Restaurants and hotels are already filling up, tour operators say
"There's no room at the inn", jokes Lucy Davies, a British tour operator with Cubania travel, which specialises in cycling holidays.
"If you don't have your hotel rooms booked in advance, you may have to make do with something else."
If the state-run hotels cannot cope with the boom, there are plenty of people willing to step into the breach.
Thousands of private homes offering bed and breakfast - known as casas particulares - have cropped up since Raul Castro began to relax the rules on private enterprises a few years ago.
As AirBnB also enters the Cuban market, that may help alleviate the potential demand.
But the website assumes one key thing - that the homeowner has access to the Internet - which, in Cuba, is not always the case.
For decades, Cuba has been a country of movement and migration.
Now it seems the tide of people leaving the island may be replaced by waves of tourists visiting it instead.Paulo Dybala has found being compared to Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar "damaging", according to Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri.
A strong start to the Serie A season, which featured hat-tricks against Sassuolo and Genoa, intensified suggestions Dybala could become the player to break Messi and Ronaldo's decade-long stranglehold on the Ballon d'Or.
Dybala has since gone off the boil, scoring only once in Serie A since October, leading Allegri to regularly leave the Argentina international on the bench.
Allegri again denied he has fallen out with Dybala - reportedly the subject of an offer worth £70million plus Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Manchester United - but hinted the 24-year-old has been distracted by speculation.
"The relationship with him absolutely hasn't changed," Allegri told reporters on Friday. "Dybala came to Juventus three years ago and I think he's grown a lot.
"Juventus put even more emphasis on his qualities and he's given a lot to Juventus. In my opinion, he still has huge margins for improvement.
"The comparisons which were made at the start [of the season] were damaging for Paulo, but fortunately he's a smart lad and he understands you can't compare a lad of 24 to two sacred monsters of football [Messi and Ronaldo], who have won 10 Ballons d'Or.
"Plus there's Neymar who is another that is close. So Paulo has to make his own way and not be compared to any other player. He has his own qualities, he's an extraordinary player. You just have to watch him to see he's different from the others.
"But these comparisons which were made were a bit damaging, these are comparisons which cannot and should not be made, you can't compare a 24-year-old lad to two who have won 10 Ballons d'Or. But in Italy... It's not just Dybala, Dybala is the least of that problem. There are lads who play half an hour and the next day they're worth €40million."
Juventus face Verona in Serie A on Saturday, bringing teenage striker Moise Kean up against his parent club.
"He's doing well at Verona," Allegri said. "He's a lad who was born in 2000 and has important qualities.
"He has to improve technically, so he needs to work but he's understood you need to make sacrifices to reach certain levels. That's an important thing."By Ziad Haider, Special to CNN
Editor’s note: Ziad Haider is director of the Truman National Security Project's Asia Expert Group. He served as a White House Fellow in the U.S. Department of Justice and as a national security aide in the U.S. Senate. You can follow him @Asia_Hand. The views expressed are his own.
“Let China sleep; when she awakes, she will shake the world.” Uttered by Napoleon Bonaparte two centuries ago, these words now seem prescient. Yet pitfalls a plenty remain in China’s rise. Chief among these, of course, is the stability and legitimacy of one-party rule. But why has the Chinese leadership turned to another Frenchman, political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville? Why has his classic work The Old Regime and the Revolution become a best seller in China? And ultimately, what lessons can Beijing learn from the French Revolution?
Interest in China in Tocqueville and the revolution can be traced to the upper echelons of China’s highest leadership body, the Politburo’s Standing Committee. Vice Premier Wang Qishan, chairman of the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, is responsible for combating corruption in the party – a priority for China’s new leadership to shore up its standing after a string of scandals. Now, Tocqueville is featured in the bookstore of the Communist Party School where China’s leaders are trained, where his 1856 book is reportedly described as “recommended” by Wang Qishan.
So what lessons might Chinese officials draw from Tocqueville’s account of the revolution?
First, popular perceptions of ruling class excesses must be checked. Such was the view of the Old Regime in France, embodied by a scandal that supposedly involved Marie Antoinette’s participation in a scheme to defraud the crown jewelers over an exorbitant diamond necklace. The scandal seized the public imagination and stoked widespread anger in the lead up to the revolution.
More from GPS: How bad is corruption in China?
China’s new leadership is aware that many Communist Party officials are viewed as abusing their authority and wasting money. Along with the indictment and trial of former Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai for bribery and abuse of power, curbs have been imposed that have included anything from banning ads touting luxury items “as gifts for leaders,” to reining in spending on official banquets.
Second, the monarchy’s frequent intervention in judicial proceedings to protect its officials fueled public disenchantment. Presiding over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party’s Central Committee in February, President Xi Jinping addressed a similar theme: the need for all organizations and individual to be subject to the Constitution and the laws. Last year, more than 30,000 party members were punished for accepting bribes or embezzlement, while the overall number punished was up 12.5 percent from the previous year, according to state media. Yet Chinese activists remain unimpressed.
Third, reforms can paradoxically backfire. Many of the reforms the Revolution hailed as its own were seeded by the Old Regime (“Louis XVI did nothing but speak about reforms”). Compared to elsewhere in Europe, France offered greater rights and liberties than places such as Germany, where forced labor and restrictive property rights were prevalent. Yet these limited freedoms, as Tocqueville ominously notes, pried open the door to wholesale Revolution:
“…if the peasant had not owned the land, he would not have been aware of several of the burdens which the feudal system imposed on agricultural property…Meanwhile the ideas of the time were already creeping into these coarse minds from all directions, entering by roundabout and underground paths, and they assumed in these dark and narrow places peculiar shapes.”
How Chinese officials interpret this paradox at the heart of Tocqueville’s analysis of the revolution is the question. Xi’s important anti-corruption and rule of law measures have been accompanied by a crackdown on Chinese anti-corruption activists. The latest target: Xu Zhiyong, a law lecturer who has campaigned for officials to further disclose their personal assets. The regime’s understanding of the need to reform thus coexists with a fear of losing control – a bias Tocqueville seems to confirm.
Yet given the book’s official sanction, Chinese citizens are reading it as well. And their conclusions may differ. In a colorful example of literature, politics, and music blending in “revolutionary” fervor, last year thousands of protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong on the anniversary of the British handover to China. As they marched, they chanted a song from Victor Hugo’s classic Les Misérables that culminates in the 1832 Paris Uprising during Tocqueville’s era: “Do you hear the people sing? Singing a song of angry men?”
Fueled by localized governance grievances, “mass incidents” of social unrest have become increasingly common in China. So far, the Party has adeptly contained them. Yet given his life and times, Tocqueville might well proffer two more cautionary words for consideration on assessing the landscape in China: “Déjà vu.”Freedom -or the illusion of freedom- is a very important aspect to players. You don’t want your players to feel like their adventures are railroaded or that their actions don’t matter. There are many ways to nurture this freedom, and the key is to plan as little as possible along the way. Here is how to prepare a good session in only four steps.
Use a Focal Character
Most of your NPCs have little to no consequence on your characters. That’s okay — in fact, it’s optimal. The more generic and uninteresting your NPCs are, the more you can pique your players’ interest when you throw a different one at them. This is because your unique NPC stands out in contrast to the rest of the world. I call these NPCs ‘focal characters.’
Focal characters can be silly, flirty, mean, or faking bravery. A good focal character should have some sort of utility for your players, and be fun to interact with.
The DMG has a decent NPC generator, but the most important thing about having an NPC that stands out is finding their voice. Using a specific tone or inflection makes it easy to role-play through the eyes of that character. Having a good catch phrase doesn’t hurt, either!
Grum is an Orc that used to run with slavers. After being interrogated by the party, it turns out he’s quite loving, and he loathed being in his old Orc squad. He’s taken particular attachment to the party halfing, whom he calls his favorite squishy, and never fails to brag about how Grum is “Da biggest and da strongest!”
Design a Well-Made Encounter
Most RPG sessions involve at least one combat sequence. For this reason, it’s important to have the encounter be one of high quality. An encounter is well-made when it’s challenge is relevant to a party’s abilities. Don’t make them too easy -lest they be boring, and don’t make them too hard -lest you seem cruel.
To ensure a high quality encounter, make sure there is something for each player to do. Each character is unique and lends a special talent or ability to the party. Play to their strengths and weaknesses. Let them do what they’re good at and let them work together to overcome their vulnerabilities.
Naturally we don’t want to break the illusion of player freedom, so don’t get too attached to that perfectly balanced group of demons. If the party decides not to take that route, be prepared to turn those demons into something else. This will allow you to retain the balance but switch out the creature’s characteristics to fit the story.
The party decided not to clear the local mines that had Drow and their Giant Spider pets waiting to ambush intruders. Instead they hit the road toward the closest large city. Keeping the creature stats the same to retain the balance of the encounter, I changed their characteristics to be a group of assassins who summoned demonic spiders for their poisonous abilities.
Think of a Twist
Every good story has a twist, and the best ones often have many. A twist can be anything from a simple complication to a heart-wrenching betrayal. They help keep the players guessing and engaged in the story. Be wary though, as too many major twists can be exhausting and confusing when not used properly.
A twist doesn’t have to be a huge change, it can be something as simple as a storm overnight that floods the plains. Perhaps the party’s contact is replaced due to bureaucracy, and the new contact isn’t trustworthy or competent. Small twists can be used to ignite creativity in the players, while big twists can be used as cliffhangers.
On the Day of the Dead, the small town of Faber celebrate their ancestors and the afterlife. There is music, dancing, food, and plenty of wine… But things get a little weirder when the dead literally rise from their graves to join the party.
Give Good Rewards
Gratification is important at the end of the session. It’s important for players to feel like they are progressing. Whether it be some decent loot, money, experience, or a new ally, you should always have something to reward the players with, no matter which paths they decided to take.
Sometimes your players’ decision-making will amaze you, and it might be tempting to discipline them for making dumb choices, but the reality is that these games are meant to be fun –not necessarily a learning experience. As a GM it’s easy to feel like the players are pushing boundaries, or trying to ‘beat’ you. But what they’re actually doing is experimenting with the game.
Let their decisions get them into trouble, nearly killed, or incarcerated. Hammer them during the session and keep hammering them. In the end, though, you need to throw them a bone.
I told them it was a level 10 demon door. They tried to break their way through it anyway. Sure, technically the damage they took would have killed them, but instead, why not have some fun? I transported them to another dimension where they became gladiatorial slaves for a demon lord. Three sessions later they caused a societal uprising and found their way back to their world. Every single one of those sessions was exhausting for them to survive. But when they got back, the door was open.
These four simple ingredients are really all you need for a good RPG session. Everything else should be left up to dice rolls, luck, and the storytelling of you and your players.
What aspects do you never fail to prepare before starting an RPG session?Marie Farrell made the comments in evidence in Mr Bailey’s civil action against the Garda Commissioner and the state over the investigation into the murder of French filmmaker Sophie Toscan du Plantier near Schull in late 1996.
Ms Farrell said that while she was working in Schull Golf Club in summer 1998, she, her husband, Det Sgt Maurice Walsh and his wife were having drinks at the end of the night. Ms Farrell said she went to check the toilets and could see Sergeant Walsh behind her.
He was intoxicated, got her up against the wall, tried to open her clothes, opened his own trousers and exposed himself, she said.
She said he said something along the lines of “what would you like to do with that?” and asked her “isn’t it a real turn on fitting up the long black bollocks or the English bastard or whatever they called Ian Bailey”.
She “just pushed him away”, said “for feck’s sake Maurice, Pauline’s out there”, fixed her clothes and walked out.
Asked had she done anything about the matter, she said: “There’s no point, things like that happen when people have drink on them.”
She did tell her husband.
In her evidence, Ms Farrell said she lied during the 2003 hearing of libel actions by Mr Bailey after gardaí “told me to stick to the story”.
Those lies included claims she saw Mr Bailey about 2am on a road near Schull on December 23, 1996, hours before the body of Ms Toscan du Plantier was found, and had been harassed and intimidated by Mr Bailey on several occasions, she said.
She also said that when Supt Dermot Dwyer was about to retire, he referred to her having up to 15 unpaid fines totalling some €1,500 for speeding and insurance matters and said she should make some payments off those and she paid off some €300 over time.
Det Garda Jim Fitzgerald previously told her not to worry about those and whenever she got one, she had given it to him, she said.
Det Fitzgerald was concerned about a review of the murder investigation by gardaí from Dublin and told her to get a name off a headstone in Longford and tell the Dublin team the dead person was the man she was with on the night of December 22/23, 1996, she said.
The Dublin gardaí told her, if she did not co-operate, they had her husband’s fingerprints and could make it look like she was covering for him, she said.
Also yesterday, a tape recording was played of an April 1998 phone conversation between Ms Farrell and Det Fitzgerald. She said it related to her making a statement to Sgt Walsh and Det Fitzgerald being unhappy she had done so.
Asked about a remark by Det Fitzgerald: “I deserve an answer after a fucking year and a half on this phone,” she said that referred to the “constant phone calls”.
The defendants deny all of Mr Bailey’s claims, including of wrongful arrest and conspiracy. The case continues.The Chicago Cubs recent championship run highlighted a near-perfect rebuilding effort by President Theo Epstein. Although the fanbase had to endure several losing seasons a combination of well-crafted drafts, trades and free agent signings led to a winning team.
Complete tear-downs of a team are common in all sports. Analytics-driven GMs have long advocated for teams being very good or very bad, but to avoid being mediocre. In the NBA, NHL and NFL, high draft picks can change the fortune of a franchise for a decade. Thus, the evolution of tanking has spread throughout sports in efforts to secure these coveted draft picks.
In baseball, however, the line leading from draft pick to superstar is often less direct. Rebuilds, while necessary for some, are not nearly as easy as the Cubs made it appear (insert a list of your team’s stalled rebuilds here). Still, the Kansas City Royals, Toronto Blue Jays, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians and Tampa Bay Rays are organizations that recently bottomed out, accumulated picks and through development or trade, made it back to the playoffs.
Indeed, small market teams such as Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Kansas City, Tampa, Oakland and the Montreal Expos were in perpetual rebuild mode, due in large part to financial constraints. For instance, from 2007 -11 the Royals spent $45 on draft bonuses, and with a successful developmental program, their farm system prospects were estimated to be worth $245 million by 2011. Four years later, the Royals core developed into a championship squad. Rebuilding was the most reasonable option for these teams and although each suffered through long periods of losing, they all made it to the playoffs in recent years. The key to all of these rebuilds was an ability for teams to support their high draft picks with coaching, patience and development.
Yet, complete team tear-downs are not a guaranteed success. Residing in the competitive AL East, the Blue Jays have found themselves in a slightly different situation. Not exactly a small market team, the Jays were unable to keep pace with a pair of free-spending powerhouses in the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. The 1998 Jays won 88 games and finished in third place in the Eastern division, a full 26 games back of a historic Yankees team.
A decades long drought followed, with several rebuilding efforts, including one built around Carlos Delgado and a trio of young, high ceiling starting pitchers in Roy Halladay, Chris Carpenter, and Kelvim Escobar. When that failed, a second wave was built around Halladay, Vernon Wells, Scott Rolen, and Alex Rios. None of those teams made the playoffs, a pattern that repeated until the Jays finally broke through in 2015 and returned to post-season play. Leveraging a strong collection of prospects, the Jays finally succeeded by making a series of aggressive win-now moves (e.g., David Price, Troy Tulowitzki) that emptied the farm system. Ending the drought was achieved by accepting a very narrow window, which the Jays may see closed this upcoming season. Right or wrong, the Jays were competitive again after years of rebuilding.
With the Jays back in the post-season, the Seattle Mariners have become the unfortunate owner’s of the longest playoff drought in the majors. Former GM, Jack Zduriencik led a prolonged rebuilding project that involved many painful losing seasons, while stocking the farm system. However, misses in player assessment and development stalled out an entire cohort of players including Michael Saunders, Justin Smoak, Brandon Morrow, Dustin Ackley, Jesus Montero, and Josh Fields, (the exception being third-round pick Kyle Seager) followed by a second wave of Danny Hultzen, Nick Franklin, Mike Zunino and DJ Peterson. Indeed, by 2013 there was little enthusiasm for the team on the field (The Seattle Mariners: Into Darkness) or the prospects for the future (Are the Mariners’ days of future already past?). By March 2016, with the team coming off another losing season, Seattle’s farm system was rated 28th out 30 teams by the Baseball Prospectus.
Amidst the chaos, however, change was afoot. In 2015, The Mariners hired former LA Angels general manager, Jerry Dipoto as their new GM. Under Dipoto, Seattle’s developmental system improved resulting in better performances from their young players and increased organizational depth. Even so, the core at the major league level remained largely unchanged. Heading into 2017, concerns center on the aging roster and questions surrounding how long a window for winning remains. Key players include Robinson Cano (34), Nelson Cruz (36), Hisashi Iwakuma (35) and Felix Hernandez (30). The question that remains is what level of performance should be expected from Seattle’s core for next year and beyond?
Cano landed in Seattle in 2014 at a time when the roster needed an everyday leader. Cano brought legitimacy to an organization that had suffered through some historically bad offenses in 2010 and 2011. His 10 year contract runs through 2023, so it was always assumed that Cano’s time with the Mariners would extend beyond his competitive window. The, literally million(s) dollar question was, how long would that window last?
I 2014, Cano performed as expected. A solid hitter, he anchored the batting lineup and his defense was light years ahead of any other Mariner. With Robinson leading the way, the young Mariners followed and nearly made the playoffs. Injuries (a double hernia) limited Cano in 2015 both at the plate and in the field. As a result, the Mariners underperformed and were never in contention, a fact that drew the ire of former hitting coach Andy Van Slyke and contributed to the firing of GM Jack Z and manager Lloyd McClendon. Cano was back to form in 2016, and not surprisingly, the team remained competitive through September. So, in his fourth season with the team, how much does Cano have left in the tank?
Looking at career performances of some notable second basemen through MLB history provides some context for Cano’s future. Whereas, there is clearly variation among players, a consistent drop in performance, as measured by Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is observed around 34 years of age. Robinson performed well in 2016, looking comfortable both at the plate and in the field. It will, therefore, be very interesting to see whether he can maintain that level of play in 2017.
In rightfield and at DH, Nelson Cruz‘s “Boom stick” has powered the Mariners offense with 44 and 43 home runs in 2015 and 2016. Cruz is signed for two more years and although there is likely to be some decline over that time (Fig. 2), it seems reasonable to assume that he will contribute from the DH spot.
Ultimately, the Mariners fortunes will be largely shaped by the performance of the starting pitching staff. The leader of that group is and has been Felix Hernandez. Felix has reinvented himself a few times, dominating early in his career with his fastball, and being just as effective with his curve and change-up more recently. Hernandez started his major league career early (19 years old), and his blazing velocity was lost long ago. His repertoire of pitches paired with his experience has allowed Felix to remain an effective ace for the Mariners. Nonetheless, Hernandez’s performance has declined sharply the past two seasons (Fig. 3). His performance in 2016 was not sustainable as an ace, and must be improved if the Mariners hope to contend in the West.
Power pitchers appear to be capable of maintaining a level of performance through their 30’s, so there is hope that Felix can right the ship. For the Mariners to compete in 2017, they need Cano, Cruz and Felix to perform against the odds until some of the organizations prospects rally to their aid.
Comments
commentsUSAA apparently plans to drop its television ads from liberal network MSNBC after an outcry over its decision last week to stop advertising on conservative Sean Hannity’s program on the Fox News Channel.
In response to a query from The Washington Times about whether USAA planned to withdraw its ads on MSNBC opinion shows after accusations of a double standard, USAA spokesman Roger Wildermuth said in a statement that the company would pull its ads on all opinion shows regardless of network, describing its failure to do so previously as an oversight.
“There was an error which led to our ads running during ‘Hannity,’ and as soon as that was discovered, the error was corrected. Since then, we have done an additional review and removed ads from opinion-based news programs on other channels as well,” he said.
“We will continually review our ad placements to ensure we are consistent with our policy,” Mr. Wildermuth said.
The military financial services company said last week that “advertising on opinion shows is not in accordance with our policy” after a backlash over its decision to withdraw its ads from the “Hannity” show, which followed a campaign against the Fox News host led by left-wing Media Matters for America.
Two days later, however, the conservative Media Research Center pointed out that USAA had failed to pull its ads on shows hosted by liberal MSNBC commentators Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell and Chris Matthews.
“Do they somehow think ‘Hardball’ is not an ‘opinion show’?” asked Tim Graham, MRC’s director of media analysis, on NewsBusters.
Media Matters for America posted Tuesday a list of 150 companies that have run ads on “Hannity,” with an update saying that nine have announced that will no longer advertise on the show, including USAA, which offers insurance and other services to active and retired military.
Mr. Graham said that USAA’s brand “is all about support for veterans … and they’re turning on Sean Hannity?”
“For years, Hannity has donated his time and his celebrity to promoting ‘Freedom Concerts’ to raise money for the Freedom Alliance, which gives scholarships to the children of slain soldiers,” said Mr. Graham. “Is that really the way the USAA demonstrates its support for veterans?”
Scott Grumpman commented on the USAA Facebook page that “you obviously don’t know your customer base.”
The conservative watchdog group 2ndVote reported Friday that USAA has thrown its support behind liberal organizations in the past.
“Our research shows that USAA has partnered with liberal LGBT advocacy organizations and even scored 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index,” said 2ndVote. “USAA has also donated to Planned Parenthood supporters Susan G. Komen and United Way.”
Since dumping “Hannity,” USAA has been deluged with criticism on social media and its own website’s “member community” page, with some clients urging the company to reconsider and others threatening to pull their business.
“I am disgusted with your unpatriotic decision,” said one commenter on Memorial Day Weekend, while another blasted the company for “succumbing to outside pressure from politically correct factions.”
“I have been a long time customer, but after you giving in to the left and obviously not standing for the same values as the veterans you claim to support, I will be searching for a new insurance company,” said a Saturday post entitled “USAA Selling Out.”
Other clients said they backed USAA’s move, including one who stated, “I will not support any company that supports Sean Hannity.”
Media Matters, a group that has received funding from liberal billionaire George Soros, described Mr. Hannity as “a professional propagandist for President Donald Trump, as well as a bigot, a sexist, and a conspiracy theorist.”
Mr. Hannity responded on Twitter by saying that Media Matters “is targeting all of my advertisers to try and get me fired.”
The Hannity campaign comes after Media Matters posted on April 4 a list of companies advertising with former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, whose contract was terminated April 19 amid a sexual harassment scandal.
More than 50 advertisers left Mr. O’Reilly’s show before his departure, which hasn’t happened with Mr. Hannity, as Media Matters President Angelo Carusone acknowledged in a Saturday interview on CNN.
“No, advertisers are not leaving Sean Hannity’s program at the speed at which they were leaving [Mr. O’Reilly’s], that’s just the case,” said Mr. Carusone. “That’s good [that] there actually isn’t a massive campaign here. It’s literally just asking the question. All we have done is hold up a mirror. However, it is true, advertisers are leaving Sean Hannity’s program.”
Among the advertisers who have pulled ads from “Hannity” are Crown Plaza Hotels and Cars.com.
⦁ Douglas Ernst contributed to this article.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Officials say the changes are meant to help lighten the burden on D.C. Fire and EMS.
WASHINGTON — Third-party ambulances will be hitting D.C.’s streets Monday, bringing changes in how medical transports are handled.
D.C. Fire and EMS will continue to respond to every medical emergency it receives, but when crews get to the scene, the seriousness of the injury or illness will determine who transports the patient.
If the problem is determined to be minor, like a sprain or cold symptoms, American Medical Response (AMR) will take that patient to a hospital.
If the issue is more serious, like a heart attack or unconsciousness, D.C. Fire and EMS will transport that patient to the hospital.
Officials say the changes are meant to help lighten the burden on the department.
“The greatest impact will be availability,” D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Tim Wilson says. “If you have more units available for critical emergencies, you probably will see some impact on response times.”
D.C. Fire and EMS Chief Gregory Dean says deploying the third-party responders is part of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s broader plan to strengthen the District’s emergency medical services.
“The goal is for our members to receive more training, better maintain our vehicles and preserve our resources for life threatening calls,” Dean said in a statement. “These steps will help reinforce and improve our provision of patientcare.”
American Medical Response was brought in to handle the additional call load back in February. As part of the agreement, the company will operate and maintain 29 private ambulances in the District with as many as 25 being on-call during high-call volume periods.
Wilson says the private units will be spread out throughout the District and could be on scene within 10 minutes after being dispatched.
Follow @WTOP on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
© 2016 WTOP. All Rights Reserved.Wandering with the sleek dog of grief
Mindfulness in a lesson hard won for me, especially mindfulness of the self. Historically I am ridiculously bad at sitting with intense experiences and allowing space for them to simply be. I try to fix or mold the experience so that I or those going through the process with me don’t bear witness to anything negative…or vice versa, I become so tossed by waves of grief that I lose who I am for a while and sit, paralyzed because the act of moving beneath such weight feels impossible.
Grief and loss.
If I laid out my life like a red thread, winding over and through the past thirty years… my experience with grief and loss would look like fraying knots star bursting along that line. I am really no good at pain …but is anyone really? I tangle up in the face of it and my tarantella of avoidance has the same twisting steps as my dance of acceptance. Each embraces the same wild-eyed emotion. Each takes me through a series of snarled places in the self… and usually each dance ends up with me weary and introspective about the process. When there is someone in my life reflecting the emotions back to me…well… have you ever watched yourself flail? Usually it is amazingly unattractive and nonsensical.
Recently I have found that there are a moments in life where one makes a choice: to act upon or to live with pain.
One would think that the acting upon is the better of these two options, but for me notsomuch. For me, being present with and allowing for ingrained emotional intelligence to lead the dance is the most honest and grounded place of operation. Not that it’s easy, in fact opening to grace and asking my active self to chill out is fucking hard. Like most children of the first world, the idea of experiencing the piercing pain that comes with these emotions scares me. Grief and loss are all consuming, they feed negative emotion cycles and they have no fix…and yet the active part of the self wants so badly to fix what’s broken. To make what is wrong right again in a tangible way.
A wise and wonderful man told me recently that we choose to allow anger and pain and grief to use our bodies as a house. When we make the decision to let go of harboring these emotions we immediately fall into the grace of healing. What a simple yet difficult lesson: to let go and trust that the universe will provide space to breathe and be with what stirs and aches within us. That seated at the confluence of moment meeting moment and allowing the pain to pass through is the most effective way of knowing what is true and honest and what is simply the silt of negative response passing through the body.
Life is suffering. I heard this philosophical gem when I was in high school and snorted derisively because… why? Why would all of life spin around this central philosophical axis? What purpose would it serve? So. I’ve grown up and I get it. Life can be suffering if we allow and sometimes when we don’t consent and it creeps pervasively through the cracks anyway. Claiming humanity is also claiming that at the macrocosmic level we create pain and suffering. That as we live there are flurries of rape and murder, war and abuse falling around and through our field of existence. We ignore and absorb the larger ills of the universe until those times when we experience these things directly and our heart cracks open and we fall to the ground and goddamn it we grieve because all of the avoiding and non-service that we do in our daily lives makes us (me) weak in the face of such pain. But what is weakness right? According to the 8 limbs…this is samskara…
One cold night, with the summer slipping to fall by degrees, the Grand Chu told me that devastating loss…it marks those closest to it because life after that moment is experienced as a “without”. Before the loss and after loss. A timeline carved out by an instant of understanding on that red thread and then BAM a life defined by one knot. One tangled knot of livingness.
What comes after.
I have heard stories of people bowing to the experience of grief in child’s pose. Honoring it as part of the process. I have been told that emotions are a sacred well of experience and no responses are broken responses, simply unhealed aspects of the self. I have been reminded time and time again that out of the mindful exploration of pain comes growth. And this: there are times, when I am most fully knotted up where none of this matters. I want to break shit. I want to curl up in a ball and cry. I want to run and run and run until my lungs cease to fill with air and my legs collapse from beneath me.
In my experience, the most real parts of the self, exist when I meditate and when I practice pranayama. My connection back to the experience of living is breath. Pranayama allows me space where I can sit in the midst of pain and watch…just watch. Watch where reaction and response intertwine. Watch how mindfulness allows for space and space allows for surrender and integration. Watch how I am when I’m not actively trying to “fix” grief or loss. This watching is a beautiful thing, because with it comes the ability to work in the present moment – to feel in the present moment and honestly to be ok with painful emotions without reacting with guilt or fear or anger… That’s it. All I have in this present moment.
“When the heart grieves over what it has lost, the spirit rejoices over
what it has found.” – Rumi
Love and light –
Ahimsamaven
Related articlesIf you ask questions about our theory you are a horrible person
In response to Australia removing the Carbon Tax the ABC News report broadcast the best arguments of believers in man-made global warming. They tell us we should spend billions to manage a ubiquitous natural molecule with a fake market, in the hope we’ll get nicer weather. If you question that you are a bad, bad person. You are the kind of vile, stupid and selfish person, a troll, who doesn’t mind killing people with asbestos or tobacco, you are an international pariah, a shock-jock and an irrational, unthinking denier.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is our national debate, by our leading “thinkers”, broadcast on our national public news service:
ABC News 17-7-2014
ADAM BANDT, DEPUTY GREENS LEADER |
, the Sounders will host the Portland Timbers in MLS play on Saturday at 5 pm PT at CenturyLink Field.
Scoring
Sounders FC – DeAndre Yedlin 53; Djimi Traore 60; Eddie Johnson (Steve Zakuani) 75;
Tigres – Elias Hernandez (Alberto Acosta, Jonathan Bornstein) 23;
Discipline
Sounders FC – Eddie Johnson (caution) 14; Osvaldo Alonso (caution) 48; Steve Zakuani (caution) 82;
Tigres – Jorge Diaz de Leon (caution) 35; Manuel Viniegra (caution) 37; Manuel Viniegra (caution/ejection) 45; Elias Hernandez (caution) 81
Lineups
Sounders FC – Michael Gspurning, DeAndre Yedlin, Djimi Traore, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leo Gonzalez, Mauro Rosales (Mario Martinez 54), Osvaldo Alonso, Brad Evans (Andy Rose 27), Steve Zakuani (Marc Burch 83), Eddie Johnson, Sammy Ochoa.
Tigres – Jorge Diaz De Leon, Abraham Stringel (Josue Auilar 87), Hugo Rodriguez, Alfonso Zamora, Jose Rivas (Jorge Espericueta 45), Alberto Acosta (Taufic Guarch 61), Manuel Viniegra, Jesus Duenas, Jonathan Bornstein, Elias Hernandez and Alan Pulido.They may have become to the go-to fashion accessory for men, but those with beards are more likely to be sexist, get into fights, cheat on their partners and steal, two new studies have revealed.
The first of the two surveys, which involved 500 men aged between 18 and 72 from India and the US, studied men with nine facial hairstyles varying in length - from light stubble to a heavy beard.
The group was asked to pick one that best matched their own facial hair and were then asked to agree or disagree with a series of statements about gender roles.
Scroll down for video
Lecherous: Men with beards are more likely to be sexist, get into fights and cheat on their partners
Well-known bearded Lothario Russell Brand has earned himself somewhat of a 'bad boy reputation'
The results revealed that 86 per cent of Indian men and 65 per cent of American men had facial hair, and those with beards of any length agreed more with hostile sexist statements than men without any facial hair.
In terms of the study, hostile sexism means agreeing with openly negative beliefs about women.
Benevolent sexism refers to those with outwardly positive, but still damaging beliefs about women. This might show itself in the form of of presuming that women are by their very nature 'kinder' or better at cooking.
The study, conducted by Qualtrics, an online survey software provider for businesses and academics, concluded: 'Our research suggests that there is a link between beards and gender role beliefs, but it's not apparent what causes this association.
A survey of 500 men aged between 18 and 72 from India and the United States found those with beards of any length - including stubble - agreed more with hostile sexist statements than men without any facial hair
The results: Here a graph shows how bearded and clean shaven men fared in the study. Hostile sexism refers to agreeing with openly negative beliefs about women. Benevolent sexism refers to those with outwardly positive, but still damaging beliefs about women
FACIAL HAIR IS RIDDLED WITH BACTERIA WHICH MAY SPREAD GERMS AND TRIGGER INFECTIONS, EXPERTS CLAIM Beards can harbour more germs than a toilet Experts have warned that beards are nothing more than a 'bacterial sponge', riddled with thousands of bacteria - and a perfect way to pass on germs. Carol Walker, a consultant trichologist from the Birmingham Trichology Centre, said having facial hair can lead to more frequent skin infections and to germs being passed on to others. Beards harbour more germs because facial hair is courser than other hair, so traps dirt and germs more easily, she explained. She told MailOnline: 'Beard hair; it’s courser. It has the shape of a bayonet, a round, convexed bottom and then comes up the side to a point. ‘It becomes curly and smooth, it tends to have more bends and kinks which trap dirt. ‘The cuticles on the hair – which are like layers of tiles on a roof - trap the germs and grease. ‘Hair around nostrils and mouth is well-placed to harbour bacteria. She added that people have a habit of over-handling their beards, meaning they can spread bacteria to their mouths. She said: ‘If their hands are dirty, they transfer dirt from their hands on to their face and mouths. ‘If someone eating dairy products it can get stuck in their beard and become a bit rancid. ‘There can be a lot of Stepholococci [a group of bacteria that can cause illness] if someone’s got a cold.’ She has noticed people developing skin conditions due to their facial hair. She said: ‘Some people get skin infections, caused if they have a lot of scale build up or eczema from the bacteria in their beard. ‘If someone has a cold, a runny nose it can trickle down and be trapped in the nose, beards. Food drink can dribble down too.'
'It's possible that men with more negative attitudes towards women are more likely to choose to wear facial hair because it accentuates their apparent masculinity and dominance.'
A separate piece of research revealed that men who have facial hair are more likely to cheat on their partner, steal or get into fights.
The survey of 2,000 people by video network Eva and Censuswide found that 47 percent of men with beard had cheated on their partner, compared to 20 per cent clean-shaven men.
The study revealed that 45 per cent of men with facial hair regularly got into fights compared to 29 per cent of those with no beard.Dashcam footage captured the massive explosion as a plane crashed into Essendon's DFO this morning. Courtesy: Youtube/Team2j
ESSENDON crash pilot Max Quartermain radioed Mayday seven times before the B200 Super King Air he was operating struck the DFO building adjacent to the airfield and burst into flames.
A preliminary report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has shed little light on the cause of the tragedy that claimed the lives of Mr Quartermain and his four American passengers Glenn Garland, Greg DeHaven, John Washburn and Russell Munsch on February 21.
The report said Mr Quartermain’s “mayday” call provided no further information and no audio from the flight was obtained from the cockpit voice recorder.
Adding to the mystery was the lack of evidence of engine failure - considered the most likely trigger for the fiery crash.
The on-site examination of the wreckage “did not identify any pre-existing faults with the aircraft that could have contributed to the accident”.
TRAGEDY: American golfers named as victims of horror plane crash at Essendon Fields
SAFETY: Why are there no rules about how close developments can be to airport runways?
“Cores of both engines were rotating and there was no evidence of pre-impact failure of either engine’s internal components,” the report said.
“However a number of engine components were retained for further examination and testing.”
Witnesses to the crash told investigators the takeoff from the runway took longer than normal and after becoming airborne the King Air was observed to veer to the left.
It then performed a “shallow climbing left turn” at a maximum height of 160 feet (50m) above ground level.
“The aircraft subsequently collided with a building in the Essendon Airport retail precinct,” the report said.
The group was heading for King Island off Tasmania, a trip Mr Quartermain had done countless times before in the B200 Super King Air.
ATSB Chief Commissioner Greg Hood said investigators had done an extensive amount of work to date but the considerable damage to the aircraft was presenting challenges.
“The extensive damage caused by the collision and post-impact fire has meant investigators are yet to determine a clear picture of the causal factors behind the accident and loss of life,” said Commissioner Hood.
“I offer my deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of those on board the aircraft.
“Every effort is being made to determine the cause of this tragic accident.”
Engine failure had previously been thought to have occurred during takeoff prompting the mayday calls from the pilot.
As well as a number of engine components, investigators have retained several airframe parts, documents and electronic devices for further examination.
Built in the US in 1996 and first registered in Australia in 2013, the turboprop was considered a very safe aircraft and capable of flying on one engine.
The investigation is continuing with the assistance of US regulatory bodies and the engine manufacturer.Video (02:41) : Sophia Wilansky of New York was airlifted to HCMC after being severely injured in the Dakota Access pipeline protest on Sunday.
A 21-year-old woman protesting construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline in North Dakota last weekend was hospitalized in Minneapolis Tuesday after allegedly being struck by a grenade fired by a law enforcement officer, her father said.
Sophia Wilansky, of New York City, underwent surgery at Hennepin County Medical Center after her left arm was “pretty much blown off” by the grenade during the protest Sunday, her father, Wayne Wilansky, said at a news conference Tuesday.
A doctor has told the family that Wilansky will probably face many surgeries — up to 20 — to save her arm and hand, Wayne Wilansky said.
The Morton County Sheriff’s Office maintains authorities did not use concussion grenades or any similar devices in dealing with protesters Sunday.
It suggested in a statement Monday that an explosion heard during the skirmish between protesters and police might have been caused by small propane tanks that, authorities said, protesters rigged to explode.
However, Wayne Wilansky said several witnesses saw officers throw a grenade at his daughter.
Sophia Wilansky, a recent graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts, had joined the pipeline demonstration three weeks ago, her father said.
She was one of at least 17 protesters hospitalized after demonstrators tried to push past a long-blocked bridge on a state highway Sunday and were turned back by authorities using tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and water hoses, according to wire reports. She was airlifted to Minneapolis after the confrontation, her father said.
Christine Hill, a spokeswoman at HCMC, said Tuesday that Wilansky was in serious condition.
Wayne Wilansky said his daughter told him authorities fired a grenade directly at her forearm. He said she had been hit by 14 rubber-coated bullets before the grenade struck. He accused authorities of purposely hurting protesters to discourage others from joining the demonstrations, which have continued for months.
Demonstrators are supporting leaders of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which opposes the 1,200-mile, four-state pipeline that is being built to carry oil from western North Dakota to a shipping point in Illinois.
They contend the pipeline will threaten the reservation’s drinking water and disturb cultural sites.
Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline builder, has maintained that the water supply is not in danger. It also has said that no cultural sites have been disturbed.
Clyde Bellecourt of Minneapolis, a founder of the American Indian Movement, which has supported the pipeline protests, coordinated Tuesday’s news conference, held on a sidewalk outside the Hennepin County Medical Center.
“We stand in total solidarity with Sophia Wilansky,” he said.
About 125 people supporting her attended a vigil outside the hospital late Tuesday afternoon.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Twitter: @randyfurstAdvertisement
The DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials ended on Saturday night, and we're heading home from Florida today. If you haven't been following the event, you can watch recordings of most challenges here, and below is DARPA's Day 2 wrap video:
We're going to have some detailed follow-ups on some DRC specifics over the next few weeks, but for now, we'll leave you with our thoughts from Day 2 of the competition, as well as some comments from DARPA about what we have to look forward to at the DRC Finals next year.
SCHAFT was definitely the team to beat
SCHAFT totally rocked the DRC Trials. Enough said. We'll say more, of course, because that's what we do, but look for it in a dedicated article later in the week.
SCHAFT may have won, but lots of teams did very, very well
At the initial DRC press conference on Friday morning, Gill Pratt told us how impressed he would be if any team managed to score half of the points. Four teams cracked the halfway mark, with three more in double digits. We initially made some fairly pessimistic projections as well, and we certainly came away impressed.
At this point, it's more about software than hardware
All of the robots in the DRC were presumably capable, from a hardware perspective, of completing the entirety of all of the tasks. The reason that they couldn't, however, came down to software and control, or in other words, making the robot do exactly what its operators wanted it to do. We're expecting a huge improvement in software over the next year, which will make these robots much more capable.
It's also more about experience than anything else
Practice makes perfect for robots too. Part of the reason that SCHAFT and some of the other teams did surprisingly well at many tasks was that they spent lots of time practicing them over and over again. With a year before the DRC Finals, we expect many teams to be significantly more competitive.
More sensors aren't necessarily more effective, at least until partial autonomy becomes necessary in 2014
CHIMP (and each ATLAS robot), for example, has a ton of sensors on its head, but the limiting factor for teams was the amount of bandwidth that they had to work with. With onboard decision-making, you can take advantage of more data, but otherwise, you can get away with just a few simple sensors. That said, DARPA may make autonomy a more important factor in 2014, and then having additional sensors will make a difference.
Spectators seemed to understand and appreciate the pace of the DRC
We were a little bit worried that normal humans (i.e. non-roboticists) wouldn't really understand why the DRC robots kind of look like they're terrible most of the time. But, it was heartwarming to hear the spectators cheer enthusiastically when, after five or 10 minutes of pondering, a robot like THOR would successfully take a step.
Robots are more fun when they have personality
This is an entirely subjective thing and might have nothing to do with the DRC itself, but I loved the fact that some of the DRC robots were entertainingly active on Twitter all weekend. WPI's Warner might be our favorite example, as it apparently developed a little bit of a crush on JSC's Valkyrie (totally understandable). We here at IEEE Spectrum cannot confirm or deny whether anything actually, you know, happened.
NASA JSC's Valkyrie is in this for the endgame
It's easy to look at the DRC Trials final scores and come to the conclusion that SCHAFT was the absolute winner (scoring 27 out of 32 possible points) and JSC's Valkyrie (which scored 0 points!) was the biggest disappointment. And although I won't mention any names (ahem), lots of people are already portraying the results that way. We'll have a much more in-depth article on this in the future, but what you have to consider is that SCHAFT built their robot on an existing, proven platform that they have a huge amount of experience with, while JSC built Valkyrie more or less from scratch, and therefore didn't have a lot of time to get their software finalized, much less practice the tasks. Again, we'll get into all of this in a dedicated article, but it would be hasty to dismiss Valkyrie based on the DRC Trials scores.
"Gaming" the tasks might be okay
In the debris clearing task, the intent was for the robots to remove individual pieces of wood, followed by a metal truss, from a hallway, and then pass through it. A few teams like RoboSimian (pictured above) figured out that it would be much easier to to just drag the metal truss out of the hallway completely, taking all of the wood with it, no grasping involved. This was not the intent of the task, but to extrapolate to a real disaster scenario, the intent is not at all important, while the results are, and if there's an easier way to do things, that's the way to do 'em. (RoboSimian did not score in this task because it ran out of time, but other teams that used this approach did receive points from DARPA.)
Even successful robots often barely succeeded
Many of the DRC robots were able to complete many of the tasks, but it's important to remember that these tasks are very far from the sort of random events that a robot would find in an actual disaster. Teams took advantage of the setup time that they were allotted, sometimes using tape measures to carefully position their robots in a specific starting location. Robots are generally terrible at randomness, and the DRC Trial tasks weren't random at all. Disasters themselves are (by definition) random, so we'll see how much of that gets added to the finals in 2014.
The DRC Finals are going to be incredible
Very incredible. That is all.
The Future
DARPA hasn't yet made any official statements about the DRC Finals, but during the press conference on Saturday night, we got a chance to ask Gill Pratt whether the excellent overall performance that the robots put on over the weekend might lead to a potentially more challenging DRC Final:
I think we can make the finals a little harder than I had thought. I had a dream for really, really hard finals that all of my staff talked me out of, so somewhere in the middle there is sort of where it will be. But, we have been in touch with the teams from the beginning. The teams that we fund, we got proposals from them, so we had our eyes on how well they were doing. Six months after they started work, we had critical design reviews: we went and visited each of the teams everywhere in the world that were being funded. And, we had the virtual robotics challenges, where we saw how good the software worked, from all of those teams plus many others. That really helped us to calibrate how difficult to make the challenge itself. We erred a little bit on the side of being conservative because we wanted the teams to do well, but we made sure there was enough of what we call "dynamic range" in the scoring so no team would get all of the points and we would get end up with on ties on the top. So I think you’re right, we can make the finals a little bit more difficult than we had thought. We’re not quite sure how much yet, but whatever we think now, we will be checking in with the teams several times within the coming year to see just how hard to make it.
Other things we learned at the Saturday night press conference, presented in some easy to digest InfoNuggets:
The eight winning teams will (pending contract stuff) probably get $1 million each in funding from DARPA.
The date and location for the finals has not yet been set.
Tasks for the finals will be modified and combined into "a more authentic mission for disaster response."
Teams will have options in the finals, like a variety of tools to choose from.
DARPA wants ATLAS to be tetherless for the finals.
There will be qualifiers for the finals, and non-funded teams that didn't participate in the trials are welcome to try out for the finals.
After 2014, there's a possibility that Japan will host further robotics disaster challenges.
[ DARPA Robotics Challenge ]Winghaven joins Bench Boys, Roster Now Complete
The ex-REUNITED player will be joining ex-FaZe and ex-Misfits players to form the new EU-based team.
The Bench Boys have found their final player in ex-REUNITED player Sergi "Winghaven" Torras, long-time friend of TwoEasy since Closed Beta and even before.
Winghaven has a history on both REUNITED (before it disbanded) and compLexity Gaming, helping the latter take fourth place in NGE's Winter Premiere. Winghaven's best known for his Reinhardt gameplay.
The full roster of the Bench Boys is as follows:
DPS- Eric “TwoEasy” van Hoorn
Eric “TwoEasy” van Hoorn DPS- Finley “Kyb” Adisi
Finley “Kyb” Adisi Support- Thomas “HAL” Avallone
Thomas “HAL” Avallone Support- Luis “Greyy” Perestrelo
Luis “Greyy” Perestrelo Tank- Jonathan “Kryw” Nobre
Jonathan “Kryw” Nobre Tank- Sergi "Winghaven" Torras
While most of the team are previously-established professional players (TwoEasy, Kyb, Kryw and Winghaven), HAL has only competed for Italy in the Overwatch Open Cup and Greyy is relatively unknown.
Bench Boys team captain and founder TwoEasy had this to say about the addition of Winghaven and Bench Boys as a whole:
“
”
Winghaven is a really good Reinhardt and that he is someone that I get along with is just a plus; I feel that our roster individually can compete with any top team already, but we need some time to get the synergy going so that everything becomes a team effort. I am certain we will compete on the highest level fairly soon.
Most of the roster was announced earlier this week, when former FaZe Clan member TwoEasy tweeted out the veteran-stacked lineup. With a now-full bench (get it?), the EU-based team should be ready to compete within the next few weeks.
For more competitive Overwatch news, follow @GosuOverwatch.
QUICKPOLL How do you think the Bench Boys will do? They're going to be the best team
Thank you for voting! They won't do well
Thank you for voting!BREAKING: ASLEF tells MPs Corbyn must be on ballot paper
As Angela Eagle launched her leadership bid, Mick Whelan, general secretary of ASLEF, urged Labour Party members to rally behind party leader Jeremy Corbyn – and told MPs that Jeremy must be on the ballot paper.
He said: “We are disappointed that Angela is trying to unseat Jeremy, and destabilise the party, only ten months after he was elected leader in a stunning first round victory with 59.5% of first preference votes. Jeremy was way ahead of Andy Burnham (19%), Yvette Cooper (17%) and Liz Kendall, the uber-Blairite, who trailed in a distant last with just 4.5%. The Labour Party is a democratic party and Jeremy was overwhelmingly endorsed by Labour Party members.
“If those who are trying to unseat Jeremy – and it has nothing to do with the referendum campaign, whatever they say, and very little to do with the nature of his leadership, because these people didn’t want Jeremy last year and have done everything to undermine him ever since – try to keep him off the ballot paper they will show themselves to be not just undemocratic, but anti-democratic, and utterly shameless to boot.
“In fact, the rule book is quite clear; Jeremy has a right to be on the ballot. But even his most ardent opponent in the PLP must see that he has the moral right, too. At a time when people worry about the disconnect between politicians at Westminster and the people they represent in the country, the PLP must not make the fundamental mistake of ignoring the wishes of party members.
“ASLEF remains full square behind Jeremy. We believe we should be turning our fire on the Tories and presenting a positive alternative to the failures of the last six years. Jeremy is the man to lead Labour, heal the divisions in our country, and help build a better Britain.”HOUSTON - Wide receiver Andre Johnson says his mother taught him when people decide to take their leave they should exit the same way they entered.
That explains why he quietly retired midway through his 14th NFL season.
Johnson posted his statement Wednesday on Instagram, his first comment on his decision two days after telling Tennessee Titans coach Mike Mularkey he was retiring.
"I was taught, by an amazing woman, that how you enter is the same way you should exit," Johnson wrote in a post he also shared on Twitter. "Mom, I love you for all that you gave and sacrificed."
Johnson thanked everyone for their texts, post and calls over the past few days. He also thanked an uncle; his agent, Kennard McGuire; former Houston general manager Charley Casserly, who drafted him No. 3 overall in 2003 out of Miami; the city of Miami; and both the Indianapolis Colts and Titans "for allowing me to continue a dream."
He also thanked the McNair family and the Houston organization for 12 years of support.
"To the city of Houston and the most incredible fans on earth, I simply end this journey by saying, Houston is my destination. I am coming home and I will always be a Texan," Johnson wrote.
Johnson remains the leading receiver in Texans history with 1,012 catches for 13,597 yards and 64 touchdowns. Tennessee had been his third team in as many seasons after Johnson spent 2015 with another AFC South team, the Colts.
The seven-time Pro Bowl wide receiver told Mularkey of his plans to retire Monday without commenting publicly until this statement. He caught only nine passes for 85 yards and two touchdowns this season, including the winner in Week 2 in Detroit.
Johnson retired as one of the NFL's best receivers. He ranks ninth with 1,062 catches and 10th with 14,185 yards receiving, and also had 70 touchdowns. Johnson led the NFL in catches in 2006 (103) and in 2008 (115). He led the league in yards receiving in 2008 (1,575) and 2009 (1,569).
He and former Colts receiver Marvin Harrison, inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame earlier this year, are the only NFL players to have four seasons of 100-plus receptions and 1,400-plus yards receiving.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.The training regime for new police officers in Northern Ireland is at times like a military-style boot camp, according to an internal PSNI review.
The report said there is a fear of failure within the PSNI college in east Belfast, with "an unhealthy leaning towards punitive discipline".
It describes the Garnerville regime as "pseudo-militaristic", with students marching to and from classes.
The PSNI has now ended some of the practices identified in the report.
The review, led by an officer from Police Scotland, was ordered after 54 student officers were found to have cheated in an exam and ordered to repeat the 22-week training programme.
While they said there were many examples of good practice, the review team said it was "significantly concerned by certain elements of the prevailing culture".
The report, obtained by the BBC, says the college failed to provide a safe and supported learning environment.
It reveals that a number of disciplinary investigations are now under way into allegations of "potential individual misconduct".
Press-ups in uniform
The culture within Garnerville is described as "more associated with a pseudo-militaristic training environment".
"Student officers and trainers have detailed how the first day of the residential process can involve students performing press-ups in uniform and running distances in business attire," the report adds.
It notes that military style drill training is incorporated throughout the curriculum, and that student officers routinely march when moving around the college.
The review team says students are forced to take part in military style "show parades" as a form of punishment, sometimes in response to a mistake or poor performance by an individual.
Image caption Drill practice will now focus on preparing for ceremonial occasions like the passing out parade to mark the graduation of new officers
They reveal that examples of when such punishments were applied for what it calls "infractions against unreasonably high standards" included water drips in sinks and dust on floors.
In response to the report, Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd, who recently took charge of the training college, said: "We have, I think, in an attempt to raise our standards, lost our balance.
"That which was designed to make people pay attention to detail has lost its balance and become unacceptable.
"We have acknowledged that within the report and we have a plan to deal with those things going forward and make the situation better for the future."
The PSNI has ordered an immediate end to the practice of students marching to and from classes and the use of "show parades" as a form of discipline.
Groups of students will no longer be referred to as "squads", but as "classes".
Fear of failure
Formal drill practice will continue, but the amount of such training will be reduced, and the focus will be on preparing for ceremonial occasions like the passing out parade to mark the graduation of new officers.
The review recommends a change to the way students are tested and assessed.
It says there is a "fear of failure", with students led to believe that a single mistake or individual failure could result in the loss of their job.
There is also criticism of a culture of long working hours, with students saying their working day regularly began at 7.30am and ended at 11.30pm.
However, the report says the current course content for the 22-week training course is "considered fit for purpose".
It also says a series of measures have been introduced that will ensure there can be no repeat of the cheating scandal uncovered at the college in August.
The report makes 50 recommendations for change.
The PSNI has accepted all of them, and the senior command team has discussed the findings with the Policing Board.
It has drawn up an implementation plan, which will be led by a senior PSNI officer who was a member of the review team.
All training at Garnerville has been suspended since the exam cheating scandal was uncovered on 7 August.
More than 200 new recruits have had their training delayed while this review was completed.
The PSNI now hope that their training can begin, and that a new recruitment campaign can take place in January.
A spokesperson for the Policing Board said that the findings of the report were of "serious concern".
"The board agrees that there is now the opportunity to really invest in the college, make the changes necessary to redress the issues uncovered and achieve this vision."
Mark Lindsay, the chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, said that the Policing Board and the PSNI should "stop dithering" and begin a new recruitment campaign immediately.
He added that there are 30 officers leaving the PSNI every month and it is "imperative that recruitment commences as soon as possible".* Club to play at bet365 Stadium from start of 2016/17 Premier League campaign
* City to raise stadium seat capacity by 'filling in' corner
* bet365 extend shirt sponsorship by further three years
STOKE CITY are delighted to announce the Britannia Stadium is to be known as the bet365 Stadium from the start of the 2016/17 Premier League season.
The Potters have entered into an initial six-year stadium naming rights agreement with the Club's owners bet365, who have also extended their shirt sponsorship of the Potters for a further three years.
In addition, the Club have also announced plans to redevelop the stadium by 'filling in' the corner between the DPD and Marston's Pedigree Stands, thereby creating an extra 1,800 seats and lifting the capacity to 30,000. The work will be completed in time for the start of the 2017/18 season.
bet365, the world's largest online gambling company with more than 22 million customers around the globe, has its corporate headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent and is the city's largest private sector employer with a workforce approaching 3,000.
Stoke City Chief Executive Tony Scholes said: "The Premier League is constantly evolving and to ensure that Stoke City remain as competitive as possible it's important we explore as many ways as possible of generating revenue.
"As supporters are no doubt aware the Britannia brand no longer exists and it was important that we attracted a new stadium naming rights partner.
"The Premier League is watched around the world and bet365 are a truly global company. We are delighted that we have been able to reach an agreement with them over the stadium naming rights for an initial six year period, along with the extension of their shirt sponsorship agreement.
"bet365 are taking over from Britannia and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Britannia and the Co-operative Bank for their tremendous support over the past 19 years.
"We also felt the time was right to redevelop the corner of the ground between the DPD and Marston's Pedigree Stands. Planning permission has been in place for some time but it was important we carried out the work when we felt the Club was ready for an increase in seat capacity."
John Coates, Joint Group Chief Executive of bet365 and Vice-Chairman of Stoke City, said: "bet365 have been pleased with the global brand exposure from our sports sponsorship agreement and we are always looking at ways to increase this. Entering into a stadium naming rights agreement with Stoke City seemed a natural fit, especially as the city of Stoke-on-Trent is home to bet365's corporate headquarters.
"We are delighted about the plans to fill in the corner of the stadium and are looking forward to what we hope will be a successful future for both the Club and bet365 with both organisations continuing to work closely together."
The stadium, which became the Potters' home when they moved from the Victoria Ground in 1997, will undergo a complete rebrand over the course of this summer in preparation for the start of the 2016/17 season - the Club's ninth in the Premier League.Image copyright Radio Canada Acadie/Serge Bouchard Image caption Gerard Comeau buying beer in Quebec after his 2016 court win
Canadian Gerard Comeau liked to drive to pick up beer in the neighbouring province of Quebec, where he could get a bargain on a few cases. But the New Brunswick man didn't know what he was doing was illegal.
On Saturday 6 October 2012, Comeau got into his Honda and made the roughly two-hour drive west from his New Brunswick home to Quebec.
There the retiree stopped at a convenience store, a Quebec government-run liquor store, and a supermarket.
He bought 14 cases of beer - Miller, Bud Light, Coors, Molson - two bottles of whisky and a bottle of Stingner Premixxx liqueur.
But unbeknownst to Comeau, the local Mounties had him under surveillance as he went about his chores.
They nabbed him as soon as he crossed the JC Van Horne bridge back into New Brunswick.
He was pulled over, detained, had his liquor purchases seized from his car boot, and was fined C$292.50 ($230; £170).
The offence?
Violating New Brunswick law, which limited the amount of alcohol a resident could buy in another province to a total of 12 pints.
Comeau was caught as part of a two-day police sting operation to hunt down cross-border beer shoppers.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Gerard Comeau picked up Budweiser and Miller products in Quebec
But he decided to fight the ticket - and the case has made it all the way to Canada's highest court.
He told the BBC from his New Brunswick home that he believes buying booze in another province is his constitutional right.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will begin two days of hearings into the matter.
Comeau's argument is that under Section 121 of the Constitution, Canadian goods shall "be admitted free into each of the other provinces".
The top court is hearing the case after a New Brunswick provincial court judge ruled in Comeau's favour in 2016, agreeing that Canada's Fathers of Confederation wanted free trade between the provinces.
New Brunswick's public prosecution service appealed that 2016 ruling to the Supreme Court after a provincial appellate court refused to review the matter.
Comeau's case is being supported by the Canadian Constitution Foundation, a charity that helps fund constitutional cases.
"Comeau is such an avatar of ordinary Joe Canadian or Jane Canadian, just trying to save a few bucks buying beer, and the weight of the state came down on him," says CCF executive director Howard Anglin. "I think Canadians have an innate sense of justice and they see that is just absurd and unjust."
Image copyright Reuters Image caption The Supreme Court of Canada will hear Mr Comeau's case in December
Most provinces set limits on the amount of alcohol a person can bring back from another province for personal consumption, and they have joined the litigation as interveners.
Winemakers and distillery groups, as well as cannabis dispensaries, will also be bringing their concerns before the court.
'Patron saint' of wine
Sandra Oldfield, the former chief executive of Tinhorn Creek, a British Columbia (BC) winery, says the province's winemakers have been lobbying for about a decade for an end to provincial restrictions that stop them from being able to ship their products to clients across Canada.
"We shouldn't have a harder time trying to ship it direct to a consumer in Canada than we do to any other country in the world," she says.
This is the first court case where the wineries have the chance to address those legal barriers.
Five small wineries granted permission to appear as interveners have said the barriers "pose an existential threat" to their business by closing them off from direct national distribution to clients.
Oldfield says if Comeau wins his case, it could be a boon for winemakers in the western province.
"I jokingly call him the patron saint of British Columbia wineries," she says.
Cannabis producers are also taking an interest.
Lawyer Kirk Tousaw is acting for marijuana media and advocacy organisation Cannabis Culture.
Cannabis Culture hopes that if the court scraps interprovincial alcohol import limits, the ruling could have implications for new provincial recreational marijuana regimes being set up across Canada, which plans to legalise the drug next summer.
Tousaw says provincial monopolies on the sale of cannabis, like the one proposed by Ontario, "are restrictions on consumer choice".
The eventual Supreme Court decision could result in the liberalisation of the market for alcohol in Canada.
But, depending on how broadly the court chooses to rule on the case, it could resonate beyond that market.
Restrictions imposed by agricultural marketing boards, some of whom will be in court arguing for the status quo, could also be challenged.
Comeau himself says he won't be in Ottawa for the hearings, that he's leaving it up to the lawyers to fight the case.
He still goes to Quebec once in a |
. We regenerated the Shuffle control set 100 times and pooled all CoEvol values to test the null hypothesis that the CoEvol values for the Foreground are no greater than that for the Shuffle. We found that the Foreground CoEvol values for scope 1 are significantly greater than that for the pooled Shuffle values (Mann-Whitney U test p-value = 0.02, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test p-value = 1.1e-12). The corresponding p-values for scope 1 when comparing Foreground versus RandomContext were 6.1e-4 and 0, respectively. PPT PowerPoint slide
PowerPoint slide PNG larger image
larger image TIFF original image Download: Figure 2. The distribution of CoEvol values for scope 1. Shown are CoEvol values for Foreground, Random, RandomContext and Shuffle controls. Values for RandomContext are included after correcting for a shift in the distribution of tree likelihoods (see Methods for details). Relative to the most stringent control – Shuffle, the Foreground CoEvol values are significantly greater (Mann-Whitney U test p-value = 0.02, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test p-value = 1.1e-12). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055521.g002 We repeated the Mann-Whitney test for each scope from 1 through 8 comparing Foreground and the pooled Shuffle CoEvol values. The p-values were significant only for scopes 1, 2, and 3 and not so for greater scopes. Thus we find that the CoEvol signal is limited to lower scopes. It is possible that at higher scopes, only a small but significant number of position-pairs co-evolve, and will not be detected by a global test of differences in distribution. Also, the median binding site length for our set of 64 PWMs is 12; so higher scopes are only relevant to a fraction of the PWMs. For these reasons, we restrict our analysis to scopes 1–8. To measure differences between Foreground and Shuffle in the right tail of the distribution, we adopted the following strategy. Using Random as the negative control, we computed T99 as the 99th percentile threshold of all CoEvol values for the Random control. Let FS represent the fraction of all Foreground CoEvol values for scope s that are greater than T99. The expected value of FS is 1%. However, we observed that in all scopes, 1≤ s ≤8, FS ranged from 17% to 25%. Similarly, we computed SS, defined as the fraction of all Shuffle CoEvol values for scope s that are greater than T99. To estimate the significance of FS relative to SS, we computed the fraction of 100 Shuffle sets in which SS ≥ FS. For scopes 1 through 7, none of the 100 Shuffle sets had SS ≥ FS, corresponding to a nominal p-value <0.01. For scope 8 the p-value was 0.04. Thus, based on the right tail analysis, there is significantly greater enrichment of high CoEvol values in the Foreground relative to the Shuffle control in all scopes.
The Number of Interdependent Position Pairs Decreases with Increasing Scope For a motif M with N binding sites, and for a specific position pair (i,j), let CEF be the CoEvol value in the Foreground. CES is defined similarly for the Shuffle. We estimate the significance of CEF as the fraction of 100 shuffles for which CES ≥ CEF. Given the p-values for all CoEvol(i, j) (all position pairs for each PWM), we estimate their q-values (False Discovery Rate) using the Storey-Tibshirani method to control for multiple testing [25]. All CoEvol(i, j) with a q-value ≤ 0.05 are considered to represent instances of co-evolution. Out of a total of 3914 position pairs evaluated for all motifs and for all scopes, 315 were deemed significant with an estimated false discovery rate of 5% (see Figure S1 and Table S2). Of these 315, 92 were in scope 1, monotonically decreasing to 23 for scope 8. An alternative measure of interposition dependence, and one that does not rely on co-evolution, is the mutual information between the nucleotide probability distributions at the two columns of the PWM. We found that the 315 position-pairs that our method deemed to be co-evolving have significantly greater mutual information relative to all other position-pairs (Mann-Whitney U test p-value = 8.7e-06).
Interdependent Positions have Greater Evolutionary Conservation The 315 interdependent position-pairs correspond to 353 unique PWM positions. There are 830 other positions for the 64 PWMs that were not deemed co-evolving with any other position. Thus, the detected position pairs are not dominated by a few positions, and include a large fraction of positions. We compared the 353 interdependent positions with the 830 independent positions with respect to their compositional and conservation properties. We did not find a significant difference in the C+G content between the interdependent and independent positions. To estimate the evolutionary conservation for the ith position of PWM M with N binding sites in the genome, we extracted the 17-species Phastcons evolutionary conservation score from Galaxy (main.g2.bx.psu.edu) and averaged over the N instances of position i. Our choice of 17-species alignment to estimate conservation is meant to minimize the dependence on the input set of alignment based on 5 mammalian species. We found that the interdependent positions tend to be evolutionarily more conserved (Mann-Whitney U test p-value = 3.5e-4). We note that there is no a priori bias in our method’s ability to detect co-evolution towards greater evolutionary conservation. Our results thus suggest that the interdependent positions are under a greater constraint against mutations.
Structurally Related TFs Exhibit Similar Patterns of Interposition Dependence For a pair of PWMs M1 and M2, we quantified the similarity J(M1,M2) in their interposition dependence as follows. A position-pair (i1, j1) for M1 is considered to “match” a position-pair (i2, j2) for M2 if (1) j1-i1 = j2-i2, i.e., they have the same scope, and (2) |i1-i2| ≤ D, where the parameter D allows for a shift between the positions in the two PWMs. J(M1,M2) is then defined as the ratio of the number of matching interdependent position-pairs between the two PWMs and the total number of interdependent position-pairs for the two PWMs; this is analogous to the standard Jaccard index. We grouped PWMs according to the TF’s structural class annotated in TRANSFAC. We compared, using the Mann-Whitney U test, the 98 J(M1,M2) values corresponding to PWM pairs within the same family, with the 1498 J(M1,M2) values corresponding to PWM pairs in different families. We found that the within-family similarity was significantly greater than the cross-family similarity with p-values of 2.9e-6, 1.4e-6, and 1.7e-8 for D = 0, 1, and 2 respectively. This suggests that structurally related TFs tend to exhibit similar patterns of interposition dependence.The world’s most wanted Nazi criminal, Adolf Eichmann’s second-in-command, died four years ago in Syria at the age of 98, the Simon Weisenthal Center said Sunday, citing the testimony of a former German secret service agent deployed in the Middle East.
SS captain Alois Brunner, described by Eichmann as his “best man,” was responsible for the deportation of 128,500 Jews to the death camps. After the war in the 1950s, Brunner fled to Syria where he reportedly served as a government adviser to president Hafez Assad and is thought to have instructed the regime on torture tactics. He survived two Mossad assassination attempts, and went to his grave utterly “unrepentant,” according to Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff.
“We have received information from a former German secret service agent who had served in the Middle East who said that Brunner was dead and buried in Damascus,” Zuroff told The Sunday Express on Sunday.
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“Given his age it would not be surprising and the information came from someone who we consider reliable.”
Due to the ongoing Syrian civil war, the precise location of Brunner’s grave remains uncertain.
Brunner managed to flee Germany due to an identity mix-up that saw fellow SS member Anton Brunner prosecuted and hanged for his crimes. In 1954, using a fake Red Cross passport, Brunner traveled to Rome and later Egypt, where he rented a room from a Jewish family. In 1985 he said they were “quite nice people, really.”
After arriving in Syria under the pseudonym of Dr. Georg Fischer, Brunner was said to serve as an adviser to Assad on torture methods, though the information has not been confirmed. The Syrian government shielded Brunner from the various extradition orders.
Nazi fled justice for a new ‘job’ as torturer for Syria’s murderous regime http://t.co/bnK7gym3AU
If only we could have caught him… — Efraim Zuroff (@EZuroff) November 30, 2014
“He was involved in the harsh treatment of the Jewish community of Syria and was an expert in terror and torture,” Zuroff said. “He said himself his one regret was he did not kill more Jews. He was unrepentant.”
Brunner was injured in two separate attempts on his life by the Mossad in 1961 and 1980.
“He lived under the false name of Georg Fischer but his presence was no secret. He actually received two letter bombs, apparently from Mossad. He lost three fingers and an eye,” Zuroff said.
According to the Simon Weisenthal Center, Brunner organized the deportations of 47,000 Austrian Jews, 44,000 Greek Jews, 23,500 French Jews, and 14,000 Slovakian Jews to the concentration camps. “The majority were murdered,” Zuroff said.
“Among Third Reich criminals still alive, Alois Brunner is undoubtedly the worst. In my eyes, he was the worst ever,” Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal wrote in his memoirs. “While Adolf Eichmann drew up the general staff plan for the extermination of the Jews, Alois Brunner implemented it.”This is a real story, and it’s not only about Google. I’m getting emails from recruiters at Amazon, Facebook, and smaller Silicon Valley startups. They find me somehow, most likely through this blog, my books, or my GitHub account. They always start with “We’re so impressed by your profile” and finish with “Let’s schedule an interview.” I always reply with the same text, and they always disappear, only to come back in a few months under a different name. Let me explain my reasons; maybe you will do the same and we can change this situation in the industry.
The Deer Hunter (1978) by Michael Cimino
Disclaimer: I do realize that these are multi-billion-dollar companies, the best in the industry, and I’m nothing compared to them. I do realize that their recruiters don’t care about my answers—they simply click “delete” and move on. I also realize that they will never see this post, and this article probably won’t change anything. However, I have to write it.
How I didn't get a job at Amazon (in Russian with English subtitles); 21 December 2017.
This is what I’m sending back to them:
Thanks for your email. I’m very interested indeed. I have nothing against an interview. However, there is one condition: I have to be interviewed by the person I will be working for. By my future direct manager.
The recruiter who gets this reply never gets back to me.
Why do I send this?
Well, because I learned my lesson two years ago, when Amazon tried to recruit me. I got an email from the company that said they were so impressed by my profile and couldn’t wait to start working with me. They needed me, nobody else. I was naive, and the message did flatter me.
They paid for my ticket to fly there and a night in a 5-star hotel. I was impressed.
We scheduled an interview in the head office in Seattle. They paid for my ticket to fly there (from San Francisco) and a night in a 5-star hotel. I was impressed. They definitely were interested. So was I.
What happened at the interview was, most probably, very close to what Max Howell experienced with Google: some programmers who didn’t know a thing about my profile asked me to invent some algorithms on a white board for almost four hours. Did I manage? I don’t think so. Did they make me an offer? No.
What did I learn?
That it was a waste of time. For both sides.
Their bureaucratic machine is designed to process hundreds of candidates a month. In order to fish and attract them, there is an army of monkeys recruiters sending warm emails to people like me. They have to screen candidates somehow, and they are too lazy to make this process effective and creative. They just send them through random programmers who are supposed to ask as complex questions as possible.
I’m not saying that people who pass their tests are not good programmers. I’m also not saying that I’m a good programmer—let’s face it, I didn’t pass the test. I do believe this filtering system is rather good. My point is that it contradicts the original email I got from the recruiter.
If she would have started her email with “We’re looking for an algorithm expert,” we would never have gotten any further and would not have wasted our time. Clearly, I’m not an expert in algorithms. There is no point in giving me binary-tree-traversing questions; I don’t know those answers and will never be interested in learning them. I’m trying to be an expert in something else, like object-oriented design, for example.
There is no point in giving me binary-tree-traversing questions; I don’t know those answers and will never be interested in learning them.
There was a clear mismatch between my profile and the expectations of the interviewers. I don’t blame them, and I don’t blame her. They all were just slaves employees. I blame myself for not setting this all straight at the very beginning.
I should have told her that I didn’t want to be interviewed by some programmers, because I would most certainly fail. There was no need to try. I wanted to be interviewed by the person who really needed me: my future boss. That person will understand my profile and won’t ask pointless questions about algorithms, simply because he or she will know what my duties will be and what kind of problems I will be capable of solving, if they hired me.
Unfortunately, as I keep observing from two years of bouncing such emails back to recruiters, they can’t change anything. They have to provide formal and standard screening for everybody, beginning with those same warm and flattering initial promises.
I’m sorry, recruiters, no more standard interviews for me.news, latest-news
A 12-YEAR-OLD Windermere resident has said she would be devastated if her family is forced to move because of a proposed NBN tower opposite her home. If approved the tower will be the Ballarat region’s NBN transmission hub.It will include a 30-metre pole, a parabolic dish antenna, three panel antennas and an equipment shelter at ground level plus a protective fence. But many residents in the area are against the structure to be built on a 21-hectare site at Lot 2, Remembrance Drive, Windermere, off Madden Road.Perri Polson said her family had moved to the area from the city for space, the view and a cleaner environment.“We have spent many years establishing a nice garden and making our house to a higher standard,” Perri said. “I would be devastated if we had to move.”In an open letter, Perri urged the landowner of Remembrance Drive to reconsider allowing the land to be used for the tower.“Please rethink your placement of this NBN tower,” she said. Perri said she was scared the tower posed many health risks including cancer. “As a 12-year-old girl, I have rights, as do other children and teenagers,” she said.“One of those rights is to live in a safe place.“I feel that if the tower is built, where we are living won’t be safe with radiation being emitted.”Perri said she was also concerned about the tower’s affects on the environment.“The atmosphere is already polluted, why make it worse?” she said.“The tower is a health risk to the wildlife as well. We have a lot of pretty birds like barn owls, ibis and wedge-tail eagles.”The radiation from the tower, she said, could also affect people with small veggie patches, big crop paddocks or stock.The tower, she said, would also spoil the residents’ view of Lake Burrumbeet.The landowner could not be reached for comment.Follow @NeelimaChoahan
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Phone: (800) 829-6786UC Berkeley chemists have made a major leap forward in carbon-capture technology with a material that can efficiently remove carbon from the ambient air of a submarine as readily as from the polluted emissions of a coal-fired power plant.
The material then releases the carbon dioxide at lower temperatures than current carbon-capture materials, potentially cutting by half or more the energy currently consumed in the process. The released CO2 can then be injected underground, a technique called sequestering, or, in the case of a submarine, expelled into the sea.
"Carbon dioxide is 15 percent of the gas coming off a power plant, so a carbon-capture unit is going to be big," said senior author Jeffrey Long, a UC Berkeley professor of chemistry and faculty senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "With these new materials, that unit could be much smaller, making the capital costs drop tremendously as well as the operating costs."
The material, a metal-organic framework (MOF) modified with nitrogen compounds called diamines, can be tuned to remove carbon dioxide from the room-temperature air of a submarine, for example, or the 100-degree (Fahrenheit) flue gases from a power plant.
"It would work great on something like the International Space Station," Long said.
Though power plants are not now required to capture carbon dioxide from their emissions, it will eventually be necessary in order to slow the pace of climate change caused by fossil-fuel burning. If the planet's CO2 levels rise much higher than they are today, it may even be necessary to remove CO2 directly from the atmosphere to make the planet livable.
Long and his colleagues describe how the new materials -- diamine-appended MOFs -- work in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
From flue gas to submarines
Power plants that capture CO2 today use an old technology whereby flue gases are bubbled through organic amines in water, where the carbon dioxide binds to amines. The liquid is then heated to 120-150 degrees Celsius (250-300 degrees Fahrenheit) to release the gas, after which the liquids are reused. The entire process is expensive: it consumes about 30 percent of the power generated, while sequestering underground costs an additional though small fraction of that.
The new diamine-appended MOFs can capture carbon dioxide at various temperatures, depending on how the diamines are synthesized, and releases the CO2 at only 50 C above the temperature at which CO2 binds, instead of the increase of 80-110 C required for aqueous liquid amines. Because MOFs are solid, the process also saves the huge energy costs of heating the water in which amines are dissolved.
MOFs are composites of metals -- in this case, magnesium or manganese -- with organic compounds that, together, form a porous structure with microscopic, parallel channels. Several years ago, Long and his lab colleagues developed a way to attach amines to the metals in an MOF to produce pores of sufficient diameter to allow CO2 to penetrate rapidly into the material. They found that MOFs with attached diamines are very different from other carbon-capture materials, in that the CO2 seems to load into the material very quickly at a specific temperature and pressure, then come out quickly when the temperature is raised by 50 C. In the new paper, UC Berkeley graduate students Thomas McDonald and Jarad Mason, together with other co-workers, describe how this works.
"This material is unique in that it binds CO2 in a cooperative mechanism," Long said. "When the first CO2 starts to adsorb at a very specific pressure, all of a sudden it facilitates more CO2 adsorption, and the MOF rapidly saturates. That is really a different property from any other CO2 adsorbent based on amines.
"Then," he added, "if you raise the temperature by applying heat, at some temperature all the CO2 will come flooding off."
Long's team found that the diamines bind to the metal atoms of the MOF and then react with CO2 to form metal-bound ammonium carbamate species that completely line the interior channels of the MOF. At a sufficiently high pressure, one CO2 molecule binding to an amine helps other CO2 molecules bind next door, catalyzing a chain reaction as CO2polymerizes with diamine like a zipper running down the channel. Increasing the temperature by 50 degrees Celsius makes the reaction reverse just as quickly.
The pressure at which CO2 binds to the amines can be adjusted by changing the metal in the MOF. Long has already shown that some diamine-appended MOFs can bind CO2 at room temperature and CO2 levels as low as 300 parts per million.
The current atmospheric concentration of CO2 is now 400 parts per million (ppm), and policy-makers in many countries hope to reduce this below 350 ppm to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change, from increasingly severe weather events and sea level rise to global average temperature increases of 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
'We got lucky'
Last summer, Long co-founded a startup, Mosaic Materials, to use the new technology to radically reduce the cost of chemical separations, with plans in the works for a pilot study of CO2 separation from power plant emissions. This would involve creating columns containing millimeter-size pellets made by compressing a crystalline powder of MOFs.
"We're also hoping to develop something that might be tested in a submarine," Long said. That would pave the way for eventual scale-up to capturing CO2 from natural gas plants, which produce emissions containing about 5 percent CO2, to the higher concentrations of coal-fired power plants.
"We got lucky," he said. "We were just trying to find a simple way to attach these amines to our MOF surface, because they are one of the best compounds for selectively binding CO2 in the presence of water, which can be a problem in flue gas. And it just happens we got the right length in the amine to make these one-dimensional chains that bind CO2in a cooperative manner."
Long suggested as well that the findings may have relevance for the fixation of CO2 by plants, owing to striking structural similarities between the magnesium-based MOF and the naturally occurring CO2-fixing photosynthetic enzyme RuBisCO.
###
Long also received assistance from colleagues at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China; the University of Turin in Italy; the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis; the Université Grenoble Alpes and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France; the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway; and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.
The work is supported by grants from ARPA-E and the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Center for Gas Separations Relevant to Clean Energy Technologies, an Energy Frontier Research Center operated jointly by UC Berkeley and LBNL.The Super NES Classic Edition isn't the only piece of modern hardware sporting an unreleased, decades-old console game. Analogue announced today that its recently revealed FPGA-based Super Nt hardware would come packed with a new expanded and "uncut" version of Super NES run-and-gun classic Super Turrican embedded on every system.
Factor 5, which later became well-known for the Rogue Squadron games, originally designed Super Turrican to fit on a 6-megabit cartridge (which was actually a decently large console game back in 1993, believe it or not). According to developer Julian Eggebrecht, though, publisher Seika didn't want to pay for the extra ROM chips needed for those cartridges, so the game had to be cut down to fit in just 4Mbit.
The uncut 6Mbit version, which Factor 5 retained through the years, includes a previously unseen final level for the game, along with new music, new enemies, improved sound effects, improved graphics, and some slight changes in the way weapons work. The uncut version was apparently considered for Virtual Console release back in 2008, but Nintendo reportedly refused to release a game that had not been previously available (Nintendo would later break this precedent with the 2015 Wii U release of Earthbound Beginnings, an unreleased translation for the Japanese Mother on the Famicom).
Analogue's Christopher Taber tells Ars Technica that he's been trying to work with Eggebrecht to get his hands on the uncut Super Turrican for six years now, since he was working on reconstructed high-end Neo Geo hardware. The pair reconnected after the launch of the Analogue Nt, though, and they arranged an exclusive license with Factor 5 to put the game's master files right on the Super Nt's PCB.
"After seeing our products firsthand and since we were releasing an aftermarket SNES, everything aligned perfectly," Taber said. "This is like Fritz Lang Metropolis scenes showing up 80 years later. You see this kind of thing in film, but not so much in video games."
Taber says Analogue will also be including a mocked-up SNES-style box for the "Director's Cut" version (pictured below) along with every $189 Super Nt system when they start shipping in February. Not a bad extra for a piece of hardware that was already looking pretty enticing for retro game aficionados.This is a paper I wrote when I was just beginning my theological studies, titled “A Few Thoughts for Mormons on Approaching the Nicene Creed.” It was for a class on the Mystery of God. I thought it would be a fun follow-up to my most recent post. I’d probably come up at the subject a bit differently now, but it’s interesting to see how I was thinking about it when I was first grappling with the notion of the Trinity.
I do not know how many Mormons are familiar with the Nicene Creed, but those who are, I suspect, are likely to be more than a little wary of it. From an LDS point of view, it is perhaps easy to dismiss it as coming from an apostate Christianity, as reflecting too much theological formulating instead of plain and simple gospel truths. It is clearly outside the bounds of our tradition, reflecting a theology alien to us, and I am certainly not out to dispute that fact. Yet I wonder if we can nonetheless learn to better understand what it means to those who do accept it as basic doctrine, if we can engage the challenge of not merely viewing it as something faintly ridiculous but of attempting to appreciate the meaning it has for traditional Christianity.
I think that part of the problem in discussing this topic with Mormons is that we have a bit of a suspicion of anything that sounds too theologically complicated as merely being a ruse to disguise the fact that the person does not in fact have a clue what she is talking about. We follow the time-honored tradition of claiming the pure and simple original truths of Christianity, easy to understand, before they were corrupted by the philosophers who made a such a dreadful mish-mash of things. We like things that make sense. Needless to say, we are not fond of the traditional Christian conception of the Trinity. In discussing the Creed, then, I think a basic challenge is to deal with what I might call the gobbledygook problem. For a Mormon, all of this is in danger of being so much gobbledygook. Make up your minds. God is either three characters, or God is one, but God can’t be both, and don’t use any crazy theological formulations to get out of this.
Yet at the risk of only adding to the chaos, I would like to throw out a few thoughts. I think much of the problem stems from the fact that we, that is to say, LDS Christians and traditional Christians, tend to use the same language without always realizing that we actually don’t mean the same things with the same words. The result is that we often talk past each other without knowing it. Looking at the Creed, there is much language that at least sounds familiar to a Mormon. At the most basic level, we have a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That’s all well and good; doesn’t sound too different from the First Article of Faith, does it? Some of the other language is a bit strange, of course, and begins to suggest some theological differences. But I think the key to understanding, or at least attempting to understand, what’s going on here actually comes in the first line, one which on the surface sounds fairly straightforward and hardly a matter for dispute: “We believe in one God.”
The question is, what are we talking about when we say God? As Latter-day Saints, we believe in God as a being, a being who is in some sense ultimately like us. The human and the divine are not in the end a different kind of thing. This means that we have the ability to understand God; Joseph Smith in fact tells us that we cannot understand ourselves unless we understand God. And it is thus no surprise that we talk about God in human categories. When we say that we are related to God and use human terms of relationship, we are not speaking metaphorically. God is our Father, and we are his children, and we mean that very literally. When we discuss members of the Godhead, we are talking about beings, divine beings who are infinitely more advanced than we are, but ones who are nonetheless in some fundamental way the same kind of beings that we are.
And I suspect this is why it is so difficult for us to grasp what traditional Christians are talking about with the Trinity. I’ve encountered a lot of debates between Mormons and other Christians over this question of whether the Trinity is composed of separate beings, with each side whipping out their favorite proof texts. What does it mean when Jesus says, “My Father and I are one,” brings out one side. Well, who was Jesus praying to in the Garden of Gethsemane, counters the other. And I wonder whether both sides are missing the point because they fail to appreciate the other’s basic conception of God. From a Mormon point of view, because we are thinking in terms of God as a being like us, Trinitarian notions necessarily become absurd. To put it as bluntly as I can, we as humans do not have three persons in one essence, and since we understand God as in some basic sense like us, we cannot conceive of God like that, either.
This is the problem, or at least one of them; here lies the gulf we must cross to honestly engage the Nicene Creed and not simply caricature it as silly theology for people who like to think in contradictions. But now things become more difficult, because I do not know if I can cross this gulf, either— I am after all a Mormon, and I think like a Mormon. But I will try. Let us attempt to make a genuine effort to suspend our notions about God for a bit, and imagine other ways of thinking. What if God is radically different from us? What if God is not even a being? What if we think about God as the Creator and ourselves as the created, if we suggest a basic difference, if we remove God from the realm of human understanding? What if we do not see God as anything that we are going to clearly grasp? What if we were to think about mystery, as one Catholic theologian puts it, not as something that we have not discovered yet but as something that we will never truly master, in fact, as something that in the end masters us? I know I am probably skirting close to the gobbledygook problem here, and yet this is the challenge for us, to not hear these ideas and think that it is merely so much nonsense, but to consider the notion of a God who is utterly beyond us, and the fact that we cannot explain God as simply part of the situation when God is God and infinite and we are humans and finite.
But having placed ourselves in such a world, consider that even though God is ultimately beyond our comprehension, we want to talk about God, we need to talk about God. Obviously we are limited and what we say will always be inadequate, and yet we still are going to attempt to say something. So we use the language we have, even though it is human language, and in some ways not always appropriate to the task. We use words to describe God because they offer us a glimpse of the divine, even though they may not mean exactly what they do when we are using them about other humans. This is probably an important point for us to remember, we who in our tradition use human terms about God without really thinking too much about what we are doing, that when we see terms in places such as the Nicene Creed that also have meanings in the human realm that we shouldn’t be too quick to jump to conclusions about exactly what those words mean when applied to God.
When we look at the Creed, it might be tempting to fall into the trap of counting, to start turning our minds over this knotty problem of three and one that just doesn’t seem to jive. Which is why we would maybe to do better to not read it as an equation, but to read it more like a narrative or even as poetry. That might seem a bit odd, but I know it helps my own Mormon brain get away from the desire to neatly parse God and to get rather irritated when things don’t seem to fit into a clearly comprehensible structure. If I read it as poetry, I can consider that things aren’t so logically neat, that not everything is literal, that words are alluding to broader realities. So perhaps this is at least a beginning in approaching the Creed, to look at the story it tells about God. It is a story about how God relates to us, how these characters named Father, Son, and Spirit are all involved in our lives, and which in the process hints at who these characters might be and how they relate to each other. It is a story that is important for us to know, and yet one that we can never truly grasp, no matter how often or in how many ways we tell it. For it is a story about a reality which is, in the end, not our own, although it intersects our own.
All of this is really only a starting point, but I hope it is helpful in thinking about a traditional reading of the Nicene Creed. One last question I would like to pose is whether we as Mormons have anything to learn from the Creed, and more broadly from a traditional understanding of the Trinity (aside from the obvious value of attempting to better understand the beliefs of other Christians— and I do not mean to lightly gloss over the value of that particular endeavor). As a Latter-day Saint, I cannot accept the traditional doctrine of the Trinity. And yet I can also appreciate the value of grappling with the questions it raises, with a God beyond human comprehension. We may ultimately have placed God in the sphere of the human, but perhaps we have something to learn from such challenges; they are a compelling reminder that even for us God is not as neatly packaged and intelligible as we perhaps at times make him out to be. For we too struggle with coming to grips with the divine. As the prophet Isaiah reminds us, “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.” And we, along with other Christians, can continue to marvel at the astounding fact that God, however we understand him, is not simply a remote or indifferent presence, but is intimately involved with the salvation of humanity.'Prince Charles really listened to what I had to say and I felt he understood what we've been through' BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Prince Charles yesterday offered his sympathy to the families of IRA murder victims - including the children of two Orangemen who say they still don't know why their fathers were shot dead by the Provos more than 30 years ago. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/prince-charles-really-listened-to-what-i-had-to-say-and-i-felt-he-understood-what-weve-been-through-34744427.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/article34744425.ece/a814a/AUTOCROP/h342/2016-05-25_new_21361424_I4.JPG
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Shiite men have been ordered by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country’s highest Shiite authority, to protect Shiite shrines and help counter the recent gains of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a Sunni insurgent group. Scott Nelson/For The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
The town lacks jobs and educational opportunities and has a history of militant resistance to the Arab government in Baghdad, residents said. Almost every family has a “martyr,” either from the Kurds’ struggle for independence or from the chemical weapons attack in 1988 that killed thousands. Hussein’s forces attacked the town because of its sympathy for Iran during the Iran-Iraq war.
The situation has deteriorated since Maliki’s government, in a dispute with the Kurdistan Regional Government, slashed the Kurds’ budget six months ago, halting the payment of salaries to many workers.
“People here are graduating from high school, and they think they have no future,” the intelligence official said. In the Western world, depressed teenagers commit suicide, he added. “People here join ISIS — which is also basically suicide.”
The path to radicalism
“Z,” whose name is being withheld at the request of his family, would seem an unlikely recruit for ISIS, which has enforced a brutal interpretation of Islamic law, executing hundreds of Shiites and others in its bid to establish anIslamic caliphate that spans Iraq and Syria.
“He had a motorbike. He had a girlfriend. He had lots of friends,” Z’s brother-in-law said with a bitter laugh one recent night, as the family sat on the hard, thinly carpeted floor of their modest living room.
But Z’s family think he was enticed by the extremists’ slick social media campaign and by local recruiters.
Photos on Z’s sister’s cellphone show a grinning 16-year-old boy with a fluffy black “faux-hawk,” the latest hairstyle craze.
His family said Z was not especially religious and was never particularly interested in going to the mosque. But in mid-May, he suddenly left Halabja with his best friend to join ISIS in Syria, his relatives said. “In one week, he changed completely,” his brother-in-law said.
After last week’s rapid ISIS advance into Iraq, Z is now with fellow militants in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the family said. In a few phone calls, he has told his family that he was “following the teachings of the Koran,” they said.
Two intelligence officials, as well as residents of Halabja, said Kurdish authorities have allowed young people such as Z to leave the region, in part because they think it is safer without them.
“They want them out of here. They don’t want the bomb to explode in their hands,” said a second intelligence official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In one recent instance, the bomb nearly did go off.
In late May, a young Kurdish man from Halabja who had recently returned from fighting with ISIS in Syria was apprehended by local security forces as he tried to enter a Shiite shrine in the Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah, carrying a backpack containing explosives, officials said.
A salvage mission
Friends and relatives of a few other young men who have returned say the authorities have sought to put them through a lengthy reverse-conditioning process to persuade them to abandon their radical beliefs. Then the men are heavily monitored.
“Those who come back are taken through a very intense process to ensure that they have left those thoughts behind,” said Fazil Basharati, a Halabja local and former member of parliament from the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
Relatives of young men who are either fighting with ISIS or have left the group and returned said that Kurdish security forces have ordered them not to speak about their family members’ ties to the group because it draws attention to the issue.
“They don’t let them talk about it,” said a 24-year-old man in Halabja who grew up with the Kurdish member of ISIS who tried to blow up the shrine in Sulaymaniyah. The 24-year-old man, who did not want to give his name, said two of his other neighbors had joined the extremist group in Syria, only to be captured and returned by Turkish Kurds who are fighting with Syrian insurgents opposed to ISIS. The man said one of his cousins was killed fighting in Syria four months ago.
Z’s brother-in-law recently implored the 16-year-old over the phone to return to his mother and sister. “I said, ‘What if someone tries to harass them?’ He told me: ‘We have plenty of ISIS people in Halabja to stop them.’ ”
by Abigail Hauslohner
HALABJA, Iraq — This town near the Iranian border has long been a symbol of Kurdish resistance, and it is best known as the site of a gruesome chemical-weapons attack by Saddam Hussein in 1988.
These days, residents say, it’s increasingly known for something else — though few want to talk about it.
Kurdish authorities say a small contingent of Kurdish youth — around 150 in all, about a third of whom are from Halabja — has in recent months joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has seized a vast swath of Iraqi territory.
The young men’s allegiance to the extremist militant group represents a potential danger for the Kurds, who share the jihadists’ resentment of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite-dominated government but who are wary of the extremists now massed on the edge of their territory. The Kurds have hoped to keep their largely autonomous region in northern Iraq from getting tangled up in the country’s increasingly bloody conflict.
Some Kurdish intelligence officials fear that with ISIS’s gains, more local boys will join the jihadists, and the radical ideology could creep beyond Arab Iraq and into Iraqi Kurdistan, which has so far remained an oasis of calm and order.
The presence of Kurdish fighters in the extremist militant group highlights how effectively ISIS’s recruitment efforts are reaching disenfranchised youth across Iraq’s ethnic divide. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, like the insurgents, but have their own language and culture.
A top local intelligence official in Halabja, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said ISIS is already operating “cells” inside this town, appealing to bored and underemployed young people to join their fight.
Most of the 52 local men and boys who have left Halabja in the past year and a half to fight in Syria have been recruited by ISIS, he said.
One local man, Mariwan Hallabji, has become an ISIS commander and is currently manning a front line against Kurdish pesh merga security forces outside the city of Kirkuk, the official said.
“How do we guarantee that when they’re done fighting the Shiites, they don’t start waging a war against the Kurds?” the intelligence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
A little over a decade ago, Islamist radicals with alleged ties to al-Qaeda had a base here and fought against the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two major Kurdish political movements, before U.S. forces bombed the Islamists’ bases during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Halabja, though relatively far from the front line between Iraqi Kurdistan and ISIS-held territory, is particularly vulnerable to losing its sons to the radical group, local officials and residents said.
The town lacks jobs and educational opportunities and has a history of militant resistance to the Arab government in Baghdad, residents said. Almost every family has a “martyr,” either from the Kurds’ struggle for independence or from the chemical weapons attack in 1988, which killed thousands. Hussein’s forces attacked the town because of its sympathy for Iran during the Iran-Iraq war.
The situation has deteriorated since Maliki’s government, in a dispute with the Kurdistan Regional Government, slashed the Kurds’ budget six months ago, halting the payment of salaries to many workers.
“People here are graduating from high school, and they think they have no future,” the intelligence official said. In the Western world, depressed teenagers commit suicide, he added. “People here join ISIS — which is also basically suicide.”
The path to radicalism
“Z,” whose name is being withheld at the request of his family, would seem an unlikely recruit for ISIS, which has enforced a brutal interpretation of Islamic law, executing hundreds of Shiites and others in its bid to establish an Islamic caliphate that spans Iraq and Syria.
“He had a motorbike. He had a girlfriend. He had lots of friends,” Z’s brother-in-law said with a bitter laugh one recent night, as the family sat on the hard, thinly carpeted floor of their modest living room.
But Z’s family think he was enticed by the extremists’ slick social media campaign and by local recruiters.
Photos on Z’s sister’s cellphone show a grinning 16-year-old boy with a fluffy black “faux-hawk,” the latest hairstyle craze.
His family said Z was not especially religious and was never particularly interested in going to the mosque. But in mid-May, he suddenly left Halabja with his best friend to join ISIS in Syria, his relatives said. “In one week, he changed completely,” his brother-in-law said.
After last week’s rapid ISIS advance into Iraq, Z is now with fellow militants in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the family said. In a few phone calls, he has told his family that he was “following the teachings of the Koran,” they said.
Two intelligence officials, as well as residents of Halabja, said Kurdish authorities have allowed young people like Z to leave the region, in part because they think it is safer without them.
“They want them out of here. They don’t want the bomb to explode in their hands,” said a second intelligence official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
In one recent instance, the bomb nearly did go off.
In late May, a young Kurdish man from Halabja who had recently returned from fighting with ISIS in Syria was apprehended by local security forces as he tried to enter a Shiite shrine in the Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah, carrying a backpack containing explosives, officials said.
Friends and relatives of a few other young men who have returned say the authorities have sought to put them through a lengthy reverse-“brainwashing” process to persuade them to abandon their radical beliefs. Then the men are heavily monitored.
“Those who come back are taken through a very intense process to ensure that they have left those thoughts behind,” said Fazil Basharati, a Halabja local and former member of parliament from the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
Relatives of fighters who are either with ISIS or have left the group and returned said that Kurdish security forces have ordered them not to speak about their family members’ ties to the group because it draws attention to the issue.
“They don’t let them talk about it,” said one 24-year-old man in Halabja, who grew up with the Kurdish member of ISIS who tried to blow up the shrine in Sulaymaniyah. The 24-year-old man, who did not want to give his name, said two of his other neighbors had joined the extremist group in Syria, only to be captured and returned by Turkish Kurds who are fighting with Syrian insurgents opposed to ISIS. The man said his cousin was also killed fighting in Syria four months ago.
Z’s brother-in-law recently implored the 16-year-old over the phone to return to his mother and sister. “I said, ‘What if someone tries to harass them?’ He told me: ‘We have plenty of ISIS people in Halabja to stop them.’ ”FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- As the New England Patriots warmed up for Wednesday's practice, coach Bill Belichick was engaged in a long conversation with a visitor. It was former Boston Celtics forward Dino Radja.
Croatian roots link Belichick and Radja.
"He's a great guy," Belichick said Thursday morning. "It was good to have him around."
Dino Redja, shown blocking out Horace Grant in 1995, probably would be good at blocking field goals at 6-foot-11. Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images
Was Belichick scouting the 6-foot-11 Radja for the field-goal-block team?
"Yeah, he'd be good, wouldn't he?" Belichick said lightly, before smiling when asked how his neck was feeling after looking up at Radja during the lengthy conversation Wednesday.
Radja was drafted by the Celtics in 1989, played overseas, and then played for the Celtics from 1993-97. A two-time Olympic silver medalist, he retired from basketball in 2003, became the president of his hometown team (KK Split of the A-1 Liga) and now holds a position with the Croatian Basketball Federation.President Donald Trump holds an example of what a new tax form may look like during a meeting on tax policy with Republican lawmakers in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017, in Washington, with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, right. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON (AP) — With fanfare and a White House kickoff, House Republicans unfurled a broad tax-overhaul plan Thursday that would touch virtually all Americans and the economy’s every corner, mingling sharply lower rates for corporations and reduced personal taxes for many with fewer deductions for home-buyers and families with steep medical bills.
The measure, which would be the most extensive rewrite of the nation’s tax code in three decades, is the product of a party that faces increasing pressure to produce a marquee legislative victory of some sort before next year’s elections. GOP leaders touted the plan as a sparkplug for the economy and a boon to the middle class and christened it the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
“We are working to give the American people a giant tax cut for Christmas,” President Donald Trump said in the Oval Office. The measure, he said, “will also be tax reform, and it will create jobs.”
It would also increase the national debt, a problem for some Republicans. And Democrats attacked the proposal as the GOP’s latest bonanza for the rich, with a phase-out of the inheritance tax and repeal of the alternative minimum tax on the highest earners — certain to help Trump and members of his family and Cabinet, among others.
“If you’re the wealthiest 1 percent, Republicans will give you the sun, the moon and the stars, all of that at the expense of the great middle class,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
And there was enough discontent among Republicans and business groups to leave the legislation’s fate uncertain in a journey through Congress that leaders hope will deposit a landmark bill on Trump’s desk by year’s end.
Underscoring problems ahead, some Republicans from high-tax Northeastern states expressed opposition to the measure’s elimination of the deduction for state and local income taxes. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah called the House measure “a great starting point” but said it would be “somewhat miraculous” if its corporate tax rate reduction to 20 percent — a major Trump goal — survived. His panel plans to produce its own tax package in the coming days.
The House Republicans’ plan, which took them months to craft in countless closed-door meetings, represents the first step in their effort to reverse what’s been a politically disastrous year in Congress. Their drive to obliterate President Barack Obama’s health care law crashed, and GOP lawmakers concede that if the tax measure collapses, their congressional majorities are at risk in next November’s elections.
The package’s tax reductions would outweigh its loophole closers by a massive $1.5 trillion over the coming decade. Many Republicans were willing to add that to the nation’s soaring debt as a price for claiming a resounding tax victory. But it was likely to pose a problem for others — one of several brushfires leaders will need to extinguish to get the measure through Congress.
Republicans must keep their plan’s shortfall from spilling over that $1.5 trillion line or the measure will lose its protection against Democratic Senate filibusters, bill-killing delays that take 60 votes to overcome. There are just 52 GOP senators and unanimous Democratic opposition is likely.
The bill would telescope today’s seven personal income tax brackets into just four: 12 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent and 39.6 percent.
— The 25 percent rate would start at $45,000 for individuals and $90,000 for married couples.
— The 35 percent rate would apply to family income exceeding $260,000 and individual income over $200,000, which means many upper-income families whose top rate is currently 33 percent would face higher taxes.
— The top rate threshold, now $418,400 for individuals and $470,700 for couples, would rise to $500,000 and $1 million.
The standard deduction — used by people who don’t itemize, around two-thirds of taxpayers — would nearly double to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for couples. That’s expected to encourage even more people to use the standard deduction with a simplified tax form Republicans say will be postcard-sized.
Many middle-income families would pay less, thanks to the bigger standard deduction and an increased child tax credit. Republicans said their plan would save $1,182 in taxes for a family of four earning $59,000, but features like phase-outs of some benefits suggest their taxes could grow in the future.
“The plan clearly chooses corporate CEOs and hedge fund managers over teachers and police officers,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J.
One trade-off for the plan’s reductions was its elimination of breaks that millions have long treasured. Gone would be deductions for people’s medical expenses — especially important for families facing nursing home bills or lacking insurance — and their ability to write off state and local income taxes. The mortgage interest deduction would be limited to the first $500,000 of the loan, down from the current $1 million ceiling.
Led by Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the authors retained the deductibility of up to $10,000 in local property taxes in a bid to line up votes from Republicans from the Northeast. The panel planned to begin votes on the proposal next Monday.
“It’s progress, but I want more,” said Rep. Leonard Lance, R-N.J., who represents one of his state’s wealthier, higher-cost districts and wants the entire property tax deduction restored.
On the business side, the House would drop the top rate for corporations from 35 percent to 20 percent. American companies operating abroad would pay a 10 percent tax on their overseas subsidiaries’ profits. Cash that those firms have amassed abroad but now return home would face a one-time 12 percent tax.
Also reduced to 25 percent would be the rate for many “pass-through” businesses, whose profits are taxed at the owners’ individual rate.
But some of those companies would face higher rates. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said that disparity was “just not acceptable,” and the National Federation of Independent Business said it opposed the bill because it “does not help most small businesses.”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce praised the measure but said “a lot of work remains to be done.” The group’s chief policy officer, Neil Bradley, said pass-throughs were one concern.
___
AP reporters Andrew Taylor, Zeke Miller and Kevin Freking in Washington and Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed.
___
This story has been corrected to say 52 GOP senators, not 50.City of Glass, Paul Auster’s meta-detective novel about a thriller writer who finds himself playing sleuth, will be staged in Manchester and London next year in a new hi-tech adaptation. It is the first theatre show originated by 59 Productions, whose projects have included the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, the V&A exhibition David Bowie Is and the sound-and-light spectacular Deep Time at this year’s Edinburgh international festival.
The book has been adapted by Duncan Macmillan, who says he first read it as a teenager and was “dazzled by its formal innovation and sheer weight of ideas. For such a short novella, it buzzes with thoughts about literature and authorship, about identity and time and death and faith, all within a mystery story that deconstructs itself as if it’s been corrupted by a virus.” City of Glass, published in 1985, became part of Auster’s New York Trilogy, hailed as a sophisticated take on the genres of both crime and city fiction. Auster himself appears as a character – believed by the narrator to have “behaved badly” throughout the novel – and it is stuffed with references to Cervantes and Edgar Allan Poe.
Although another version of City of Glass was performed off-Broadway earlier this year, in a show by Untitled Theater Company No 61, the American author’s novels have been seldom adapted for stage or screen. The look of 59 Productions’ version has been inspired by a graphic novel based on City of Glass, by David Mazzucchelli and Paul Karasik.
Leo Warner, the founding director of 59 Productions, says the company has become used to “combining projection with architecture in a series of increasingly visible public commissions, designed to communicate grand narratives to audiences, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands. Now we are bringing the same techniques and the same grand themes back inside the theatre, at a human scale, building a production in which text, performance, technology and design are developed and interwoven around a single, lonely human figure.”
Macmillan says that Warner’s vision for the production uses “technology that has, as far as I’m aware, never been used on stage before, and has meant that I can write stage directions that would otherwise be impossible to achieve. That’s really freeing as a writer. Many of my stage directions start with the word ‘impossibly’. And then Leo reads it and says, ‘Great!’”
City of Glass is at Home in Manchester from 4-18 March 2017 and then at the Lyric Hammersmith in London, from 20 April-13 May. An international tour will follow. Next year marks Auster’s 70th birthday and the publication of his novel 4 3 2 1.The drugs are licensed to treat certain types of cancer US scientists say they have successfully reversed the effects of Alzheimer's with experimental drugs. The drugs target and boost the function of a newly pinpointed gene involved in the brain's memory formation. In mice, the treatment helped restore long-term memory and improve learning for new tasks, Nature reports. The same drugs - HDAC inhibitors - are currently being tested to treat Huntington's disease and are on the market to treat some cancers. They reshape the DNA scaffolding that supports and controls the expression of genes in the brain. We need to do more research to investigate whether developing treatments that control this gene could benefit people with Alzheimer's
Rebecca Wood of the Alzheimer's Research Trust The Alzheimer's gene the drugs act upon, histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2), regulates the expression of a plethora of genes implicated in plasticity - the brain's ability to change in response to experience - and memory formation. This findings build on the team's 2007 breakthrough in which mice with symptoms of Alzheimer's disease regained long-term memories and the ability to learn. Lead researcher Professor Li-Huei Tsai explained: "It brings about long-lasting changes in how other genes are expressed, which is probably necessary to increase numbers of synapses and restructure neural circuits, thereby enhancing memory. "To our knowledge, HDAC inhibitors have not been used to treat Alzheimer's disease or dementia. "But now that we know that inhibiting HDAC2 has the potential to boost synaptic plasticity, synapse formation and memory formation. "In the next step, we will develop new HDAC2-selective inhibitors and test their function for human diseases associated with memory impairment to treat neurodegenerative diseases." Future hope HDAC inhibitor treatment for humans with Alzheimer's disease is still a decade or more away, she said. The chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, Rebecca Wood, said: "This is promising research which improves our understanding of memory loss in Alzheimer's. "We need to do more research to investigate whether developing treatments that control this gene could benefit people with Alzheimer's. "We desperately need to fund more research to head off a forecast doubling the UK population living with dementia." Julie Williams, an expert in the genetics of Alzheimer's for the trust, said scientists were on the brink of finding a number of candidate genes that increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's. "If we can find the triggers and causes then we can hopefully prevent them. That is the great ambition."
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionHappy birthday to Soichiro Honda, founder of Honda Motor Co.
Soichiro Honda was born on November 17, 1906, in Komyo Village (now Tenryu City), Iwata County, Shizuoka Prefecture, as the eldest son of Gihei Honda and his wife Mika. Gihei was a skilled and honest blacksmith and Mika an accomplished weaver. The family was poor but Soichiro’s upbringing was happy, even though his parents were insistent about the need for basic discipline. It was thanks to the thorough education he received from his father that Mr. Honda, despite his freewheeling, irrepressible personality, hated nothing more than inconveniencing others and was always punctual about keeping appointments. He also inherited from his father his inborn manual dexterity and his curiosity about machines.
After a while Gihei opened a bicycle shop. Bicycles were at last starting to become really popular in Japan and when people asked Gihei to repair their machines, he sensed a business opportunity. As well as working as a blacksmith he put his natural skills and willingness to learn to good effect, repairing second-hand bicycles and re-selling them at competitive prices. From this moment his business began to be seen as the best bicycle store in the neighborhood.
When he was about to leave higher elementary school, Soichiro Honda saw an advertisement for Tokyo Art Shokai, an automobile servicing company, in a magazine called Bicycle World (Ringyo no sekai). The ad itself was not for bicycles but for “Manufacture and Repair of Automobiles, Motorcycles and Gasoline Engines”. Even as a toddler Honda had been thrilled by the first car that was ever seen in his village and often used to say in later life that he could never forget the smell of oil it gave off. So it is easy to imagine that when young Honda saw the ad he immediately decided that he had to work at Art Shokai.
Judged by the number of ads it placed in automobile and bicycle magazines, Art Shokai must have been one of Tokyo’s top automobile repair workshops and there were probably any number of young men eager to become apprentices there. Even though the ad Soichiro Honda saw was in fact not a recruitment ad, he plucked up the courage to submit a letter asking to become an apprentice. There is no way of knowing exactly what he wrote, but in any event it was very fortunate that he received a positive reply.
Soichiro Honda left elementary school in April 1922 at the age of fifteen and joined Art Shokai as an apprentice in the Yushima area of Hongo, Tokyo. Employment in those days was a world apart from what we now expect. Juniors were given board, lodging and a little pocket money, but they received no real wages. Mr. Honda’s books and biographies include many stories about his time at the company but the important point is that his experiences there exercised an enormous influence on his later life.
Enthusiasm for hard work, a quick appreciation of the need to improvise, thinking for oneself, the ability to come up with a wealth of new ideas, a good feel for machines. The owner of Art Shokai, Yuzo Sakakibara, soon spotted the young man’s star qualities and began to take notice of him. Soichiro Honda, too, learned from his boss, not just how to do repairing work but how to deal with customers and the importance of taking pride in one’s technical ability. Sakakibara was the ideal teacher, both as engineer and as businessman. As well as understanding repair work he was also skilled in more complicated processes such as the manufacturing of pistons.
Whenever Honda was asked who he respected the most, he would always mention his old boss Yuzo Sakakibara. It is important to remember that Art Shokai’s repair work included motorcycles as well as automobiles. At that time ownership of automobiles and motorcycles was restricted to a limited social class and most automobiles were foreign-made. Compared to today, there were hosts of automobile manufacturing companies, large and small, all over the world and their output ranged from mass-produced models to high-quality vehicles with small production runs, sports cars and highly unusual collector’s items, all of which were imported to Japan.
All kinds of cars were brought to Art Shokai for repair, making it an ideal place for Honda to work and study, eager–even greedy–as he was in his pursuit of knowledge.The trial high-speed train D5001 prepares to depart for Qiqihar at the Harbin Railway Station in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, July 13, 2015. A high-speed railway between Harbin and Qiqihar in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, known for its high latitudes and biting cold winters, began a trial operation on Monday.
Reading:
zhōng guó zuì běi gāo tiě shì yùn xíng hā ěr bīn zhì qí qí hā ěr jǐn 80 fēn zhōng
中国最北高铁试运行 哈尔滨至齐齐哈尔仅80分钟
13 rì 5 shí 46 fēn ， yí liàng xuě bái de crh5 xíng dòng chē shǐ chū hā ěr bīn běi zhàn hòu jín jǐn 3 fēn zhōng ，
13日5时46分，一辆雪白的CRH5型动车驶出哈尔滨北站后仅仅3分钟，
shí sù jiù tí shēng zhì 240 duō gōng lǐ ， yùn xíng le 80 fēn zhōng hòu dǐ dá qí qí hā ěr nán zhàn ，
时速就提升至240多公里，运行了80分钟后抵达齐齐哈尔南站，
bǐ mù qián de huǒ chē yùn xíng shí jiān suō duǎn le yí bàn hái duō 。
比目前的火车运行时间缩短了一半还多。
zhè biāo zhì zhe zhōng guó zuì běi gāo tiě hā ěr bīn zhì qí qí hā ěr kè yùn zhuān xiàn kāi shǐ jìn xíng quán xiàn shì yùn xíng 。
这标志着中国最北高铁哈尔滨至齐齐哈尔客运专线开始进行全线试运行。About 10,000 pigeons released in a ceremony for China's National Day underwent unusual scrutiny, each having its feathers and anus checked for dangerous materials, state-run media has said, reflecting government concerns over possible attacks.
The symbols of peace were released at sunrise on Wednesday in Beijing's symbolic heart of Tiananmen Square in a ceremony for the October 1 holiday to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Beijing domestic security police officer, Guo Chunwei, was quoted in the Jinghua Times as saying workers checked the wings, legs and anus of each pigeon ahead of time to ensure they were "not carrying suspicious material".
The entire process was videotaped, and the birds were then loaded into sealed vehicles for the trip to Tiananmen Square, the newspaper said.
A similar report appeared in the Beijing News, and the People's Daily tweeted about it in English: "10,000 pigeons go through anal security check for suspicious objects Tue, ready to be released on National Day on Wed."
The reports - which did not say what the suspicious materials might be - drew amused and derisive responses from some Chinese readers, and many news sites, including the Beijing News website, later deleted the reports.
However, the Jinghua Times report and the People's Daily tweet were still visible as of midday on Wednesday.
Security worries
The increased security measures reflect heightened concern about violence following a string of attacks blamed on separatist rebels from the country's ethnic Uighur Muslim minority, as well as bus explosions and random slashing attacks attributed to disgruntled individuals.
Last October, three Uighurs in a vehicle rammed through crowds in front of Tiananmen Gate in central Beijing and set off explosives in an attack that killed themselves and three bystanders.
Beijing authorities are also sending police helicopters to monitor highway checkpoints, ring roads within the city, major intersections and areas with heavy traffic, including popular tourist spots such as the Great Wall and the Summer Palace, the Beijing News said.
The capital has also mobilised 850,000 citizen volunteers to help keep a lookout in the city of about 20 million people, the newspaper said.THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The two leaders of the Dutch Security and Justice Ministry quit Monday amid a scandal over a deal made 15 years ago in which a convicted drug trafficker was paid millions of guilders by prosecutors who were actually trying to strip him of his criminal profits.
Justice and Security Minister Ivo Opstelten and his junior minister, Fred Teeven, announced their resignations hours after the ministry announced it had uncovered the exact amount — 4.7 million guilders — paid 15 years ago to the drug trafficker identified as Cees H.
The deal was done in 2000 by Teeven who was, at the time, a public prosecutor.
Opstelten, a close confidante of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, told reporters in The Hague he quit because he earlier had told lawmakers that the amount was far lower.
Teeven then said he could not stay in his position after Opstelten quit, but he defended the controversial deal, saying "there was nothing wrong with it."
The resignations saved Rutte's government a potentially embarrassing parliamentary debate on the issue that had been scheduled for Tuesday. They also came just over a week before provincial elections that will help determine the makeup of the Dutch senate.I QLB O DM INRI M Q The Living Image of the Mark of the Beast 666
The Hand (I) - 10
holding the Heart (QLB) - 132
with the Eye (O)- 70
dripping blood (DM) - 44
on the Cross (INRI) - 270
mingled with water (M) - 40
reflected in the subconcious / moon (Q) - 100
Yod - Quoph Lamed Beth - Ayin - Daleth Mem - Yod Nun Resh Yod - Mem- Quoph - 7 words 13 letters
single value 10 100 30 2 70 4 40 10 50 200 10 40 100 = 666 E(1-36) 6 squared
Spelt in full 20 186 74 412 130 434 90 20 106 510 20 90 186 = 2278 E(1-67) 67 x 34
spelt double 466 283 598 838 256 914 200 466 224 890 466 200 283 = 6084 78 squared, Aiwass
36 x 169, Therion
156 x 39, Babalon
468 x 13, Ra - Hoor - Khuit
the multiples contain the value of each name on the heirophantic staffA 100-year-old man Sunday became the first centenarian to complete a marathon when he finished the 26.2-mile event in Toronto.
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Fauja Singh, a British citizen who was born in India, completed the run just before 6 p.m. local time in eight hours, 11 minutes and 5.9 seconds, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
It was Singh’s eighth marathon. He set a record in the 90-plus age category in 2003 — also in the Toronto marathon — finishing in five hours, 40 minutes and one second.
However, this year’s event was marred by the death of a 27-year-old man who collapsed just 320 yards from the finish line.
The man was taken from the course about 11:15 a.m. and transported to a hospital, where he later died.
Police did not confirm if the man was competing in the marathon, half-marathon or 5-kilometer run being held Sunday, but the Canadian Press reported that it appeared he suffered a heart attack while running the half-marathon.
About 22,000 people participated in the three races, and the marathon was won by Kenneth Mungara of Kenya in a time of 2:09:51.
Meanwhile, Singh, who was the last runner to complete the course, said he was overjoyed at his achievement.
"Beating his original prediction, he’s overjoyed," his coach and translator Harmander Singh said.
"Earlier, just before we came around the [final] corner, he said, ‘Achieving this will be like getting married again.’
"He’s absolutely overjoyed, he’s achieved his lifelong wish."
The coach said his runner had been aiming for a time of about nine hours.
While in Toronto, Fauja Singh on Thursday broke world records for runners older than 100 in eight different distances ranging from 100 meters to 5,000 meters.
Singh, who speaks only Punjabi, was born on a farm in India in April 1911 and is 5-feet-8 and weighs just 115 pounds.
He has said previously that part of his secret is that he eats a light vegetarian diet of mainly tea, toast and curry.
Singh took up running about 20 years ago after losing his wife and child in tragic circumstances.KOLKATA/CHITTARANJAN: A Gorkha Rifles jawan travelling on a train did not hesitate to take on a gang of 30 armed dacoits singlehandedly, armed with just a khukri, when he saw them looting his fellow passengers. A GRP escort team posted on the train reportedly did nothing to stop the robbers on Maurya Express late on Thursday.Nearly 30 armed dacoits looted cash and valuables worth `10 lakh from passengers of Maurya Express between Kulti and Chittaranjan stations |
Applying that benchmark to the new Trudeau cabinet, women hold two of five positions in the top five portfolios, and two of five positions thereafter in the other three quadrants. A few cabinet traditions were not overturned on Wednesday: Finance and Agriculture remain posts historically held only by men. But we did see Justice, a portfolio held by only two women (Kim Campbell and Anne McLellan) since Confederation, given to Jody Wilson-Raybould, a high-profile First Nations leader and former Crown prosecutor respected for her ability to build consensus.
Today’s unveiling also suggests a refocusing of priorities. If semantics signal change, a seismic shift was registered in the newly named Environment and Climate Change portfolio, which enshrines the reality of global warming. Choosing not to repeat history and go with Stéphane Dion (now minister of foreign affairs), Trudeau picked rookie Ottawa Centre MP Catherine McKenna, a lawyer with a graduate degree from the London School of Economics and an impressive background that includes experience in international trade and social justice initiatives. The cabinet also now boasts a new Science portfolio held by Kirsty Duncan (this in addition to Innovation, Science and Economic Development, held by Navdeep Bains). Duncan, who represents Etobicoke North, holds a Ph.D. in geography, sat on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organization that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, and has been an outspoken critic of the degradation of scientific research in Canada with government libraries shuttered and government scientists muzzled.
A scientist assigned Science and a former Crown attorney assigned Justice are part of a larger theme of a twinning of the personal with the political. The Health portfolio, which has diminished in clout over the past decade (Maclean’s ranked it 14th), was given to Jane Philpott, MP for Markham–Stouffville, the first physician to oversee the ministry since it was renamed in 1996. Philpott’s appointment suggests a revivification of the portfolio. The former doctor gets rave reviews from former colleagues who praise her ability to mobilize—and achieve results. She founded “Give a Day” for AIDS which convinced doctors to donate a day of wages and is also recognized for her focus on both global and community health initiatives. And Carla Qualtrough, a lawyer known for her work in human rights and inequity among marginalized groups, became the first legally blind cabinet minister, presiding over Sports and Persons with Disabilities.
Yet Trudeau’s 10 cabinet committees, made up of smaller groups of ministers and understood to be where the true power lies, didn’t quite achieve gender parity. The 10-member “Agenda and Results” committee, the government’s management board chaired by the Prime Minister, includes three women. Women chair three committees and serve as vice-chair of six. In an interesting twist, Stéphane Dion chairs the environment, climate change and energy committee, while Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna sits as a member. Then again, Dion has years of experience to impart and McKenna is on a steep learning curve.
McKenna is one of several female cabinet appointees about to be thrust into the spotlight—McKenna at the Paris climate conference this month; Carolyn Bennett, new minister of Indigenous and northern affairs, must act on the long-ignored missing and murdered Indigenous women file. And Chrystia Freeland, the former high-profile financial journalist recruited by Trudeau’s team in 2013, now minister of international trade, will be at the forefront of co-ordinating Canada’s response to the new Trans-Pacific Partnership, a negotiation that promises to be contentious.
Today, however, on such a sunny, emotion-filled day in Ottawa, such future political quagmires are abstractions. Today the new Prime Minister of Canada actually scrummed with media, some who still didn’t seem to understand the concept of equal female representation. “Why is having a gender-balanced cabinet important to you?” one asked. “Because it’s 2015,” Trudeau answered, before shrugging dismissively. He didn’t have to say “You imbecile.” It was implied.
The Trudeau cabinet
Our gallery introduces you to the new government’s ministry.Standard combat boots of Bundeswehr
Standard combat boots of Bundeswehr
Sole of BW combat boots
Combat boots are military boots designed to be worn by soldiers during combat or combat training, as opposed to during parades and other ceremonial duties. Modern combat boots are designed to provide a combination of grip, ankle stability, and foot protection suitable for a rugged environment. They are traditionally made of hardened and sometimes waterproofed leather. Today, many combat boots incorporate technologies originating in civilian hiking boots, such as Gore-Tex nylon side panels, which improve ventilation and comfort. They are also often specialized for certain climates and conditions, such as jungle boots, desert boots, and cold weather boots as well as specific uses, such as tanker boots and jump boots.[1][2][3]
History [ edit ]
Pair of hobnailed boots
Early [ edit ]
Well documented were those of soldiers of the Roman Empire.[4] Roman soldiers wore hobnail boots, called caligae. By the late 1st century the army began to transition into an enclosed boot called calcei. They offered more protection and warmth than the caligae. They quickly became a staple in both Roman military and civilian dress.[5]
England and United Kingdom [ edit ]
During the English Civil War, each soldier of the New Model Army was issued three shoes or ankle boots. After every march, the soldier would change them around to ensure they received even wear. Following the Restoration, shoes and uniforms followed the civilian pattern: shoes with buckles were used by most armies from 1660 until around 1800. Hessian boots were used by cavalry from the 18th century until World War I.
Late in the Napoleonic Wars, the British army began issuing ankle boots that replaced the buckle shoes. These types of boots remained in use throughout the 19th century and were used in conflicts including the Crimean War (1853-1856), First Zulu War (1879), and First Boer War (1880-1881).
These in turn were replaced by ammunition boots, which were used in a variety of similar design patterns from the late 1880s until the late 1960s. The "George Boots" worn with the Officers' dress uniform and mess dress are similar, but they lack the leather counter (heel cap), the toe case (toe-cap) and omit the hobnails, and the steel heel and toe plates.
United States [ edit ]
Infantry regiments of the US military were equipped with calf-high boots in the War of 1812. From the 1820s until before the American Civil War soldiers were issued ankle-high boots, which were made on straight lasts. There was no "left" or "right" boot; instead, they shaped themselves to the wearer's feet over time. As a result, these boots were very uncomfortable until broken in and often resulted in blisters. They were replaced in 1858 with an improved version generally known as Jeff Davis boots after Jefferson Davis, the Secretary of War who re-equipped the army in the 1850s. These were used until the 1880s.
20th Century - present [ edit ]
Australia [ edit ]
The Australian Terra Combat Boot.
Since 2000, the Australian Defence Forces, primarily uses the Redback Terra Combat Boot as a replacement for the Vietnam War-era General Purpose combat boots. It was given a limited number of tests in 1999, and was later distributed in 2000. Despite the boot's general aptitude for the tasks which the ADF had first put it in place for, it still had major flaws. 90% of all negative feedback from soldiers was about its inappropriate sizing, having only 43 different sizes. Many also claimed that its sole would rot under worst-case tropical circumstances. Various military personnel have also used Rossi boots.[6]
In mid 2013 a boot trial was undertaken by the ADF to find a replacement for the issued Redback Combat Boot. Boots trialled included updated versions of the Redback Boot as well as various off the shelf boots. At the conclusion of the trial the Danner TFX 8 was selected as the new ADF combat boots, they were comfortable in hot weather provided good support. However these were found to fail prematurely and were never issued on a large scale.
As a result, Redback were tasked with once again providing a range of combat boots to the ADF including a General Purpose boot, a Jungle Style boot and a Flame Resistant boot. These boots are being issued on a very limited basis and are currently undergoing limited testing. However early reports are not favourable with complaints of failing eyelets and lack of water resistance. Danners are still being retained as a 'Desert' boot or for those who don't fit the current boot.
As of December 2017 the Redback Terra style combat boot is still the standard issue combat boot.
Argentina [ edit ]
In the early 20th century, Argentine soldiers wore hobnail boots with leather gaiters as well as jackboots. The combat boots worn during the Falklands War came with durable stitched rubber soles. These boots continue to be worn today in addition to the later pattern with "EA" stamped on the leg.
Belgium [ edit ]
Belgian combat boots are marked by the abbreviation "ABL" (Armée Belge / Belgisch Leger), i.e. "Belgian armed forces" in French and Dutch languages. The soles of Belgian combat boots have different markings, according to the soles manufacturers: Rugak, Rubex and Solidor (models of 1970-s). Leather uppers have markings of "GESKA" ("Geska" NV) or "ARWY NV". Belgian Combats of the years 1970-90s come with stitched rubber soles.[7] Later pattern made by Urban Body Protection International and come with British type "tyre tread" soles.
France [ edit ]
Brand new Mle 1965 combat boots made of shined black leather with direct molded soles.
Combat boots of the French army are nicknamed "rangers" because of their similarity to the M 43 American model. Since the end of World War 2, three models have been manufactured. The first model was based on the 1952 combat ankle-boots on which a leather high-top cuff with two buckles were added. It was made of sturdy but very stiff brown colored cowhide leather. It was called "brodequin à jambière attenante Mle 1952" and was widely distributed from 1956 on, in priority to airborne troops engaged in Algeria. In 1961, a simplified version was introduced, the boot and the leather cuff being made in one piece. In 1965 a new version of the 1961 model was introduced made of shined black grained leather more flexible than the original one. Their soles were of a direct molded type. In 1986 a transitory model with laces and enhanced waterproofing was experimented with under the designation "combat boots model F 2" but was not adopted. The first two models had to be blackened with colored grease and shoe polish. They were issued to French soldiers; including Foreign legionnaires, until the beginning of the 1990s, and then were kept in store in case of conflict. A lot of them have been released on the market after the gendarmerie dropped the territorial defense mission at the beginning of the 21st Century. A winter model, with laces and a Gore-Tex lining was introduced in 1998. The third model and a winter model are still in service in the French army but are progressively being replaced in operation by more modern Meindl type boots.
By the end of the 2000s, following the FÉLIN equipment program, the venerable Mle 1965 pattern was replaced by a Gore-Tex boot designed by Meindl (based on Meindl "Army Pro" tactical boot and itself derived from "Island" civilian boots) as the main army boot. The boot is known as "Botte Félin" (Felin boot) and, while there are several contractor beyond Meindl for the actual production of the design including historical French boot provider "Argueyrolles", the design is colloquially known as "the Meindl".[8] Progressive replacement of Mle 65 was planned starting with combat units sent on missions abroad.
India [ edit ]
The leather combat boots used by the Indian Army "remained unchanged in design for 130 years," other than the addition of a directly moulded sole.[9][10][11] Combat boots were manufactured exclusively by the India's Ordnance Factories Board. In 2017, the Ministry of Defence authorized procurement of combat boots from private companies.[9] The Defence Research and Development Organisation is also developing boots which will enable the tracking of soldiers in snowy locations.[12]
Norway [ edit ]
Norwegian M77 Boots by Alfa
The current combat boot used by the Norwegian armed forces is the M77. It was introduced in 1977 and is produced by Alfa Skofabrikk AS.[13] The M77 boot took ten years to develop and strict requirements were set for weight, durability, water resistance, comfort, as well as ease of maintenance and good heat resistance to facilitate quicker drying.[14] The Norwegian army frequently test boots from other manufacturers, however they have not made any plans to change boots for their soldiers.[14] The M77 boot has notches along the sole and in the heel made for the NATO issue skis used by the Norwegian Armed Forces. The bindings for these skis fit the M77 boots as well as the thick waterproof outer shoes they can be put in. The boots can be used for skis as well as snowshoes.
Sweden [ edit ]
Swedish army boots made by Tretorn. These are NOS from 1968. Over time (and with the use of shoe polish) they turn black.
The military started using boots in 1779.[15] The current model is m/90 that is designed to be both comfortable and light as well as giving ankle support. They are part of the m/90 uniform system.
South Africa [ edit ]
The South African National Defense Force are issued brown combat boots with pimple print leather and stitched rubber soles. Paratroopers wear the same boots but tie them up in a way to increase ankle support.[citation needed]
Singapore [ edit ]
Singapore Armed Forces Goretex boots
The Singapore Armed Forces servicemen are currently issued the Frontier black combat boots with a "water outlet" that allows water to leak out of the boot should water ever enter the boots. These have been in use since 2012.
However, the Singapore Army "Frontier" boots has received criticism from the Singapore Army reserve conscripts who were previously issued with the Gore-Tex boot.
Unlike the predecessor Gore-Tex boots, which were neatly padded and waterproof, the Frontier designers removed the padding, added an ankle support strip, and added two "water outlets", making the boot very uncomfortable.
With the change, the waterproof feature was also gone, resulting in criticism from the reserve conscripts who were previously issued with the Gore-Tex boots which were waterproof. However, it allowed the water to drain out of the boot after a river-crossing. Also, the boot become more ventilated (and "cooling") once the padding was removed.
Durability was also an issue in both the 2nd Generation Gore-Tex (predecessor) and also some batches of the Frontiers. At times, the out-sole of the boot will come apart from the shell of the boot since the sole of the boot is only glued to the shell of the boot, not stitched. Some of the servicemen would also find their Frontier boots with its stitching coming apart after some weeks of usage.
The Republic of Singapore Air Force servicemen are currently issued a modified version of the high-cut Frontier boots. The RSAF boots has padded sides, and a different out-sole, side-zip, a and composite toe fitted.
The Republic of Singapore Navy servicemen are issued the modified version of the RSAF's boots. The modifications include the two water outlets (similar to the Singapore Army's standard issued boots), and a reduction in height from a high-cut boot to a mid-cut.
Spain [ edit ]
Before 1979, the Spanish army had issued triple-buckled boots, with full lace-up boots becoming common from 1984 to 1986. During the 1980s Spain changed boot suppliers and had many variations of design including Vibram or Panamá sole, buckles or laces, and eyelets or speed lace. There were three common models:
Regular - The general-issue boot used for instruction and campaign, it had a medium sole thickness and a few cleats. Smooth-soled versions fell into disuse over time, leaving only the instruction and campaign model.
Walking - A lighter-constructed version of the regular boot with no cleats. It had a distinctive peculiarity as a boot to wear comfortably in the street, on flat ground, and was commonly known as vulgarmente (crude or vulgar) for its thin soles.
(crude or vulgar) for its thin soles. Paratrooper - A boot exclusive to paratrooper units. It lacked the issue triple buckles (due to the hazard of hooking the parachute lines), and was slightly higher with extra shin-to-foot support and reinforced toe and heel.
This was the general approach in the late 1970s and early 1980s. During this period the manufacturer, Segarra, had various major problems which prevented regular deliveries on their supply contract with the Ministry of Defence. This eventually led to Segarra's closure, with Imipiel chosen as an alternative provider.
Imipiel-manufactured boots were copies of the Segarra models but proved to be inferior, with poorly-attached soles that opened and peeled-off with relative ease, greatly shortening their useful lifetime. In an attempt to overcome the debonding problem, Imipiel changed the outsole, removing the cleats, and incorporated "panamá" type soles.
The Ministry initiated parallel studies for the final adoption of a new model boot, accepting new concepts on the original boot of instruction and campaign and benefits of the paratrooper-styled boot. There have been several manufacturers of these boots, including Iturri and Vidal.[16]
United Kingdom [ edit ]
In late World War I, the standard Ammunition boots were replaced from 1917 to 1918 with the high-lacing calf-length Field Service Boots for service in the trenches to combat trench foot.
The British Army introduced the DMS (Direct Moulded Sole) ankle boot in 1958.[citation needed] This had a moulded plastic sole and was externally similar to the World War Two Ammo Boot. However, as the leather was of shoddy quality at best, the boots leaked and could not be made satisfactorily water-resistant. The low sideless tongue also allowed water to get in over the top of the foot. Once water had got into the boot, it would evaporate through the top of the boot but not through the plastic sole, thereby keeping the foot wet and accelerating trench-foot. Although mesh insoles were issued to combat this, they were themselves fragile and could lead to 'burning' of the sole of the foot,[citation needed] with the result that most soldiers used commercially available sports-shoe insoles instead. This type of boot continued in service until the mid-1980s, after its unsatisfactory characteristics became a matter of public concern owing to the severe cases[citation needed] of trench-foot incurred during the Falklands War. The DMS boot was worn with anklets or wind-around puttees.
The immediate successor of the DMS boot was the "Boot, Combat High" - or as the soldiers themselves described it, the Boot Cardboard Horrible. Basically little more than a toecapless DMS boot extended up to mid-calf length, it was scarcely better than its predecessor. Theoretically waterproofed, it was therefore sweaty and unpleasant, and could cause acute tendinitis. A MkII version was introduced to solve this, but found little favour. Its only real advantage was that it was not supposed to be 'bulled' to a mirror shine.
The Combat Assault Boots (CAB) were current issue until 2012, and were used primarily for combat training and general service although privately purchased boots were often deemed acceptable as long as they are made of black leather.[citation needed] The Foot Guards still use modified ammunition boots. These boots, being primarily made of leather, can be brought to a high shine for the ceremonial purpose, although boots used as every-day military footwear tend to be left comparatively dull, but clean.
Various levels of shine can be achieved with CAB. However, when on exercise (in the field) or on operations, soldiers are only required to shine their boots to combat high.[citation needed]
Jungle boots supplied by various manufactures are also commonly worn in barracks due to the ability to carry out loaded marches faster and for longer.[citation needed]
From 2012 Armed Forces personnel will have a newly designed range of brown combat boots to replace the black and desert combat footwear they currently wear. Personnel will have the choice of five different boots depending on where they are based and what role they are in.
Desert Combat – worn by dismounted troops conducting medium to high levels of activity in desert type environments with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius.
Desert Patrol – worn by drivers/armoured troops conducting lower levels of activity in desert type environments exceeding 40 degrees Celsius.
Temperate Combat – worn by dismounted troops for medium to high levels of activity in temperate (European) climates.
Patrol – worn by mounted troops (drivers/armoured troops) taking part in lower levels of activity in temperate (European) climates.
Cold Wet Weather – worn by dismounted troops for medium to high levels of activity in temperatures down to - 20 degrees Celsius.
Each of the five boot types comes in two different styles, so personnel can wear whichever one is more comfortable for them. The new brown boots, which have been developed to match the MTP uniform worn by Service personnel, will be made in two different fittings designed for the first time to take account of the different shapes of men and women's feet. The current black boots will carry on to be worn with most non-camouflage uniforms as well as units on parade in full dress uniform, such as regiments performing ceremonial duties in central London.[17]
As of 2018, the five categories previously issued, have been changed to simplify the choices available. The Italian manufacturer AKU now supply their Pilgrim model as an option for a high liability boot alongside Altberg.[18]
United States [ edit ]
The 1917 Trench Boot was an adaptation of the boots American manufacturers were selling to the French and Belgian armies at the beginning of World War I. In American service, it replaced the Russet Marching Shoe. The boot was made of tanned cowhide with a half middle sole covered by a full sole. Iron plates were fixed to the heel. It was a great improvement, however it lacked waterproofing. It soon evolved into the 1918 Trench Boot, also called the Pershing Boot after General John Pershing, who oversaw its creation. The boot used heavier leather in its construction, and had several minor changes from the 1917 Boot.
M-1943 Combat Service Boots.
The first true modern combat boots in the US Army, officially titled "Boots, Combat Service", were introduced in conjunction with the M-1943 Uniform Ensemble during World War II.[19][20] They were modified service shoes, with an extended, rough-out or, more commonly, a smooth leather high-top cuff added.[19] The cuff was closed using two buckles, allowing the boots to replace the existing service shoes and leggings worn by most soldiers with a more convenient and practical solution.[19] The boots, and the service shoes they were made from, had a one piece sole and heel, made from molded synthetic or reclaimed rubber.[19][20][21] These "double buckle" boots were worn through the Korean War as a substitute for the Boots, Russet, Leather Lace Up introduced in 1948. The first type of Combat Boots, or Combat Tropical boots were based on the "buckle boot" design and worn during the early parts of the Vietnam War.[22]
Boots similar to the older IDF combat boots
U.S. Army soldiers are issued their boots
In 1957, the US Army switched to shined black combat boots, although the transition to black boots was not completed until late in the Vietnam War, which also saw the introduction of the jungle boot.[3][22][23] Both of these boots had a direct molded sole.[24] The jungle boot had a black leather lower and an olive drab nylon upper.[25] Black boots continued to be worn following Vietnam, with the M81 BDU, although non-shine boots were considered by the Army.[3][26][27][28] As the BDU was replaced with the MCCUU, Army Combat Uniform, and Airman Battle Uniform the services transitioned to more practical, non-shine footwear.[3][29] The only current military service mandating shined black combat boots are the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps, the Auxiliary Cadet Detachment of the Naval forces, and the Civil Air Patrol, the Auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, in conjunction with the BDU utility uniform.[30]
As the United States Marine Corps transitioned from its utility uniform to the MCCUU, they discarded shined black combat boots, and switched to more functional tan rough-out (non-shine) combat boots, with either hot weather or temperate weather versions. The standard-issue boot is the Bates Waterproof USMC combat boot. Commercial versions of this boot are authorized without limitation other than they must be at least 8 inches in height and bear the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor on the outer heel of each boot. Beginning on October 1, 2016, Marine Corps personnel were authorized to wear various Marine Corps Combat Boot models from Danner, Belleville, McRae and Bates, and Rugged all-terrain boots from Danner.[31]
The United States Army followed suit in 2002 with the introduction of the Army Combat Uniform, which also switched to tan rough-out combat boots, called the Army Combat Boot, and cotton socks.[1][3] Commercial versions of this boot are authorized without limitation other than they must be at least 8 inches in height and are no longer authorized to have a'shoe-like' appearance.[32] Two versions exist, a 2.5 lb temperate weather boot, and a 2 lb hot weather (desert) boot.[1] Current manufacturers are Altama, Bates, Belleville Boot, McRae, Rocky, Warson Brands/Converse and Wellco.[1]
The US Air Force uses a sage green suede combat boot with its Airman Battle Uniform, although a tan version was authorized until 2011, when the green boot became mandatory.[33]
Fashion [ edit ]
Combat boots worn as fashion apparel.
Combat boots are also popular as fashion clothing in the goth, punk, grunge, heavy metal, industrial, skinhead, and BDSM subcultures, and as work boots; however, they are becoming more and more mainstream.[34] Beyond fashion as such, many individuals choose to wear combat boots simply due to durability, comfort and other utilities, as the boots are specifically designed to be comfortable to wear in a variety of changing conditions for long durations without significant long-term wear. Combat boots have a longer lifespan than fashion boots, which can give them a vintage feel, even after recrafting. For these and other reasons, they can be purchased at military surplus stores.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Media related to Combat boots at Wikimedia CommonsWhen was the last time the United Nations Security Council met to condemn an Arab government for its mistreatment of Palestinians?
How come groups and individuals on university campuses in the US and Canada that call themselves "pro-Palestinian" remain silent when Jordan revokes the citizenship of thousands of Palestinians?
The plight of Palestinians living in Arab countries in general, and Lebanon in particular, is one that is often ignored by the mainstream media in West.
How come they turn a blind eye to the fact that Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and many more Arab countries continue to impose severe travel restrictions on Palestinians?
And where do these groups and individuals stand regarding the current debate in Lebanon about whether to grant Palestinians long-denied basic rights, including employment, social security and medical care?
Or have they not heard about this debate at all? Probably not, since the case has failed to draw the attention of most Middle East correspondents and commentators.
A news story on the Palestinians that does not include an anti-Israel angle rarely makes it to the front pages of Western newspapers.
The demolition of an Arab-owned illegal building in Jerusalem is, for most of these correspondents, much more important than the fact that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Lebanon continue to suffer from a series of humiliating restrictions.
Not only are Palestinians living in Lebanon denied the right to own property, but they also do not qualify for health care, and are banned by law from working in a large number of jobs.
Can someone imagine what would be the reaction in the international community if Israel tomorrow passed a law that prohibits its Arab citizens from working as taxi drivers, journalists, physicians, cooks, waiters, engineers and lawyers? Or if the Israeli Ministry of Education issued a directive prohibiting Arab children from enrolling in universities and schools?
But who said that the Lebanese authorities have not done anything to "improve" the situation? In fact, the Palestinians living in that country should be grateful to the Lebanese government.
Until 2005, the law prohibited Palestinians from working in 72 professions. Now the list of jobs has been reduced to 50.
Still, Palestinians are not allowed to work as physicians, journalists, pharmacists or lawyers in Lebanon.
Ironically, it is much easier for a Palestinian to acquire American and Canadian citizenship than a passport of an Arab country. In the past, Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were even entitled to Israeli citizenship if they married an Israeli citizen, or were reunited with their families inside the country.
Lebanese politicians are now debating new legislation that would grant "civil rights" to Palestinians for the first time in 62 years. The new bill includes the right to own property, social security payments and medical care.
Many Lebanese are said to be opposed to the legislation out of fear that it would pave the way for the integration of Palestinians into their society and would constitute a burden to the economy.
The heated debate has prompted parliament to postpone a vote on the bill until next month.
Nadim Khoury, director of Human Rights Watch in Beirut, said, "Lebanon has marginalized Palestinian refugees for too long and the parliament should seize this opportunity to turn the page and end discrimination against Palestinians."
Rami Khouri, a prominent Lebanese journalist, wrote in The Daily Star that "all Arab countries mistreat millions of Arab, Asian and African foreign guest workers, who often are treated little better than chattel or indentured laborers…The mistreatment, abysmal living conditions and limited work, social security and property rights of the Palestinians [in Lebanon] are a lingering moral black mark."
Foreign journalists often justify their failure to report on the suffering of Palestinians in the Arab world by citing "security concerns" and difficulty in obtaining an entry visa into an Arab country.
But these are weak and unacceptable excuses given the fact that most of them could still write about these issues from their safe offices and homes in New York, London and Paris. Isn't that what most of them are anyway doing when they are write about the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip?Kluber named AL Player of the Week
Cleveland Indians Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 26, 2017
Indians ace Corey Kluber was named AL Player of the Week after going 1–0 with a 0.00 ERA across 16.0 innings with just two walks and 24 strikeouts in two starts last week. He worked his fifth career complete-game shutout last Monday at Baltimore, holding the Orioles to just three hits with no walks and 11 strikeouts in Cleveland’s 12–0 win. A few days later, the Tribe’s ace struck out season-high 13 batters Saturday against Minnesota, holding the Twins to two unearned runs and three hits across seven innings.
Since returning from the Disabled List on June 1, he has gone an undefeated 3–0 with a 1.29 ERA while holding opponents to a.157 average with 52 strikeouts. Kluber has struck out 10 or more batters in three straight games, which ties the longest streak of his career and is one game shy of tying Bob Feller for the longest streak in Indians history.
This marks his third career Player of the Week award with the last coming in September of his 2014 Cy Young Award season.Reptiles >> Squamata >> Viperidae >> Copperhead
The American Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix)
© 2019, Brandon Cornett | All rights reserved
The copperhead is a venomous pit viper found in the United States. The scientific name of this species is Agkistrodon contortrix. There are five supspecies of copperheads. This snake has excellent camouflage that allows it to hide among the leaves and dirt of the forest floor. While it is a venomous snake, the copperhead's bite is rarely fatal.
This is a venomous species. Do not attempt to handle.
Geographic range: This snake is widespread across the southern and southeastern parts of the United States. Interestingly, they are not found in the western half of the United States. The copperhead can be found along the Gulf Coast, across northern Florida, and up the eastern seaboard all the way to the southern portion of New York. Additionally, it occurs in most other states that are (A) east of the continental divide and (B) south of the Great Lakes.
Occurrence by state: Copperheads have been found in the following states, which are listed alphabetically: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Texas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
Clarification: American vs. Australian Copperhead
The term "copperhead" can refer to different snakes on two separate continents. There is both an American and an Australian copperhead. Aside from their names, and the fact that they are both venomous, these snakes have little in common. They look very different and occur in different families.
The American copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix) is part of the Viperidae family of snakes, commonly known as vipers. This family includes rattlesnakes, moccasins, copperheads, and pitless vipers such as the Russell's viper. All snakes within this family are venomous.
The Australian copperhead (Austrelaps) is a member of the Elapidae family, which also includes cobras, mambas and kraits. All snakes within this family are venomous.
Most of this article pertains to the American species / subspecies. There is a special section at the end of this article dedicated to the Australian copperhead.
Scientific Classification of the American Copperhead
Order - Squamata
Family - Viperidae
Genus - Agkistrodon
Species - Agkistrodon contortrix
There are currently five recognized subspecies within this species: (1) A. c. contortrix, the southern copperhead; (2) A. c. laticinctus, the broad-banded or Texas copperhead; (3) A. c. mokasen, the northern copperhead; (4) A. c. phaeogaster, the Osage copperhead; and (5) A. c. pictigaster, the Trans-Pecos copperhead.
All of the subspecies are similar in appearance. They all have cross-bands that run the length of their bodies. In addition, they all have the broad, wedge-shaped head that is a hallmark of this species. They all have heat-sensing pits located on both sides of the head. But the coloration varies from one subspecies to the next. The coloration can also vary from one specimen to the next, within the same subspecies.
Physical Description
The copperhead is a fairly short but thick-bodied snake. Adults can grow to a length of 2 - 3 feet (61 - 91 cm). Some may grow longer, but such specimens are rare. The copperhead has a stout body that is common to an ambush hunter. The head is wide and shaped like a wedge, or a rounded triangle. Copperheads have vertical pupils and a slightly upturned snout. The head could be described as angular or chunky. The head tapers quickly into a narrow neck, which enhances the wedge-shaped appearance.
The snake's body is widest in the middle and tapers toward the tail. The copperhead has broad bands of a different color from the base color. Band coloration can vary among the different subspecies, and also among different populations within the same subspecies. The bands can be tan, brown, orange or grey. The base color is usually a paler tan or pinkish-tan. We have included several pictures of copperheads in this article to complement this description.
Pictures of Copperhead Snakes
A picture is worth a thousand words. In that spirit, we have rounded up some pictures of copperheads that serve to reinforce the information provided in this article.
Here's a copperhead picture that showcases the excellent camouflage of these snakes. Notice how it blends in with the leaves and soil of the forest floor. This picture makes me wonder how many copperheads I've walked past over the years, without even realizing it. The camouflage serves two purposes. It helps the snake get within striking distance of unsuspecting prey. It also helps it avoid becoming a meal for some other animal, such as a hawk, coyote or kingsnake.
Here's another picture that shows the tremendous blending characteristics of the copperhead.
This copperhead picture gives you a close look at one of the distinguishing features mentioned earlier, the heat-sensing pit. In this photo, you can clearly see the pit located just forward and slightly below the snake's eye. Copperheads have one pit on both sides of their head. They use these to detect their warm-blooded prey, even in total darkness.
Picture of a southern copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix contortrix). This photo was taken in the Francis Marion National Forest in South Carolina.
Hunting and Eating: A Classic Ambush Predator
Some snakes are active hunters that seek out, and even chase down, their prey. Consider, for example, the green mamba of Africa (Dendroaspis angusticeps), a snake that glides among tree branches to capture birds and lizards. The copperhead is a different type of hunter. It is a classic ambush hunter.
Like many members of the V |
.
Both surveys have shown Cruz rising in Iowa while Carson has slipped.
Monmouth surveyed 425 likely GOP caucus-goers Dec. 3-6 and has a margin of error of 4.8 percentage points, while CNN conducted its survey of 552 likely Republican caucus-goers starting slightly earlier, from Nov. 28 through Dec. 6. It has a margin of error of 4 points.
CNN noted that sampling differences could explain the difference between the surveys.
Monmouth drew its sample from lists of registered voters who voted in at least one prior state primary, in a recent general election or registered to vote in the past year. CNN drew its sample by asking adults about their past participation patterns and intensions.
See the full Monmouth poll here and the CNN poll here.Tuesday night on MSNBC’s primary voting coverage, long-time Clinton adviser and Democratic operative James Carville said there is a possibility the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will not be the final nominee after the Republican National Convention this summer in Cleveland, OH.
Carville said, “I honestly believe this, I think there’s some chance that Trump will not be the nominee. I think what we see and hear is a real unraveling. For today the news that came in that people are not endorsing him and pulling back and everything else. I think this thing is going at a lot faster speed than we can imagine. The pressure on him will be enormous.”
When asked how it would be possible for Republicans to remove Trump, he continued, “I don’t know. I suspect they would have to nominate Cruz or somebody very conservative, because you would have to look at the delegates that are going to be in Cleveland. They can’t un-delegate. They can pass any rule. They have the power to pass rules.”
He added, “I just really, really think — from this is what we call in law school, a declaration against interest. I would like for him to be the nominee. I don’t know what will happen in Cleveland if he’s not. I honestly believe, and I’ve been texting and talking to a lot of political people back and forth, and they don’t think I’m crazy. They think there’s some chance it could happen like this.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNENThe right-back who became disenchanted at Newcastle United is a ready-made replacement for Bacary Sagna at Arsenal
Mathieu Debuchy’s imminent move to Arsenal from Newcastle United could well prove one of those rare transfer deals which improve both teams.
While Arsène Wenger is responding to Bacary Sagna’s defection to Manchester City with an ostensible upgrade at right-back Alan Pardew can use the sale of a decent but ultimately dispensable defender to rebalance dressing-room chemistry at St James’ Park.
Debuchy played 46 times for Newcastle after joining from Lille for £5.5m 18 months ago. Roughly half of those performances were disappointing and the other 50% generally impressive, sometimes truly outstanding. Happily for Arsenal, the bad games tended to come early in his Tyneside tenure as he adjusted to the rigours of the Premier League but there are still a few Newcastle fans who preferred Danny Simpson, now at Queens Park Rangers, in the right-back berth.
That should not put Arsenal supporters off. Unusually good in the air for a full back – Debuchy is virtually as proficient as Sagna in this department – and a key attacking outlet going forward, this former deep-lying midfield quasi-sweeper looks a good fit for the Emirates.
The occasional recklessness in the tackle which characterised his English induction have been increasingly ironed out and, surrounded by better players than those at Newcastle while benefiting from Wenger’s tuition, he can only improve further.
As he approaches his 29th birthday at the end of this month Debuchy is also a good age for a defender – even if Mike Ashley, Newcastle’s owner, who does not like signing players over 26 probably feels he is cashing in at exactly the right time. By selling Debuchy for an initial sum of around £8m with, depending on appearances etc, a further two or three million to potentially follow, Newcastle have turned a tidy profit on the player inside two years. Which is precisely the way Ashley likes it.
Debuchy’s great friend Yohan Cabaye describes him as possessing “a great mentality, great fight and great fitness” and, transplanted into a new, appealing, north London habitat, Arsenal fans can expect to see all three qualities from the man keeping Sagna out of France’s first XI.
Newcastle fans also became acquainted with Debuchy’s distinctly flaky side. When Cabaye briefly went on strike last August as he attempted to force through a move to Arsenal, Debuchy’s form dipped. Pardew was somewhat disconcerted when it became apparent that, rather than be annoyed with their star midfield playmaker, Debuchy and his fellow Frenchmen in Newcastle’s squad fully supported Cabaye’s stance.
Once the latter finally left for Paris Saint-Germain in January there was a sense Debuchy had become a little emotionally disconnected from a Newcastle team who spent much of the second part of last season in freefall. Granted he did contribute the odd fine performance and was much missed during an injury-induced absence but, without Cabaye at his side, Debuchy’s brief romance with his adopted club and city waned.
Another problem was that Pardew – badly let down when Newcastle failed to replace Cabaye in January – attempted to compensate for the loss of his principal creator by making Newcastle’s tactics much more direct than before. If Debuchy is likely to be re-energised by both life in London and the prospect of playing Champions League football again, Arsenal’s more subtle style should suit his game infinitely better.
Bolstered by the capture of Siem de Jong from Ajax in an attacking midfield role and the ongoing pursuit of Montpellier’s Rémy Cabella – regarded as potentially “the new Cabaye” – Pardew is also attempting to imbue Newcastle’s tactics with greater light and shade before their groundbreaking tour to New Zealand later this month.
Off the pitch, the departure of a Frenchman from a still heavily Francophone dressing room should facilitate the introduction of another nationality and consequent rebalancing of its delicate international ecosystem.
While Newcastle have been offered Micah Richards, Manchester City’s right-back, who has struggled to establish himself at the Etihad under Manuel Pellegrini, they are looking most closely at Feyenoord’s Daryl Janmaat and Ajax’s Ricardo van Rhijn. Graham Carr, the club’s super scout, has been paying particular attention to the Dutch market and, apart from speaking excellent English, such imports would have the additional benefit of perhaps helping to keep the recently unsettled goalkeeper Tim Krul on Tyneside.
Indeed with his right-footed, highly gifted, sometime Italy, left-back, Davide Santon also well capable of playing right-back, Debuchy’s exit should be far from catastrophic for Pardew. Considering Newcastle are desperately short of strikers, not to mention still lacking midfield invention, at least part of the profits from his sale to Arsenal could be usefully redirected to fill chasms in other departments.
Wenger, meanwhile, acquires a France international who needs no acclimatising to the Premier League and, on paper at least, looks capable of fitting seamlessly into Sagna’s boots.
Definitions of mutually “no-brainer”, “win, win” transfers rarely seem better than this one.As the Dallas Cowboys prepare to open training camp on Saturday in Oxnard, California, two of their most important voices will belong to head athletic trainer Jim Maurer and associate athletic trainer Britt Brown.
Brown also carries the title of director of rehabilitation. He oversees the work put in by all of the team's injured players. When you see Dez Bryant working the bands in resistance training, Brown is on the other end, pushing and pulling, trying to make sure Bryant’s recovery from January foot surgery is complete.
With Bryant, Sean Lee (knee), Orlando Scandrick (knee), Gavin Escobar (Achilles tendon), Maliek Collins (foot) and Lance Dunbar (knee) coming back from surgeries major and minor, Brown’s recommendations are taken strongly.
The Cowboys will have to look at the injured players through different lenses. Some, like Dunbar, might open camp on the physically unable to perform list (as a potential cover in case he is not ready for the season opener). Some might open listed as PUP just to buy themselves an extra few days. Others might be ready for full drills from the first day.
But patience and a long-term view win out, especially with players who have sat out for an extended period of time.
“It’s complete trust,” Bryant said of Brown. “We all know that Britt has our best interest. Britt, he’s always honest. He’s extremely honest with us. He pushes us to the max.”
While some might be hesitant to confront players, Brown isn’t. Head coach Jason Garrett was a Cowboys player before he became a coach here in 2007. Brown has been with the Cowboys since 1996. Maurer has been with the team since 1990. They have the backing of Jerry Jones, Stephen Jones and Dallas' coaches.
Rookies learn quickly that Brown is not to be messed with, but sometimes, they have to learn. In 2014, Ahmad Dixon was late to his rehab session while sitting in the locker room. When Brown came to get him, the rookie smiled, but Brown quickly told him he was not joking.
“His personality has not changed,” Garrett said of Brown. “He has been that way since minute one. You’ve heard me talk a lot about players who have a little edge to them, have a little chip on their shoulder. He’s got a mountain. He brings it every day, and that’s a really good thing for our football team.”
Bryant spent more time with Brown last year than he had his entire career after breaking his foot in the season opener. As he worked his way back from surgery, which included a screw insert and bone graft, Brown was there to push him when needed, as well as to pull back. Bryant was cleared to go after missing just five games.
In January, Bryant had a second bone graft surgery on his foot. He was held out of team drills as a precaution. Bryant kept talking about remaining patient, even if it was a difficult task.
Brown’s goal was to have Bryant ready for the season, not a spring practice.
“Man, I love Britt,” Bryant said. “I just love the way he goes about his business. He’s extremely aggressive. Honest. He cares a lot about us. And he just wants us to do good. When you’re around somebody like that, you have to go that extra mile for him.”Zsh trick: restart pow with command completion
Recently I started using the zero configuraiton web server pow from the good folks at 37signals and absolutly love it. I really like how restarting the server is as simple as touching restart.txt to the tmp directory. However I have been working on a feature that requires frequent restarts of the server and found it repetitive. Since I was being lazy about typing in the path to restart.txt I decided to automate it a little. And add command completion.
Got those with the following zsh script:
kapow(){ touch ~/.pow/$1/tmp/restart.txt; if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then; echo "pow: restarting $1" ; fi } compctl -W ~/.pow -/ kapow
This gives me a kapow command that will restart the app for me.
I also put it up in a gist, if you would like to fork it and make changes.
DisqusEver since 1950, one of the most popular measuring sticks of artificial intelligence has been the Turing test — named after mathematician Alan Turing. The idea is that a program with some kind of artificial intelligence should be able to use text-based chatting to convince more than 30 percent of people that it's a human being. In June 2014, researchers claimed that a chatbot named Eugene Goostman did just that.
One front-runner is an exam on common sense
Nowadays, however, many experts are questioning whether the Turing test is really the best test. A computer tricking people into thinking that it's a 13-year-old is definitely an achievement — but it's not necessarily the ideal display of true, humanlike thought.
So what would be a better test for artificial intelligence? One front-runner is an exam that relies on common sense. Specifically the test is of something called Winograd schemas. Because Winograd schemas rely on cultural knowledge, they're super easy for people and difficult for computers.
How to test computers for common sense
The test would take the form of a multiple-choice quiz of reading comprehension. But the text itself would have some very specific features. It would consist of Winograd schemas: pairs of sentences whose intended meaning can be flipped by changing just one word. They generally involve unclear pronouns or possessives. A famous example comes from Stanford computer scientist Terry Winograd:
"The city councilmen refused the demonstrators a permit because they feared violence. Who feared violence?"
1) The city councilmen
2) The demonstrators
And:
"The city councilmen refused the demonstrators a permit because they advocated violence. Who advocated violence?"
1) The city councilmen
2) The demonstrators
Most human beings can easily answer these questions. We use our common sense to figure out what "they" is supposed to be referring to in each case. And that common sense basically involves a combination of extensive cultural background knowledge with analytical skills. (In the first question, we can deduce that the city councilmen feared violence. In the second, the demonstrators advocated violence.)
For computers, however, these questions can be quite difficult. From a grammatical standpoint, the "they" in the sentences is technically unclear. In both questions, "they" could be either the councilmen or the demonstrators.
A computer could have access to all of Google and still not really be able to grasp that city councilmen are probably less likely to advocate violence than demonstrators. It's simply less culturally appropriate for councilmen to do so. But you're not going to find that in the dictionary under "city councilmen."
Here's some more Winograd schemas, from a growing, open collection of more than 100:
The trophy doesn't fit into the brown suitcase because it's too [small/large]. What is too [small/large]?
Answers: The suitcase/the trophy.
Jane gave Joan candy because she [was/wasn't] hungry. Who [was/wasn't] hungry?
Answers: Joan/Jane.
The woman held the girl against her [chest/will]. Whose [chest/will]?
Answers: The woman's/the girl's
In 2011, University of Toronto computer scientist Hector Levesque proposed using a bunch of multiple-choice Winograd schemas as an alternative to the Turing test.
Levesque said that they should pick Winograd schemas that are simple for humans to solve. And they shouldn't be Google-hackable. Basically, the computer shouldn't be able to solve the question by only analyzing the statistical frequency of certain words appearing together in a large collection of English-language texts (aka the Internet).
"A machine should be able to show us that it is thinking without having to pretend to be somebody"
So, for instance, Levesque gives the example of "The racecar zoomed by the school bus because it was going so [fast/slow]." There's probably a much higher statistical association between "fast" and "racecars" than with "school bus." So this question isn't hard enough for a computer. Instead, they suggest using a similar question comparing the school bus with a delivery truck.
Levesque has laid out several reasons why a Winograd schema test could be better than a Turing test. "A machine should be able to show us that it is thinking without having to pretend to be somebody," he writes. "Our WS challenge does not allow a subject to hide behind a smokescreen of verbal tricks, playfulness, or canned responses." And, unlike the Turing test, which is scored by a panel of human judges, he notes that grading a Winograd schema test is completely non-subjective.
Will computers ever pass this new Winograd schema test?
In the past, programmers have often tried to devise computers that could pass a Turing test. The Loebner Prize, for example, offers a top award of $100,000 for a chatbot that can convince judges it's human during a five-minute period involving both text and audio.
ONE COMPUTER PROGRAM HAD AN ACCURACY OF 73 percent
And now there's a new competition on the scene. The Winograd Schema Challenge will have its first annual competition in 2015 and will offer $25,000 for any computer program that can reach human levels of performance on a test of at least 40 such puzzles that the computer has never seen before. The competition is organized by computer-science nonprofit Commonsense Reasoning and funded by computer-software company Nuance Communications.
And how far away are computers from achieving this goal? Altaf Rahman and Vincent Ng, of the University of Texas at Dallas, used machine-learning techniques on 30 similar questions and got to an accuracy of 73 percent. Not bad. But any reasonably intelligent person should get 100 percent correct, so there's still a ways to go.
Further watching:
Alan Turing did many other (arguably more) important things in his life than come up with the Turing test, including building an early computer that he used to break encrypted German messages during World War II. That work is the focus of the movie The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, which was released in theaters on November 28.
Further reading:
A computer just passed the Turing test — but no, robots aren't about to take over
8 things you didn’t know about Alan Turing
Code-breaker: The life and death of Alan Turing“Anime that’s trying to be like previous hits can never surpass the originals.”
If you’ve watched much anime at any point during the past 30 years, odds are you’ve heard the work of voice actress Megumi Hayashibara. Evangelion’s Rei? That’s Hayashibara. So are Ranma 1/2’s female Ranma, Cowboy Bebop’s Faye, Slayers’ Lina, Pokémon’s Musashi (known as Jessie overseas), and All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl’s Nuku Nuku, plus far too many more characters to list here.
Being one of the most consistently popular, and employed, voice actresses in anime history, Hayashibara has seen first-hand just how much the industry has changed over the past few decades. As part of a series of interviews with veteran anime voice talent, Hayashibara recently spoke with magazine Seiyu Premium about her wealth of experiences and observations.
Looking back, Hayashibara marks the 1990s as being a turning point for voice actors. Prior to that, the nature of their work kept them largely out of the public eye, but the ‘90s were the start of a boom in voice actress name recognition and fandom. This period saw an increasing number of magazine spreads filled with glossy photos of voice actresses, something Hayashibara at first felt puzzled and apprehensive about. “What’s going to happen when people see how different their faces are from the characters they’re voicing?” she remembers wondering.
▼ For example, Hayashibara’s actual hair color is nowhere near Lina’s fiery orange or Rei’s trademark blue.
But once Hayashibara saw how photogenic the featured voice actresses were, the logic clicked for her. Stemming from their newfound fame as individuals, the distinction between voice actress and character began to blur, a path that would eventually lead to the current state of affairs in which anime’s top voice actresses are also expected to make live appearances where they sing, dance, and communicate with fans. Hayashibara’s career itself could be seen as an early prototype of this style, as she was the first anime actress to have both a solo single and solo album place in the Oricon top 10 weekly charts (and back in the days before superfans were encouraged to buy multiple copies), and has also hosted multiple radio programs.
However, this increased focus on the performer’s persona carries the risk of lessening the importance of his or her acting capabilities in terms of being chosen for roles. In her interview, Hayashibara expresses a fear that voice acting, which she used to believe was a long-term career, now includes elements for which a performer will only be considered “in-season” for so long. It seems like a valid concern, After all, if people are lining up to buy anime Blu-rays and CDs because they think the fresh-faced young voice actresses are pretty, will they still feel the same way in five, ten, or twenty years, especially if new waves of perky young replacements are coming in all the time?
Hayashibara doesn’t appear to have much faith in production agency’s sticking with talent once that shelf life is up, either, saying:
“Because of the fast pace of the industry, it’s common to fill voice actors schedules with as much work as possible, get them up on stage, and build up all the buzz you can. That’ll make you feel like you’re an absolutely essential individual, but in just three years all that could change. I don’t want companies to go chasing after small yet quick and easy profits, but they don’t really have any intention of developing voice actors long-term.”
Still, Hayashibara doesn’t ultimately judge such practices as good or bad. Instead, she views the increasingly rapid changeover of one generation of voice actors to the next as merely the inevitable result of companies frantically searching for the next smash hit series or mega-star performer.
So what advice does Hayashibara have for young voice actors? For one thing, she tells them to be mentally prepared to make the best of a script with stale, clichéd dialogue. While she often hears people ask how they should read such lines, Hayashibara instead recommends asking yourself “How should I get into this emotion?” To her, that’s the critical question to think about, and without answering it the performance will suffer. “Even if you put all your effort into the reading, [without the emotion, it’ll be clear that] your heart’s not in it.”
As for what direction she’d like the anime industry as a whole to move in, Hayashibara points to a problem she sees with the number of new anime and characters that feel like derivatives of ones from the past, including those that seem to be aping the style of Evangelion or Hayashibara’s own Rei. She feels this is in sharp contrast to how things were 20-some years ago.
“Anime in the ‘90s was overflowing with ambition…Anime [today] which are trying to be similar to previous hits can never be better than the originals. Going forward, I want to be part of projects that aren’t trying to be ‘like’ something that came before.”
Tough words, but considering how much experience is behind them, probably worth taking into consideration.
Not getting Megumi Hayashibara’s autograph when he had the chance remains one of Casey’s biggest regrets in life. Console him by following him on Twitter.
Source: Niconico News via Jin
Top image: Wikipedia/TeenAngels1234
Insert image: WikiaTom Hanks would like to put Donald Trump on notice. When asked by the The Hollywood Reporter if he would be interested in doing a screening of The Post—Steven Spielberg’s timely journalism drama—at the White House, the actor quickly and unequivocally declined.
“I don't think I would,” he told T.H.R. “Look, I didn’t think things were going to be this way last November. I would not have been able to imagine that we would be living in a country where neo-Nazis are doing torchlight parades in Charlottesville [Va.] and jokes about Pocahontas are being made in front of the Navajo code talkers.”
Hanks’s decision isn’t exactly surprising, especially in the context of The Post’s plot. The film is based on the true story of The Washington Post’s decision to publish the Pentagon Papers, despite the litigious ire of the Nixon administration. It does not seem like the sort of title this current administration, with all its cries about flexible facts and “fake news,” would be interested in checking out. Oh, and there is also the fact that Donald Trump has publicly, personally attacked The Post co-star Meryl Streep, calling her one of the most “overrated” stars in Hollywood. Streep formally responded to Trump with an elegant speech, then informally responded by wearing a purse with a photo of Barack and Michelle Obama smiling and dancing emblazoned on the side.
In his response to T.H.R., Hanks said the time had come for people to “take to the ramparts” and consider their reactions to this administration. “This is the moment where, in some ways, our personal choices are going to have to reflect our opinions. We have to start voting, actually, before the election. So, I would probably vote not to go.”
Though members of the Obama administration mingled with Hollywood with ease—hosting screenings, partying with movie stars (Hanks included), and even presenting awards at the Oscars—the Trump administration has stumbled headfirst into numerous controversies. There were problems from the start, with a Finding Dory screening at the White House that received backlash back in January. The screening took place the same weekend as vehement protests against one of Trump’s new executive orders, which banned people from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the U.S.
The optics of the White House tucking into a Pixar screening as thousands of people righteously flooded the streets were fairly horrendous. And even Ellen DeGeneres, who voices the role of Dory, found a way to slyly comment on the matter, pointing out that Finding Dory is a film about a family coming together (while the ban was effectively tearing families apart). Since then, the White House has not really publicized film screenings, instead positioning itself as an enemy of the Hollywood elite (and vice versa—unless you’re Sean Spicer). Hanks, like Streep, is likely considered among those ranks.
Representatives for the White House have not yet responded to Vanity Fair’s request for comment.Bishop's plea over IRA victims BelfastTelegraph.co.uk A bishop has challenged parishioners around remote bogland where IRA murder victims were secretly buried to disclose any secrets about bodies that are still missing. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/bishops-plea-over-ira-victims-31077798.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/article31077797.ece/a8ba9/AUTOCROP/h342/PANews%20BT_P-600b4ff9-5ecc-49e3-b0e3-2283d9badd58_I1.jpg
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A bishop has challenged parishioners around remote bogland where IRA murder victims were secretly buried to disclose any secrets about bodies that are still missing.
Bishop of Meath Michael Smith said the dumping of remains in unmarked graves around Oristown was a deep stain on its good name.
Forensic experts are presently digging in the area in search for one of the so-called Disappeared, Joe Lynskey, who went missing from west Belfast in August 1972.
The scene is close to Oristown Bog where the remains of 23-year-old Brendan Megraw were recovered last year.
Bishop Smith, at the close of a confirmation ceremony in the parish, urged anyone in the community who knew the whereabouts of victims' remains to come forward.
"Sadly there may be people in the area that have information which would help in bringing closure to this sorry saga," he said.
"In these circumstances that anyone in a position to relieve the suffering and pain of the families would refuse to do is a challenge to their conscience. They will ultimately be accountable before God."
Bishop Smith said the IRA's abducting, murdering and secretly burying victims had brought immense pain and suffering to extended families over the past 40 years.
"All the families want is to give their loved ones a decent Christian burial," he said.
"No retribution is suffered by anyone giving information since a law enacted both here and in Britain protects them."
The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR) was set up by the British and Irish governments in the wake of the Good Friday peace agreement.
It is tasked with investigating the cases of 16 people killed and secretly buried by republicans during the Troubles.
To date the remains of 10 people have been recovered.
All information passed to the commission is confidential and cannot be used in criminal prosecutions
After getting fresh information, the commission is focusing on a 15 acre bogland site at Coghalstown, near Oristown, where they are confident former Cistercian monk Mr Lynskey is secretly buried.
Geoff Knupfer, who also helped find the bodies of the victims of Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, is leading the latest search.
The forensic detective has also appealed for more information, pledging a guarantee of complete confidentiality.California’s Department of Motor Vehicles released its annual autonomous vehicle disengagement report today, in which all the companies that are actively testing self-driving cars on public roads in the Golden State disclose the number of times that human drivers were forced to take control of their driverless vehicles. The biggest news to come out of this report is from Waymo, Google’s new self-driving car company, which reported a huge drop in disengagements in 2016 despite an almost equally huge increase in the number of miles driven.
In other words, Waymo’s self-driving cars are failing at a much lower rate, even as they are driving a whole lot more miles. The company says that since 2015, its rate of safety-related disengages has fallen from 0.8 per thousand miles to 0.2 per thousand miles in 2016. So while Waymo increased its driving by 50 percent in the state — racking up a total of 635,868 miles — the company’s total number of reportable disengages fell from 341 in 2015 to 124.
“This four-fold improvement reflects the significant work we’ve been doing to make our software and hardware more capable and mature,” Dmitri Dolgov, head of self-driving technology for Waymo, wrote in a blog post. “And because we’re creating a self-driving car that can take you from door to door, almost all our time has been spent on complex urban or suburban streets. This has given us valuable experience sharing the road safely with pedestrians and cyclists, and practicing advanced maneuvers such as making unprotected left turns and traversing multi-lane intersections.”
The majority of Waymo’s disengagements were the result of “software glitches,” the company says. “Unwanted maneuvers,” “perception discrepancies,” and “recklessly behaving road user” also accounted for dozens of disengagements. There were no reports of crashes or accidents.
California requires companies that want to test autonomous vehicles on the roads to register for an autonomous driving permit. As part of this program, companies are also required to report their disengagement rates to the DMV, which then makes those numbers public. This requirement was likely a factor in Uber’s refusal to obtain an autonomous permit, resulting in the DMV revoking the ride-hail company’s vehicle registration for its self-driving cars.
Waymo is miles ahead of its competitors in public testing. While a host of car and tech companies have been testing for many years privately, Waymo still has the edge on real-world experience. Also, the news of the improvements in Waymo’s self-driving technology comes just as the company plans to deploy its fleet of autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans, which it first debuted at the Detroit auto show last month. The vans will hit the road in Mountain View, CA, and Phoenix, AZ, sometime in the next few days.[totalpoll id=”8202″]
Day 4 Day 3 Day 2
Stumps, Day 1 — 04:36pm local: A track less on spice than the Eden Gardens – this is actually a good pitch – but Sri Lanka managed to fold for 205. And that after winning the toss. Umesh Yadav couldn’t cut the mustard on his home ground but the other bowlers did, brilliantly stepping up in the absence of Bhuvneshwar and Shami, who was left out because of a niggle. Surprisingly, Gabba today had more turn than Nagpur, a venue recently notorious for it. Ashwin picked a four-fer while Jadeja darted his way to a three-fer, much like Ishant who smarted his way to a three-fer, too. But for the partnership between Karunaratne (51) and Dinesh Chandimal (57), the day could have stank for Sri Lanka. Well, it just fell short. Tomorrow will be quite a task against these Indian batsmen on a track hell-bent on flattening out. Join us back at 09:15am local for the buildup, ta-ta!Let's try it this way and see if we can get a front-pager interested in this topic.
If Courtney Love said she blew David Axelrod when she was 12, would the MSM find a second or two in their coverage to mention it?
If Michael Moore admitted to crapping and pissing himself for a month to avoid military service, do you suppose the MSM would make an issue of it?
If Ed Schultz or Cenk Ungar or Keith Olbermann or Lawrence O'Donnell or Bill Maher or Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart admitted to an adult addiction to underaged girls, do you think that, just maybe, you'd hear a word or two about it on the MSM news coverage?
THEN WHY IN THE BLOODY BLUE HELL IS NOBODY TALKING ABOUT ROMNEY SUPPORTER TED "BRING 'EM YOUNG" NUGENT'S ADMISSION THAT HE IS A SERIAL PEDOPHILE????
(Cross posted on my Examiner.com column)
We never much cared for Ted Nugent. His music always struck us as pretentious and outrageous for the sake of being outrageous.
We were not surprised when he turned into the darling of the right wing. We agree with him about hunting rights. We agree with upholding the Second Amendment right to bear arms. But when he comes to calling for the murder of a sitting President of the United States, well sir, there we have to part company.
The Secret Service is planning to have a little chat with Mr. Nugent about his "If Obama is re-elected I will be dead or in jail by this time next year" remark. One wonders if the subject of Mr. Nugent's pedophilia will come up.
What? You didn't know?Volcanic eruptions are historically a significant source of carbon dioxide Scientists have found new evidence that the Earth's natural feedback mechanism regulated carbon dioxide levels for hundreds of thousands of years. But they say humans are now emitting CO2 so fast that the planet's natural balancing mechanism cannot keep up. The researchers, writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, say their findings confirm a long-believed theory. Carbon spewed out by volcanoes is removed from the air by rock weathering and transported to the ocean floor. Using evidence from an Antarctic ice core, the team calculated that over a period of 610,000 years the long-term change in atmospheric CO2 concentration was just 22 parts per million (ppm), although there were larger fluctuations associated with the transitions between glacial and interglacial conditions. This suggests a natural thermostat which helps maintain climate stability
Richard Zeebe By comparison, two centuries of human industry have raised levels by about 100 ppm - a speed of rise about 14,000 times faster. "These long term cycles are way too slow to protect us from the effect of (anthropogenic) greenhouse gases," said Richard Zeebe from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. "They will not help us with our current CO2 problem. Right now, we have put the system entirely out of equilibrium." Deep level Scientists have long believed that the Earths climate was stabilised by a natural carbon thermostat. In their model, carbon released into the atmosphere, primarily by volcanoes, is slowly removed through the weathering of mountains, washed downhill into oceans, and finally buried in deep sea sediments. The researchers used data stored in the Epica ice core "A lot of people had tried to refute this hypothesis, but our study provides the first direct evidence (that it is correct)," said Dr Zeebe. He studied levels of CO2 recorded in air bubbles trapped in a 3km ice core drilled from an Antarctic region called Dome Concordia (Dome C). Data from the ice core, drilled by the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (Epica), was first published in 2005. But rather than focusing on the peaks and troughs of CO2 - as other researchers have done - this group looked at the long term trend, and compared the ice core data with records of carbonate saturation in the deep sea for the last six glacial cycles. "It is remarkable how exact the balance is between the carbon input from volcanoes and the output from rock weathering," said Dr Zeebe. "This suggests a natural thermostat which helps maintain climate stability." The delicately balanced carbon thermostat has been a key factor in allowing liquid water, and life, to remain on Earth, he said. "If it werent for these feedbacks, the Earth would look very different today."
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StumbleUpon What are these?Benny was a resident at Carson Animal Care Centre, a 'high-kill' shelter in Gardena, California. Despite his "sweet and shy" demeanour, things weren't looking good for the eight-month-old pit bull. But just as Benny's luck seemed to be running out, one family took a shine to the pup and decided to give him a loving home. Footage of Benny's reaction was published on YouTube and has since had more than 5.5 million views. The commentary with the video reads: "Much has been written about the impact adoption can have on the life of an unloved pet. But words pale in comparison to seeing that unbridled joy first hand.
YouTube Benny, a "sweet and shy" dog didn't have the best future to look forward to
"Up until recently, a sweet but shy dog named Benny had no idea what the future had in store for him, or how close he came to seeing his cut short. "As a resident of the Carson Animal Care Center, a high-kill shelter in Gardena, California, all he could do was sit and wait for someone to come along and save him, which he did week after week with no success. But then that all changed. "Earlier this month, Benny was finally adopted by a loving family. His reaction upon resizing |
Chin said the guild's copyright claims do not conflict with the copyright claims of the other class members, and that other authors who have had their books scanned can still join the suit.
Read the entire ruling, posted by the Public Index, here.DETROIT (WWJ) – Detroit police are investigating after a hate crime video recorded in the city went viral.
The short cell phone clip that shows a man pointing a gun at another man outside a liquor store under the title “I hate gay n-words” has nearly 3,000 re-tweets and thousands more favorites on Twitter.
While some applaud it, it sickening to others.
The video starts with a man inside a car, talking about how he hates “gay n-words” then he sees a friendly looking young man in a striped tank top, walk out the door and calls him over.
He points a handgun out the window at the man and repeats the phrase. The victim then scrambles away, clutching his lemonade, saying “I’m not even like that.”
It happened outside the Brightmoor In and Out Liquor store on Lyndon on Detroit’s northwest.
Sgt. Michael Woody says police have seen the video.
“Obviously this is very troubling,” he told WWJ’s Zahra Huber in an interview Wednesday. “Anytime a person would feel comfortable or brazen enough to point a weapon at an individual and then post it up on social media for everybody to see…it’s very troubling.”
“We can’t have people committing those types of crimes; and then, on top of which, targeting persons of any class, regardless of how they identify. It’s just unacceptable.”
Woody said that pointing a gun at someone “absolutely” is illegal.
“Unfortunately the victim has not come forward to file a police report; however we did open a report on his behalf and we are currently investigating,” Woody said.
While it’s early in the investigation, Woody said the perpetrator could potentially face felonious assault and hate crimes charges.
“It’s unfortunate that, in these times, you know — with all the things that are going on in our nation — that even on social media we just cannot seem to find even the slightest bit of decency,” Woody said. “The intolerance that we are seeing today in this nation is just unacceptable, and we need to really come together to try and figure out a way to do better.”
Woody said police are asking the victim or anyone who knows the victim to come forward. Anyone with information can call 313-596-2200.Clintons announce decision after George W Bush reveals he will go to ceremony with former first lady Laura Bush
Bill and Hillary Clinton plan to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration in a decision that will put Hillary Clinton on the stage as her bitter rival from the 2016 campaign assumes the office she long sought.
The Clintons announced their decision to attend the ceremony on 20 January shortly after former president George W Bush’s office said on Tuesday he would attend along with former first lady Laura Bush.
Band from Alabama’s oldest historically black college to play at inauguration Read more
The Bushes are “pleased to be able to witness the peaceful transfer of power – a hallmark of American democracy – and swearing-in of President Trump and Vice-President Pence,” Bush’s office said in a statement.
It is traditional for former presidents and their spouses to attend the inauguration. But the decision to attend was fraught for the Clintons, given Hillary Clinton’s bitter campaign against Trump. The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee has largely avoided public appearances since Trump defeated her in November.
Bush, too, has had a difficult relationship with Trump. His brother Jeb ran against Trump in the GOP primaries. George and Laura Bush let it be known they voted for “none of the above” for president rather than cast a ballot for Trump, but the ex-president did call to congratulate Trump after his victory.
Former president Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, earlier said they planned to attend Trump’s inauguration.
Former president George H W Bush, 92, and his wife, Barbara, do not plan to attend the inauguration due to the former president’s age and health, his office said.AP State lottery officials are seeing a rash of winning ticket scams, often perpetrated by a handful of retail store operators. (AP)
Retail store owners and clerks are hitting lottery jackpots too often, spurring states to crack down on a variety of scams that cheat rule-abiding players—and divert money from state coffers.
The scams tarnish state-run gambling operations that give people a chance to win big money while consoling them with the knowledge that their losses will pay for public education or other government services. In recent months, there have been incidents in several states. Among them:
In December, the Asbury Park Press newspaper found that half of New Jersey’s 20 most frequent lottery winners since 2009 were either licensed retailers or family members of store operators. As a group, they collected 840 prizes totaling about $1.8 million. Most often, they ostensibly beat 10,000 to 1 odds to claim payouts on Pick 4 tickets.
In Michigan in November, the state’s auditor general found 37 store owners turned in winning tickets worth about $3.6 million in 2012 and 2013. One retailer collected 107 prizes worth $346,312 in 2013. In addition, six store owners didn’t report more than $500,000 in lottery winnings on their 2012 tax returns. The findings are under investigation.
In October, CBS2 News in Los Angeles reported that retailers across Southern California cashed in tens of thousands of dollars in winning tickets purchased at their stores.
And in March, The Palm Beach Post newspaper revealed that serial Florida jackpot winners, many of them store owners or operators, defied incredible odds to claim thousands of dollars in winnings. The most prolific winners cashed in tickets worth $600 or more every 11 days.
Players spent about $70 billion last year on tickets in the 44 states and the District of Columbia that have lotteries, according to figures compiled by the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL). The states received nearly $20 billion in net proceeds to finance government programs.
Most often, lottery officials say, the scams involve retailers who are cashing in winning tickets for a fee for people who don’t want to collect their jackpots personally because they owe back taxes, child support payments or other debts that states generally deduct from lottery winnings. Or, they’re in the country illegally.
States generally require prizes of $600 or more be claimed in person, and winners must show identification and their Social Security numbers. In addition to deducting delinquent taxes or other debts owed the state, states withhold federal and state income taxes from the payouts of larger prizes, usually $5,000 or more.
“If you have a $5,000 winning ticket but you are here illegally, you go to a buddy or find a store clerk, and you split it or give him $1,000 for cashing it,” said lottery aficionado Richard Lustig of Florida. Lustig has studied how lotteries operate, won the grand prizes in seven different lottery games and authored a players’ guide, “Learn How to Increase Your Chances of Winning the Lottery.”
Another scam involves unscrupulous retailers who shortchange unsuspecting customers who have returned to the store to scan their tickets. Clerks will tell them they’ve won less money than they really have, pay them the lesser amount and then claim the bigger prize money.
“(The clerk) sees a $500 winning ticket, but says you won $20,” Lustig said of this scam. “He gives you $20 and then goes and cashes the ticket.”
The elderly or unsophisticated are often the victims, he said.
Both of the schemes—whether ripping off taxpayers or unsuspecting players—are a headache for state lottery officials who must devote people and time to police the integrity of the games by investigating possible fraud and building cases to send to prosecutors.
“The bottom line is: We’re trying to stay a step ahead of the criminal element,” said Terry Rich, CEO of the Iowa Lottery and NASPL’s president. “We have to have integrity. Everyone has a stake in that—the governments that receive the taxes and the people who play.”
Another Taxpayer Scam
The frauds aren’t confined to store owners and their clerks. And cashing a winning ticket for another person to dodge debts isn’t the only way that taxpayers are burnt by those who game the lotteries.
The Boston Globe reported last year that an underground cottage industry of professional ticket cashers had sprung up in Massachusetts, with people other than retailers posting offers on Craigslist to buy winning tickets and, cash them for a fee. Likewise, The Globe found brokers willing to sell losing tickets to people who wanted to unlawfully deduct false gambling losses on their income tax returns as an expense to offset their winnings, or lowering their taxable income to pay less in taxes than they owe.
Lustig said all these scams are more common that most people would think, and many have been going on for a long time.
A recent posting on Craigslist in the Baltimore area, for instance, offered $50,000 worth of losing lottery tickets bought last year to potential buyers who want to cheat on their income taxes.
And in reviewing winners of the Ohio Lottery since the inception of the games there in 1974, the Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun newspaper found several serial winners, many of them store operators, who cashed hundreds of tickets over several years. Since 2010, state lottery investigators have run an average of 100 stings a year at retail outlets, resulting in nearly 50 arrests.
“It’s finally started coming out,” Lustig said of all the scams. “The lottery people in the various states are starting to see this trend, and they’re becoming more sophisticated and stopping them.”
Florida, for instance, suspended the sales licenses of 14 retailers last year that it found to have been involved in scams. The state is adopting software to track frequent winners and installing self-checking scanners so customers can check for themselves whether they’ve won in stores where clerks have scammed winning tickets. Florida also launched a campaign urging lottery players to sign all their tickets to prevent someone else from cashing them in.
The Michigan Bureau of State Lottery also has software to track every ticket and where it was sold, and soon will be able to check for patterns and anomalies, such as how often retailers claim winnings or how many winning tickets come from certain stores. In addition, lottery spokesman Jeff Holyfield said, the bureau will question every person who claims a large prize to find out how they obtained their ticket.
In addition to using new technology to discover and break up scams, Rich, the NASPL president, said state lottery directors share information on suspicious trends and ways to prevent illegal activity.
“In general, lotteries have become a lot more sophisticated in their ability to track things down,” Rich said. “This may be the new craze,” he said of the current rash of fraud. “But we are quietly cracking down across the country.”
Ban Retailers From Playing?
To maintain the games’ integrity in the eyes of the public, states almost uniformly prevent lottery officials, their family members or major vendors from cashing in any lottery tickets—essentially barring them from playing the games. But the ban doesn’t extend to licensed retailers or their clerks.
That, said Michigan’s Holyfield, would be taking measures too far for what’s a minute amount of scamming by a few retailers or their clerks. The state auditor general’s report found only 37 out of the 11,000 retailers in the state were repeat winners.
Prohibiting store owners and their employees from playing would unfairly penalize them and be hard to enforce, he said. It also would likely cut down on the number of retailers who would want to sell tickets, thereby reducing the amount of sales and ultimately the amount of money that a state could take in to pay for education and other programs.
“We want to operate all our games with the utmost integrity,” Holyfield said. “But it happens very rarely that someone will try to cheat.”When you ask someone to name an actor who played James Bond, the famous British spy who saved the world multiple times from mad super villains, the one actor you'll most likely not hear is George Lazenby, the Australian model who played Bond once in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service.”
In the Bond fan community he's usually stereotyped as "the worst Bond actor" because of how wooden his acting was compared to other Bond actors like Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Daniel Craig. In my personal opinion, every actor who played Bond had at least one good movie and Mr. Lazenby is no exception. Before I explain why George Lazenby's performance as Bond was alright, some background knowledge as to how an unknown Australian model got the job is necessary. The James Bond movie franchise exploded in the 1960's as audiences were captivated with Sean Connery's performance in movies like "Dr. No" "Goldfinger" and "You Only Live Twice.” During the shooting of "You Only Live Twice,” Mr. Connery was starting to get annoyed with the worldwide fame and he left the franchise after tensions with producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli became toxic. Saltzman and Broccoli were left with the challenge of finding a new face for Bond. George Lazenby, an unknown actor who only acted in commercials before being Bond, managed to sneak his way into Broccoli and Saltzman's office and apply for a screen test. The producers picked him to be the next Bond because they had the idea that they could make Lazenby into a star like Connery. Lazenby was to star in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service,” a more serious take on the Bond character. Unfortunately, Lazenby ran into tensions with the cast and crew during filming and after poor reviews during the release Lazenby left the franchise, even after being offered to star in the next seven Bond films. Lazenby thought he would become a world star like Connery but his fame dwindled as the years went by.
Admittedly, Lazenby's acting in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" isn't the best. Most of his dialogue is wooden and his voice was dubbed for some parts of the movie. Keep in mind that Lazenby had to fill big shoes after Connery left. Most of Connery's Bond movies involved big over the top plots and ridiculous gadgets. "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is a long and slow paced movie but it works to the movie's benefit. Since Bond is actually limited with gadgets you actually feel like Bond's in danger which is something Lazenby portrays well. Lazenby was also able to give us something Connery wasn't able to: emotion. The last couple of minutes of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is extremely heart breaking and Lazenby gives his best performance in the entire movie. "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is very different from the previous Bond films. With a more serious plot, the movie doesn't even feel like an average Bond flick. If Lazenby, an unknown and inexperienced actor, was given a few acting lessons we would have a different overall impression of his performance. Lazenby definitely has highlights with his only performance and fans need to view the film without the expectation of what a classic Bond film is usually like.
The point I'm trying to get at is that Lazenby has his ups and downs but that doesn't make him the worst Bond actor. With all actors you can point out the pros and cons of their performances. Lazenby was put in an unfortunate situation, picking up a major franchise after their big star left. If you ever get the chance, check out "On Her Majesty's Secret Service.” You may be surprised how great it is!If amazing images from around the world are not enough to encourage you to go out there and travel, some travel quotes may help.
Take the time to read all the way to the end because, who knows, one of these travel phrases may get you on the road and/or be a mantra to keep you exploring the world for years to come. Here are the 50 most inspiring travel quotes of all time:
1. “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain
2. “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine
3. “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
4. “The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson
5. “All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.” – Paul Fussell
6. “Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac
7. “He who does not travel does not know the value of men.” – Moorish proverb
8. “People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.” – Dagobert D. Runes
9. “A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” – John Steinbeck
10. “No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang
11. “Your true traveler finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty — his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure.” – Aldous Huxley
12. “All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.” – Samuel Johnson
13. “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
14. “Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things — air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky — all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese
15. “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller
16. “A traveler without observation is a bird without wings.” – Moslih Eddin Saadi
17. “When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in.” – D. H. Lawrence
18. “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” – Freya Stark
19. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain
20. “Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard
21. “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber
22. “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” – Jawaharial Nehru
23. “Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” – Paul Theroux
24. “To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson
25. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
More like this: The (next) 50 most inspiring travel quotes of all time
26. “Two roads diverged in a wood and I — I took the one less traveled by.” – Robert Frost
27. “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu
28. “There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.” – Charles Dudley Warner
29. “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu
30. “If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener
31. “The journey not the arrival matters.” – T. S. Eliot
32. “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill
33. “I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” – Mark Twain
34. “Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quiestest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” – Pat Conroy
35. “Not all those who wander are lost.” – J. R. R. Tolkien
36. “Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” – Benjamin Disraeli
37. “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.” – Maya Angelou
More like this: 18 travel quotes that remind us to live our lives to the fullest
38. “Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation.” – Elizabeth Drew
39. “Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.” – Anatole France
40. “Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” – Seneca
41. “What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do — especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” – William Least Heat Moon
42. “I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.” – Lillian Smith
43. “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” – Aldous Huxley
44. “Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in a frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear. Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and meaning of art.” – Freya Stark
45. “The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” – Rudyard Kipling
46. “Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.” – Paul Theroux
47. “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G. K. Chesterton
48. “When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” – Clifton Fadiman
49. “A wise traveler never despises his own country.” – Carlo Goldoni
50. “Adventure is a path. Real adventure — self-determined, self-motivated, often risky — forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” – Mark Jenkins
What travel quotes did we miss? Which one was your favorite? Please leave a comment below!Warner Bros clearly has big plans for its growing DC movie universe, with next year's Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice and Suicide Squad to be followed by Justice League, Wonder Woman and Aquaman. There's also the small matter of Ben Affleck's stand-alone Batman film, which he'll write and direct.
We've now heard, however, that Affleck's role in the DC movies is about to get even bigger.
According to an industry source who will remain anonymous, a cut of Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice was screened for the film's crew and Warner bosses within the past 24 hours or so. "It's a near finished cut but not locked," our source tells us.
That screening was, we're told, a glowing success - to the point where Zack Snyder's movie received a "standing ovation".
Warner is said to be so impressed with Affleck's performance as Batman that it's apparently in the process of making an extended, "Golden deal", which could see the actor play the Caped Crusader in a trilogy of stand-alone movies, not the single outing already announced.
All told, this deal could see Affleck in the role of Batman for the next 10 years or so.
"Basically, Warners are now working their movie universe around Ben's Batman," our source says.
As far as Warner's bosses are concerned, Affleck is considered to be the "definitive Batman" and could be the hub around which the DC movie universe will rotate in future movies.
Of course, this is all unconfirmed at this point, but if there's truth to the story, it's likely that an official confirmation will emerge fairly soon. We'll keep you posted as and when we hear more.
Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.Tested the bugs that I could (so I was unable to test bugs that only applied to HiDPI screens or multi-monitor (please can people with these setups verify the bugs and then update to the relevant Proposed packages and test the fixes?)). I used VirtualBox on Ubuntu 17.10 to test 16.04. To test a bug on Ubuntu MATE (in that list), I (accidentally) installed mate-desktop and then (correctly) ubuntu-mate-desktop. This seemed to break some theming on the standard Unity desktop and also made it impossible for me to reproduce this bug because Ubuntu SDK seemed to be using MATE’s file manager rather than GNOME Files. Maybe this is to be expected, but perhaps in the future it would be nice to have it possible to install Ubuntu flavors without breaking the other flavors. Maybe this is impossible, though.
Many test cases weren’t as precise as they could’ve been so I was unable to follow them through, I’ve left comments asking for specific improvements in the test cases. I also got '‘No such key ‘lowgfx’’ when trying to run gsettings set com.canonical.Unity lowgfx false which prevented me from testing without lowgfx (I was unable to reproduce some bugs and thought this may have been because I was on lowgfx).
Note that if you’re testing the Unity that is in 16.04 Proposed, if you have set the pin priority so that you’re on 16.04 and not 16.04 Proposed, and you just selectively install packages from proposed (which is what the wiki recommends you to do), then to be able to sudo apt install unity/xenial-proposed you will need to do sudo apt install compiz-core/xenial-proposed compiz-plugins/xenial-proposed libcompizconfig0/xenial-proposed compiz-gnome/xenial-proposed compiz/xenial-proposed first (at least, until those packages are released from Proposed into 16.04 proper - it might be better if you just work out what you need to install by trying to install Unity from Proposed and installing other packages from Proposed as Apt prompts you to do so).
In the end, I’ve only tested the fixes for https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/1316862 and https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/1618405. The former is fixed by the new package, I think, the latter is not.
Sorry I couldn’t verify more and wow I’ve really stayed up too late (I’m GMT)…
Thanks for the great attention to detail Marco!It's five years after the worst of the housing crash, and we know a lot about the unsavory mortgage lending practices that helped bring it about. We even know how black and Hispanic people were disproportionately impacted by subprime lending, which led to a massive foreclosure wave in minority communities that still hasn't entirely cleared.
Now, thanks to a Zillow analysis of federal mortgage data and its own home value index with the Urban League, we know that the housing bubble and subsequent crash were much more pronounced in Hispanic communities than places where most whites, blacks and Asians live:
The good news, for Hispanics, is that their home values have rebounded more quickly than those of both blacks and whites, who tend to live in cities that haven't seen robust recoveries. And although the homeownership rate among Hispanic people is much lower than that of whites — 50.9 percent to 73.9 percent respectively — both have barely changed over the past decade. The homeownership rate among black people, by contrast, declined by 2.4 percent, and that of Asians rose by the same amount.
More analysis of lending disparities in the full study here.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Local leaders have hoped the Republican National Convention will help spotlight Northeast Ohio's rich history.
If it finds a taker, a real-estate listing for a single-story ranch home in suburban Akron may do just that.
Among the properties realtor Howard Hanna lists for rent during the RNC is the childhood home of Jeffrey Dahmer, the notorious serial killer and former Ohio resident. From the property listing, which gives an $8,000 rental price:
Mid-century modern home with a true park-like setting. Smoking and animals okay. This is Jeffrey Dahmer's childhood home. Close to Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Montrose shopping. Easy access to I-77 highway.
The Bath Township home is site of what's believed to be the Dahmer's first murder. In 1978, Dahmer, then 18, killed Steven Hicks, an 18-year-old hitchhiker, and disposed of his remains in the woods in the house's back yard.
Dahmer went on to kill at least 16 more people in Wisconsin in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was arrested in 1991 and sentenced to life in prison. He was murdered in prison three years later.
The Akron Beacon Journal first reported the listing.
The house's current owner, Chris Butler, told the Beacon Journal he put the listing up on a whim.
"I did it for the heck of it," Butler told the Beacon Journal. He added he wanted to see if he could "suck some Republican gelt from those people."
Julia Domenick, the listed realtor for the Bath Township home, did not immediately return a message. Butler could not be reached for comment.
The home has three bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms, according to the Howard Hanna property listing. It was listed for sale in 2014, according to WKYC.
Howard Hanna, through a sponsorship deal, is the Cuyahoga County Republican Party's official real estate company for the RNC.
Butler is a former member of the 1980s new-wave band The Waitresses. In a 2009 segment for National Public Radio, he described being "instantly charmed" when he pulled into the property's driveway.
The Republican National Convention will take place in downtown Cleveland from July 18-21.
This post has been corrected to reflect that Butler was not lead singer of The Waitresses.Mexican actor Roberto Cavazos, who performed in several plays at London’s Old Vic theater when Kevin Spacey was artistic director there from 2004 to 2015, has accused the House of Cards star of sexual harassment.
“I myself had a couple of unpleasant encounters with Spacey that were on the edge of being considered assault,” Cavazos wrote in a recent Facebook post. “It seems the only requirement was to be a male under the age of 30 for Mr. Spacey to feel free to touch us.”
The 35-year-old actor, said, “there are a lot of us who have a ‘Kevin Spacey story.'”
“Those of us who crossed paths with (Spacey) in London when he was director of the Old Vic know a whole lot more people will find the courage to tell their stories in the coming days and weeks,” he wrote. “It wouldn’t surprise me if there were similar numbers to Weinstein’s.”
Last week, actor Anthony Rapp alleged that Spacey made sexual advances at him when he was 14. Spacey faced fire from GLAAD and high-profile gay actors for coming out while apologizing to Rapp for his alleged behavior.
Netflix announced this week that production of House of Cards has been suspended indefinitely following sexual harassment allegations against Kevin Spacey. London’s Old Vic theater denounced Spacey and said it’s “deeply dismayed to hear the allegations levied against” him. The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced Monday that it will not honor Spacey following multiple allegations of sexual assault.
On Monday, filmmaker and actor Tony Montana became the second man to accuse Spacey of sexual harassment. Montana, speaking to Radar Online, said that Spacey grabbed his crotch in a bar in 2003.
Cavazos said Spacey’s alleged behavior was a well-known routine among the actors at the theater.
“I can’t recall how many people told me the same story: Spacey would ask them to meet to ‘talk about their career.’ When they got to the theater, he had a beautifully lit picnic ready on stage with champagne,” Cavazos wrote. “Each story varies in how far the picnic went, but the pattern was the same. It was more common to find Spacey at the bar of his theater, cornering whoever caught his attention.”
“That’s what happened to me the second encounter,” he added. “I never let anything happen, but know of a few who were too scared to stop him.”
Spacey is the latest Hollywood heavyweight to face multiple accusations of sexual misconduct, an ever-growing list which includes Harvey Weinstein, director James Toback, and super-producer Brett Ratner.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudsonWladimir Balentien flips on the television and takes in a rare moment of relaxation. Instead of his Tokyo Yakult Swallows uniform, which will be worn later, he’s clad simply in a red T-shirt commemorating his back-to-back home run titles and yellow shorts from a past NPB All-Star Series.
Here in the relative peace of this small, air-conditioned room near the team’s clubhouse it’s quiet, and the space offers a brief respite from both the unrelenting heat of a Tokyo summer and the glare of an ever-brightening spotlight.
“Everywhere you go, people are talking about you,” Balentien tells the Japan Times. “When you go to a restaurant, everywhere I go right now, it’s a lot of talk going on. It’s hard to not pay attention to it. I just want to focus and try to do my best and at least get to where my goal is right now.”
The goal he refers to is the single-season home run record of 55, held by Sadaharu Oh, Tuffy Rhodes and Alex Cabrera and among Japanese baseball’s most hallowed marks.
That wasn’t the goal when Balentien began the season two weeks late due to a groin injury — back then, he just hoped to be in the top three and at least in the vicinity of the Yokohama BayStars’ Tony Blanco in the home run race — but the year has taken a far different course than even he could’ve imagined.
Fans and media began to take notice as Balentien hit home runs at a rapid pace to start his season, and the spotlight grew brighter once he left Blanco in his wake and could make out Oh, Rhodes, and Cabrera on the horizon. He hit his 52nd of the year Friday night, and attention is at a fevered pitch with 55 now just three homers away.
Hitting three home runs is only half the battle. There’s also a mountain of pressure that must be overcome.
Balentien was popular before, but he’s never dealt with this type of attention, and does his best to block out distractions and remain pointed in the right direction.
“It’s hard,” he says. “It’s hard not to focus on that stuff. But I try to do the best I can to just focus on the game and focus on doing my job and just worry about what I can handle right now and don’t try to even think about stuff that I can’t handle.”
Media requests roll in at a rapid pace, and Yakult’s PR department is taking steps to ensure Balentien isn’t stretched too thin.
“It’s probably six-times busier,” says Balentien’s interpreter, Koji Kondo. “Normally, we do a little press conference or meeting about once a week. Now, maybe six times a week. But he’s earned it. He’s coming up on a great record.”
From the time he arrives at the ballpark until he goes home, Balentien operates in a fishbowl. Reporters trail him everywhere, peppering him with questions about the same thing in various ways, and at Jingu Stadium, fans mob him during the short walk from the stadium exit to the clubhouse.
So far, Balentien hasn’t let it get to him. His loud, deep, bellowing laugh rings out just as often, and he’s as happy-go-lucky as usual. The only difference is how much more he cherishes the slivers of peace and quiet he gets.
“The good thing is, I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself,” Balentien said. “I’m always relaxed, I joke around. I take my time alone now, so I can play some video games, watch a movie, do something so I can get a little bit of this stuff out of my mind.”
It |
space," Samuhel said. "Then it reaches Earth; it interacts with the magnetic field and triggers auroras and some communication problems."
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Solar flares create auroras when radiation from the sun reaches Earth and interacts with charged protons in the atmosphere. Effects are greater at the magnetic poles and weaker south of the Arctic or north of the Antarctic.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the results are called the aurora borealis. The result is a spectacular display of light and color for areas with clear enough views.Climate Change Washington state implements rule to combat climate change State Department of Ecology unveils initiative to cap and reduce the carbon pollution.
This story originally appeared on Crosscut.com.
Between record-setting temperatures, shrinking snowpack, rampant wildfires, and acidifying waters, the threats of carbon pollution have become increasingly conspicuous since 2008, when the Washington State Legislature set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The goal was to return to 1990 levels by 2020, and then to cut those 1990 levels in half by 2050.
Since then, however, little has been done to make those targets a reality. Until now.
On Thursday, the Washington Department of Ecology unveiled the state's first initiative to cap and reduce the carbon pollution that contributes to global climate change. The Clean Air Rule, which goes into effect Oct. 17, will initially apply to 24 businesses that each produce at least 100,000 metric tons of carbon each year, including all five oil refineries in Washington, as well as power plants, fuel distributors and other industries. Collectively, they account for two-thirds of all the carbon pollution produced in the state.
“In short, the Clean Air Rule sets up a cap on carbon pollution in Washington and slowly reduces that cap over time,” Ecology Director Maia Bellon explained at a press conference held on the Seattle waterfront Thursday afternoon.
GK/Flickr user
The measure, which operates under the state's Clean Air Act, will require the targeted businesses to reduce their carbon emissions by an average of 1.7 percent each year. Companies have three ways to comply: by reducing their own emissions; by developing projects that will reduce carbon pollution via other means, such as energy efficiency programs or electric vehicle charging stations; or by buying “carbon credits,” either from other companies that have reduced their emissions or via approved carbon markets.
Gov. Jay Inslee originally proposed a “cap and trade” program like the one that took effect in California in early 2012, but the idea stalled in the Legislature. That's why he decided to work under the Clean Air Act, instead. While the Clean Air Rule puts a cap on carbon, it does not put a price on it or charge a fee for carbon emissions. Unlike in California, where the state manages a carbon market system, Washington businesses will have to work amongst themselves to trade, buy and sell.
“We're using our existing authority, our existing tools, and we thought creatively to come up with a system that we think gets us robust emission reductions,” said Sarah Rees, Ecology's special assistant on climate change policy.
The Clean Air Act gives Ecology the power to fine companies that violate the new rule up to $10,000 a day. Bellon says the department will reserve such actions for egregious infringements, however, and instead hopes to work with companies that have difficulty complying to chart a path forward.
King County Executive Dow Constantine says the rule is a good start. “Gov. Inslee's Clean Air Rule helps fulfill our state's climate goals using existing regulatory tools,” Constantine said in a statement. “Now the Legislature needs to develop more comprehensive, market-based solutions that drive investment in Washington State's clean energy economy.”
Critics argue, however, that using the 50-year-old Clean Air Act to limit carbon pollution steps beyond the law's intentions, and stretches the limits of executive power. “After failing to win support in the Legislature for a California-style cap-and-trade plan, Gov. Inslee is now side-stepping the legislative process by implementing this rule administratively, which we believe is a case of regulatory over-reach,” Kris Johnson, president of the Association of Washington Business, said in a statement. He also warned that the regulation will bring higher energy costs to consumers.
Bellon argues that carbon is a pollutant and she is “very confident that we have the authority to regulate pollution in the state of Washington.”
Ecology estimates that costs to consumers will be minimal. “Using worst case-scenario assumptions... electricity prices would go up in 2020 by about $16 a year per household,” said Stu Clark, Ecology's air quality program manager.
The Clean Air Rule isn't the only piece of climate policy under discussion. In November, Washington voters will decide on Initiative 732, which would put a tax on fossil fuels used and sold in the state. Polls show that as a tight race, however, meaning that at this point, the Clean Air Rule presents the only significant way for Washington to make progress toward the goals set in 2008.
“Right now, 732 isn't on the books,” Rees said. “In the event it would pass, we would evaluate where we are in the rule. Theoretically our rule could continue in parallel, but I think we would want to take a look to see how it would interact and what would make sense for Washington State in terms of impacts on folks and getting emissions reductions.”
No one state's actions will stop climate change, of course, and we've yet to see adequate legislation on the national or global levels. In fact, the political dynamics at play in Washington State are similar to the ones in the other Washington, not only in terms of the tensions between the legislative and executive branches, but also the controversy over the government's authority to regulate carbon as a pollutant.
And lacking aggressive action on a global scale, the Pacific Northwest is in for some significant warming. The University of Washington's Climate Impact Group projects that temperatures in the Pacific Northwest will be almost 2 degrees higher by the 2020s compared to 1970-1999 averages. That means that the glaciers will continue to melt, our water supplies will continue to shrink, salmon will continue to struggle and agriculture will continue to be strained.
The Clean Air Rule won't rule out the continued impacts of climate change, but, officials say, we have to start somewhere.– We want everyone to speak freely.
In front of the national convention, the Socialist Party (SV) splits its meeting up by sex. The purpose is to prevent male dominance and control techniques, according to Bergens Tidende.
An hour before the convention commences at Gardermoen Friday’s SV-delegates are invited to gender separated preparatory meetings that are closed to the press.
– We are concerned with that there should be equal participation of women and men in all debates. Therefore we will have these meetings, to sensitize delegates about it, SV leader Audun Lysbakken said.
He says the party has used such meetings in other contexts, and that it has worked well.
– We are a feminist party, and it means to be aware of how some invisible structures works. We do this in order to have an inclusive congress, says Lysbakken.
Party Secretary Kari Elisabeth Kaski says SV does not want journalists present during these meetings, because it would be “counterproductive.”
– We want everyone to speak freely, and with media people in the audience, people may have to restrain themselves, she says.
Kaski also rejects BT’s request to take a picture during preparatory meetings and says the following about the point of them:
– The point is to have some short meetings of about half an hour where we talk about the party culture, meeting culture and control techniques. We want safe meeting places, she says.
Source: dagbladet.no / Norway TodayIt’s official. Well, sort of. The Scream Queens panel confirmed tonight at PaleyFest what we already told you – Jamie Lee Curtis, Keke Palmer, Abigail Breslin, and Billie Lourde will be reprising their roles in Season 2 of the Fox horror anthology. All were present for this evening’s fan confab at the Dolby Theatre along with already confirmed cast members Emma Roberts, Lea Michele and Niecy Nash, and co-creator and executive producer Brad Falchuk. It was also announced that Glenn Powell, who plays the infamous womanizer Chad Radwell, is also set to return.
Falchuk said that they were in the early stages of writing Season 2 but offered some tidbits on what to expect. As it has been reported, the sophomore season will take place in a hospital. “Dean Munsch has moved on to great success, she’s abolished the Greek system in the country…she’s written her book, she’s traveled the world, and is like, ‘I need a new mission’,” Falchuk said. This leads her into the health care field, where she decides to purchase a hospital and “runs the hospital the way she sees fit” taking on the seemingly incurable “cases that no one else will take.” Falchuk says the hospital will attract great thinkers as well as medical students. One of those great thinkers is Zayday (Palmer), who graduated from Wallace College in two years and is now training under Dean Munsch to be physician.
On what to expect for the Chanels — who where last seen being committed into a mental institution — Falchuk reveals that the girls have “flipped and taken their education seriously while in the institution,” and will become medical students as well. On Michele’s Hester, Falchuk says that in the hospital there will be an aspect of murder and a killer that Hester will be “intimately involved with.” As for Denise, she has joined the FBI and will be involved in the hospital mishaps as well.
Recently, it was announced that Scream Queens was awarded a California state tax credit to film in Los Angeles, something for which Curtis was very grateful for. “When Governor Schwarzenegger was elected, my friend, we really hoped he was going to basically give back to the community that gave him so much by bringing production back to California.”
“There has been an exodus out of California,” she said, commending the idea of “bringing production back to California, where the jobs should be.”
Scream Queens is the second anthology series to come from Falchuk and Ryan Murphy following American Horror Story. Unlike AHS, the series will continue to use the same characters as the story changes. On the decision to not follow that theme, Falchuk said tonight, “it was much more of the horror movie way of looking at it, a sequel,” equating it to the likes of Curtis’ character in Halloween.
With that said, Curtis was quick to point out that “Halloween 2 was in a hospital. … They’re following the Halloween model all the way.”There’s no worse feeling than getting heckled for your first time. You’re burning every calorie of self-confidence you have just trying to stay on that stage and plow through your jokes. You don’t have extra moxie in some reserve tank you can ignite to get yourself out of a difficult situation. Then you hear it. It’s not your voice but someone else’s. It doesn’t matter what they’re saying. You didn’t practice this in the mirror. Cue heart palpitations and heavy breathing. It is the dizziness of the unexpected.
In the movie Roadhouse, Patrick Swayze plays an erudite, East Coast bouncer who is sent to Jasper, MI in order to clean up the wild Double Deuce Club. He has to deal with all manner of drunks, morons, and loudmouths in a rowdy, dive bar. So you can see how I would draw parallels to the world of stand-up comedy. Here are Dalton’s 3 Laws of Heckler Handling.
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1) “Never Underestimate Your Opponent; Expect the Unexpected” – You’re a professional comedian, right? Or at least you tell people you are. And some drunk jagoff is trying to talk out during your set? The nerve! You look down at the microphone you so expertly wield. This is no ordinary power you possess. You are the only person that can elicit laughs from an audience. If this fool wants to interrupt, let’s see how they do when you give them your divine amplifier.
Oh crap, they’re funny.
By asking the question, “You think you could do better?” and providing the heckler with an opportunity to do so, you’d better be prepared for your set to go off the rails. The best case scenario? They suck and you prove your point, even if it is at the detriment to the flow of the show. The worst case scenario? They’re better than you and your divinity is stripped from you in front of a crowd. Now you are shivering, exposed, and mortal.
Comedians don’t expect hecklers to be funnier than them. But every so often, you’ll get the popular guy at the barbecue. He’s packing charisma and a few stock jokes. And that’s all he needs to make it seem like what you’re doing is not that hard.
2) “Never start anything inside the bar unless it’s absolutely necessary.” – I’ve made this mistake one or two times. I saw what I thought was an easy mark that I could tease right off the bat. I had no reason to start trouble, just thought it would be a good idea. Everyone gets in those moods. It’s come back to bite me.
One time at the Corner Café, I was about to go on stage when I noticed a relatively drunk woman was sitting in the front row, by herself, texting, and she had her filthy bare feet up on the stool next to her. Being a huge bully, I decided it was my place to say something. Instead of going through with my original plan, which was to try out some new material I had worked on, I went in with aggressive intentions.
I had grabbed the microphone and started into her. “Look at this girl’s dirty feet,” I said. “What were you doing before the show, re-sealing the driveway?” She placed her phone down on the table, took a swig of beer and cocked her head at me. Seven minutes later, I was walking off stage without ever having told one joke. I engaged in an unproductive battle with her for my entire set.
Don’t ever start something with a heckler. You don’t want to turn an otherwise quiet audience member into an enemy.
3) Be nice. – I’ve learned the hard way on this rule before. I’ve gone from docile joke-teller to psycho circus freak in about 2 seconds. The reason comedians are so quick to anger when someone heckles is because it’s very threatening. You’re walking a tightrope of embarrassment up on stage by yoursself. A heckle is like a strong gust of wind trying to knock you to your death. You feel the breeze and your fight-or-flight response kicks into overdrive. You get that surge of aggression and you will destroy your threat.
The problem with this approach is that crowds don’t like mean people. In a battle of two jerks, they don’t want to root for the jerk who is better at being a jerk. They want an underdog. They want Rocky.
So how do you be nice? Here are a few things to avoid:
Don’t comment on physical appearance – No calling fat, ugly, bald, etc. Unless you yourself are a well-dressed Adonis, you’re opening yourself up for a rebuttal. I know I’m a little sensitive about my slender, feminine wrists and would rather someone not draw attention to that.
No name calling – They might be acting like an A-hole, but don’t call them one. Show the rest of the audience that the heckler is an A-hole; don’t just tell them.
Immediately calling for backup – If you’re lucky enough to work at a place that might have a door guy or other staff that might be of help in the situation, don’t run to them immediately. Sometimes heckling is really good-natured. If your call in the Brownshirts on a mild dissenter, then you’ve established a rigid tone for the rest of your set. The crowd may think you’re soft or have a fragile ego.
Here are a few things that have worked in my experience:
Ask questions – This is a good tactic for a few reasons. It’s not overly aggressive and it gives you time to get your thoughts in order. One of the scariest prospects of handling a heckler is trying to come up with a witty retort right on the spot. Asking a question puts the pressure back on the heckler and you can start planning your counter-punch.
Let them talk themselves out – They obviously felt passionate about a topic that you were discussing. Often times a heckler has not thought out their point any further than the initial blurting. After the first bullet, you’ll find that there’s not a whole lot of ammo left in the clip.
Check back in with the rest of the audience – The reason a heckler ruins the show is that it takes the focus from a full room down to one person. So as soon as a heckler starts jockeying for attention, the rest of the audience will feel slighted. Use this pressure. There have been times where the audience hated the heckler so much that they started heckling him. You need to keep them engaged and let them know that this is just a blip and you’ll be back with them in just a second.
Being heckled is a painful experience, but try to remember one thing:
“Pain don’t hurt.” – Dalton
AdvertisementsThe Major Lazer and Red Bull Music Academy party at last year’s Notting Hill Carnival was dangerously vibey. Notting Hill is one the main reasons to be proud of London, but when those guys come together to throw a party a certain magic fills the air. Carnival magic bitches!
This year they’ve stepped up their game just that little bit more, so frankly we’re worried about the health of you guys because we’re going to be streaming it around the globe for those cats unfortunate enough to be unable to see it in person.That means you get to see and hear sets from legends like David Rodigan, Machel Montano and Sean Paul as well as probably hearing what the future sounds like from guys like Hudson Mohawke, Lunice, Mele, Lil Silva and well you can see the flyer. Shit will get crazy, that’s the only thing we can guarantee.More than 12m of about 213m eligible American voters across the country have already cast ballots, sometimes waiting in queues around the block to do so, despite the election being six days away.
Barack Obama is leading 53% to McCain's 34% among those who have already voted, according to a poll released today by the Pew Research Centre.
Under a procedure known simply as early voting, 32 states allow voters to cast a ballot before election day, either in person at the polling site or by mail. An additional 14 states and Washington DC allow it if voters can argue they will be unavailable next Tuesday.
The long October queues at polling places anticipate a tremendous surge in voter turnout over previous elections, and statistics from key states indicate an advantage for Barack Obama over rival John McCain among early voters.
"If we're in an election year where you have to wait two hours to vote early, you can imagine what it will look like on election day proper," said Doug Chapin, an election expert at the Pew Centre on the States.
Campaigns, voters and election workers have increasingly embraced early voting this year. Voters enjoy the convenience. Election workers like early voting because it allows them to stress test election procedures while time remains to iron out flaws. It also lessens the crunch on election day.
Research indicates early voters tend to be more partisan and firm in their choices than average, and the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain have encouraged supporters to vote early.
The campaigns and their backers have dispatched volunteers and paid canvassers door to door to push supporters to the polls ahead of election day.
In Florida, where more than 2m have already cast ballots, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden on Monday said an early vote could decide a close race.
"With an early vote, now is the time to choose," he said at a rally. Also on Monday, Michelle Obama launched a two-day swing through the western US to promote early voting.
Leading in national polling and in key battleground states, the Obama campaign hopes early voting will reduce the chances of a late surge by John McCain.
Also, if early voters discover a problem with their registration, there is time to correct it and lessen the risk of disenfranchisement, Obama campaign workers say. That is increasingly vital as states enact polling place identification requirements and voter-roll strictures.
"The more people we can get out, the fewer we have to deal with on November 4," said Faulkner Fox, an Obama volunteer organiser in Durham, North Carolina. "We can bank those votes."
In 2004, 22.5% of American voters cast their ballot before election day. That is expected to rise to as much as one third of all voters this year.
"The question remains if this means a greater share of the 2008 vote will be cast early, if turnout will be up overall, or - as I suspect - a combination of these two factors are in play," writes Michael McDonald, an associate professor of government and politics at George Mason University.
The long queues at early voting sites across the country seem to be benefiting the Democratic ticket. While the votes will not be counted until election day, the party registration statistics in key states anticipate an advantage for Obama.
In North Carolina, for instance, registered Democrats have cast 55% of early ballots, compared with 28% for the Republicans and 17% with no party affiliation, according to McDonald's analysis. In Florida, Democrats have cast 45% of early and absentee votes, compared with 40% for the Republicans and 15% other.
But the apparent early voting advantage for the Democrats may narrow because the Republicans typically start their mobilisation efforts closer to election day, McDonald told the Guardian.
One early vote the Democrats were happy to tout: George Bush last week cast his Texas absentee ballot for John McCain.The switch has promise on paper. Cameras are smaller than side mirror assemblies, so they could help aerodynamics and fuel economy. They also can be placed just about anywhere on the vehicle, whereas mirrors have to be installed in the driver's line of sight.
Letting automakers use cameras would help them "innovate and address field of view, fuel economy and aerodynamics challenges for specific segments of vehicles," Tesla and the alliance wrote in their petition.
But just as Harroun had to fight for his mirror, the age of mirrorless cars will not come easy. Despite the appetite for technology, regulators and safety experts worry that replacing mirrors will put people at greater risk.
"With safety as our highest priority, NHTSA will consider the new rulemaking petition and make a decision based on its merits," the agency wrote in an e-mail to Automotive News last week when asked about the petition.
Tesla has been pushing to use cameras in lieu of side mirrors since at least 2012, when the company unveiled a concept version of its Model X crossover that would allow drivers to look at display screens to check their blind spots. (A more production-ready concept shown in 2013 had mirrors.)
Aerodynamics and weight reduction are critical to maximizing the range of Tesla's all-electric cars. And under CEO Elon Musk, the company has prided itself on adopting new technology and never looking back.
But safety experts worry that drivers reliant on cameras and screens won't look back either. Checking mirrors and turning to look at a blind spot have been part of Driving 101 for generations. Those who educate and license drivers recognize that the introduction of backup cameras -- and someday, mirrorless cars -- could lull drivers into complacency, if not done right.
"These technologies are being introduced with the best of intentions," Peter Kissinger, president of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, said in an interview. "But we have to be sure we don't have unintended consequences."
Because automakers put their latest technology into their most expensive cars, it tends to end up in the hands of older buyers. And research suggests that older buyers may be prone to misunderstanding the new technology.
For example, in a 2008 survey by the foundation, about 43 percent of older drivers who owned cars with adaptive cruise control incorrectly thought the technology would bring their car to a halt if it detected a stopped vehicle ahead.
The next generation of drivers, however, will be more comfortable relying on cameras for their bearings. Backup cameras are increasingly common in mainstream vehicles, and the final regulations issued by NHTSA last week will require all new cars to have a backup camera by mid-2018.
The regulations phase in starting in May 2016. Because automakers generally have a product cycle of five to seven years with a freshening halfway through, they should be able to wait for the next scheduled overhaul to add cameras. Mazda, for instance, will add backup cameras to the Mazda2 subcompact and MX-5 Miata convertible when they are redesigned.
"If we have a product that doesn't have a camera, then we're going to do that when we do a midcycle or launch the new model," said Dan Ryan, Mazda's director of government and public affairs. "But a lot of the products have one already."This blog will be rather short, for a variety of reasons—not the least of which is that here in Seattle we are dealing with an unprecedented succession of snowstorms that have paralysed the city. I myself have had to shovel snow on several consecutive days—and I doubt that I have shoveled more than four times total in all the years I have lived in this otherwise temperate city. Driving is incredibly treacherous, especially for those of us who live on side streets that have no hope of getting ploughed by the meagre resources this city has for such a purpose.
But I am happy to announce that the much-delayed issue of Weird Fiction Review (the ninth annual issue) is now out from Centipede Press (http://www.centipedepress.com/anthologies/wfreview9.html). I see that the publisher is currently offering the issue for a bargain price of $22, so I will undercut him by offering my four spare copies for $20 on the usual terms. It is a splendid issue, with all manner of stories, articles, and artwork, and featuring the usual splendid Centipede Press design. This will be the last issue I edit, as the publisher will now enlist a rotating series of guest editors for each successive issue.
Dark Regions Press informs me that the ebook version of my anthology A Mountain Walked is being promoted on a special sale by BookBub, with a substantial reduction in price for both the US ($1.99) and UK (£1.99) editions. Here is the link to the US edition: https://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Walked-Neil-Gaiman-ebook/dp/B018829F8E; and the UK edition: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mountain-Walked-Neil-Gaiman-ebook/dp/B018829F8E.
A welcome book that has come in recently is Frank Coffman’s outstanding poetry volume The Coven’s Hornbook and Other Poems (Bold Venture Press, 2019). Here is the publisher’s web page for the book: https://boldventurepress.com/the-covens-hornbook-other-poems/. This substantial collection (254 pp.) is well worth obtaining by any devotee of weird poetry. A number of the poems in it have appeared in Spectral Realms.
Another book that has made its way here is The Best of the Scream Factory (Cemetery Dance, 2018: https://www.cemeterydance.com/the-scream-factory.html). This weighty hardcover volume contains my article “How Bad Are Lovecraft’s Revisions?” (from the Autumn 1992 issue). Needless to say, it has many other items of interest.
More later, when the snow melts away!
I am happy to announce receipt (at last) of copies of Ave atque Vale: Reminiscences of H. P. Lovecraft, an immense (502 pp.) compilation of Lovecraft memoirs assembled by David E. Schultz and myself and published by the revived Necronomicon Press (https://necropress.com/ave-atque-vale-reminiscences-of-h-p-lovecraft/). Comparisons will inevitably be made with Peter Cannon’s outstanding volume, Lovecraft Remembered (Arkham House, 1998); we have included most of the material in that volume (some items were omitted for copyright issues; others for editorial reasons) and included several newly discovered memoirs not included in Peter’s volume. The new book is issued in both a limited hardcover and a trade paperback edition, the latter costing $29.95. I have several copies of the paperback and will be happy to let them to go interested customers for $25.00.
For those who are curious as to the meaning and pronunciation of the book’s title, I can state that the phrase is Latin for “hail and farewell” ( atque is somewhat more emphatic than et, although both mean “and”). As for pronunciation—well, this varies depending on whether the phrase is used in prose or in poetry. In prose, it would be rendered something like: “AH-veh [not -vay] aht-queh VAH-leh.” But in poetry, the second syllable of the first word is elided, because it is followed by a word beginning with a vowel. Hence it would be rendered as “AHV’ aht-queh VAH-leh.” Its most famous usage occurs in one of the most poignant lines in the entire range of Latin poetry—Catullus’ poem 101, an elegy on his dead brother: “atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale” (and for all eternity, my brother, hail and farewell). (Note here that the second syllable of the first “atque” is also elided—i.e., “atqu’in”). I can never read that line without choking up—just as I can’t read the final line of Clark Ashton Smith’s elegy on Lovecraft (“And from the spirit’s page thy runes can never pass”) without choking up.
Another book that has emerged is my Development of the Weird Tale, another publication from Sarnath Press. (See the Sarnath Press page for a link to the Amazon entry.) The table of contents of this collection of my miscellaneous essays on weird fiction—ranging from the work of Mary Shelley to the films of Guillermo del Toro—can be found in my blog of September 10, 2018. I will be ordering no books to sell to customers, so people will have to purchase directly from Amazon.
I am in receipt of a new book (although it appears to have emerged in late 2018), Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death and Others, illustrated by Jason Eckhardt and published by Sam Gafford’s Ulthar Press, 2018 (https://ultharpress.com/). I wrote the introduction to the book. Of course, the book is noteworthy because of Eckhardt’s spectacular illustrations, which evoke all the terror and weirdness of Poe’s text. The list price of the book is $11.95. I have exactly one spare copy that I will be happy to let go for $10.
I was much engaged by two recent podcasts by noted writer and critic Scott Bradfield, available on YouTube. The first (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thzC1LDdPw4) discusses a number of my Penguin editions—M. R. James, Blackwood, and others. The other (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPhB5k6Cs8w) is interesting in presenting the impressions of a reader relatively unfamiliar with Lovecraft—and of one who has now reassessed his opinions of the Providence writer and found him much more worthy of consideration than before. The amusing thing is that in these videos Bradfield actually pronounces my last name correctly, but (as so many others have done) flubs on the proper pronunciation of “Cthulhu” (also of “Dunsany”). I have, in my smart-aleck way, pointed out these errors, and Scott promises to correct them in a future podcast.
Another item that has drifted over here, this time from across the Atlantic, is The Green Book, an exceptionally well-produced periodical devoted to “Writings on Irish Gothic, Supernatural and Fantastic Literature,” edited by Brian J. Showers. Issue 11 (Bealtaine 2018) has numerous contributions about Lord Dunsany, including Darrell Schweitzer’s “How Much of Dunsany Is Worth Reading?” (first published in Studies in Weird Fiction, Fall 1991), Martin Andersson’s “Lord Dunsany and the Nobel Prize,” and Mike Carey’s “Appreciating Fifty-One Tales. ” The issue has other pieces by Richard Dalby, Reggie Oliver, David Longhorn, and several others. For ordering information, see the publisher’s website: http://swanriverpress.ie/greenbook.html.
I have been informed by Jerad Walters of Centipede Press that Weird Fiction Review #9 is at the printer, hence I imagine it will be ready soon. The issue is of course quite late, as it should have come out in the fall of 2018. But it will be well worth waiting for! This will be the last issue under my editorship, as the publisher now wishes to have rotating guest editors for each subsequent issue.
Otherwise, work continues here at its usual hectic pace. I am working on all manner of projects … Lovecraft’s Letters to Wilfred B. Talman and Helen V. Sully … a new edition of Samuel Loveman’s Out of the Immortal Night (2004), with considerable new matter … the complete fiction of M. R. James … the Ambrose Bierce letters … and, of course, my ongoing series of Mencken’s essays and journalism. Never a dull moment around here!
Mary and I had a most enjoyable holiday season, highlighted by a trip to Carmel Valley, Calif., to see my two sisters (Ragini and Nalini) and some members of their families. There was quite a haul in terms of presents, including some new slippers as well as sundry chocolates. But the choicest item was nothing less than some of the figurines of the U.S. Presidents that I had so fondly played with as a boy! Ragini found nine of these gents on eBay; I shall now have to find the rest.
Those who have read my memoirs will recall the passage in which I discuss this matter:
One very curious type of solitary play I devised for myself involved a set of tiny (about 2 inches high) porcelain figures of all the American presidents from Washington up to Lyndon Johnson. I have no idea how my mother obtained these objects, but they fascinated me from the start. The pedestals gave the dates of each president’s term in office, so that to this day I know the entire sequence of all the presidents and the years in which most of them served. But I went beyond merely absorbing dry information about these august figures. I began concocting games in which the presidents figured as players—notably what I called “Presidents’ Baseball” and “Presidents’ Football.” For the former, I used a marble (I played with marbles quite a bit) as a (rather large, proportionately speaking) ball and used the pedestals to propel the ball crazily all across my room. (This was, I suppose, closer to kickball than baseball—but I didn’t care about such a trivial detail.) I am astounded that I didn’t break mirrors and other delicate objects in my room, but somehow I didn’t.
I have subsequently learned that these presidents were given out by the local grocery store (I believe it was the IGA) in Urbana, Illinois. I now own nine of them:
Nine U. S. Presidents
For those who are having a hard time making out the figures, they are (from left to right): John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James Knox Polk, Chester Alan Arthur, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In terms of work, I have now nearly finished my compilation of the weird tales of May Sinclair. I am currently reading some biographical and critical material on her for my introduction.
I am happy to announce the completion of His Own Most Fantastic Creation, an original anthology of stories using Lovecraft (or a Lovecraft-like figure) as a fictional character. Here is the list of stories:
Death in All Its Ripeness Mark Samuels Worlds Apart Donald R. Burleson Witch’s Ladder Donald Tyson How Could It Be Elsewise? Richard Gavin A Gentleman of Darkness W. H. Pugmire The Feverish Stars John Shirley The Basilisk David Hambling Captured in Oils Simon Strantzas I Left My Soul at Murder Castle Kirk Sigurdson Dreams Are Forever Scott Wiley A Meeting Beneath the Moon Mark Howard Jones The Return of the Night-Gaunts Darrell Schweitzer The Gilman Woman Stephen Woodworth In His Own Handwriting S. T. Joshi Avenging Angela Jonathan Thomas
I hope PS Publishing can get this book out late this year. My own story was scheduled to appear in my fiction omnibus, The Recurring Doom (due out later this year from Sarnath Press), but it fortuitously fit the theme of the anthology so well that I have placed it there.
I expect 2019 to be a productive year from me, if for no other reason than that I expect to self-publish as many as 12 books of H. L. Mencken’s essays and journalism (2 per month). If you look at the Sarnath Press page, you will see that six of these volumes are already out, and I intend to get two more out this month. This will complete the eight volumes of his writings in the Smart Set, which will then be followed by miscellaneous magazine articles, prefaces and introductions to various books by others, and then the first of many volumes of his newspaper journalism. I don’t imagine these books are exactly flying off the shelves, but I will take personal satisfaction in their appearance.
With the advent of the new year I expect Hippocampus Press to issue several books that have been slightly postponed: the Clark Ashton Smith bibliography; the compilation of the letters between Smith and August Derleth; Lovecraft’s Letters to Family and Family Friends (a 1200-page book!); Letters to Wilfred B. Talman and Helen V. Sully ; Letters to Donald Wandrei and Others ; etc. etc. etc. In addition, there will be fiction volumes by Stephen Woodworth, John Langan, and perhaps others; poetry volumes by Jessica Amanda Salmon |
summer.
Tier 3
Penn State
Let me start this off with saying I love what Pat Chambers is doing at Penn State. He has gotten some not so good Penn State teams to get fired up and play hard in the Big Ten Tourney and he led a young and not so great team to a 7-11 in conference record last year. I’m sure at this point you are probably thinking “okay, but they still weren’t good teams” which is true but it brings me to my next point.
Penn State has brought in probably the most talent ever assembled for a Nittany Lions basketball squad. Their recruiting class this year is ranked #26 (247 rankings) in the country and boasts two 4-star players and two 3 stars (which are 4 stars depending on what source you use). Also, they have redshirt freshman Mike Watkins joining in who was a 4-star recruit himself. Penn State has never really seen these kinds of classes before and with a fiery coach like Chambers they could start to really build something.
Now, time to be realistic, this team is pretty talented but it will be very very young. Most likely this team will have plenty of growing pains and will, at best, be fighting for a bubble spot in the NCAA. Maybe they blow up, but realistically it will take a year or so.
Northwestern
Northwestern is in a similar situation as Penn State where they are recruiting well relative to their history and have a chance to change the outlook of the program. The only issue with Northwestern, and why I am less excited about them, is that they are a year or two ahead of Penn State in the process and the wins just haven’t been there in-conference.
Last year was the perfect chance for Northwestern to have a good year, be tough in conference, and break that NCAA tournament drought. Instead they just looked a lot like the same ole Wildcats that can compete at times but get obliterated at others. Granted they lost Olah to injury for a little while but even when they were at full force with Olah, Demps, and McIntosh they just never looked like and NCAA team.
Anyways, we fast forward to this season and we see a team that needs to replace the production from Alex Olah and Tre Demps. That is a tall order since those two accounted 27.1 PPG and were 2 out of their 3 top scorers. Luckily for them their second leading scorer, Bryant McIntosh, is back and ready to go. McIntosh along with Jordan Ash and Scottie Lindsay should bring a formidable backcourt but I have a tough time seeing this team being much better, if any, over last season.
Tier 4
Minnesota
Minnesota is one of those baffling teams. Back when they hired Richard Pitino it looked like a great move. He had a few solid seasons where they were competing and you think he may be building something and then, boom, all of the sudden it just seemingly falls apart. Nobody was predicting Minnesota to be contenders or anything like that last year but I don’t think anybody expected 2-16 in Big Ten play. Yes, they were young and had injuries but that team didn’t look prepared to play the game of basketball at all.
Anyways, I think things can be turned around. They are bringing in the #30 (247 rankings) recruiting class in the nation and have young guys in Kevin Dorsey, Ahmad Gilbert, and Jordan Murphy that could develop into good players. They also received a couple of transfers to bolster their lineup with experience. Call me crazy, but I could see Minnesota make a bit of a jump this season.
Illinois
Illinois is another team that can just baffle you. They have had talent, are a historically good basketball school, and should have a great recruiting pipeline to Chicago and the surrounding Midwest. Yet here they are being a bottom feeder of the Big Ten. It just feels very hard to buy into Illinois this year.
And the crazy thing is, the Illini bring back basically their entire roster from last year so you would assume there is a good chance for improvement. Heck, they have Malcolm Hill who is one of the best players in the conference and people still hesitate to buy in for the Illini. I’m in that group because John Groce has shown me that he can take a lot and make a little. Prove me wrong Illini.
Nebraska
Unfortunately there isn’t a lot to say about the Corn Huskers right now. They aren’t bringing in a whole lot and they need to replace the production of Shavon Shields. That is not a good thing coming from a team that sat near the bottom of the conference last year. They have a player in Glynn Watson but unless the team gels really well this year it will be a struggle to find success in the Big Ten.
It is a shame too because I like Tim Miles and I felt he was building a good program there. Hopefully he can right the ship this season and quiet the doubters.
Rutgers
Last but not…… oh, ummm well here is Rutgers. What can I say? They were by far the worst team in the conference and arguably one of the worst P5 squads in the nation. They have a new coach in Steve Pikiell which may bring some positives to the program but he has a lot to do to overcome the talent gap between Rutgers and the rest of the Big Ten.
Luckily for Pikiell, he does have an outstanding player in sophomore Corey Sanders. If Pikiell can get the team to play together and buy in then Sanders alone could get him a couple of wins. After that though there isn’t much, so expect to see Rutgers near or at the bottom again.
AdvertisementsGreen tea is a daily beverage, a non-oxidized non-fermented product containing at least four green tea catechins. Considering our first results when repeated applications of (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) prevented tumor promotion in mouse skin, we have continued to look at green tea as a possible cancer preventive agent. 1) The 10-year prospective cohort study by Drs. K. Nakachi and K. Imai revealed that drinking 10 Japanese-size cups (120 mL/cup) of green tea per day delayed cancer onset in humans by 7.3 years among females and by 3.2 years among males. The delay of cancer onset is of course significant evidence of primary cancer prevention in humans. 2) In collaboration with Dr. H. Moriwaki's group we successfully presented a prototype of tertiary cancer prevention showing that 10 Japanese-size cups of green tea daily, supplemented with tablets of green tea extract (G.T.E), reduced recurrence of colorectal adenomas in polypectomy patients by 51.6% (from 31% to 15%). 3) In 1999, we first reported that the combination of green tea catechins and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs showed synergistic anticancer effects in both in vitro and in vivo experiments, along with elucidation of the mechanism. 4) Further studies by other investigators have revealed that various combinations of EGCG or green tea extract and anticancer compounds inhibit tumor volume in xenograft mouse models implanted with various human cancer cell lines. Green tea is a cancer preventive, and green tea catechins act as synergists with anticancer compounds.A special agent with the US Secret Service (USSS) is speaking out against bitcoin and digital currency technology on the grounds that criminal activity is its most compelling use case.
Taking place during a talk at the 17th annual OpRisk North America conference, USSS agent Tate Jarrow suggested that without digital currencies, “cybercrime would be much more difficult”, according to report by Buy-Side Technology.
The magazine reports Jarrow “did not hold back” his opinion at the conference, alleging that the majority of digital currency activity is generated by criminals.
Jarrow asserted:
“They want to use anonymous currency that allows them to do transactions, move large amounts of money, without ever being traced. That’s why digital currency is very important. It’s used for all this bad stuff.”
In his talks, Jarrow highlighted past examples of illicit services enabled by digital currency, including the now-defunct payment processor Liberty Reserve and black market Silk Road, which he alleged could not have been enabled by companies like PayPal.
“Digital currency exists because people want to be outside that system,” he added.
Jarrow was awarded the Secretary’s Exceptional Service Award, which honors exceptional leadership or service that improves US homeland security, in 2014.
Hat tip to Buy-Side Technology
Secret Service agent via ShutterstockPhotography by Ben Nelms for The Globe and Mail
Bob Fisher shakes his head as he looks over at the palatial new building next door to his beekeeping operation. It was supposed to be a single-family farmhouse – approved as such by city hall – built on some of Canada's best farmland, in this suburb south of Vancouver.
Instead, it's a 23,000-square-foot mega-mansion – with Roman columns, a grand marble entrance and luxurious guest suites. It sits empty, on what used to be a blueberry farm, partially hidden by a hedge, waiting to receive guests.
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"They took out an acre and a half from the original [9.9-acre] farm in order to accommodate that building," Mr. Fisher says.
"The government says we have to preserve farmland – and we are not preserving anything," he adds. "People are skirting around it, getting through the loopholes. I don't know how they are doing it – but they are."
Dozens of huge new mansions – some sitting empty – are changing the landscape of prime farmland in suburban Vancouver. Some are among the 122 agricultural properties in the area that changed hands for more than $2-million – apiece – between August, 2015, and last July.
These farms sold for a total of $449-million, while the province pegs their taxable value at just over one-tenth of that: $52-million. That is because, under provincial law, the value of farmland is judged by how good the soil is, not what an investor will pay for it.
As part of its ongoing investigation into the real-estate market in B.C's Lower Mainland, The Globe and Mail has conducted a detailed analysis of those properties – their sales, tax, mortgage and ownership records. The results show that speculators and investors, not farmers, were behind at least 73 – almost 60 per cent – of the purchases.
The investigation also shows that those buyers enjoy huge tax breaks that are intended to support farming but, in effect, encourage speculation instead.
British Columbia law stipulates that agricultural properties with more than two acres can keep their farm status – and all their tax breaks – as long as they sell just $2,500 worth of farm products a year. That can include Christmas trees or hay to the neighbours. A recent report shows that a quarter of farms in suburban Vancouver meet only those minimum requirements.
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The day The Globe visited Mr. Fisher, no one was around next door, except a heavy-equipment operator ripping out blueberry bushes. The property is owned by Wenli Shan and Liqiu Leng, an investor couple from China, who paid $3.4-million for it six years ago. No one responded when The Globe attempted to reach them.
Mr. Fisher says he has been inside the opulent building and talked to the contractors. He describes it as essentially a private luxury hotel where, he was told, the businessman owner will send special guests.
"He can say to his clients all around the world, 'You want to come to Vancouver? Here is a place to stay.'"
Construction equipment sits surrounded by dug-up blueberry bushes next to Mr. Fisher’s property. Mr. Fisher says the builders took out 1.5 acres from the 9.9-acre original farm to accommodate the building.
Mr. Fisher says it’s ‘disgusting’ how investors who he says aren’t interested in farming have used the land.
Bob Fisher: ‘The government says we have to preserve farmland – and we are not preserving anything. People are skirting around it, getting through the loopholes.’
Astonishing tax advantages
Prices for suburban farm properties have soared in tandem with Vancouver's residential real-estate market, but without the public outcry. The Globe analysis shows that foreign and local buyers paid an average of $3.7-million for each of the 122 parcels. They are property managers, realtors, developers and wealthy business people, including a tech entrepreneur and the owner of a car dealership.
Several are holding the land and leasing it out – for piecemeal farming – while, in some cases, applying to have it rezoned or taken out of B.C.'s Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), where it is protected from development. Others are building luxury mansions, then either not farming or keeping it to a minimum.
Metro Vancouver now estimates fully half of its agricultural land – ostensibly protected as such – is not being farmed at all. Half of that has rich, high-yield soil cherished by those who work the land. Even though B.C.'s Lower Mainland is heavily populated, the mild climate, quality soil and abundant precipitation make it one of the best places to farm in Canada.
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The 122 properties have historically been used for fruit, vegetable, grain and livestock farming. Most of the land is in the ALR, where land use is severely restricted and taxes kept deliberately low.
As a result, the tax advantages the new investors enjoy are astonishing. The Globe discovered significant discrepancies between market prices for properties and the assessments set by a provincial agency that determines how much tax owners pay.
Taxing just these 122 properties at full residential rates, based on their sales prices, would put roughly another $2-million in municipal coffers each year. Effectively, wealthy investors and speculators are receiving millions in tax breaks not meant for them.
Builders consulted by The Globe estimate that the facility next to Mr. Fisher's bee farm likely cost as much as $8-million to construct – which, added to the $3.4-million purchase price, would make the property worth an estimated $12-million. But the land's assessed value – excluding the mansion – is just $44,000. This year, the new building increased the tax bill to $11,000, but a property worth the same amount in an urban neighbourhood would pay five times that.
Back in July, a B.C. numbered company linked to a Hong Kong firm registered in the Cayman Islands snapped up a piece of vacant farmland in suburban Maple Ridge for $6-million – 33 times what the government pegs its value at. Five years ago, the same land sold for just $15,200.
The company has Tony Cai, son of a politically connected billionaire from China, as its director, and this year will pay about $5,300 in property tax, which includes a standard 50-per-cent break on school levies. By contrast, the tax bill for a residential property in the same municipality with the same market value would be roughly $77,000.
The Globe found dozens of similar examples. In another startling case, a local company, Rosemary Developments, paid $16.7-million for 10 acres of farmland east of Richmond in Surrey. Its tax bill this year: $400. If the tax were on its full market value, the levy would be 196 times that. The property has been bought and sold several times in recent years. Previous investors include a foreign student.
In addition, agricultural land around Vancouver has just become even more attractive to overseas investors. That's because the province's new 15-per-cent real-estate tax on foreign buyers applies only to the selling price of the farmhouse; the land is tax-free. B.C. is also the only Western province that, like Ontario, doesn't restrict the amount of farmland foreign investors can buy. By contrast, Saskatchewan limits such purchases to 10 acres.
Real-estate reform: All you need to know Get caught up on the sweeping changes the federal government and British Columbia have introduced in the past year.
Guo Tai Shi is the type of investor who stands to benefit. He has built two mega-mansions on seven acres of farmland he owns in Richmond. One is 22,000 square feet and has five luxury suites. The other is half that size and still under construction. It will feature eight bathrooms, and at the rear, the rich soil is being removed to make room for a swimming pool.
Mr. Shi spends much of his time in China, but also owns companies in B.C., including Wonderful Hotel and Resort Management and Wonderful International Travel. Between 2009 and 2014, he spent $17.5-million on real estate in the province, including two downtown penthouses, coastal land on West Vancouver's pricey Abode Island and Fox Island on the Sunshine Coast, as well as the two farmland parcels. The value of Mr. Shi's 13 properties, which have no mortgages, shot up by millions more during Vancouver's recent market frenzy.
Wendy Liang, who runs his travel agency, says that Mr. Shi's 22,000-square-foot Richmond mansion has five large suites, with "massage Jacuzzis"; three of the suites, she says, are currently rented out. Next summer, Ms. Liang plans to market the luxury accommodations to visitors from China, who will be invited to pick blueberries from the bushes that remain.
"It will be a boutique hotel. It will provide accommodations in luxury for the guests – agriculture tourism," she says. "People from China will like the authentic community experience. They want more about Canadian culture. It could be a special place for them to stay."
One of investor Guo Tai Shi’s two mansions in Richmond. Wendy Liang, who runs Mr. Shi’s travel agency, says she plans to market the luxury accommodations next summer to visitors from China.
Vancouver’s recent market frenzy has boosted value of Mr. Shi’s 13 properties, which have no mortgages.
The smaller of Mr. Shi’s mansions is still under construction. He has invested millions to attract luxury agricultural tourism for visitors from China.
Complaints but no fines
This is happening despite the fact that land-use bylaws don't allow hotels on agricultural land. Mr. Shi's facility was recently inspected by bylaw officers, who suspected the suites were being rented out, which is illegal. When they arrived – after giving their standard, 24-hour notice – they found no tenants, so the owner faced no penalty.
Richmond councillor Carol Day says the city has received complaints about illegal suites at several addresses, but has yet to issue any fines because owners have promised to comply with the bylaw. Ms. Day says the new single-family farmhouses – large as they are – were approved solely as residences for owners and their families.
"There is no licence for having a hotel on farmland. It's not allowed. Period," she insists. "You have to be on land that is zoned for it. So you are never going to get a licence for a hotel on farmland. Not going to happen."
Mr. Shi's last tax bill for the property where he's building the eight-bathroom mansion was just $4,867. That land has no crops whatsoever. Under provincial law, owners of unfarmed land located in municipalities are supposed to pay taxes based on market values. Even these tax bills remain low, however, because the province considers land in protected agricultural areas of low value.
"The system is broken," Ms. Day says. "It is not reflective of the market and, because of that, it is biased and unfair. You get [unpicked] blueberry bushes that are 12 feet tall. Cranberry fields that are not being maintained. This is good soil; it should be farmed."
By the numbers: Farmland sales in Metro Vancouver Total for all open-market sales* 2005-06: $81,233,526 2015-16: $185,472,225 Average sale price 2005-06: $369,243 2015-16: $936,728 Lowest assessed property value 2015-16: $34 Sale price: $313,800 Highest assessed property value 2015-16: $1,864,384 Sale price: $3,680,000 **Excludes the roughly one-third of all transactions that are made for negligible amounts ($1 or less), often between family members. Source: Landcor Data Corporation
Even on farms considered active, homes are supposed to be assessed on the basis of market value if they're in a municipality. However, the 23,000-square-foot mansion next door to Mr. Fisher is officially valued at just $2.9-million, less than half of what it cost to build. Mr. Shi's blueberry farm "hotel" is also assessed at under $3-million – far below its value.
The agency that does property assessments has indicated to The Globe that those taxes will likely be higher next year, now that construction is finished.
"The regulatory process seems very lazy," says Tsur Somerville, a real-estate analyst at UBC's Sauder School of Business who has studied the issue. "Everybody gets mad when rich people aren't paying their fair share. If we are screaming about money for education, this is money for education, left on the table."
Emily Liu and her husband, a home builder, invested $3.38-million in a five-acre blueberry farm last year. The couple also has a multimillion-dollar Vancouver property whose taxes are $8,071. Ms. Liu says they plan to build on the farmland – and the $1,073 tax bill was a key attraction.
"It's not so expensive, compared to Vancouver," she says, adding: "We love blueberries."
Several investor-owned properties like hers are being farmed, but only marginally. According to a report produced with little fanfare by Metro Vancouver in September, 24 per cent of all active area farms meet only the bare minimum income requirements.
"Agricultural land is increasingly threatened from non-farm land uses," reads the report, which urges the province to overhaul the entire tax system. "Today in Metro Vancouver [which includes 21 municipalities], there are more non-farm property owners in the ALR than there are farmers."
The report suggests that only farms earning significant income should merit full tax breaks. It also proposes that owners who don't farm the land at all should be taxed the same as anyone in the city. "Tax reform will send a clear signal that the tax benefits afforded to landowners in the ALR are intended only for actively farmed land."
Fallow agricultural land in Delta, B.C. This July, two investors from China bought the 22 acres of vacant land for $2.9-million. They also own a home in Richmond.
A for-sale sign stands on fallow land in Delta. Metro Vancouver now estimates fully half of its agricultural land is not being farmed at all.
Avoiding transfer taxes and foreign-buyer levies
Realtors play a significant role in promoting the advantages that exist, particularly to foreign buyers. Several have ads highlighting tax savings on farmland.
One on Edojia.com, a Chinese-language website, translates as, "Sellers have established farm status, growing organic garlic, and planted a grove of nut trees, creating a lower property-tax rate." According to another, "Property grows hay and has farm status with minimal taxes."
A pitch on Vanfun.com urges prospective buyers: "Build your dream mansion here. Great location … Annual taxes just $651.56."
Richmond city councillor Harold Steves says that one local agent made a "tremendous" fuss when the city recently tried to limit rental suites on farmland.
"I was phoned by the realtor selling these properties who called me a racist," he says. "I have been told that our staff were called racists as well."
Race and real estate In Episode 9 of The Globe’s podcast on race in Canada, Hannah Sung travels to Vancouver to learn the history of race and space in B.C.
Layla Yang, a high-profile Vancouver-area realtor with Re/Max, recently advertised a large farm property for sale, tax-free. Through her ad, The Globe discovered yet another way investors in farmland can benefit: by avoiding property-transfer taxes.
A Globe representative who speaks Mandarin called Ms. Yang's assistant, Molly Tao, who explained that the $5.68-million farm parcel in question belongs to a numbered company, set up to hold the property in what is called a bare trust.
Ms. Tao said a buyer would simply purchase the shares in the numbered company. Because the company name on the property title wouldn't change, no sale would be registered. That way, the buyer would avoid $112,000 in provincial transfer tax, as well as the 15-per-cent foreign-buyer levy, on the value of the old farmhouse.
"The land is under the name of the company," Ms. Tao said. "Which means the [foreign buyer] tax will also be gone because [the residential property] is included in the business."
However, the B.C. finance ministry says the foreign-buyer levy would still apply, and it is trying to catch transactions such as this by flagging properties registered in bare trusts and then auditing any subsequent sales, to look for foreign buyers. It also says it may disallow tax-free property transfers through numbered companies altogether, a promise Finance Minister Mike de Jong first made more than a year ago.
Ten of the 122 farm parcels sold last year for more than $2-million were bought by numbered companies set up at the time of purchase, indicating they may also be bare trusts.
A sprawling home in Richmond. Several realtors have ads highlighting the tax savings of building on farmland.
Buyers, beware
The Globe also found scores of ads aimed at speculators – marketing farm properties as hot commodities ripe for development, in a region that desperately needs more housing.
"Potential for future development," reads one ad, for a $7.5-million farm.
"Good holding property and great potential for future development," says another.
"Great holding property with income … as development heads your way," promises another.
John Gaskin recently sold his family farm in Richmond to a foreign investor he believes is hoping to cash in on future development. He says he had no intention of leaving his home of 46 years until a realtor knocked on the door, saying a buyer was willing to pay $3.5-million: "I wasn't in a hurry to sell, but the price was good."
But Mr. Gaskin also thinks realtors should warn foreign clients how hard it is to have Canadian farmland rezoned. If not, they are in for a nasty surprise.
His own buyers, for example, "don't know what they got themselves into. I wanted to build another house and [the authorities] wouldn't let me," he says. "They are going to be in for big problems."
This summer, Richmond said no to a farmland owner who wanted to build what the city called a "hotel or multifamily building" that would have been 41,000 square feet, with a swimming pool, Ping-Pong gazebo and badminton court. Councillor Steves says it was the first time the city had ever refused such a permit.
Richmond then fired off a letter to the provincial minister of agriculture, asking for a law to restrict the size of farmhouses, similar to local bylaws already in place in Surrey and neighbouring Delta.
Brent Mansfield of the B.C. Food Systems Network says that his organization, which advocates for preserving farmland, is pushing for restrictions as well.
"The further this goes, the harder it's going to be to turn it around. If you pave a farm and clear topsoil – it's gone," he says. "We need drastic action by policymakers to insure our food security into the future."
Richard Bullock blames the B.C. government for the whole situation, which he says is out of control and benefits no one – not even the investors, who can't do as they please with their land. Last year, the province fired Mr. Bullock from his post as chair of the Agriculture Land Commission, after he rejected almost all applications for farmland to be removed from the ALR for development.
"I got pushback from the government constantly. That is why I am gone," he says. "It's great politics for people in government to have these wealthy folks come in and buy land."
In the year since he left, three farm-declassification applications have been approved – as many as have been rejected. Mr. Bullock says he is particularly upset with realtors, whom he believes are misleading their clients about what can be done with the land.
"They are bloody lying," he argues. "There are so many of them that are false-advertising."
Mr. Bullock also supports tax reform, but says he'd rather see the province throw cold water on speculative investment altogether, by simply banning development on farmable land, unless it's required for public use.
"It needs serious updating," he says. "Somebody in government has got to stand up and say, 'When you buy farmland, that is what you are buying.'"
Kathy Tomlinson is a member of The Globe and Mail's investigative team, and prepared this report with files from freelance writer Xiao Xu.
Follow Kathy Tomlinson on Twitter: @KathyTGlobe
MORE FROM THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Investigation: Vancouver speculators taking advantage of loopholes and lax oversight Kathy Tomlinson explores how a network of local and foreign speculators played the system and, in the process, fuelled the steep rise in Vancouver home prices.
Vancouver needs to build more homes in order to tackle the affordability issue, B.C. finance minister says 1:29Muslim groups and French authorities were quick to express their condemnation after it was discovered on Sunday that vandals sprayed Nazi graffiti and left a pig’s head on the building site of a planned mosque, branding the attack as “Islamophobic” and “racist”.
Construction on the site of the planned mosque, in Meaux, a town in the Seine-et-Marne department near Paris, is due to be completed in July.
Abdallah Zekri, president of the Observatory on Islamophobia told French daily Le Parisien he felt nauseated “when confronted by people who continue to desecrate places of worship”.
Mayor of Meaux, Franck Riester condemned the attacks as “unacceptable”, adding: “We must try to calm tensions and respect every citizen, whatever their religion.”
“Muslims have been practicing in unfit conditions,” he continued, “in a room in the town’s old abattoirs. We are renting this land to them so they can build a hall.”
The offensive graffiti is the latest in a spate of abuse directed at Muslims and mosques in France in recent months.
In February it was reported that red swastikas had been daubed on the wall of a mosque in a town near Paris. Six swastikas were drawn on the front of the mosque at Provins, in the Seine et Marne department outside the French capital.
The symbols at the Provins mosque were discovered by worshipers when they turned up for morning prayers.
The attack came just a week after several mosques across France were also targeted with similar Islamophobic graffiti.
In an interview with The Local following the attack, Marwan Muhammad from the Collective against Islamophobia in France blamed the current anti-Muslim climate in France for the recent attacks.
“Muslims are being stigmatized and presented as a problem in France,” he told The Local. “Negative signals are being sent out by politicians, including those on the left, and this helps to empower people to take action.
“Police need to find them and punish them in the strongest way possible. They need to send a message that people cannot get away with this," said Muhammad.If you play word association with a UM football fan and say Rashawn Scott, you will likely get two responses — suspensions and shoulder injuries.
After a breakout sophomore season in 2012 (35 receptions for 512 yards and three touchdowns), Scott missed most of his 2013 with a shoulder injury and then all of 2014 with his third injury in the same region — this time his clavicle. He has also faced multiple suspensions for violation of team rules.
Scott’s clavicle injury, sustained in a fall camp scrimmage, was a dangerous one. Offensive coordinator James Coley has previously said his bone hit an artery.
For six weeks Scott would have to sleep in an upright position because it was too painful — and unsafe — to lie flat.
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While he can sleep normally now, Scott, atop the depth chart at wide receiver, is finally in an upright position with the team.
He has recovered fully and impressed in the first five practices of the spring. His actions that led to those suspensions — a thing of the past.
“He’s acting like older players should act right now. We’re in there watching film as a staff, and he stops in with his lunch and he wants to pick up whatever he can pick up,” coach Al Golden said. “They become great when they do that and they absolutely immerse themselves into it, and he’s doing that right now.”
He has Coley’s attention, too.
“He’s just grinding,” Coley said. “He’s working hard. He’s being a gym rat. He’s upstairs all the time. ‘Hey, Coach, do you mind if I sit in your office and watch video?’ And then he’s out here working his tail off.”
Word association with coaches on Scott results in something more along the lines of “playmaker” these days.
“I’m taking that role, and it’s not only me. I want everybody else to take it,” said Scott, who is UM’s oldest receiver. “It’s that time. [I have] no more time left. That’s how I feel.”
Limited playing time since 2012 has been difficult for Scott, but he stayed motivated and kept his focus on the future.
Coley is looking forward to utilizing a healthy and mature Scott.
“When I first got here, I thought he was one of the most talented guys here,” Coley said of Scott before his “freak” injuries, as he calls them, may have derailed that notion. “I’m excited again.”
This and that
▪ Nickel cornerback Antonio Crawford missed his second consecutive practice after tweeting about his displeasure with the way he’s treated on the team Saturday. Golden continued to keep matters internal on Tuesday and added that Crawford is currently “excused.” But he is still on the roster.
Corn Elder, who could replace Crawford in the nickel, was upgraded from a red non-contact jersey Sunday to a yellow limited jersey on Tuesday.
Joining Crawford in absence Tuesday were linebackers Jermaine Grace and Terry McCray and running back Trayone Gray — a coach’s decision for academic reasons.
“If they don’t take care of their stuff academically, they’re of no use to anybody,” Golden said. “Maturity’s a big part of that.”
▪ The Canes received the 19th oral commitment for their 2016 class with the pledge of 6-1, 170-pound Hallandale cornerback Deion Jackson, a consensus three-star recruit.The Office will close its doors for good on May 16, but it won’t be long before John Krasinski pops up on a television comedy again: He is making a cameo appearance on the new season of Arrested Development.
Details of the Office star’s brief guest spot — which is tucked into one of the 15 new episodes that Netflix is releasing on May 26 — are being kept under wraps.
Other celebrities slated to appear on the revived cult comedy include Ben Stiller, Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Conan O’Brien, Andy Richter, Isla Fisher, John Slattery, Liza Minnelli, Carl Weathers, Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Scott Baio, and the Workaholics trio.
Pierre Vinet
For our cover story on Arrested Development, pick up a copy of this week’s Entertainment Weekly, available on newsstands now. And to see two photos from an upcoming episode, visit our Facebook page.
(Twitter: @dansnierson)
Read more:
Ben Stiller to guest on ‘Arrested Development’
‘Arrested Development’: The writers’ room was like a ‘psycho killer’s apartment’
‘Arrested Development’ sneak peek: Buster and Lucille get closer than ever — EXCLUSIVE CLIP
‘Arrested Development’: New season to debut May 26 on Netflix, extra episode added
‘Arrested Development’: Seth Rogen and Kristen Wiig to guest
‘Arrested Development’ creator confident of movie deal
‘Arrested Development’ cast and creator talk new episodes, unspool deleted scene at TCA panel
‘Arrested Development’: The photo you’ve been waiting years to see
Jason Bateman tweets pic from ‘Arrested Development’ set: 3 theories for what it could beYou might've heard about Big Ten members and constituents making a big fuss over the conference expanding its football schedule to include Friday nights. Fans, coaches, schools, and local high schools hate the idea, Iowa's over here trying to make the whole thing illegal in the state, and Northwestern's just moving its Fridayers to Saturday, but it'll make some money, so it'll happen on some level.
The thing is: There's nothing inherent in Big Ten football that makes it especially unworthy of stooping to Friday nights, other than the fact that it hadn't yet. Friday night college football is bad anyway, across the board.
Tuesday MACtion is fine, as are Fun Belt Wednesdays, and Thursdays have been around so long and usually include enough substance to be worthwhile.
But Fridays mean weak schedules, games dragging until 2 a.m. ET just hours before an entire Saturday kicks off, high school games getting stampeded over, and West Coast games that began right after fans clocked out at the surfboard mill, meaning little time to actually fill the stadium.
What are the most treasured moments in the history of Friday college football? Oklahoma State-Iowa State, Mack Brown leaving early. That's it. Otherwise, the weekly Friday lineup is as follows:
A slow-bleeding Power 5 blowout
A Mountain West game broadcast on Instagram
BYU kicking off at, like, 11:999 p.m. ET somehow and not finishing until GameDay
So thank you, Big Ten, for standing against Friday. You have your reasons, but this coalition accepts all who oppose Friday night college football, no matter their motives.
Poll What is the worst day for college football? This poll is closed. 29% Sunday (216 votes)
12% Monday (94 votes)
9% Tuesday (67 votes)
4% Wednesday (33 votes)
2% Thursday (18 votes)
39% Friday (293 votes)
2% Saturday (15 votes) 736 votes total Vote Now
More college footballBreaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
March 15, 2015, 8:20 AM GMT / Updated March 15, 2015, 8:37 AM GMT
LAHORE, |
around long at all in the scheme of things, so maybe other races visited us, but so long ago we cannot remember them, or we were not evolved enough then.
Another suggestion is “The Great Filter”. This states that in the evolution of life there is a wall that is very difficult for life to overcome. There are three versions of this theory. In the first we are rare, as we have already surpassed the Filter. If this is true, we have not heard from anyone because we could be one of the only life-forms in the universe to have surpassed the filter and become living creatures.
“If this is true, we have not heard from anyone because we could be one of the only life-forms in the universe.”
In version two, we are the first to reach the state of “intelligent being,” in which case, we and some other species are on the way to super intelligence and possibly contact, but we are not there yet.
Version three holds that the Filter is still ahead of us, and that like all that came before us, we are doomed to fail to pass through it. Maybe it is a natural event that wipes out life, or maybe a nasty side effect of intelligent civilisations is that we will inevitably end up destroying ourselves. In this case, we could be heading towards inevitable demise, like many of our galactic neighbours before us.
Other hypotheses stem from the idea that other civilisations are indeed out there, but that there are multiple reasons why we have not heard from them. Space is a pretty big place after all, and if we live in the space equivalent of the middle of nowhere there could be practical reasons why we have not been stumbled across yet.
Maybe other species are perfectly happy where they are, and have no interest in exploring or colonising, thank you very much. Maybe we have not met yet because space is made up of civilisations of introverts.
“Maybe we have not met yet because space is made up of civilisations of introverts.”
Other possibilities for why we haven’t made contact with other species are scarier. It could be that there are one or more “predator” civilisations in the depths of space, and other races have the good sense to stay quiet, like birds when a raptor soars overhead. This makes our habit of sending out messages potentially risky indeed. Maybe this race has exterminated every intelligent civilisation it came across.
What could be the most likely reason is that we are just too primitive for other races. Either we are sending out signals no one listens for, or not listening to the right ones. Maybe life from other planets is so different to life here that it could be right under our noses and we would not notice. Perhaps we look so primitive to other life forms that Earth is the equivalent to a zoo or nature reserve, in which case they are not going to even bother communicating. We could be so insignificant that they have not paid us much thought.
Whatever the answer is, it is mind-blowing to think of all the different possibilities. Maybe we are not real at all and this is a simulation. Maybe the aliens came here, met the dinosaurs and decided to never return. It is certainly food for thought next time you look up at the night sky.Jerz > Writing > Technical > Short Reports [ 1 | 2 | 3 ]
A business memo, a lab report, or a professional e-mail are all variations on the basic report structure described in this document. Feel free to modify these guidelines in order to meet your reader’s needs.
Think of Your Reader First
Your busy reader has a problem, and has turned to your report for help. What, exactly, does your reader want? Deliver it as efficiently as possible. Begin with Your Conclusions
A technical document is not a mystery novel. Don’t save your best points for the end, because most readers are too impatient to wait. Organize with Appropriate Headings
break the content into sections (like introduction, background, discussion, and conclusion).
Paragraphs Aren’t Always Helpful in Tech Writing
Your English literature teachers probably taught you to value topic sentences, concluding sentences, and well-crafted transitions that pull the reader along to the next point. But the kind of thought-packed prose that would please your English teacher probably won’t be the most efficient way to communicate technical information.
I certainly don’t mean to say that you can get away with sloppy paragraphs in technical writing — in fact, you need to demonstrate a lot more control over your prose. I am simply pointing out that most readers won’t read and ponder every word that you write — at least, not with the patience and thoroughness with which your English teacher would have read and appreciated the brilliance of your prose.
Technical paragraphs often don’t need concluding or transitional sentences; the inverted pyramid structure (starting with what’s most important, then trailing off with details) often makes a conclusion redundant, and the visibility of the subheadings encourages readers to skip around, rather than work their way from beginning to end, following each transition.
Next: Think of Your Reader First
Technical Writing > Short Reports [ 1 | 2 | 3 ]
Dennis G. Jerz
25 Oct 2001 — rough draft first posted
10 Nov 2001 — last modified
09 Jan 2004 — minor edits
23 Aug 2012 — reformattingPanned When It First Came Out, The Clinton Logo Is Saying Something Now
Enlarge this image toggle caption Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images
toggle caption Hillary Clinton campaign
toggle caption Hillary Clinton campaign
toggle caption Hillary Clinton campaign
toggle caption Hillary Clinton campaign
Hillary Clinton's new logo has been much maligned. A simple, rightward-pointing "H" with a red arrow through it that looks like it could have been made with Microsoft Paint.
Red, the color of the other team. How could she? some Democrats wondered. It seemed so amateurish, some design experts lamented.
"I think the Hillary logo is really saying nothing," Scott Thomas told Politico. Thomas was design director for Obama's 2008 campaign and worked on the White House website's redesign.
Clinton's simple logo, though, is certainly saying something now. On Tuesday, the day of the Supreme Court oral arguments on gay marriage, her H on both Facebook and Twitter were changed to rainbow-colored.
And it's not the only example of how the campaign has tried to adapt the logo. For Iowa, the background is an open field with corn in the foreground. For New Hampshire, mountains.
It's kind of becoming the Empire State Building of presidential campaign logos — changing colors to celebrate any variety of milestones and holidays, from pink for breast cancer awareness to red, white and blue for Memorial Day to "pastel fades" for Easter. (The Empire State Building has a whole calendar of scheduled colors.)
Among perhaps the smartest analyses of the logo was one from Sol Sender, who designed Obama's 2008 logo. He told the Huffington Post that the point of campaign logo design is to first address one of the candidate's biggest weaknesses. For Obama, because of his unusual name, the campaign knew it had to play up patriotism. For Clinton, it's the criticism that she represents the past.
"If you boil it down it's really a symbol of forward motion," Sender said of Clinton's logo. "On the Obama work we were really conscious from the start about where he was vulnerable — we knew Obama critics said things like, 'He's not American.' So we thought going strong with a patriotic theme was quite important. Hence the red, white and blue colors in the Obama logo.
"In terms of vulnerabilities," he said, "Hillary always seems to get dragged into the past by her critics. Therefore, you might argue that a symbol like this, which is so aggressively pushing forward, could help counterbalance any negative energy that is directed at her past."The following is the text found in the Thomason Tracts (669. f. 10 (47)), dated 8 April 1646.[6]
The World Turned Upside Down (To the Tune of, When the King enioys his own again.)
Listen to me and you shall hear, news hath not been this thousand year:
Since Herod, Caesar, and many more, you never heard the like before.
Holy-dayes are despis'd, new fashions are devis'd.
Old Christmas is kickt out of Town.
Yet let's be content, and the times lament, you see the world turn'd upside down.
The wise men did rejoyce to see our Savior Christs Nativity:
The Angels did good tidings bring, the Sheepheards did rejoyce and sing.
Let all honest men, take example by them.
Why should we from good Laws be bound?
Yet let's be content, and the times lament, you see the world turn'd upside down.
Command is given, we must obey, and quite forget old Christmas day:
Kill a thousand men, or a Town regain, we will give thanks and praise amain.
The wine pot shall clinke, we will feast and drinke.
And then strange motions will abound.
Yet let's be content, and the times lament, you see the world turn'd upside down.
Our Lords and Knights, and Gentry too, doe mean old fashions to forgoe:
They set a porter at the gate, that none must enter in thereat.
They count it a sin, when poor people come in.
Hospitality it selfe is drown'd.
Yet let's be content, and the times lament, you see the world turn'd upside down.
The serving men doe sit and whine, and thinke it long ere dinner time:
The Butler's still out of the way, or else my Lady keeps the key,
The poor old cook, in the larder doth look,
Where is no goodnesse to be found,
Yet let's be content, and the times lament, you see the world turn'd upside down.
To conclude, I'le tell you news that's right, Christmas was kil'd at Naseby fight:
Charity was slain at that same time, Jack Tell troth too, a friend of mine,
Likewise then did die, rost beef and shred pie,
Pig, Goose and Capon no quarter found.
Yet let's be content, and the times lament, you see the world turn'd upside down.dbacl - a digramic Bayesian classifier
Introduction
The dbacl project consist of a set of lightweight UNIX/POSIX utilities which can be used, either directly or in shell scripts, to classify text documents automatically, according to Bayesian statistical principles. dbacl(1) is also the name of the core utility.
Automatic text classification can be used for a variety of tasks, including: junk email filtering, web page screening, simple automated answering machines, email prioritization and advanced sorting, topical news gathering, and even playing chess. The dbacl utilities cannot do all these tasks directly, but by concentrating on simple, powerful, and easily integrated tools these applications become possible.
Bayesian statistics is a formal way of combining prior beliefs with observed facts into posterior beliefs, and ultimately, informed decisions.
The dbacl project uses this method to calculate posterior probabilities that a given text resembles one of any number of previously learned document collections, and makes mathematically optimal decisions based on arbitrarily chosen misclassification costs.
The dbacl utilities are Free Software distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s promise to use existing funds to begin immediate construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border has hit a financial roadblock, according to a document seen by Reuters.
The rapid start of construction, promised throughout Trump’s campaign and in an executive order issued in January on border security, was to be financed, according to the White House, with “existing funds and resources” of the Department of Homeland Security.
But so far, the DHS has identified only $20 million that can be re-directed to the multi-billion-dollar project, according to a document prepared by the agency and distributed to congressional budget staff last week.
The document said the funds would be enough to cover a handful of contracts for wall prototypes, but not enough to begin construction of an actual barrier. This means that for the wall to move forward, the White House will need to convince Congress to appropriate funds.
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An internal report, previously reported by Reuters, estimated that fully walling off or fencing the entire southern border would cost $21.6 billion - $9.3 million per mile of fence and $17.8 million per mile of wall.
DHS officials did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
Trump has said he will ask Congress to pay for what existing funds cannot cover and that Mexico will be pressured to pay back U.S. taxpayers at a later date.
Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he will include funding for a border wall in the budget for next fiscal year. He has estimated the cost to be between $12 billion and $15 billion.
Many Republican lawmakers have said they would vote against a plan that does not offset the cost of the wall with spending cuts.
In the document it submitted to Congress, the DHS said it would reallocate $5 million from a fence project in Naco, Arizona, that came in under budget and $15 million from a project to install cameras on top of trucks at the border.
The surveillance project was awarded to Virginia-based Tactical Micro, but was held up due to protests from other contractors, according to the DHS document. Tactical Micro could not be reached for comment.
A general view shows a newly built section of the U.S.-Mexico border fence at Sunland Park, U.S. opposite the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
The DHS only searched for extra funds within its $376 million budget for border security fencing, infrastructure and technology, so it would not have to ask for congressional approval to repurpose funding, according to the document.
Contractors cannot begin bidding to develop prototypes until March 6 but more than 265 businesses already have listed themselves as “interested parties” on a government web site.
Those interested range from small businesses to large government contractors such as Raytheon (RTN.N).Indeductivism: Why the boundary between deductive and inductive reasoning can be too blurred to be meaningful
Majid Hasan Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 15, 2017
Hume criticised the reliability of inductive reasoning on the grounds that in order to be sure that an inductively deduced universal claim is true one would have to empirically verify all its logical implications, which is impossible. For example, the rising of Sun every single day cannot make one certain of the universal claim that the Sun will rise every day, because to do so requires verifying that the Sun does indeed rise every single in the future. Thus, one cannot be certain of the claims that are inductively deduced. This is in contrast to deductive reasoning, which is beyond any reasonable doubt. For example, the claim the Sun will rise tomorrow deductively follows from the claim that the Sun will rise everyday. If the universal claim that the Sun will rise everyday is known to be true, any claim that can be deductively derived from it is also true beyond any reasonable doubt. The truth of deductive reasoning is grounded in the truth of logic, while the truth of inductive reasoning is either ungrounded or can only be grounded in an empirical verification that is humanly impossible to achieve.
But now consider another example of inductive reasoning. A straight line is know to pass from two points A and B. From the fact that the line passes from these two specific points, one may inductively infer that the line will pass from several other points besides A and B. On the face of it, this situation is not very different from that of the rising Sun, where one inductively infers the rising of Sun on several other days from a known rising of the Sun on a few specific days, just as one infers the passing of a line from several other points from a known passing of the line from two specific points. However, in case of a straight line, the knowledge of any two distinct points from which the line passes is sufficient to know all the other points from which the line will pass. That is, the seemingly inductive claim that the line will pass from several other points is actually deductive in nature!
However, the fact that this generalisation is deductive in nature, i.e. one can derive the equation of a straight line from two points, and know all possible points from which the line will pass, requires one to know all the mathematical/logical rules embedded in the concept of a straight line. In general, it would not be surprising for someone to be unfamiliar with all these rules and all their implications, and thus be unable to deduce the general claim about the points from which the line will pass. For such a person, the generalisation will appear inductive in nature, even though in reality it is not.
A similar argument holds for essentially all inductive claims. To know whether a claim is truly inductive in nature, one would have to know all the possible logical rules embedded in all the concepts contained in the claim, and all the logical implications that can be deductively deduced from these rules and concepts. For example, in case of the universal claim that the Sun will rise everyday, one has to know all possible implications of the concept of Sun, which might further require knowing the concepts of planets and stars, as well as the concept of time, among other possible things. If one takes a relativistic-philosophical view of time, where there is no objective distinction between past and future, the claim that the Sun will always rise every day may indeed be deducible from a few observed instances of a rising of the Sun, as the information about the future can in principle be available at all times, under this relativistic view of time. Thus, even a single observation of the rising of the Sun may be sufficient to deduce that the Sun will rise every single day. For, to put it more poetically, every single day is nothing but a single day, and in every single day there is every single day!
Therefore, whether or not a universal claim follows inductively or deductively from a set of few particular (non-universal) claims cannot be determined with certainty, as one cannot know what are the right definitions of all the different concepts entailed in those claims, and what are all the logical (deductive) implications of whatever the right definitions are. As a result, one cannot be sure that a claim is truly inductive in nature (in contrast to being deductive in nature), just as one cannot be sure that an inductive claim (meaning a claim that is inductively inferred) is actually justified. Verifying the validity of an inductive claim requires one to empirically verify all the possible implications of the claim (as Hume argued), and verifying that the claim is inductive in nature requires one to analyse all the possible implications of all the possible concepts entailed in the claim (as this post is arguing) — two tasks, the former of which is more empirical and latter of which is more analytical in nature, but both of which are nevertheless equally humanly impossible to accomplish.
Conversely, the claims that may be deemed deductive in nature, may not be so in reality, if some of the implications of some of the concepts are not correctly understood. For example, the claim about the other points from which a line will pass may indeed be inductive in nature if one uses a non-Euclidean notion of space, i.e. a notion of non-flat or curved space, in which case even ‘straight’ lines will be inevitably curved, and two points will no longer be sufficient to determine what other points the line will pass through. But at the time when one is deciding whether this claim is deductive in nature or not, one may not even be aware that there are other, non-Euclidean notions of space, let alone know which notion of space is really relevant. Thus, the claim about all the points from which a straight line passes can be said to deductively follow only under assumptions, which may neither be explicitly known nor necessarily justified.
Hence, to reiterate the main point, knowing whether a claim can can be deductively derived from a set of other claims or not, hinges on one’s view of all the implications of various concepts used to formulate those claims, and one’s view of all these concepts can neither be made explicit every time one faces a question about whether or not a claim deductively follows from a set of other claims, nor any given view can be fully justified (as justifying any such view would almost necessarily fall into those broader philosophical questions that cannot be settled through merely deductive reasoning).
In summary, this whole discussion blurs the line between deductive and inductive reasoning, as the demarcation of these two realms of reasoning depends on answering questions that cannot be objectively settled. Two people may reasonable differ about whether a claim is deductive or inductive in nature, without disavowing any of the objectively valid logical or empirical facts. This blurring raises a question about the validity of any view that relies on a sharp distinction between deductive and inductive reasoning, such as Popper’s deductivism, which we will specifically address at another time.Cryptosphere is a new darknet now under development. A darknet is a private and/or anonymous network, sometimes using the public internet for connectivity. Silk Road, a marketplace for illegal drugs, is probably the most famous. You can’t use Cryptosphere yet, but eager hackers can take an early look at what’s done so far in Github.
Cryptosphere is inspired by two other peer-to-peer systems: Freenet and the late MojoNation.
MojoNation was a peer-to-peer network where members swapped resources in exchange for a digital currency called Mojo. The project was backed by a startup called Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow, which employed Bram Cohen, who went on to create BitTorrent, and Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn, the creator of Tahoe-LAFS, a peer-to-peer storage system.
Freenet provides the ability to upload and download content completely anonymously (or so the developers say) through a distributed peer-to-peer network. To participate, you download a client/server program that stores a certain amount of encrypted data on your hard drive and makes it available to other Freenet users. You have two choices: you can connect only with friends and other trusted users, or you can choose to participate with the whole network.
It’s like Napster or BitTorrent, but you’re unable to tell what you’re storing. It could be a perfectly legal file, like a Linux distribution, or it could be something more sinister, like child pornography (more on that later). You may have only pieces of files. The Freenet application handles routing of requests through encryption keys, and can also use your computer as a relay between other machines in the network. If you want to download something, you can find files through public directories with encryption keys that enable you to locate and decrypt a file. When you download something you can’t tell where it’s coming from. This provides an extra layer of security and makes it hard to track down who’s hosting and downloading what. Freenet’s main disadvantage, other than being in the dark about what you’re sharing (which some may see as a strength) is that it’s really slow. Also, be warned though that even though Freenet has been around for 12 years now there’s never any guarantee that its security can’t be broken. It’s developed by humans, and humans make mistakes.
Cryptosphere tries to strike a balance between these two previous systems. Unlike MojoNation, Cryptosphere isn’t trying to create a digital currency. “The goal is to incentivize people to provide storage service by making that the way they buy the right to store other things on the network,” explains Tony Arcieri, the project’s lead developer. “In Freenet there’s no incentive to provide reliable service.”
Other than the barter element, the biggest difference between Cryptosphere and Freenet is that while with Freenet you don’t know who you’re file sharing with, unless you enable the friends-only mode, Cryptosphere makes this explicit so that you can barter.
“I think the main thing I’d like to try which is fairly novel is using a collaborative filtering algorithm (i.e. Amazon-style recommendations) to select optimal peers to perform exchanges with/barter with for storage space,” Arcieri explains. Sounds like a match making service for paranoid file swappers.
It’s an intriguing project, but not one without its difficulties. Freenet is noted for the amount of child pornography distributed through the system. Since Cryptosphere will encourage sharing with strangers based on how generous they are with bandwidth and storage, not what they are sharing or download, this could become just as much of a problem there. The encrypted nature of the system provides users with “plausible deniability” but that might not be good enough based on new laws in the U.K.. And legal issues aside, most people have an ethical issue with hosting child pornography, knowingly or not.
Arcieri says one way to deal with the problem may be to create an IP address block list, which would have to be provided by law enforcement. This would enable users to block known distributors of child pornography. But it’s not a fool proof way to stop distribution of kiddie porn or other objectionable material.
But really the value of darknets is that can provide people a medium to exchange information in places where it’s dangerous to do so. For this usecase the crypto needs to be bullet proof to avoid the sort of public embarrassment ( not to mention the potential danger to actual users) that tools like Hackstack and Cryptocat have faced. Also, “plausible deniablity” might not be enough cover under a malevolent dictatorship.
By the way, if you’re still depressed about how people are using Freenet, here’s an interesting take on this situation: a Hacker News commenter lamented that the tool will likely end up being used, much as Freenet before it, for distributing child pornography. But another commenter has a more optimistic take: the prevalence of child porn on Freenet is actually an indicator of freedom. Dig:
Child pornography producers and consumers are similarly persecuted, though clearly with much more sound reasons. At least in western countries, there aren’t a lot of instances of repressed communication that need to be conducted across a channel like this — especially few legitimate ones. This is not to say that such a system isn’t useful; just that I believe the fact they’re so full of child pornography and the like is actually, in a roundabout way, an indicator of a healthy society.
An interesting case, though I think in western nations signal-to-noise is a bigger problem than state censorship (consider the ratio of mentions of ocean acidification to mentions of the Kardashians).
Photo by m thierry / CCOLPC discontinues “Change the World”
In a stunning moment of irony, OLPC has discontinued “Change the World”.
In an email that leaked out onto the grassroots mailing list, OLPC quietly announced the end of the “Change the World” program previously known as “Give Many”, where you could buy 100 or 1000 XOs for the school of your choice.
Here’s the relevant excerpt:
> Unfortunately, as some of you might have heard "Change the World" aka "Give > a School" aka "Give 100, Give 1000" will cease to exist. We are just waiting > for the info to be taken off the main website (any second now). > > We are doing this in an effort to refocus back to large-scale deployments > that create change in a major way. We WILL honor all requests that we have > received prior to the info being taken off the website. So if you know > anyone who is interested, tell them time is of the essence!!
Indeed, the ways to give page no longer lists “give a school” as an option. That option used to read (courtesy of Google cache):
Give 100 or more laptops with this special program that allows donors to choose the country where the laptops go. This geo-targeted program can impact a village, a region, or even a country, with large group donations.
The page it linked to is still live, but the link is gone.
I’m speculating that the minimum deployment is back up to 10,000 XOs, which was a previous category of deployment.
This is a blow to future small deployments in South Africa, as we have over 600 XOs deployed in South Africa through this program with more that were planned. Marco Rosa has been setting up a local non-profit organisation to raise funds and coordinate deployments – now to no effect unless we use laptops from other vendors.
Now I’ll get back to making Sugar, the learning platform originally developed for the OLPC XO, work on other hardware via Ubuntu…
[Image remixed from Ploum, CC-BY]
AdvertisementsJapanese police have arrested the final suspect in the 1995 nerve gas attack in Tokyo that had left 13 people dead and thousand others injured.
The arrest on Friday morning of Katsuya Takahashi, a member of a religious cult, brings to an end a 17-year police hunt for those behind the co-ordinated release of poisonous sarin gas in the Japanese capital’s subway system.
Police descended on a comic book cafe in southern Tokyo after being tipped off that a man fitting Katsuya's description was there, a spokesman told the AFP news agency.
"Detectives asked him to come voluntarily to a nearby police station," the spokesman said, adding that officers subsequently "arrested Takahashi after his fingerprints matched" those in police records.
According to a Japanese newswire, Takahashi, 54, had been arrested on suspicion of murder and other charges. He told interrogators he had acted "under orders from [the cult's] top officers".
A high-profile manhunt had been under way in and around the capital since the arrest less than two weeks ago of Naoko Kikuchi, 40, a former member of the Aum Supreme Truth cult.
Both Kikuchi and Takahashi had been on the run since the attack that formed part of a doomsday vision by the cult's founder.
Other crimes
Takahashi, a former guard for Aum guru Shoko Asahara, allegedly served as a driver when the cult's members released the nerve gas in the subway system.
He is also suspected of having played a role in a kidnapping involving another fugitive, Makoto Hirata, and of sending an explosive to then-Tokyo governor Yukio Aoshima in 1995.
Hirata, 47, gave himself up at a police station in central Tokyo minutes before midnight on last New Year's Eve.
As well as the Tokyo attack, the Aum cult was also responsible for an incident in the city of Matsumoto in central Japan in 1994, when sarin killed eight people.
Despite posters showing their faces displayed at nearly every train station in Japan, the trio evaded capture.
On June 3, police arrested Kikuchi, who stands accused of being involved in the production of the sarin.
Asahara, a partially blind guru who preached a blend of Buddhism and Hinduism mixed with apocalyptic messages, developed an obsession with sarin gas, becoming paranoid that his enemies would attack him with it.
He was arrested at a commune near Mount Fuji two months after the attack on Tokyo and sentenced to hang, having been convicted of crimes resulting in multiple deaths.
He remains on death row, along with 12 other cult members.Background Consider This Question
In the early 1890s, the American Press Association put together a feature series of writings in preparation for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. They commissioned 74 notable Americans to make predictions about American life in the 1990s, in the process producing an interesting commentary on life in the 1890s. The variety of essays reflected the diversity of the contributors, including a senator (John J. Ingalls), an electrical engineer (John J. Carty), a poet (Elizabeth Akers Allen), and a minister (Thomas De Witt Talmage). The segments ran in newspapers across the country from March through May 1893, in time for the World's Fair opening.
When the people of the United States celebrate the 500th Columbian anniversary, in 1993, there will be so many of them that no longer will it be said that: Uncle Sam is rich enough
To give us all a farm. Consequently all soil worth tilling will receive the best possible attention - with the result that we will be the best fed nation in the world. All the forests will be gone. Lumber will be so scarce that stone, iron, brick, slag, etc., will be largely used in the constriction of houses. As a result, fires will be almost unheard of, and insurance companies will go out of business. The government will be much simpler than now and concern itself with fewer and more important affairs. Indeed, the idea of government will have disappeared. The people will tolerate nothing more than an administration, on business principles, of such general interests as are too great or complex to be intrusted to private management. Law will be made for man -- not man for the law. Theology will give place to Christian practice, and each man's faith will be judged by his life instead of his talk. Medicine will be practiced at police stations and among outcasts, for respectable people will have resolved that illness not caused by accident is disgracefully criminal. The race will, therefore, be healthier and happier than now, as well as more sensible. Literature will be much cleaner in the departments of poetry, fiction, and drama. For the already moribund humbug of passion masquerading as love will have died of self-contempt. Temperance legislation will be not only a dead issue, but so long buried that no one will be able to identify its grave. Proper cooking and improved physical habits will have neutralized the desire for stimulants. All marriages will be happy -- for the law will put to death any man or woman who assumes conjugal position without the proper physical, mental, and financial qualifications. As a natural consequence, the characters for love stories will be selected not from overgrown boys and girls, but from among the men and women longest married. Women will dress for health instead of for show, trusting their healthy faces to do all the necessary "keeping up appearances." The servant question will cease to be a burning one, for the rage for display will be outworn. The kitchen stove will give place to ranges heated by water-gas and men and children as well as women will know how to cook. People of means will eat to live -- not to live to eat. All household labor will be esteemed too honorable and important to be intrusted to menials. Women will have equal rights with man. She will be free to select a husband instead of waiting for a man to ask her hand. Nevertheless, in looking backward into literature and tradition, she will wonder whether she has more rights in this respect than her great-great-grandmother enjoyed. Perhaps I am wrong in some of these prophecies, but if so I shall not be here to be twitted with it -- now will I?
Consider This Question Background
1. Do Habberton's words speak of true equality among all men and women?The most visible Episcopal church in the U.S. is hosting its first openly transgender priest this month.
The Rev. Cameron Partridge is set to give the June 22 sermon at the Washington National Cathedral in Northwest.
Dean of the cathedral, the Rev. Gary Hall, said in a statement that he hopes Mr. Partridge’s presence sends a message of support for the transgender community.
“We at Washington National Cathedral are striving to send a message of love and affirmation, especially to LGBT youth who suffer daily because of their gender identity or sexual orientation,” he said. “We want to proclaim to them as proudly and unequivocally as we can: Your gender identity is good and your sexual orientation is good because that’s the way that God made you.”
The General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 2012 approved the ordination of transgender persons. The convention also approved a rite of blessing for same-sex unions, a decision that’s been a major contributor to the fracturing of Episcopal congregations. The cathedral performs same-sex marriages.
Mr. Partridge’s visit should be seen as nothing out of the ordinary, according to Integrity USA, a nonprofit that advocates for full LGBT acceptance within the Episcopal Church.
PHOTOS: Top World War II movies
“This is not any sort of shock. This is just a devout minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ who is being given an opportunity to preach the Gospel,” said Vivian Taylor, Integrity USA’s executive director who knows Mr. Partridge as a mentor. “If anything, this is giving folks the opportunity to see a transgender person of faith, living his faith in an honest and meaningful way that absolutely honors the Episcopal faith.”
Bernard Schlager, executive director at the Pacific School of Religion’s Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry, said the invitation was “an important and historic moment,” as well as “long overdue,” but warned it could also drive further separation within the church.
“As often happens, I think, justice issues such as the full inclusion of LGBT in the full life and ministry of the church are not embraced by everyone at the same time,” he said.
Dawne Moon, an assistant professor of sociology at Marquette University, called the cathedral’s invitation to Mr. Partridge “striking,” given that transgender people are having their voices heard in the national media.
“It seems that the Episcopal Church is working to keep its place at the forefront of the struggle within American denominations to show what some believe to be the all-encompassing nature of God’s love,” Ms. Moon said. “They are also showing themselves to be open to learning about what God and faith look like from many human perspectives, and not just the perspectives of those who conform to a particular social norm.”
Mr. Partridge is the Episcopal chaplain at Boston University and a lecturer and counselor for Episcopal and Anglican students at the Harvard Divinity School. He completed his transition to male in 2001, according to Boston University.
Mr. Hall also announced that the Right Rev. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal priest, would be presiding the same service with Mr. Partridge. He retired from his post as a bishop in New Hampshire and now works at the Center for American Progress.
The service caps off two weeks of LGBT advocacy for the cathedral. It participated in this year’s Capital Pride events, and Mr. Hall said the service would include readings by local LGBT community members.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Barbecue sauce is a true Southern specialty, and every region of the South has its own unique sauce. Every barbecue sauce comes with its own story, stories as rich and varied as the flavors of these Southern sauces. There are more than a few rivalries brewing about who makes the best barbecue sauce down South. We have to say, we truly love them all, and we think it’s important to try your hand at |
quickly switch between your favorite sets of modules shown in the GUI
Add range operator and date compare to the collection module
Add basic undo/redo support for the darkroom (masks are not accounted!)
Support the Exif date and time when importing photos from camera
Input color profile module, when profile is just matrix (and linear curve), is 1/3 faster now.
Rudimentary CYGM and RGBE color filter array support
Nicer web gallery exporter – now touch friendly!
OpenCL implementation of VNG/VNG4 demosaicing methods
OpenCL implementation of Markesteijn demosaicing method for X-Trans sensors
Filter-out some useless EXIF tags when exporting, helps keep EXIF size under ~64Kb
OpenCL: properly discard CPU-based OpenCL devices. Fixes crashes on startup with some partially-working OpenCL implementations like pocl.
darktable-cli: do not even try to open display, we don’t need it.
Hotpixels module: make it actually work for X-Trans
Cmstest tool should now produce correct output in more cases, especially in multi-monitor setups.
Darkroom histogram now uses more bins: use all 8-bit of the output, not just 6.
##Some More Changes, Probably Not Complete:
Drop darktable-viewer tool in favor of slideshow view
Remove gnome keyring password backend, use libsecret instead
When using libsecret to store passwords then put them into the correct collection
Hint via window manager when import/export is done
Quick tagging searches anywhere, not just at the start of tags
The sidecar XMP schema for history entries is now more consistent and less error prone
Rawspeed: fixes for building with libjpeg (as opposed to libjpeg-turbo)
Give the choice of equidistant and proportional feathering when using elliptical masks (shift+click)
Add geolocation to watermark variables
Fix some crashes with missing configured ICC profiles
Support greyscale color profiles
Lens correction module: switched back to normal Lensfun search mode for lens lookups.
Make sure that proper signal handlers are still set after GM initialization…
OSX: add trash support (thanks to Michael Kefeder for initial patch)
Attach Xmp data to EXR files
Several fixes for HighDPI displays
Use Pango for text layout, thus supporting RTL languages
Feathering size in some mask shapes can be set with shift+scroll
Many bugs got fixed and some memory leaks plugged
The usermanual was updated to reflect the changes in the 2.2 series
Tone curve: mode “automatic in XYZ” mode for “scale chroma”
Some compilation fixes
##Lua specific changes:
All asynchronous calls have been rewritten the darktable-specific implementation of yield was removed darktable.control.execute allows to execute some shell commands without blocking Lua darktable.control.read allows to wait for a file to be readable without blocking Lua darktable.control.sleep allows to pause the Lua execution without blocking other Lua threads
darktable.gui.libs.metadata_view.register_info allows to add new field to the metadata widget in the darkroom view
The TextView widget can now be created in Lua, allowing input of large chunks of text
It is now possible to use a custom widget in the Lua preference window to configure a preference
It is now possible to set the precision and step on slider widgets
##Changed Dependencies:
CMake 3.0 is now required.
In order to compile darktable you now need at least gcc-4.7+/clang-3.3+, but better use gcc-5.0+
Drop support for OS X 10.6
Bump required libexiv2 version up to 0.24
Bump GTK+ requirement to gtk-3.14. (because even debian stable has it)
Bump GLib requirement to glib-2.40.
Port to OpenJPEG2
SDL is no longer needed.
Remove gnome keyring password backend
##Base Support:
Canon EOS-1D X Mark II
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Canon EOS 80D
Canon EOS 1300D
Canon EOS Kiss X80
Canon EOS Rebel T6
Canon EOS M10
Canon PowerShot A720 IS (dng)
Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark II
Canon PowerShot G9 X
Canon PowerShot SD450 (dng)
Canon PowerShot SX130 IS (dng)
Canon PowerShot SX260 HS (dng)
Canon PowerShot SX510 HS (dng)
Fujifilm FinePix S100FS
Fujifilm X-Pro2
Fujifilm X-T2
Fujifilm X70
Fujifilm XQ2
GITUP GIT2 (chdk-a, chdk-b)
(most nikon cameras here are just fixes, and they were supported before already)
Nikon 1 AW1 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon 1 J1 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon 1 J2 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon 1 J3 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon 1 J4 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon 1 J5 (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon 1 S1 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon 1 S2 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon 1 V1 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon 1 V2 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon 1 V3 (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon Coolpix A (14bit-compressed)
Nikon Coolpix P330 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon Coolpix P340 (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon Coolpix P6000 (12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon Coolpix P7000 (12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon Coolpix P7100 (12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon Coolpix P7700 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon Coolpix P7800 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon D1 (12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D100 (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D1H (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D1X (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D200 (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D2H (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D2Hs (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D2X (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D3 (14bit-compressed, 14bit-uncompressed, 12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D300 (14bit-compressed, 14bit-uncompressed, 12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D3000 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon D300S (14bit-compressed, 14bit-uncompressed, 12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D3100 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon D3200 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon D3300 (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D3400 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon D3S (14bit-compressed, 14bit-uncompressed, 12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D3X (14bit-compressed, 14bit-uncompressed, 12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D4 (14bit-compressed, 14bit-uncompressed, 12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D40 (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D40X (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D4S (14bit-compressed)
Nikon D5 (14bit-compressed, 14bit-uncompressed, 12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D50 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon D500 (14bit-compressed, 12bit-compressed)
Nikon D5000 (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D5100 (14bit-compressed, 14bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D5200 (14bit-compressed)
Nikon D5300 (12bit-uncompressed, 14bit-compressed, 14bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D5500 (12bit-uncompressed, 14bit-compressed, 14bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D60 (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D600 (14bit-compressed, 12bit-compressed)
Nikon D610 (14bit-compressed, 12bit-compressed)
Nikon D70 (12bit-compressed)
Nikon D700 (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed, 14bit-compressed)
Nikon D7000 (14bit-compressed, 12bit-compressed)
Nikon D70s (12bit-compressed)
Nikon D7100 (14bit-compressed, 12bit-compressed)
Nikon D80 (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D800 (14bit-compressed, 12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D800E (14bit-compressed, 12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon D90 (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon Df (14bit-compressed, 14bit-uncompressed, 12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon E5400 (12bit-uncompressed)
Nikon E5700 (12bit-uncompressed)
Olympus PEN-F
OnePlus One (dng)
Panasonic DMC-FZ150 (1:1, 16:9)
Panasonic DMC-FZ18 (16:9, 3:2)
Panasonic DMC-FZ300 (4:3)
Panasonic DMC-FZ50 (16:9, 3:2)
Panasonic DMC-G8 (4:3)
Panasonic DMC-G80 (4:3)
Panasonic DMC-G81 (4:3)
Panasonic DMC-G85 (4:3)
Panasonic DMC-GX80 (4:3)
Panasonic DMC-GX85 (4:3)
Panasonic DMC-LX3 (1:1)
Panasonic DMC-LX10 (3:2)
Panasonic DMC-LX15 (3:2)
Panasonic DMC-LX9 (3:2)
Panasonic DMC-TZ100 (3:2)
Panasonic DMC-TZ101 (3:2)
Panasonic DMC-TZ110 (3:2)
Panasonic DMC-ZS110 (3:2)
Pentax K-1
Pentax K-70
Samsung GX20 (dng)
Sony DSC-F828
Sony DSC-RX100M5
Sony DSC-RX10M3
Sony DSLR-A380
Sony ILCA-68
Sony ILCA-99M2
Sony ILCE-6300
We were unable to bring back these 2 cameras, because we have no samples.
If anyone reading this owns such a camera, please do consider providing samples.
Nikon E8400
Nikon E8800
##White Balance Presets:
Canon EOS 1200D
Canon EOS Kiss X70
Canon EOS Rebel T5
Canon EOS 1300D
Canon EOS Kiss X80
Canon EOS Rebel T6
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Canon EOS 5DS
Canon EOS 5DS R
Canon EOS 750D
Canon EOS Kiss X8i
Canon EOS Rebel T6i
Canon EOS 760D
Canon EOS 8000D
Canon EOS Rebel T6s
Canon EOS 80D
Canon EOS M10
Canon EOS-1D X Mark II
Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark II
Fujifilm X-Pro2
Fujifilm X-T2
Fujifilm X-T10
Fujifilm X100T
Fujifilm X20
Fujifilm X70
Nikon 1 V3
Nikon D5500
Olympus PEN-F
Pentax K-1
Pentax K-70
Pentax K-S1
Pentax K-S2
Sony ILCA-68
Sony ILCE-6300
##Noise Profiles:
Canon EOS 5DS R
Canon EOS 80D
Canon PowerShot G15
Canon PowerShot S100
Canon PowerShot SX100 IS
Canon PowerShot SX50 HS
Fujifilm X-T10
Fujifilm X-T2
Fujifilm X100T
Fujifilm X20
Fujifilm X70
Nikon 1 V3
Nikon D5
Nikon D5500
Olympus E-PL6
Olympus E-PM2
Olympus PEN-F
Panasonic DMC-FZ1000
Panasonic DMC-GF7
Pentax K-1
Pentax K-S2
Ricoh GR
Sony DSLR-A900
Sony DSC-RX10
Sony ILCE-6300
Sony NEX-5
Sony SLT-A37
##New Translations:
Hebrew
Slovenian
##Updated Translations:
Catalan
Czech
Danish
Dutch
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Polish
Russian
Slovak
Spanish
Swedish
Ukrainian
We wish you a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah or just a good time. Enjoy
taking photos and developing them with darktable.The distiller — today’s headlines, distilled.
sam Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 3, 2017
Saturday, 3rd June 2017
Brief overview.
Today’s right wing papers have largely avoided discussing politics in their headlines, choosing to focus elsewhere. The left wing papers have focused their attacks on charges against the Conservative party.
The Daily Mail
Political leaning: Right
Today’s leading headline: Statins slash breast cancer death rates.
Statins are no stranger in the mainstream media. The wünder pill lowers cholesterol in the blood stream, helping to prevent heart attacks and strokes. The paper’s revelation today that the pill may cut rates of breast cancer by up to 40% needs to be approached with caution, as often mainstream media sensationalises.
Afterthought: Statins regularly pop up in the media. As a result, a plethora of urban myths have developed around their potential medical benefits or consequences, and caution should be advised when approaching articles in this vein.
It is also worth noting the lack of coverage on last night’s BBC Question Time, in which both May and Corbyn were grilled at length by a studio audience.
The Daily Telegraph
Political leaning: Right
Today’s leading headline: Tory tax pledge to high earners.
The Telegraph’s leading headline pushes the idea that taxing those in the higher earning bracket is a punishment for them being successful. The paper cites Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, as saying voting Tory was ‘the only way’ to prevent Corbyn from raising the tax on higher earners.
The rest of the article is an attack on the performance of Corbyn on last night’s BBC Question Time.
Afterthought: Both parties looked flustered at points last night, but the onus is on May to clarify exactly how she will lead Britain economically at a time when huge cuts across the public sector are deemed necessary by her party.
The Times
Political leaning: Right
Today’s leading headline: ‘Myths’ by Muslims hit anti-terror campaign.
Today’s Times leads with an article blaming various Islamic groups for ‘undermining police’ efforts. It cites Nazir Afzal, former chief crown prosecutor and until recently the country’s most prominent Muslim lawyers. Afzal lead the charges against the Rochdale paedophile gang. Claims of an ‘industrial’ effort by certain Islamic groups to undermine the government are levelled throughout the article.
Afterthought: The article raises valid points. Many feel a conversation must take place in this country about the lack of integration, and reluctance to address certain Islamic groups. However, the headline is deliberately provocative.
The Guardian
Political leaning: Left
Today’s leading headline: Labour accuses Tories of using fake news ads to attack Corbyn.
Ah, fake news. Recently, both the Labour and Conservative parties have stepped up their social media presence. Yesterday’s Telegraph covered this from a right-wing perspective, claiming left wing Twitter bots were attempting to influence voters. Today, the Guardian reports from the left, explaining the Tories have run a campaign on Facebook with a video alleging Corbyn supporting the IRA. The video is edited so as not to include the context of Corbyn’s quote.
This video slots nicely into the one dimensional campaign strategy of the Tories — repeatedly launch personal attacks on Corbyn. May and her advisors have found a formula which they believe works, although the polls seem to suggest differently.
Afterthought: For someone with a history as jaded as May, this campaign of misinformation mixed with factual accusations is a bold strategy. It is particularly poignant as we approach the anniversary of Joe Cox’ murder, for which many blamed the poisonous dialogue in the mainstream media. Theresa May-be change the record.
The i
Political leaning: Centre
Today’s leading headline: Tory shock at criminal charges.
Today’s i chose to cover Craig Mackinlay, the Conservative candidate for South Thanet, who has been charged with overspending in the 2015 general election. Mackinlay claims innocence, although should he be found guilty he faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison.
Afterthought: Interestingly, the i is one of the only papers to lead with this story. At a time when the Conservative party is struggling in the polls, further accusations of misspending could plague their efforts, particularly as many struggle to get by in today’s society.
The Daily Mirror
Political leaning: Left
Today’s leading headline: Tory MP charged over election expensises.
Like the i, the Mirror chooses to cover the charges levelled against Mackinlay. The paper claims this is a ‘new blow’ for May and the Conservative party.
Afterthought: The accusation of misspending and failing to announce expenses comes at a bad time for the Tories. The left wing Mirror seems to smell blood here.
Financial Times (UK)
Political leaning: Centre
Today’s leading headline: May reaches out to business as Brexit tensions escalate.
In a similar vein from yesterday’s headline, The Financial Times today focuses on Theresa May’s efforts to revitalise the Brexit negotiations and Britain’s’ place at the table. A hot topic for many, Brexit discussions provide a chance for May to lay down a concrete plan in order to win not just potential votes, but also the support of corporations and members of the industry.
May outlined the need for Conservative leadership as the negotiations approached, claiming that only her party could deliver a good deal.
Afterthought: May can largely count on the votes of the elderly in her General Election run. Patience has run dry with her repeated mantra of ‘strong and stable’, so now is her time to set out her party’s plan for Brexit.
The Sun
Political leaning: Right
Today’s leading headline: 100 celebs in tax dodge.
The Sun takes a sabbatical from the election coverage to report on a recent tax dodging scandal involving celebrities from all walks of life. The scheme, which was legal, has been heavily criticised by the tabloid.
Afterthought: The Sun takes a detour from politics, choosing not to cover May’s performance or the charges against a Tory candidate, and instead focussing on tax evasion. Ironically, Rupert Murdoch, owner of The Sun and many others, benefits hugely from tax evasion and avoidance himself.
Final Thought
News shouldn’t tell you how to feel. The news should present facts, and allow you to formulate your own opinion. Today’s right wing papers have largely avoided politics, whilst the left wing papers have focussed in on attacks on the Conservatives.How Blockchain Technology Will Transform Mobile Security
SIRIN LABS Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 29, 2017
The problem with mobile device security today
Smartphones and laptops are two of our most personal devices. We generally use our laptops in the office or at home and we regularly switch them off when we are not using them. Smartphones however, are a different kettle of fish. We basically always keep our smartphone on and we carry them EVERYWHERE like an attached limb. The problem is that smartphones contain more of our most precious personal information than any of our closest friends or even our most intimate relatives.
Unfortunately, most smartphones and laptops were never designed with security or privacy front of mind. Mainstream consumer electronics generally priorities user-experience at the expense of security and the right balance has not yet been struck. With the advent of new technologies like mobile payments and cryptocurrency, smartphones have become an even more valuable target for malicious actors.
In the 21st century all data communicated online is saved in some capacity. This includes any sensitive data you can think of personal, financial, work related etc. Cyber-criminals have never been presented with greater opportunity to steal valuable information than what is available today. Smartphones and laptops offer an open platter for financial-stealing malware, ransomware and other cyber-threats that target our data.
Problematically, many of the Apps we download today harvest more information than they need (like the Flashlight App that needs access to your contacts book). In fact, Apps have been specifically developed to capture as much personal data as possible. Another issue with modern smartphones is that they do so much. Thanks to a hyper-competitive marketplace there’s a constant race to add more and more features without properly exploring the security implications. In turn, security often lags behind with the ramifications only realised after the fact. In today’s climate, for a determined attacker it is relatively easy to hack a mainstream device and obtain its data.
Software alone will not sufficiently protect the information on your smartphone
The issue with smartphones is that they are just as vulnerable to hackers and malware as PCs but are much harder to protect. What’s more, the cyber and information security community has been slow to explore and develop adequate mobile security mechanisms. The shift of focus from PC toward the mobile space has only happened recently so there are many vulnerabilities.
Whilst there have been a few attempts to tighten up smartphone security — like the introduction of End-to-End encryption on some widely-used messaging apps such as WhatsApp, WeChat — not enough is being done to protect your information and privacy. While an App might be secure, it has little bearing if you’ve already been tricked into downloading a piece of malware that’s sending screen captures of your messages or recording your calls. If someone really wants to spy on your communications, secure software alone will not be enough to protect you. A malicious actor could hack into the Baseband Processor, open the microphone and listen to your conversation before it is encrypted.
In order to prevent such attacks, smartphones must be secure not just from outside but also from inside the low levels of the phone’s internal systems. This is something that can only be achieved ONLY through hardening the operating system itself. As such, developing a complete phone from scratch is the best way to sufficiently protect from malicious actors. The same level of security cannot be achieved through application development alone.
How Blockchain technology can improve smartphone security?
At SIRIN LABS, we believe that Blockchain technology will reshape the way our Identity and our Information is handled on smart devices and over Digital Communication Channels (such as 3G/4G, WiFi and Bluetooth).
The R&D Team at SIRIN LABS is developing ‘BlockShield’ — a next-generation security system that will protect the users of SIRIN LABS’ upcoming mass-market consumer electronic products from cyber attacks.
For ‘BlockShield’, SIRIN LABS is exploring multiple protection layers that are built on top of a Blockchain and are integrated across multiple levels of security. Below are some example of how Blockchain may enable more secure smartphone security.
Cryptographically Secure Digital Identity for Users, Devices and Accessories
SIRIN LABS is proposing to leverage Blockchain technology in combination with a Digital Signature Identity to authenticate Users, Devices (e.g. Smartphone, PC or Laptop) and Accessories.
In addition, any suspicious activities such as failed sign-in attempts and illegal software and firmware updates are recorded into a logging system held on an immutable, distributed ledger.
Tamper Proof Software
The R&D team at SIRIN LABS are exploring several mechanisms to protect against malicious tampering of the sensitive Core System Software that powers SIRIN LABS devices. Such mechanisms would validate the authenticity of Software Updates that are issued both Over the Air (OTA) and manually.
During software updates, the firmware signature is validated against a Blockchain-backed registry. Any attempt to modify the Core System Software is detected and results in immediate rejection of the attempt to install the illegal update.
Controlled Supply Chain
We intend to use blockchain to protect the integrity of the supply chain of the sensitive components (camera, touch, fingerprint, storage etc) of SIRIN LABS devices until they arrive to the assembly line. This will protect against malicious actors injecting hardware-based malware into the critical hardware components of SIRIN LABS products. By augmenting a tag containing the origin, place of storage and authenticity to each electronic component that and storing it on a immutable ledger we can maintain total integrity and traceability of the supply chain. Indeed, this is not exclusively a SIRIN LIBS idea but something that is being explored within the supply chain and logistics community, you can read about it here.
SIRIN LABS
SIRIN LABS mission is to bridge the gap between the mass market and the Blockchain economy by producing consumer electronics with an incredible user experience whilst maintaining a high level of security. SIRIN LABS smartphone has been specifically designed for the Blockchain era, containing a built-in cold storage cryptocurrency wallet, P2P resource sharing mechanism, Decentralized application store and more.
SOLARIN, SIRIN LABS’ first product, is considered the most secure smart-phone launched to the consumer market. SOLARIN was built with State-Of-the-Art Hardware and Software Mobile Security Technology, 24/7 Cyber Protection, and a Private Zone for completely Encrypted Calling and Messaging capabilities. Many of the learnings garnered from the development of SOLARIN will be applied to SIRIN LABS Blockchain smartphone.
With the value and usage of cryptocurrencies growing exponentially the need for secure storage mechanisms of crypto-assets is becoming more and more important. Further, the immense quantity of personal information being stored on smartphones presents great risk to users, who are beginning to understand how vulnerable their information is. SIRIN LABS’ products will take a giant leap in smartphone security and enable the safe storage of your cryptocurrency and personal information.
The SIRIN LABS team,
www.sirinlabs.com
Telegram: https://t.me/sirinlabsFOLLOWING a Lismore magistrate's decision earlier this week to acquit a driver of being under the influence of cannabis, a drug law expert from Southern Cross University has criticised the Random Drug Test regime as prohibition dressed up as road safety.
SCU School of Law and Justice lecturer specialising in drug law Aiden Ricketts condemned the random drug testing regime for not being evidence based and said it risks bringing "the law into disrepute".
"My understanding is that magistrates are very uncomfortable making convictions on this issue because there is no evidenced link between the positive reading on the drug test and the impairment of the driver," Mr Ricketts said.
"Unlike the alcohol laws, where there has been extensive research into the effects alcohol has on our driving and the level of impairment based on the amount of alcohol consumed, there has been insufficient research into the effects of cannabis."
FAIR TEST?: The roadside test used to detect drug drivers, picking up cannabis and methamphetamine. Helen Spelitis
Mr Ricketts explained that this lack of research into levels of impairment has led the government to taking a strict no tolerance policy, meaning any trace of THC warrants a conviction of the driver.
"You are not guilty of being drug affected whilst driving a car, you are guilty of failing the test and showing a trace of the drug in your system," he said.
"That is the essence of the widespread criticism of the law, it claims to be there as a road safety law but it is really just backdoor prohibition of those substances."
Member for Clarence Chris Gulaptis hit back at Mr Ricketts' claims, labelling them as "ludicrous", ensuring the law was in place to save lives.
"I think that is nonsense, bear in mind taking illicit drugs like cannabis is illegal, period," Mr Gulaptis said. "This program is about saving lives pure and simple, and anyone who wants to put a different spin on it than that is ludicrous."
Earlier this week Lismore magistrate David Heilpern found Lismore man Joseph Carrall not guilty of a drug driving offence on the grounds the defendant had "honest and reasonable belief" he did not have a detectable quantity of cannabis in his system.
Mr Carrall had been told on a previous occasion by a police officer conducting a saliva test that if he waited a week before driving there would be no cannabis detectable in his system.
Mr Carrall's defence lawyer, Steve Bolt, said "the second time he was tested, the test proved positive but that was nine days after he said he had last consumed cannabis."
The court accepted that it was a truthful account and found that in that situation, it was a reasonable proposition for him to rely on what the officer had told him previously.
The acquittal of Mr Carrall has thrown open a debate on the issue with experts believing the tests to be unreliable and many unsure of what the true time it takes for cannabis to leave the system.
Centre For Road Safety executive director Bernard Carlon said he believes the testing can pick up residual cannabis up to 12 hours after it has been consumed.
In his judgment Mr Heilpern said: "That gauntlet is apparently part of the mystery and uncertainty-by-design of the current testing regime."A spokesperson for the Army Bomb Disposal unit has said a viable pipe bomb brought into a Cork city garda station this morning could have seriously injured or killed someone had it detonated.
The device was made safe after a man brought to Togher garda station in a pram shortly after 10am today.
The man said he found it to the rear of his house in the nearby suburb of Ballyphehane.
The garda station was evacuated while the Army Bomb Disposal team made their way to the scene.
The device was made safe and experts have confirmed it was a viable pipe bomb.
Gardaí do not believe the man who found the pipe bomb was the intended target of the attack.
They are investigating whether it is linked to a petrol bomb attack on a house in Blackwater Grove in Togher late last Friday night.US justice department finds black and Latino civilians hardest hit by ‘unlawful force’ after 13-month investigation into city’s law enforcement
The Chicago police department regularly uses force that is “unjustified, disproportionate and otherwise excessive”, federal investigators have concluded.
Young black men again faced highest rate of US police killings in 2016 Read more
In a scathing report released after a 13-month process, Department of Justice (DoJ) investigators found that police violated both the fourth amendment of the constitution and department policy in the use of deadly force. Poor training and accountability systems contributed to the department’s unconstitutional policing practices, the report said.
“Our review of CPD’s deadly force practices identified several trends in CPD’s deadly force incidents,” investigators wrote, “including that CPD engages in dangerous and unnecessary foot pursuits and other unsound tactics that result in CPD shooting people, including those who are unarmed.”
The US attorney general, Loretta Lynch, presented the report on Friday morning with federal and city officials, before announcing that the CPD and Chicago officials had agreed to begin negotiations to reach a court-enforceable reform agreement.
The lengthy report excoriated the CPD on a range of issues, but particularly faulted officer training and use of force, and the way that officers who use unreasonable force are held accountable. It also outlines systemic problems within the department regarding how officers are supervised and supported.
Black and Latino civilians are “hardest hit by CPD’s pattern of unlawful force”, deputy assistant attorney general Vanita Gupta said on Friday.
In all incidents where police used force over a five-year period, black civilians were subject to force in 76% of cases. This disparity increased when force was used against children: 83% of cases involved black children and 14% involved Latino children, the report found.
Racial disparities were also present when civilians submitted misconduct complaints. A white complainant was three and a half times more likely to have his or her allegation sustained and an officer held accountable than a black complainant, according to the DoJ.
Officers who used unreasonable force were almost never held accountable, investigators wrote, adding that “there is no meaningful, systemic accountability for officers who use force in violation of the law or CPD policy”.
This lack of accountability allowed officers who should have been fired to remain on the force, and in some cases continue their misconduct, the DoJ concluded.
The report featured dozens of case studies and examples. Among the incidents included in the report:
Foot pursuits: the DoJ said it found “numerous incidents” where officers shot at fleeing people who posed no immediate threat. Police reportedly stopped a man they saw walking down the street and fidgeting with his waistband. Officers pursued the man when he fled and fired 45 rounds toward him, the report said. Although the officers claimed the man had fired at them, no gun was found on his person, according to the DoJ. The police review process concluded the shooting was justified. An inoperable gun was found in the area of the shooting. Chicago police do not have a written policy on foot pursuits.
the DoJ said it found “numerous incidents” where officers shot at fleeing people who posed no immediate threat. Police reportedly stopped a man they saw walking down the street and fidgeting with his waistband. Officers pursued the man when he fled and fired 45 rounds toward him, the report said. Although the officers claimed the man had fired at them, no gun was found on his person, according to the DoJ. The police review process concluded the shooting was justified. An inoperable gun was found in the area of the shooting. Chicago police do not have a written policy on foot pursuits. Use of force against children: investigators said police had subjected children to force over non-criminal conduct or minor violations. An officer learned that some boys were playing basketball on his property and, while on duty, left his district to return home, the report said. He found the boys down the street, after which he “pointed his gun at them, used profanity, and threatened to put their heads through a wall and to blow up their homes”. The boys said they were handcuffed and forced to lie face-down. The officer involved received a five-day suspension and was never interviewed by police investigators.
investigators said police had subjected children to force over non-criminal conduct or minor violations. An officer learned that some boys were playing basketball on his property and, while on duty, left his district to return home, the report said. He found the boys down the street, after which he “pointed his gun at them, used profanity, and threatened to put their heads through a wall and to blow up their homes”. The boys said they were handcuffed and forced to lie face-down. The officer involved received a five-day suspension and was never interviewed by police investigators. Racist language: young black civilians told the justice department “they are routinely called ‘nigger,’ ‘animal,’ or ‘pieces of shit’” by police officers, and officers themselves confirmed such statements to the DoJ.
young black civilians told the justice department “they are routinely called ‘nigger,’ ‘animal,’ or ‘pieces of shit’” by police officers, and officers themselves confirmed such statements to the DoJ. “Guns for freedom”: officers use dangerous and sometimes unlawful methods to elicit information from people they have arrested, the DoJ said. The report highlighted alleged practices such as “guns for freedom”, in which officers detain someone for a low-level, nonviolent offense, such as a traffic offense, and then demand the person exchange a gun to secure their release or guarantee they won’t be stopped again.
The Chicago investigation is unprecedented in its scope. US attorney Zachary Fardon said last year that the investigation was the largest of its kind in the justice department’s history. Investigators reportedly moved up the completion of the report so that it could be published before Donald Trump takes office next week.
Trump campaigned as a “law and order candidate”, calling for more support for police officers. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s nominee to head the justice department, has similarly questioned intense scrutiny of law enforcement. In confirmation hearings on Tuesday, Sessions said department investigations tended to “undermine respect for our police officers”.
Both Lynch and Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, expressed confidence in each party’s commitment to reform. Emanuel declined to speculate on Sessions’ willingness to participate and said he had not yet spoken with the Trump transition team about the DoJ’s findings.
“I can’t negotiate for him but we’re going to be at the table,” he said.
Jonathan Smith, who spent five years with the DoJ’s civil rights division, said he expected nationwide attention to make a reform agreement likely, but speculated that the strength of such reforms would depend on community involvement.
“If left to the city and to the Department of Justice, I’m worried that you’re not going to see the same kind of robust agreement that you saw in Baltimore yesterday,” he said.
On Thursday, Lynch announced a reform agreement with police in Baltimore, following a similar investigation.
The Chicago investigation and other reforms were sparked by the release of shocking video footage that showed a CPD officer fatally shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
A judge ordered the city to release the footage in November 2015, more than a year after the black teen was killed. The video showed the teen walking down the middle of the road, a small knife hanging limply by his side, before a responding officer, Jason Van Dyke, shoots and kills him as he walks away.
Laquan McDonald: senseless killing continues in video after video | Steven W Thrasher Read more
A local prosecutor charged Van Dyke with murder hours before the footage was released. In the following days the police chief was fired and the investigation was launched amid protests in the city and calls for reform.
The release of the dashboard camera footage received instant national and international attention, similarly to other high-profile police killings of dozens of other unarmed black civilians over the past two years.
Investigations into police departments have taken place in Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting death of Michael Brown and in Baltimore after Freddie Gray died in police custody.
The attorney general opens such so-called “pattern or practice” investigations after receiving credible allegations of systemic police misconduct and unconstitutional practices. The Obama justice department has opened 25 such inquiries.Arawak men and women, |
had taken the decision to withdraw from Zimbabwe following an official request to do so from the German government. "Our decision is a reaction to the political tension in Zimbabwe, which is mounting significantly rather than easing as expected," said chief executive Dr Karsten Ottenberg. The decision had been influenced by the hardening of the international community's stance on Zimbabwe and by public opinion in Germany, he added. Hyperinflation, which has risen as high as 165,000% on an annual basis, has hit Zimbabwe's economy and accelerated the political crisis in the country. The African Union has called for a government of national unity to be formed including opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai who boycotted Friday's poll following widespread violence against his party's supporters in the run-up to the election.
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StumbleUpon What are these?New Zealanders are still attempting to travel overseas to join extremist groups, a briefing to the minister says.
Photo: AFP
Spy agencies told the minister responsible Andrew Little that at any one time in the past three years, 30 to 40 people were listed on the counter-terrorism risk register.
"The ubiquity of ISIL's messaging is such that all but one of NZSIS's current counter-terrorism investigation concern ISIL-linked extremism and we continue to investigate individuals for supporting or attempting to travel offshore to join ISIL."
Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
The briefing to the minister also shows there were almost 400 cyber attack incidents in the 2016/2017 year, 58 more than in the previous year.
The papers noted that the impact on New Zealand was limited but the potential for future attacks to have an impact was high.
Mr Little said the spy agencies were doing what they could to prevent the attacks but more could always be done.
"It is a constant game to keep ahead of what cyber attackers are doing and of course some of those are state-backed or state agents doing it, but we have had a good track record of preventing harm to New Zealand's interests so far."
Mr Little was asked which "state agents" he was referring to.
"Well, it's pretty clear Russia and North Korea are both involved in cyber attacks on private networks and state networks."
The briefing also said New Zealand was not immune to the threat of espionage by foreign states, nor to foreign efforts to interfere with the normal functioning of government or the rights of New Zealand citizens.
"Such activities in NZ over the past year have included attempts to access sensitive government and private sector information, and attempts to unduly influence expatriate communities," it said.
A separate briefing to the minister responsible for cyber security noted that 364 cyber security incidents were recorded in its first three months (April - June 2017), involving direct financial losses of more than $730,000.Often times, we have to write code to perform tasks whose complexity vary from mundane, such as retrieving and organizing data, to highly complex, such as simulations CFD simulations comprising the spine of a project. In either case, depending on the complexity of the task and amount of data to be processed, it may happen for the newborn code to leave us staring at an underscore marker blinking gracefully for hours on a command prompt during its execution until the results are ready, leading to project schedule delays and shortages of patience. Two standard and preferred approaches to the problem of time intensive codes are to simplify the algorithm and to make the code more efficient. In order to better select the parts of the code to work on, it is often useful to first find the parts of the code in which more time by profiling the code.
In this post, I will show how to use Callgrind, part of Valgrind, and KCachegrind to profile C/C++ codes on Linux — unfortunately, Valgrind is not available for Windows or Mac, although it can be ran on cluster from which results can be downloaded and visualized on Windows with QCachegrind. The first step is to install Valgrind and KCachegrind by typing the following commands in the terminal of a Debian based distribution, such as Ubuntu (equivalent yum commands area available for Red Hat based distributions):
$ sudo apt-get install valgrind $ sudo apt-get install kcachegrind
Now that the required tools are installed, the next step is to compile your code with GCC/G++ (with a make file, cmake, IDE or by running the compiler directly from the terminal) and then run the following command in a terminal (type ctrl+shift+T to open the terminal):
$ valgrind --tool=callgrind path/to/your/compiled/program program_arguments
Callgrind will then run your program with some instrumentation added to its execution to measure time expenditures and cache use by each function in your code. Because of the instrumentation, Your code will take considerably longer to run under Callgrind than it typically would, so be sure to run a representative task that is as small as possible when profiling your code. During its execution, Callgrind will output a report similar to the one below on terminal itself:
==12345== Callgrind, a call-graph generating cache profiler ==12345== Copyright (C) 2002-2015, and GNU GPL'd, by Josef Weidendorfer et al. ==12345== Using Valgrind-3.11.0 and LibVEX; rerun with -h for copyright info ==12345== Command: path/to/your/compiled/program program_arguments ==12345== ==12345== For interactive control, run 'callgrind_control -h'. IF YOUR CODE OUTPUTS TO THE TERMINAL, THE OUTPUT WILL BE SHOWN HERE. ==12345== ==12345== Events : Ir ==12345== Collected : 4171789731 ==12345== ==12345== I refs: 4,171,789,731
The report above shows that it collected 4 billion events in order to generate the comprehensive report saved in the file callgrind.out.12345 — 12345 is here your process id, shown in the report above. Instead of submerging your soul into a sea of despair by trying to read the output file in a text editor, you should load the file into KCachegrind by typing:
$ kcachegrind calgrind.out.12345
You should now see a screen like the one below:
The screenshot above shows the profiling results for my code. The left panel shows the functions called by my code sorted by total time spent inside each function. Because functions call each other, callgrind shows two cost metrics as proxies for time spent in each function: Incl., showing the total cost of a function, and self, showing the time spent in each function itself discounting the callees. By clicking on “Self” to order to functions by the cost of the function itself, we sort the functions by the costs of their own codes, as shown below:
Callgrind includes functions that are native to C/C++ in its analysis. If one of them appears in the highest positions of the left panel, it may be the case to try to use a different function or data structure that performs a similar task in a more efficient way. Most of the time, however, our functions are the ones in most of the top positions in the list. In the example above, we can see that a possible first step I can take to improve the time performance of my code is to make function “ContinuityModelROF::shiftStorage” more efficient. A few weeks ago, however, the function “ContinuityModel::continuityStep” was ranked first with over 30% of the cost, followed by a C++ map related function. I then replaced a map inside that function by a pointer vector, resulting in the drop of my function’s cost to less than 5% of the total cost of the code.
In case KCachegrind shows that a given function that is called from multiple places in the code is costly, you may want to know which function is the main culprit behind the costly calls. To do this, click on the function of interest (in this case, “_memcpy_sse2_unalight”) in the left panel, and then click on “Callers” in the right upper panel and on “Call Graph” in the lower right panel. This will show in list and graph forms the calls made to the function by other functions, and the asociated percent costs. Unfortunately, I have only the function “ContinuityModelROF::calculateROF” calling “_memcpy_sse2_unalight,” hence the simple graph, but the graph would be more complex if multiple functions made calls to “_memcpy_sse2_unalight.”
I hope this saves you at least the time spend reading this post!President Donald J. Trump and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke today by phone to discuss ways to advance peace throughout the Middle East region, including a comprehensive agreement that would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The President emphasized his personal belief that peace is possible and that the time has come to make a deal. The President noted that such a deal would not only give Israelis and Palestinians the peace and security they deserve, but that it would reverberate positively throughout the region and the world. He underscored that such a peace agreement must be negotiated directly between the two parties, and that the United States will work closely with Palestinian and Israeli leadership to make progress toward that goal. The President noted that the United States cannot impose a solution on the Israelis and Palestinians, nor can one side impose an agreement on the other. The President invited President Abbas to a meeting at the White House in the near future.Lots of people have commented on the Senate’s failure to pass any of the four gun control measures it considered this week. And some of those commentaries pointed out that the measures were lame to begin with.
As I understand it, one of the measures would have provided for federal background checks for gun purchases at gun shows or over the Internet, which I certainly support. Another would have blocked people on the terrorist watch list from buying guns. This makes for a good talking point — let’s take guns away from ISIS! But the terrorist watch list is an opaque and mysterious thing that easily could be used to unfairly jerk people around (see Glenn Greenwald on this point). And it’s highly questionable how effective such blocking would be, anyway.
But to me, the single biggest howler among these proposals was the Republican one for a “mental illness” database.
The Senate rejected first a Republican proposal to update the background check system for gun purchases, which would have required states to add more information on mental health records to a national database. … … Some Senate Democrats warned that the legislation’s revised definition of who would be considered mentally ill could potentially still allow those with significant psychological issues to legally purchase guns.
The “revised definition” be damned; doing this at all is objectionable on several levels.
First, “mental illness” is not a tightly defined scientific term; it could apply to a wide range of brain, behavioral and mood disorders, from mild and common to severe and rare. I do not want a bunch of politicians with no background in psychology defining it, especially since I suspect at least half of Congress currently might qualify as “mentally ill” depending on where you draw parameters. And I’m not joking.
Second, given the stigma attached to any kind of psychological disorder, a list like that could visit all kinds of discrimination against the people on it.
Third, data tell us that even severe mental illness accounts for very little of our gun violence. According to this article, people with severe mental illness commit only about 4 percent of firearm homicides in the U.S. And expecting psychiatrists to report on potentially violent patients probably won’t help;Â predicting which patient might become violent is an inexact science, “only slightly more accurate than flipping a coin.”
Even among our infamous mass shooters, who certainly seem to have been deranged, it’s estimated that only about 22 percent of them were “mentally ill.” And only about 11 percent had problems severe enough that they’d been reported to a doctor or another authority before the shooting. As a group, mass shooters may be less crazy than Congress. And according to this guy, only 10 percent of “jihadist terrorists” in the U.S. were mentally ill, which makes them saner than the general population.
However, there may be a connection between behavior or personality and gun ownership that does raise red flags for potential gun violence.
The more guns a person owns, the more likely they are to report experiencing serious, uncontrollable outbursts of anger and aggression. That’s the conclusion of a new study published in the journal Behavioral Sciences and the Law, which found that nearly one in ten Americans have both a history of impulsive anger and access to a firearm. “The new research also indicates that the 310 million firearms estimated to be in private hands in the United States are disproportionately owned by people who are prone to angry, impulsive behavior and have a potentially dangerous habit of keeping their guns close at hand,†the Los Angeles Times reports. “That’s because people owning six or more guns were more likely to fall into both of these categories than people who owned a single gun.â€
It turns out that being chronically angry is the REAL warning sign that predicts a potential killer.
A number of common mental health conditions — including personality disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorder — tend to be associated with the risky mix of pathological anger with gun access, according to the APA. “However, only a small proportion of angry people with guns has ever been hospitalized for a mental health problem — voluntarily or involuntarily — and thus most would not be prohibited from firearms under the involuntary commitment exclusion.”
IMO an argument could be made that people — men especially but possibly not exclusively — who are militant about their unfettered right to own and carry any firearm they want are displaying behavior that ought to disqualify them from owning guns at all.
In fact, people have made that argument.
What we’re seeing is a strong correlation between pathological anger and a desire to own multiple guns. There is also a strong correlation between pathological anger and violent behavior. Therefore, the very people who are most motivated to purchase more than one high-powered weapon are the last people who ought to be purchasing high-powered weapons.
But maybe some day the American Psychiatric Association will include “gun nut disorder” in the DSM, making it an official “mental illness.” Then we can talk about a mental illness watch list.
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Like this: Like Loading...Today’s announcement by the Victorian Government, giving the green light for a proposal to power Melbourne’s iconic tram network with solar, is yet more evidence of the leadership and future focus of the current Victorian administration.
“This is an incredibly exciting day for the renewable energy sector in Australia,” said Maria Cirillo, Deputy Director, Solar Citizens.
“There will be an open tender process carried out to build a brand new, large scale solar farm in regional Victoria to generate the electricity to power Melbourne’s tram network - with the intention for this to all be up and running within just two years.
“We congratulate the Minister and the government of Victoria and hope that other political leaders are watching this and thinking through how they too can join the solar revolution.
“Jobs in the regions, investment, emissions reductions - it’s hard to see how you could criticise such a step,” she said.
“The race is on, those who ignore or deny the fundamental economic shift that is upon is, will quite simply, be left behind.
“Today’s announcement comes on the back of several recent Victorian Government announcements which position that state as a true renewable energy leader in this country.
“The global investment boom in renewable energy is well underway and now is the time to refine our national energy policy settings to ensure Australia is best-placed to reap the economic and environmental benefits of the boom.
“It’s hard to find another sector that displays such real job prospects, innovation and a practical response to the challenge of diversifying and strengthening our economy.
“It is well past time for the Federal Government and other states and territories to all step up and follow Victoria’s lead,” said Cirillo.
Media Contact: Andrew Bradley P: 0403 777 137 E: andrew@holdfast.globalGov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) said on Sunday that state marriage clerks should issue same-sex marriage licenses even if they morally oppose the practice.
Kasich added that government employees are responsible for obeying the law upon assuming their positions.
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“Now, I respect the fact that this lady doesn’t agree, but she’s also a government employee,” he said of Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who is currently jailed in Kentucky for being in contempt of court after refusing to sign same-sex marriage certificates
“She’s not running a church,” Kasich told host George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.” “I wouldn’t force this on a church, but in terms of her responsibility, I think she has to comply.”
“I don’t like the fact that she’s sitting in jail, that’s just as absurd as well,” added Kasich, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate. “But I think she should follow the law.”
U.S. Marshalls took Davis into custody last Thursday following her steadfast refusal to obey court orders. Rowan County then began issuing same-sex marriage licenses last Friday during Davis’s absence from its offices.
Kasich admitted on Sunday he is worried the standoff is alienating people from observing any religious beliefs.
“I believe in traditional marriage, but the court has ruled,” he said, citing the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges legitimizing same-sex marriage nationwide last June.
“We have a lot of young people who sit on the fence on an issue like this,” Kasich said. “And when we see these kinds of battles going on, I get a little bit afraid that it turns people off to the idea of faith in God, what it means to be a Christian.”
“For me, it’s giving me a solid foundation to deal with the strong winds in life, to be a better person, a better guy,” the Ohio governor added.Gun Control Advocates Say ATF's Hands Have Been Tied
Enlarge this image toggle caption David McNew/Getty Images David McNew/Getty Images
After the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., President Obama asked Vice President Biden to lead a group tasked with drafting policies to reduce gun violence. One of the issues sure to come up in the Biden group's discussions is the role of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The ATF is the primary enforcer of the nation's gun laws, but advocates and former ATF officials say the agency has been underfunded, understaffed and handcuffed in its abilities to go after gun crimes.
In an ad campaign launched Tuesday by the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Roxanna Green, whose child was killed two years ago, appeals directly to the camera: "My 9-year-old daughter was murdered in the Tucson shooting. I have one question for our political leaders: When will you find the courage to stand up to the gun lobby?"
Standing up to the gun lobby is seen by gun control advocates to mean not only banning assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, but restoring some teeth to the ATF.
"The restrictions on ATF are absurd," says Jon Lowy of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "They're not allowed to use computers in doing their trace work. They're not allowed to do more than one spot inspection on a gun dealer."
When looking at the problems facing the ATF, it's instructive to start at the top. The current acting director of the Washington agency is B. Todd Jones, who is juggling the ATF post with his other job, that of U.S. attorney in Minneapolis.
There hasn't been a permanent ATF director for six years, since back in the Bush administration.
Michael Bouchard, a former ATF assistant director, says that lack of leadership has handicapped the agency.
"You need somebody there who has ownership and is going to be there for the long haul and can start projecting a couple years out, versus people who are just brought in for a temporary fix," Bouchard says.
Obama has nominated a permanent director, but there hasn't even been a hearing on the nomination because of opposition from the gun lobby.
There are other administrative issues: Funding has been relatively flat, and the agency has roughly the same number of agents today as it did a decade ago.
Then there are the issues ATF agents face with gun laws. Congress refuses to allow a centralized gun database, so tracing a weapon used in a crime means a lot of legwork, says former ATF agent William Vizzard.
"They have to contact the manufacturer or importer, who tells them, 'Oh, on July 14, 2009, we shipped that gun to Buckeye Sporting Goods, a wholesaler.' Then you contact Buckeye Sporting Goods, and they say, 'Oh, yeah, we received that gun four days later and we shipped it out to Billy Bob's Bait and Tackle Shop.' Then you go to Billy Bob and you say, 'OK, what do your records say?' "
Another frustration, says Bouchard, is the lack of gun-trafficking statutes to charge those suspected of supplying guns to criminals.
"It's very frustrating when you see people that you know are criminals and buying guns for the criminal element, and you don't have... a statute to prosecute them under," he says. "You have to be creative and try to make other statutes fit."
Advocates also say the ATF should be allowed to inspect firearms dealers more than once a year, and that dealers should be required to keep track of their inventory.
The Brady Center's Lowy says that more than 100,000 guns are missing from dealers' shelves.
"There's a great likelihood that most of those guns were sold off the books to criminals," he says. "Easy way to fix that is to simply require dealers to do an inventory every year of their stock. ATF is prevented from even requiring dealers to do that. That makes absolutely no sense."
Gun rights advocates say they are defending law-abiding dealers from overzealous government agents.
Former ATF officials have written Biden with suggestions to correct what they see as the agency's problems. Lowy and other gun control advocates will be meeting with the vice president Wednesday to make their case for changes at the ATF.Julian Assange's years cooped up inside the Ecuadorian embassy could have cost the country as much as £11m in additional policing costs, it has emerged. Today marks the three-year anniversary of the controversial figure's political asylum inside the embassy in Knightsbridge, London. Scotland Yard has revealed the amount it has cost to constantly station police following a request by ITV News.
£11.1m Total estimated cost of policing Julian Assange for three years
Between June 2012 and April 2015, £6.5m has been spent on "opportunity costs" - paying officers who might have been otherwise engaged. Some £2.7m has gone on "additional costs", such as overtime as a direct result of officer deployments. A further £1.9m has been spent on "indirect costs", bringing the estimated total to £11.1m.
Police on guard at the embassy. Credit: PAThis is a guest post by Erick Godsey at Metaprogramming, a fantastic site that’s described as “Where Science and and Self-Development Take Psilocybin Together.” Check it out!
“Man can know himself only in so far as he can become conscious of himself.” Carl Jung
One of life’s truths is that voice in our head. Really, it’s more like Pandemonium. We each have hundreds of people in our head. Mom and Dad are the loudest, but our teachers, coaches, idols, celebrities, and heroes are in there too. This article is about how to begin ordering the chaos into a choir. Modern psychology has found that one of the greatest predictors of life satisfaction is what overall style these voices talk to us. It is called our explanatory style. It is teachable and improvable. This post will show you how.
Introduction
If we are humble and perceptive, we’re aware that a staggering majority of our lives are unconscious. Much of our unconsciousness stems from the way we think. We each have that voice in our head, the continuous commentator and critic. Positive psychologists call it our Explanatory Style, Psychoanalysts call it the Superego, Transactional psychologists call it The Parent. Greeks called it their Daimon and Christians call the voice a Demon.
The name doesn’t matter much. What does is recognizing that you are not alone in the house of your psyche. This voice powerfully affects how you view the world, the action you take in the world, and how the world engages with you.
“We make the unconscious conscious by examining our patterns.” James Hollis
This article has 5 parts:
The current metaphor scientists use to understand our minds and this voice
The evolutionary reason this voice is in our heads
The scientific support for the technique
The philosophical foundations
The technique
If you’d like to skip directly to the Technique, start at The Foundation.
The Metaphor
The current popular metaphor scientists are using to teach how the mind works is The Rider and The Elephant. Our minds are divided. We have a slow, rational, and conscious mind (The Rider), and we have a fast, emotional, unconscious mind (The Elephant). For more information, check out Dual Process Theory.
Our Elephants and Riders are infected to the degree that our Rider automatically generates negative (non-adaptive) thoughts to deal with emotions coming from our Elephant.
To help visualize how our automatic thoughts influence our lives, I’d like to add to the metaphor.
Have you seen Princess Mononoke? Do you remember the boar at the beginning? That is what most of our Elephants are like when we realize the hundreds of automatic negative thoughts we are programmed with.
In the movie, Nago is shot with a lead bullet. This wound mixes with his hatred for the human who shot him and this allows him to be possessed by a demon. This is an archetype. This is a metaphoric life truth. We are each like this.
Our elephant has lodged inside them a few poisonous thoughts (I’m not worthy. I can’t change. Life is meaningless.) And it is from these early life wounds that our negative thought snakes emerge. By using the empirically tested technique I am going to explain below, we can catch these snakes, defang them, and in the process, learn a great deal about ourselves.
It isn’t easy, it isn’t a quick fix, but The Rider can heal The Elephant.
Before we get to the science, let me cover the most common question asked at this stage.
Where do negative thoughts come from? How do we get them?
This is a fascinating question. It involves biology, genetics, the psychology of learning, cognition, and evolutionary biology. These thoughts come from our parents, teachers, coaches, peers, and culture. Many of our primary wounds were embodied before we were six (this is the consensus among psychotherapy, clinical psychology, depth psychology, and, it’s worth noting, many New Age books.)
My view of reality is influenced by Empiricism and Darwinian Evolution. So, when I went looking for answers, this is my admitted bias. Many researchers, notably Daniel Gilbert, a Professor of Psychology at Harvard, believes that the fundamental purpose of our minds are to enable us to predict what will happen.
The fundamental reason we hear that voice is because our brain is attempting to adapt.
Your brain is always trying to accurately predict the future. The voice in our head is that fundamental process flailing and failing, trying to help us adapt. The unattractive truth is this skill can become very skewed. But, like most things, it can be improved.
Here is a simple example how this kind of programming begins:
If, when we started walking as a child, our parents reacted excitedly at our first steps, we’re being rewarded for success and learning. Our nervous system is being shaped to view success as adaptive.
If, our parents only react when we fall, with a laugh or gasp, we are being rewarded for our failing. Our nervous system is being shaped to view not succeeding as adaptive.
The nervous system cares about adaptation, and we learn to adapt to what our parents needed.
Some parents need a clumsy child, others need a good-for-nothing child. Some need little heros, and some need their child to never grow and stay home to care for them.
This is an oversimplification, but it highlights how the programming begins.
We accumulate hundreds of thousands of these microprogramming moments from our caretakers by the time we leave for school. Most of us make it deep into our teens or twenties before the programming we learned from our parents begins failing us in our attempts to navigate life.
The Promethean truth is that the moment we choose to, we can start reprogramming ourselves. We do not have to live the script our youth set for us. I think this is the essential work young adults should engage. Become aware of yourself so you can reprogram yourself into who you want to be.
“We all have to ‘kill’ ourselves, often in the most gruesome manner possible, to become more than the bloke produced by the collision of History, Genetics, and Accident on the day we were born.” Robert Anton Wilson
The Science
“It is quite possible to overcome infantile suggestions of the unconscious, and even change the contents of the unconscious, by employing the right kind of technique.” Bertrand Russell
Science has helped us refine the right technique. They call it “Cognitive Therapy.” But the name doesn’t matter, what matters is that empirical research finds it significantly effective.
This section was originally much longer but as the post grew I decided to trim here but I’ll link to the most robust meta-analysis of the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for those curious.
The Foundation
“The Mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” John Milton
The foundational principle of Cognitive Therapy is that events do not disturb us, we disturb ourselves by the way we think about events. This is an old idea, but it is one of the most important ideas I have ever learned. Cognitive Therapy is a modern and pragmatic manifestation of one of the essential tenets that is in both Buddhism and Stoicism.
“People are disturbed not by things, but by the views we take of them.” Epictetus
“The whole world is change and life itself is but what you deem it.” Marcus Aurelius
“What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind.” Buddha
There have been many techniques offered through the ages on how to realize this truth. The technique I am offering is the most robustly tested and effective technique the Western mind has created. It is not the only way up the mountain, but it is a tried and true path.
The Technique: Belief Farming
Here is how the technique works:
Learn the 10 Cognitive Distortions
Catch Them
Identify Them
Dispute Them
Giving ideas their own names helps me remember them. Here is how I look at this:
Learn about the 10 Types of Snakes
Catch Them
Name Them
Defang Them
The 10 Snakes: The Most Common Cognitive Distortions
The essence of all the distortions is thinking irrationally and childishly. For each type of distortion I’ll give 2 examples. You’ll notice that a lot of these overlap, which is good news. The more you practice one the more quickly you’ll be able to defang others.
Note: My girlfriend and I are trying polyamory and yesterday I learned she has another lover. This is the first Other in our relationship and I do find it a curious and funny coincidence that the day I write this post is the day I find out. So I will practice what I preach and use this technique to process my feelings. Action: Write these 10 Distortions down. Physically writing improves memory recall, and you’ll be referring to this often.
Here is a cheat sheet you can print off.
1) Dichotomous Thinking – Either/or thinking, black and white, absolutest. If you fail at one thing, you’re a complete failure.
Example: I can’t share anything I write until It is perfect. It has to be the best.
Example: My girlfriend had sex with another man. A real man’s woman wouldn’t need another lover.
2) Over-Generalizations – We take a few data points and make sweeping generalizations
Example: No one read my first three blog posts. I’m not interesting. Why am I even doing this?
Example: She found another lover in just a few weeks. She must not of been satisfied with me while we were dating.
3) Exaggerated Negativity Bias – you look for, and only focus on the negative.
Example: The last time I posted a scientific post on r/psychonaut no one liked it.
Example: She’s fucking another man. *Thinks about specific acts that make the gut churn.*
4) Disqualifying the Positive – they not only ignore the positive, they are able to alchemically transform the positive or neutral into negatives.
Example: Yeah, almost everyone who read my post liked it and all the comments were positive, but they’re just being nice.
Example: Yeah, she tells me our connection and intimacy is the best she’s ever had but she’s just trying to make me feel better.
5) Jumping To Conclusions; aka “Mind Reader” – assuming people hold a belief about you, you let this assumption affect you, and you take no action to confirm or disprove the assumption.
Example: My friends are pretending when they tell me how good my writing is. Who can I trust?
Example: I haven’t been enough for her for a long time. I lived a lie.
6) Magnification and Minimization – If you do something “bad,” you catastrophize, if you do something good, you minimize it
Example: Fuck! I spelled catastrophize so badly google didn’t even know what I meant. I am not meant to write.
Example: I’m not a man. I can’t satisfy my girlfriend. I’m just, not enough.
7) Emotional Reasoning – You equate emotion as truth.
Example: This feeling of unworthiness about the quality of this post is evidence it isn’t good enough.
Example: This indescribable twisting in my stomach is proof I am not meant for an open relationship.
8) Shoulding and Musterbation – thinking in shoulds and must generate a lot of frustration, guilt, and shame.
Example: I must write a perfect post before I publish it.
Example: She should’ve waited longer before she found another lover.
9) Labeling and Mislabeling – Essentially, saying “I am…anything.” Your Self cannot be equated to any one thing you do. You’re an ever-changing verbing whirl of action and thought.
Example: I’m not a writer. I’m a fraud.
Example: I’m not a man. I’m worthless. I’m weak.
10) Personalization – This is the mother of all guilt. When a negative happens, we find a way to conclude that it is our fault.
Example: Because I’m just no good, thats why my blog isn’t more successful.
Example: My lacking as a man is why she so quickly found another lover.
FUCK! You can see how that kind of thinking could send any human into a downwards spiral of depression, apathy, and self-hate.
Not one of those thoughts are rational or reasonable. Each one is distorted and fundamentally untrue.
The exercise below is the meat of this post. This is how you defang those fucking snakes.
Catching, Naming, and Defanging
You’ll need paper and pen.
First, divide your paper into 5 sections; Emotions, Situation, Distortion, Defang, and Emotions.
(I may need to do one of these over my self-consciousness about my poor handwriting lol.)
In the left most box, fill in what emotions you feel and add a 1-100 scale to show intensity. Then, briefly explain the situation.
Next you’ll identify the distortions. There are almost always more than one.
Once you’ve identified the distortions, you can defang them.
I’m typing this because its long. My insecure ass is tripping over almost all the distortions.
Defanging Musterbation: We agreed together to start our open relationship. There was no reason she “should” wait. That is me imposing an illusory restriction so I feel righteous in being angry.
Defanging Labeling: Her and I are beyond any labels. I am not less in any way because the person I love had a positive sexual experience with someone other than me.
Defanging Ignoring The Positive: I am ignoring a mountain of positive. The relationship I have with her is the healthiest and most loving relationship I have had with any human on this earth. I know deep in my bones that she loves me in a way that heals.
Defanging Emotional Reasoning: I understand that this emotional ping in my gut is an evolutionary response meant to help me successfully reproduce. I understood this before embarking on this journey and I know I have the cognitive tools to deal with this.
Defanging Personalization: My girlfriend’s exploration towards other lovers is not due to my shortcomings. We each are free to love as many people as will love us.
Now take a moment to feel your emotions. Write down how you feel after doing this exercise.
Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. This is a practice to start doing whenever you have any strong negative emotions. You’ll find that there are always some cognitive distortions lurking.
Summary
This is my longest post. It is a lot of information. But it is one of the most important tools psychology has created. It is hard to do, but it is important work.
We have voices in our heads. Most of these voices are automatic thought patterns we acquired early in our life in our attempt to adapt. Many of them are not helpful, and we can reprogram them. We reprogram them by understanding the common ways they distort reality, we then practice catching them, naming them, and defanging them.
Whatever programming we have, we will pass it on to our children and friends. You are responsible for what you pass on. Metaprogram yourself.
This is a guest post by Erick Godsey at Metaprogramming, a fantastic site that’s described as “Where Science and and Self-Development Take Psilocybin Together.” Check it out!In just a few days world leaders will meet at the United Nations climate summit in Paris to decide on a new global treaty to limit carbon emissions that cause global warming.
Climate Change threatens to destroy life as we know it on this planet. Yet the political will to drive a sustainable transformation is absent so far. After twenty years of shockingly insufficient action, carbon emissions continue to rise.
An energy revolution is possible
A new report by Friends of the Earth International shows that an energy revolution, a complete transformation of the current unjust and dirty energy system, is possible.
The cost? In round numbers, most of the developing world - and more than half the world's population - could be renewably |
been widespread agreement that blacks were ‘a perfectly stupid race,’ and although they could ‘neither be killed nor driven away,’ no one expected ‘civilized white men’ to work alongside them.
The quotation marks are clearly meant to suggest that these are the editors own words and sentiments. In fact, they are quotations from prominent Americans, cited in an article about racial views from the past, and are not even from the same person; the first two are from Theodore Roosevelt and the last is from Charles Eliot (1836 – 1926), president of Harvard.
Prof. Tucker warns that according to a 1997 survey of AR readers, Adolf Hitler got the top score for “Foreigners Who Have Advanced White Interests.” He conveniently fails to report that half again as many AR readers said Hitler was the foreigner who had most damaged white interests.
And what about AR’s alleged denial of blacks’ constitutional rights? Prof. Tucker refers to an article by the late Sam Francis called, “Prospects for Racial and Cultural Survival:”
[A]ccording to the magazine, blacks were entitled only to personal liberty and the right to hold property, not to any of those ‘phony’ rights to participate in the polity and economy that had been ‘fabricated’ for them in the 1960s.
Unfortunately for Prof. Tucker, Francis wrote that equality before the law does not mean:
the ‘right’ to attend the same schools, to serve on juries, to marry across racial lines, to serve in the armed forces, to eat at lunch counters, to ride on buses, to buy a house or rent a room or hold a job, to receive welfare, to be admitted to colleges and universities, to take academic degrees or to be promoted. All these are phony ‘rights’ that have been fabricated through the corruption of our constitutional law and our understanding of it, and no citizen of any race is entitled to them. (emphasis added)
Isn’t it curious how the words “fabricated” and “phony” seem to have caught Prof. Tucker’s eye?
And how did Cattell “lend his prestige” to the filth you are holding in your hands? In 1995, when he was 90 years old and in retirement, he gave an interview to the editor of AR that resulted in a one-page article. Nothing more. “This,” thunders Prof. Tucker, “is not guilt by association but rather guilt by collaboration.” It is the concluding, definitive example from Prof. Tucker’s list of the ways in which Cattell actively tried to bring about the “common vision of an ethnically cleansed future” that he reportedly shared with AR and all the other felons with whom he allegedly cooperated and whom Prof. Tucker caricatures.
What may yet be the pinnacle of Prof. Tucker’s mendacity, however, is his claim to have described Cattell’s thinking “as fairly and accurately as my admittedly imperfect ability will allow.” This ingratiating false modesty makes the swindle all the more odious.
Prof. Tucker’s performance is sadly typical of his kind, but why are anti-“racists” incapable of taking their opponents as they are? Perhaps they are so blinded by hate that they truly cannot understand the words they are reading. More likely, they just can’t resist the thrill of a distortion that turns an opponent into Hitler and eugenics into genocide. This shoddy behavior dirties the name of a respectable academic press.
One can perhaps understand the temptation to misquote (if, in fact, Prof. Tucker has done so) obscure publications from the 1930s that no one can check, but the back issues of American Renaissance are a few mouse-clicks away on the Internet. Why risk exposure? Is it because Prof. Tucker believes his colleagues are no more scrupulous about the truth than he, when it comes to fighting “racism”?
All things considered, however, it is good that this book was written. It reveals — as if any additional proof were needed — the low character of our opponents. More significantly, if it stimulates even a little interest in the work of a man who had the vision to care about the destiny of fellow men who would live 1,000 years in the future, it will have rendered good service — a service far different from that intended by its contemptible author.
Original Article
Share ThisGet Shift Done: Tips and Tricks
Plenty of managers are smart enough to get help with their daily email traffic. But many people don’t realize that they can give assistants access to only part of the load. Private correspondence stays private, while delegated items are routed to an assistant immediately. Here’s how this simple Gmail automation works.
You’re busy! To manage your time, you’ve identified slices of your work that someone else can do, and you found someone to do them. You naturally assume that the way to delegate this work is to share your e-mail password with the assistant: not so good.
Filter, don’t share. Here I show you how to configure an appropriate Gmail filter. The tip below applies equally whether you rely on fee-free Gmail or G Suite. (Apple Mail, Outlook, and other services offer similar functionality, but about one in six messages are read in Gmail.) Moreover, the configuration below works without regard to the e-mail system used by your assistant.
Decide what you want your assistant to receive, first. Should he see all your traffic? Is this a special-purpose assistant who only helps with, say, business events? Does the assistant need to handle everything except personal items? Both inclusive and exclusive filters are possible.
For the sake of specificity, this tip tackles the case where you choose to pass along only messages with the word “project” in the subject line.
Start from Gmail’s “Gear” menu; select “Settings.”
Select “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” (it’s at the top of the screen). Choose “Add a forwarding address.” Enter your assistant’s e-mail address, and confirm that, yes, you truly want to forward e-mail to this person.
Next is the most confusing part of this whole process, and the one that differs most between Gmail and a few of its rival e-mail services: The assistant must explicitly give permission to receive forwarded e-mail. That is: The assistant needs to open his e-mail, and click on the link there as instructed.
Once that’s done — once your assistant sees “boss@yourdomain.com may now forward mail to assistant@some_service.com” — you have everything you need to complete the filter.
At this point, return to the Gmail Settings control panel. Choose “Filters and Blocked Addresses” (which also is along the top of the screen). Select “Create a new filter.” In the Subject entry, type project. Leave everything else blank.
Click on “Create filter with this search,” which brings you to the filter actions screen.
Select “Forward it to …”, and pick your assistant’s e-mail address. (You can also consider selecting the “Also apply filter to …” checkbox, if it makes sense to forward past messages that have “project” in the subject line.)
Depending on your exact sequence of points and clicks, Gmail may grey-out “Forward it to….” Make sure your assistant has approved forwarding, and restart your sequence back at the “Settings” selection.
Finally, click on the “Create filter” button. Congratulations! From now on, your assistant receives all your “project” e-mail a fraction of a second after you do. You can turn your attention to more strategic and rewarding matters.
Once you have a little experience with this first simple filter, consider variations on the theme. As this first example is configured, your assistant receives e-mail about projects (or, rather, with “project” in the subject line), and presumably will respond to them. Those replies show up with the assistant’s name in the From field. Do you want your assistant to receive part of your traffic, but answer as though he is you, that is, with a return address of boss@yourdomain.com? That’s a subject for another day.
Also consider forwarding traffic to multiple helpers or teammates. With just a little more effort, you can automatically send insurance-related messages to one assistant, keep your original assistant busy with projects, copy your boss with inbound weekly summaries about sales metrics, and distribute everything having to do with “Nashville construction” to all 13 members of your working group, whether inside your organization or out.
Email filtering is extremely powerful. This is just the start of what you can accomplish.
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Teen Chat Room Acronyms Internet Chat Room Acronyms and Slang Words:
Online Slang: The 'Code' many kids live by
Kids and teens love to chat in their own secret language on their computers. Online, they enter chat rooms, send email, texting, Twittering and instant messages using a series of acronyms, initials, letters, and secret words on the Internet. Internet slang has become widely used. These acronyms and their secret meanings are listed below so that you can interpret the words and what they mean.
The following is a list of email, instant message and chatroom acronyms (slang) and word abbreviations commonly used online - and their meanings: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z more...
A **// wink wink, nudge nudge,!!!! talk to the hand 10Q thank you 143 I love you 1432 I love you too 2G2BT too good to be true 303 mom 404 don't have a clue 420 Marijuana 459 I love you 4COL for crying out loud 4EAE for ever and ever 88 hugs and kisses <3 a heart ABFL a big fat lady ABT about ADDY (ADDYS - plural) Address ADN any day now AFAIC as far as I'm concerned AFAICT as far as I can tell AFAICS as far as I can see AFAIK as far as I know AFAYC as far as you're concerned AFK away from keyboard AISI as I see it AIUI as I understand it AKA also known as AML all my love ANFSCD and now for something completely different AOHe** Derogatory term for America Online (AOL) ASAP as soon as possible ASL assistant section leader ASL age, sex, location ASLP age, sex, location, picture A/S/L/P age/sex/location/picture ASOP assistant system operator ATM at this moment AWA as well as AWHFY are we having fun yet? AWGTHTGTTA are we going to have to go trough this again? AWOL absent without leave AWOL away without leave AYOR at your own risk AYPI? and your point is? B B4 before B4N bye for now BABY being annoyed by you banana part of male anatomy BBL be back later B&E breaking and entering BGF best girlfriend B4N bye for now BAC back at computer BAG busting a gut BAK back at the keyboard BBIAB be back in a bit BBL be back later BBLBNTSBO... be back later but not to soon because of... BBR burnt beyond repair BBS be back soon BBS bulletin board system BC be cool B/C because BCnU be seeing you BEG big evil grin BF boyfriend B/F boyfriend BFN bye for now BG big grin BIH Burn In Hell BION believe it or not BIOYIOB blow it out your I/O port BITMT but in the meantime BM bite me BMB bite my bum BMTIPG brilliant minds think in parallel gutters BKA better known as BL belly laughing BOB back off bastard BOL be on later BOM bitch of mine BOT back on topic BRB be right back BRBB be right back ***** BRBS be right back soon BRH be right here BRO be right over BRS big red switch BS big smile BS bull **** BSF but seriously folks BST but seriously though BTA but then again BTAIM be that as it may BTDT been there done that BTOBD be there or be dead BTOBS be there or be square BTSOOM beats the **** out of me BTW by the way BUDWEISER because you deserve what every individual should ever receive BWQ buzz word quotient BWTHDIK but what the heck do I know BST but seriously though BYAM between you and me BYOB bring your own bottle BYOH Bat You Onna Head B& Banned C C&G chuckle and grin CAD ctrl-alt-delete CADET can't add, doesn't even try CDIWY couldn't do it without you CD9 code 9 - parents are around CFV call for votes CFS care for secret? CFY calling for you CID crying in disgrace CLM career limiting move CM@TW catch me at the web CMIIW correct me if I'm wrong CNP continue in next post CO conference CRAFT can't remember a ******* thing CRS can't remember **** CSG chuckle snicker grin CTS changing the subject CU see you CU2 see you too CUL see you later CUL8R see you later CWOT complete waste of time CWYL chat with you later CYA see ya CYA cover your *** CYAL8R see ya later CYO see you online D DBA doing business as DCed disconnected DFLA disenhanced four-letter acronym DH darling husband DIIK darn if i know DGA digital guardian angel DGARA don't give a rats *** DIKU do I know you? DIRTFT do it right the first time DITYID did I tell you I'm distressed DIY do it yourself DL download DL dead link DLTBBB don't let the bed bugs bite DMMGH don't make me get hostile DQMOT don't quote me on this DND do not disturb DTC darn this computer DTRT do the right thing DUCT did you see that? DWAI don't worry about it DWIM do what I mean DWIMC do what I mean, correctly DWISNWID do what I say, not what I do DYJHIW don't you just hate it when... DYK do you know E EAK eating at keyboard EIE enough is enough EG evil grin EMFBI excuse me for butting in EMFJI excuse me for jumping in EMSG email message EOD end of discussion EOF end of file EOL end of lecture EOM end of message EOS end of story EOT end of thread ETLA extended three letter acronym EYC excitable, yet calm F F female F/F face to face F2F face to face F2P free to play FAQ frequently asked questions FAWC for anyone who cares FBOW for better or worse FBTW fine, be that way FCFS first come, first served FCOL for crying out loud FIFO first in, first out FISH first in, still here FLA four-letter acronym FOAD **** off and die FOAF friend of a friend FOB **** off ***** FOC free of charge FOCL falling of chair laughing FOFL falling on the floor laughing FOS freedom of speech FOTCL falling of the chair laughing FTF face to face FTTT from time to time FU ****** up FUBAR ****** up beyond all recognition FUDFUCT fear, uncertainty and doubt FUCT failed under continuous testing FURTB full up ready to burst (about hard disk drives) FW freeware FWIW for what it's worth FYA for your amusement FYEO for your eyes only FYE for your entertainment FYEO for your eyes only FYI for your information G G grin G2B going to bed G&BIT grin & bear it G2G got to go G2GGS2D got to go get something to drink G2GTAC got to go take a crap G2GTAP got to go take a pee GA go ahead GA good afternoon GAFIA get away from it all GAL get a life GAS greetings and salutations GBH great big hug GBH&K great big huh and kisses GBR garbled beyond recovery GBY god bless you GD&H grinning, ducking and hiding GD&R grinning, ducking and running GD&RAFAP grinning, ducking and running as fast as possible GD&REF&F grinning, ducking and running even further and faster GD&RF grinning, ducking and running fast GD&RVF grinning, ducking and running very GD&W grin, duck and wave GDW grin, duck and wave GE good evening GF girlfriend GFETE grinning from ear to ear GFN gone for now GFU good for you GG good game GGU2 good game you too GIGO garbage in garbage out GJ good job GL good luck GL&GH good luck and good hunting GM good morning / good move / good match GMAB give me a break GMAO giggling my *** off GMBO giggling my butt off GNBLFY got nothing but love for you GMTA great minds think alike GN (GN8) good night GNOC get naked on cam (webcam) GOK god only knows GOWI get on with it GPF general protection fault GR8 great GR&D grinning, running and ducking GtG got to go GTSY glad to see you H H hug H8 Hate (H1 - H9 indicating levels of hate) H/O hold on H&K hug and kiss HAK hug and kiss HAGD have a good day HAGN have a good night HAGS have a good summer HAG1 have a good one HAHA having a heart attack HAND have a nice day HB hug back HB hurry back HDYWTDT how do you work this darn thing HF have fun HH holding hands HHIS hanging head in shame HHJK ha ha, just kidding HHOJ ha ha, only joking HHOK ha ha, only kidding HHOS ha ha, only seriously HIH hope it helps HILIACACLO help I lapsed into a coma and can't log off HIWTH hate it when that happens HLM he loves me HMS home made smiley HMS hanging myself HMT here's my try HMWK homework HOAS hold on a second HSIK how should i know HSWM have sx with me HT heard through (gen. used to mean hear in real life, not over Twitter) HTH hope this helps HTHBE hope this has been enlightening HYLMS hate you like my sister K IAAA I am an accountant IAAL I am a lawyer IAC in any case IC I see IAE in any event IAG it's all good IAG I am gay IAIM in an Irish minute IANAA I am not an accountant IANAL I am not a lawyer IBN I'm buck naked ICOCBW I could of course be wrong IDC I don't care IDGI I don't get it IDGARA I don't give a rat's *** IDGW in a good way IDI I doubt it IDK I don't know IDTT I'll drink to that IFVB I feel very bad IGP I gotta pee IGTP I get the point IHTFP I hate this ******* place IHTFP I have truly found paradise IHU I hate you IHY I hate you II I'm impressed IIT I'm impressed too IIR if I recall IIRC if I recall correctly IJWTK I just want to know IJWTS I just want to say IK I know IKWUM I know what you mean ILBCNU I'll be seeing you ILU I love you ILY I love you ILYFAE I love you forever and ever IMAO in my arrogant opinion IMFAO in my ******* arrogant opinion IMBO in my bloody opinion IMCO in my considered opinion IME in my experience IMHO in my humble opinion IMNSHO in my, not so humble opinion IMO in my opinion IMOBO in my own biased opinion IMPOV in my point of view IMP I might be pregnant INAL I'm not a lawyer INPO in no particular order IOIT I'm on Irish Time IOW in other words IRL in real life IRMFI I reply merely for information IRSTBO it really sucks the big one IS I'm sorry ISTM it seems to me ISTR I seem to recall ISWYM I see what you mean ITFA in the final analysis ITRO in the reality of ITRW in the real world ITSFWI if the shoe fits, wear it IVL in virtual live IWALY I will always love you IWBNI it would be nice if IYKWIM if you know what I mean IYSWIM if you see what I mean J JAM just a minute JAS just a second JASE just another system error JAWS just another windows shell JIC just in case JJWY just joking with you JK just kidding J/K just kidding JMHO just my humble opinion JMO just my opinion JP just playing J/P just playing JTLYK just to let you know JW just wondering K K OK K kiss KHYF know how you feel KB kiss back KISS keep it simple sister KIS(S) keep it simple (stupid) KISS keeping it sweetly simple KIT keep in touch KMA kiss my ass KMB kiss my butt KMSMA kiss my shiny metal ass KOTC kiss on the cheek KOTL kiss on the lips KPC keeping parents clueless KUTGW keep up the good work KWIM know what I mean? L L laugh L33t elite L8R later L8R G8R later gator LAB life's a ***** LAM leave a message LBR little boys room LD long distance LG lovely greetings LGBNAF let's get butt nkd and f--- LGR little girls room LHM Lord help me LHU Lord help us LL&P live long & prosper LNK love and kisses LMA leave me alone LMABO laughing my *** back on LMAO laughing my *** off LYLAS love you like a sister MBO laughing my butt off LMHO laughing my head off LMIRL let's meet in real life LMFAO laughing my fat *** off LMK let me know LOL laughing out loud LOL lots of love LOL lots of luck LOLA laughing out loud again LOML light of my life (or love of my life) LOMLILY light of my life, I love you LOOL laughing out outrageously loud LSHIPMP laughing so hard I peed my pants LSHMBB laughing so hard my belly is bouncing LSHMBH laughing so hard my belly hurts LTNS long time no see LTR long term relationship LTS laughing to self LULAS love you like a sister LUWAMH love you with all my heart LY love ya LYK let you know LYL love ya lots LYLAB love ya like a brother LYLAS love ya like a sister M M male MB maybe MILF mother I'd like to **** MYOB mind your own business MWBRL More Will Be Revealed Later M8 mate N N in N2M not too much N/C not cool NALOPKT not a lot of people know that NE1 anyone NETUA nobody ever tells us anything NFI no ******* idea N1 nice one NIFOC Nude In Front Of Computer NL not likely NM never mind / nothing much N/M never mind / nothing much NMH not much here NMJC nothing much, just chillin' NOM no offense meant NOTTOMH not of the top of my mind NOYB none of your business NOYFB none of your ******* business NP no problem NTA non-technical acronym N/S no **** NVM nevermind O OBTW oh, by the way OIC oh, I see OF on fire OFIS on floor with stitches OH overheard OK abbreviation of oll korrect (all correct) OL old lady (wife, girlfriend) OLL on-line love OM old man (husband, boyfriend) OMG oh my god / gosh / goodness OOC out of character OT Off topic / other topic OTOH on the other hand OTP on the phone OTTOMH off the top of my head P PAW parents are watching PDS please don't shoot PDOMA pulled directly out of my *** PEBCAK problem exists between chair and keyboard PLZ please PM private message PMJI pardon my jumping in (Another way for PMFJI) PMFJI pardon me for jumping in PMP peed my pants POAHF put on a happy face POOF I have left the chat pornado large amount of pornographic content POTB pats on the back POS parents over shoulder POTS parents over the shoulder - (My parents are watching, I can't really talk) PPL people PS post script PSA public show of affection P911 parent emergency Q Q4U question for you QSL reply QSO conversation QT cutie R RAT remote(ly) activated Trojan RCed reconnected RE hi again (same as re's) RIHAD rot in h--- and die ROFL rolling on floor laughing ROFLAPMP rolling on floor laughing and peed my pants ROFLMAO rolling on floor laughing my *** off ROFLOLAY rolling on floor laughing out loud at you ROFLOLTSDMC rolling on floor laughing out loud tears streaming down my cheeks ROFLOLWTIME rolling on floor laughing out loud with tears in my eyes ROFLOLUTS rolling on floor laughing out loud unable to speak ROTFL rolling on the floor laughing RT ReTweet (Repeat or forwardingfor Twitters instead of emails) RM remake RTF read the FAQ RTM read the manual RTSM read the stupid manual RUMOF are you male or female RUTTM are you talking to me RUUP4IT are you up for it? RVD really very dumb S S2R send to receive SAMAGAL stop annoying me and get a live SCNR sorry, could not resist SETE smiling ear to ear SGTM Silently giggling to myself SH so hot SH same here SHICPMP so happy I could pee my pants SHID slaps head in disgust SHMILY see how much I love you SIF as if SNAFU situation normal, all ****** up SO significant other SOHF sense of humor failure SOMY sick of me yet? SPAM stupid persons' advertisement SRY sorry SSDD same **** different day STBY sucks to be you STFU shut the **** up STW search the web sugarpic Suggestive or erotic picture of self SWAK sealed with a kiss SWALK sweet, with all love, kisses SWL screaming with laughter SIM sh*t, it's Monday SITWB sorry, in the wrong box S/U shut up SYS see you soon SYSOP system operator T TA thanks again TAW teachers are watching TCO taken care of TGIF thank god its Friday THTH to hot to handle THX thanks TIA thanks in advance TIIC the idiots in charge TJM that's just me TLA three-letter acronym TMA take my advice TMI to much information TMS to much showing TNSTAAFL there's no such thing as a free lunch TNX thanks TOH to other half TOY thinking of you TPTB the powers that be TSDMC tears streaming down my cheeks TT2T to tired to talk TTFN ta ta for now TTT thought that, too TTYIAM talk to you in a minute TTYL talk to you later TTYLMF talk to you later my friend TTYS talk to you soon TU thank you TWMA till we meet again TX thanx TY thank you TYVM thank you very much U U2 you too UAPITA you're a pain in the *** U IZ A you is a hoe UMFRIEND 'intimate' partner UR your UW you're welcome URAQT! you are a cutie! V VBG very big grin VBS very big smile W W8 wait W8AM wait a minute WAY what about you WAY who are you WB welcome back WBS write back soon WDHLM why doesn't he love me WDYWTTA What Do You Want To Talk About WE whatever W/E whatever WFM works for me WNDITWB we never did it this way before WP wrong person WRT with respect to WTF what/who the ****? WTG way to go WTGP want to go private? WTH what/who the heck? WTMI way to much information WU what's up? WU@ what/where you at WUD what's up dog? WUF where are you from? WUU2 what you up to WUWT whats up with that WYCM? will you call me? WYMM will you marry me? WYRN What’s Your Real Name? WYSIWYG what you see is what you get X XTLA extended three letter acronym Y Y why? Y2K you're too kind YATB you are the best YBS you'll be sorry YG young gentleman YHBBYBD you'd have better bet your bottom dollar YKYWTKM you know you want to kiss me YL young lady YL you 'll live YM you mean YM young man YMMD you've made my day YMMV your mileage may vary YVM you're very welcom YW you're welcome YWIA you're welcome in advance YWTHM you want to hug me YWTLM you want to love me YWTKM you want to kiss me YOYO you're on your own YY4U two wise for you Z ZZZ sleeping, bored, tired More? huh??4U question for you >U screw you! /myB kick my butt 143 I Love You 2U2 to you too 2MFM to much for me 420 4life marijuana 4AYN for all you know 4ever or 4eva for ever 4COL for crying out loud 4SALE for sale 4U for you 53x sex =w= whatever *G* giggle or grin *H* hug *K* kiss *S* smile *T* tickle *W* winkNEWARK -- Nico Hischier showed something in his first NHL game that stats and numbers can't quantify.
When Devils forward Kyle Palmieri went knee-to-knee with Colorado Avalanche forward Erik Johnson, causing Palmieri to hit the ice hard and limp to the locker room, Hischier wasted no time skating over to Johnson and getting in his face for the hit.
In his first real opportunity to step up for a teammate, the 18-year-old showed no hesitation.
"I just saw Palms go down and thought it's kind of bad," Hischier said. "So I just stepped up for him. I thought that was the right choice, and just stepped up for my teammates, saying can't let this go through. He said thanks at the end, so I really think it was the right choice. It wasn't much. I didn't fight him, I just tried to make a sign or do something."
Why Nico won't be only impact rookie
Hischier admitted on Sunday he has never actually dropped the gloves in a game, and other teammates converged on Johnson before things escalated further.
When the Devils drafted Hischier, they knew they were getting an offensively gifted player who could make a short and long-term impact on the team. And based on what Devils saw in Hischier off the ice, standing up for Palmieri wasn't a surprise.
"Nico continues to show the type of person he is, the type of competitor he is, the type of teammate he is," Devils coach John Hynes said. "That's one of the reasons why as an organization we decided to pick him first overall, the fabric of who he is as a person, and when you have a player like him do that fora teammate as a first-year guy, first ever NHL game, is really important."
Hischier's actions earned him The Jacket -- a new postgame tradition started by the Devils after their trip to West Point. Following wins, one player will get the green camouflage jacket for standing up and supporting teammates.
The Devils emphasized playing for each other rather than just with each other during the preseason, and having Hischier display it in his first game was an added bonus.
"That's something we've talked about, and we've seen it a bunch of times, even at times last year," forward Adam Henrique said. "Different guys jump in and step up for their guy when he's unable to defend himself. It was great to see him get over there and not shy away at all and earn himself the jacket tonight. Drafting him first overall, that's not what everybody expected. But it's awesome to see."
Chris Ryan may be reached at cryan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisRyan_NJ. Find NJ.com Devils on Facebook.The wait for ESPN’s Minnesota boys hockey state tournament feature is nearly over.
The package highlighting the tournament will premiere on E:60 on Tuesday, May 10, at 9 p.m. Central time on ESPN, E:60 feature producer Mike Farrell said in a text message Monday. Related Articles Barry Melrose: Minnesota high school hockey “is better than I thought it was”
Love Minnesota hockey hair? So does ESPN E:60
Farrell, ESPN hockey analyst Barry Melrose and an E:60 crew were in St. Paul for the state tournament in March as they interviewed and captured footage of numerous players and coaches.
The package figures to largely center on the various elaborate hairstyles sported by players at the tournament, though the crew also spent time in Hermantown in the days leading up to the tournament, chronicling the Hawks’ run to the Class A state championship following six straight second-place finishes.Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week.
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US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney gestures while speaking at an election rally in Sterling, Virginia, June 27, 2012. Reuters/Jason Reed Ad Policy
Mitt Romney has been very reluctant to release his tax returns. In all his previous campaigns he refused to release any of them. This time, under pressure, he has given us only the last two years.
But he must disclose more. If you want to know why, read Nicholas Shaxson’s piece in the new issue of Vanity Fair. In it, Shaxson raises important questions about some strange aspects of Romney’s financial history:
§ What is in Romney’s offshore accounts? He has sheltered much of his wealth in tax havens such as Bermuda, but he has not disclosed anything about those investments. For instance, Shaxson writes, “There is a Bermuda-based entity called Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd., which has been described in securities filings as ‘a Bermuda corporation wholly owned by W. Mitt Romney.’ He set it up in 1997, then transferred it to his wife’s newly created blind trust on January 1, 2003, the day before he was inaugurated as Massachusetts’s governor…. Romney failed to list this entity on several financial disclosures, even though such a closely held entity would not qualify as an ‘excepted investment fund’ that would not need to be on his disclosure forms. He finally included it on his 2010 tax return. Even after examining that return, we have no idea what is in this company, but it could be valuable, meaning that it is possible Romney’s wealth is even greater than previous estimates.”
§ Why is Romney still being paid by Bain Capital? He left the firm more than ten years ago. Given its varied investments, could the fact that he is still being paid by them create a conflict of interest in office? Shaxson writes, “Though he left the firm in 1999, Romney has continued to receive large payments from it—in early June he revealed more than $2 million in new Bain income. The firm today has at least 138 funds organized in the Cayman Islands, and Romney himself has personal interests in at least 12, worth as much as $30 million, hidden behind controversial confidentiality disclaimers.”
§ Why has Romney opened foreign bank accounts, such as a Swiss account with $3 million that appeared on his 2010 returns but not his 2011 returns? How much has kept in offshore accounts in the past? Was he betting against the strength of the US dollar? How might such financial interests affect his policies as president?
§ Are Romney’s blind trusts really blind? Their trustee is Bradford Malt, his personal lawyer. Malt invested $10 million of Romney’s money in the Solamere Founders Fund, co-founded by his son Tagg and Spencer Zwick, a Romney campaign fundraiser. Malt’s and Romney’s claims that this is coincidental and Romney knew nothing of it strains credulity. If Romney knows what his blind trusts invest in, how might his investments influence his political decisions?
§ How much has Romney invested with Elliot Associates? Shaxson reports, “Elliott buys up cheap debt, often at cents on the dollar, from lenders to deeply troubled nations such as Congo-Brazzaville, then attacks the debtor states with lawsuits to squeeze maximum repayment. Elliott is run by the secretive hedge-fund billionaire and G.O.P. super-donor Paul Singer, whom Fortune recently dubbed Mitt Romney’s ‘Hedge Fund Kingmaker.’ (Singer has given $1 million to Romney’s super |
be forced to cut jobs if prices keep falling. “I think the jury’s still very much out on what the impact of [low oil prices] could be,” Glaser said.
In all, investment managers and economists say the break-even year for equities could be a start to more subdued stock market returns after roughly six years of gains.
Read more:
How to adjust your investments after the Fed’s rate hike
Five tips to setting realistic, effective financial goals for 2016
10 things Yoda would say if he were your financial adviserHearthstone Expansion Announcement - March 11th @ 10 AM PST
Xul Talent Highlights & Design Insights, NA Spring Regionals & KR Super League VODs
Warcraft Movie Set, Mar 3 PvP Hotfixes, Raid Testing, Legion PvP, Blue Posts, Tweets
PTR Patch Blue Post Round-Up
CM Kauza has posted a few clarifications about the PTR patch that we datamined in our latest news post. He said that some of the expected changes will be retroactive, other possible Legendary gem changes and how the patch will not go live mid-season! Read below.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums) With minor balancing changes like this will we need to pick up new versions of legendary items // gems to have the changed effects or will they take effect retroactively on the 2.4 versions? The changes to Taeguk, Twisted Sword, and Solanium will be retroactive. is this patch going to be live in season 5 later or its targeted for next season? We won't be dropping the live 2.4.1 patch mid-season. The PTR patch will most likely be happening while Season 5 is still active, but that of course won't affect any of your Season 5 heroes. So what's going to happen to the non-channeling builds that currently use Taeguk? Will you add new legendary gems in 2.4.1? We're taking a look at some of the other Legendary gems as well to open up as many viable alternatives as we can. More on that soon!
Datamined Changes Video Summary
Rhykker has put together a well organized and concise video summary of all the datamined information we presented. For those who prefer this kind of media, with changes paired together and explained in a more thematic way, check it out!ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A third of Newt Gingrich’s campaign staff will be laid off and he will cut back on his campaign schedule, his team announced Tuesday night.
The former House speaker’s strategy will now be re-focused toward the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., in August, Gingrich’s communications director Joe DeSantis told Politico on Tuesday night, in a report confirmed by FOX News Channel.
“We’re focusing exclusively on what it’ll take to win what we’re going to be calling a big-choice convention in August,” DeSantis told the political news website.
He said Gingrich will have a less intense schedule and spend less time on the road, but will still visit those states yet to hold primaries.
Gingrich has also replaced his campaign manager Michael Krull, who has been in charge since an exodus of staff last June, with his deputy campaign manager and policy director, Vince Haley, who has spent nine years working alongside Gingrich.
“We think that a big part of how we succeed is getting back to core Gingrich, which is a focus on big ideas and positive solutions — having someone who is intimately aware of Newt’s policy positions and the way things are framed, and has been working with Newt for so long on the policy front. We think that having him [Haley] as the campaign manager is very important,” DeSantis said.
The new strategy relies on frontrunner Mitt Romney not getting enough delegates to win the nomination during the primaries, creating an opening for Gingrich to make his case to the party at the convention.
Gingrich has won only two primaries so far, in South Carolina and his home state of Georgia. His Southern strategy essentially was foiled when Rick Santorum picked up a series of other states in the region.
DeSantis told The New York Times the campaign believes Gingrich will be more effective focusing on President Barack Obama and letting Romney and Santorum attack each other.
“You are going to see us be very happy for Governor Romney and Senator Santorum to be hitting each other while we go after Mr. Obama,” DeSantis said.
Earlier Tuesday, Gingrich acknowledged his campaign’s finances were “very tight” after reports that his staff had started charging supporters $50 apiece for photos with the candidate.
When asked about the fee by reporters in Annapolis, Md., on Tuesday, Gingrich indicated his team is reorganizing to adjust to tougher financial realities, although he said he has enough money to remain in the race.
“The money is very tight obviously, that’s why we’re trying to raise more money,” Gingrich said, according to FOX News.
Asked whether he would ask staffers to take pay cuts, Gingrich said the campaign is “working through what it is going to take” to get to the Republican National Convention.
“Clearly we’re going to have to go on a fairly tight budget to get from here to Tampa, but I think we can do it,” he said.
It was revealed last week that Gingrich’s campaign is spending more money than it is taking in. According to a Federal Election Commission report, his campaign spent $2.8 million in the month of February while it raised just $2.62 million.
His overall campaign balance is also in the red. The Gingrich campaign carries $1.55 million in debt compared to $1.54 million cash on hand.Shock Claim From Inside DNC: Seth Rich Leaked Emails To Moscow Lawyer One Month Before His Murder
With the ‘Russian hacking’ conspiracy theory hanging by a gossamer thread, a new claim has emerged which casts further doubt that the leaks came from a server breach by a foreign actor, yet maintains the charge of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election: Seth Rich leaked the DNC emails to the same Moscow attorney who met with Trump Jr. in June 2016.
According to Radar Online, an anonymous staffer currently employed by the DNC contacted attorney, GOP lobbyist, and Seth Rich investigator Jack Burkman, to reveal Rich met with Natalia Veselnitskaya one month before his murder – giving her a cache of DNC emails later released by WikiLeaks.
“They claimed the Russian lawyer had met with Rich about a month before his death, four to six weeks, and Seth provided her with emails that were, apparently, leaked later on WikiLeaks.” –Jack Burkman
Of note, Veselnitskaya – who doesn’t speak English, would have needed an interpreter to meet with Rich unless he spoke Russian.
Jack Burkman represents the family of Seth Rich, and has been pushing the Seth Rich – Russia connection for months, calling for an investigation into links to the murder. In January, he told Infowars Rich was murdered by Russia after uncovering evidence that they hacked the DNC.
In addition to creating the website www.whokilledseth.com, Burkman is staging a reenactment of Rich’s murder next Tuesday.
Exactly one week from now, August 1st, we are staging a reenactment of #SethRich's murder. YOU CAN'T MISS THIS. #JusticeforSeth — Jack Burkman (@Jack_Burkman) July 25, 2017
‘Russian Hacker’ narrative was in it’s death throes…
After serious doubt was cast on Crowdstrike, the firm which produced the evidence of Russian hacking – and recent forensic analysis revealed at least the Guccifer 2.0 portion of the leaked emails could have only been accessed locally the Russian hacking narrative is on incredibly thin ice. Seth Rich leaking to the Russians would breathe new life into that narrative – however it would also suggest Rich was a traitor.
One has to wonder – why would Seth Rich leak to Veselnitskaya instead of going straight to WikiLeaks? Rich was an incredibly patriotic American who loved Democracy and pandas. Why would he meet with a shadowy Russian lawyer who doesn’t speak English, to hand over a trove of DNC emails?
Is it possible that Burkman was fed disinformation by the DNC in order to maintain the Russian interference narrative? Was Seth Rich one of the hundreds of people unmasked by Obama admin?
I’m just going to leave this here…
Updated to specify that only the Guccifer 2.0 files have been implicated in the local access claim.
If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on Twitterby Justin D. Lowry, Georgia Conservative Weekly
Change is inevitable, and not all change is bad just as not all change is good. Government is a collection of law. Politics uses philosophy and theory. The way to test these is to compare them to events in history. If something didn’t work 100 years ago, it will not work now.
To put state sovereignty to this test, you will see that it worked for around 90-100 years. The Articles of Confederation clearly expressed states rights, and the Constitution gives states levels of autonomy.
When it comes to change, people will evaluate the action as right, wrong, easy, or difficult. It seems that what is right is always difficult and vice versa. I assure you that a call for state sovereignty is right, but is also very difficult. Most of this difficulty stems from misunderstandings. You will hear people say that this resolution means secession. This in no way means secession or a second Civil War. Instead of thinking of this as a Declaration of Independence, think of it as a Magna Carta. Its purpose is to limit the Federal government.
You will hear people claim that this resolution is purely symbolic and will not pass, but it’s a good message. I ask, what’s the purpose of a message if it isn’t followed through? It may be a good message but who is it good for? Is it good for the state that cowered to the Federal government? Is it good for the Federal government that flexed its might at the state and made it cower? Who do you think is best served by this message?
You may hear it said that these resolutions are unpatriotic. I assure you that patriotism isn’t love for you government, its love of your country. This country is built upon Liberty, and the Constitution limits the government to protect that liberty. What is more patriotic than defending the Constitution? Who is more patriotic, the one that defends the Constitution, or the one that blindly follows the government?
I believe it is also important to examine the two types of change. One is a slow, gradual change. It takes decades for this to take place. This type of change is multigenerational, that is it is started and young people of every generation are constantly recruited to energize it, for nothing is perpetual.
The other type of change is radical. It happens almost over night. This can be the worse kind of change, because it doesn’t allow time for adjustment.
The change that occurred in our country was very slow and gradual. They say that if you put a frog in water and slowly increase the temperature, the frog will not leap out as it nears boiling. I say look around, the water is getting hotter and hotter. For decades things were slowly crumbling around us. This nation is like an old house, you can’t see the cracks unless you compare it to an old photograph. I tell you to look at how our country was and count the cracks that have appeared in our foundation. We all know that after a foundation is damaged, the house will soon collapse.
So as things slowly changed, we as defenders of the Constitution sat around and watched. The mentality was wrong. People either thought that it would never happen, or that they couldn’t do anything to stop it. I assure you that those two mentalities are very dangerous.
Things can always change, regardless of how good the original way may be. The second mentality is actually correct. When you think that you can’t do something, you can’t. The strength is always in numbers. One stick will snap easily, but a bundle will hold strong. Always beware of people who won’t help because it’s against “the†way. A way should never be devoid of right or wrong and become “the†way. Regardless of how established it is, it will fall into one of the two categories.
The question is then how must we act. What type of change must we bring about? Gradual change is too slow, radical is too fast. We must achieve a perfect balance between patience and ferocity. Ferocity should always be synonymous with liberty. Consider the nature of a wild and domesticated dog. A domesticated dog enjoys its captivity, but a wild dog will fight fiercely to avoid capture.
That is how we must be. We must provide fierce, constant, and persistent pressure on our legislature. We must rally friends, neighbors, and strangers to our cause for them to do the same.
Our argument must be logical. I say we take our founders intentions to heart, but not have them be our argument. The truth is, most people don’t care what our founders intended, and it’s near impossible to make them care.
Our founders’ intentions make a great aid to our argument, but we must paint a picture of why our nation would be better with a weaker central government. Our argument is better served with facts of lower taxes, greater individual liberty, etc; as opposed to what Jefferson or Madison intended. As time erodes all things, sadly, it also erodes the meanings of words. That’s why we must consider this a renewal of Federalism, not a return to it.
We are by no means to disregard their words, their philosophy is true. We are to base our argument on their words, not have their words be the sole argument. You are stronger by reading their words and getting into their mindset than by just quoting their words.
This is the time to act. You must educate people on this matter. Instruct them to write their representatives to their state legislature, and to educate more people to do the same. Our strength will be in numbers. This is the opportunity to either do as we have done for decades, which was nothing, or we can act and work together to obtain this goal. The choice is yours to make.Here are two views of the active cone of Tolbachik volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. The first photograph I took on during the 2012 eruption, on 1 July 2013, a few months after the main eruption took place. As you can see the lava lake was visible and there was a lot of activity. Lower down the slope rivers of lava ran down towards the plains and two more vents continued to erupt with lava and spew gas.
The second photograph I took on 20 July 2014 during my 150km trek around the central group of volcanos. As you can see the lava lake was no longer visible and the activity had ceased. Lower down the slope, while the rivers of lava had stopped running, the lava was still hot – too hot to touch in some places. There were a few vents still spewing very hot gas into the air. We had to approach these vents with great care as if the wind direction changed you had to jump to get out of the way as the blast of hot air was extremely hot. We saw no evidence of red hot lava though.
We came across a number of volcanologists clamouring over the rubble with their gadgets and instruments conducting research.
We walked around the edge of the caldera and collected lava rocks as souvenirs. Wisps of gas continued to flow from cracks in the ground and much of the rock was still hot to touch. Tolbachik erupted last year after a gap of nearly 40 years. I wonder when the next eruption will be.About
We are a board game café opening soon on the Delmar Loop in St. Louis. We will offer an accommodating space to play board games with friends and strangers coupled with access to an extensive library of board games, all while serving a light menu of food and drinks. We are part café/bar and part creative-gaming space with waiters who not only serve food but also teach and recommend board games.
Board game cafés are a growing business that have thrived in Asia for years and are booming in Canada currently. In the United States, there are only a few board game cafés open in select cities but the movement is growing fast. We want our home of St. Louis to host the revolution!
Check out our awesome rewards! Note that memberships will NOT be sold after the Kickstarter, so get 'em now! Also visit our website!
What is your price?
$5 will get you access to all our board games for the whole day until closing time. Should you desire to hang out in our space without board games, you are completely welcome and we hope you would enjoy our food and drink menu along with studying and socializing.
What will be on the menu?
Our menu is comprised of a selection of artisan meats and cheeses, fresh-pressed paninis, sweet cookies and savory scones, colonial tea, full-bodied coffee and espressos, and all the best in St. Louis craft beer.
Why Revolution?
Revolutions are movements of the people towards change. We feel that in our constantly changing culture and world, positive change needs to be made by communal efforts. Alleviating poverty, spreading joy, and reconciling racial tension are just a few of our personal goals and we wanted our brand to reflect our values, no matter how big or lofty. As well, we wanted to curate a space that harkened to the colonial times where early Americans conspired about the revolution in a warm tavern. We hold this historic period dearly in our hearts as it was our country’s founding, a time of unbounded possibility.
Why the Delmar Loop?
We have lived on the Loop for the past 4 years and have grown to love the milieu of culture and commerce. The Loop is at the intersection of the city and the county, college students and natives, artists and business people, and white and black. It is a paradoxical place of blooming creativity and heartbreaking segregation, a geographical focal point of all the cities best and all the cities worst. While our mission is simple we realize we live in a complicated world and a complicated space. This is just one of our ways to reconcile differences and create community, and we feel there is no better place than where we are at now.
When is opening day?
We want to be open by August 2017 but we could be open as soon as January 2017.
Why haven't you signed a lease yet?
The success of our venture is hinged upon the success of our Kickstarter. If we don't get fully funded, we won't be able to move forward with the business. For this reason, we are waiting to sign a lease until we have finished our Kickstarter.
Why $40,000?
$40,000 will go towards purchasing all our kitchen equipment, decor & furnishings, board games, and renovations. We arrived at this amount after compiling a price list and leaving wiggle room to account for taxes and Kickstarter fees.
The Long Story
Throughout college, we have seen board games change people. The stolid become goofy, the nonchalant become competitive, and the innocent become mischievous. Board games provide universal, face-to-face entertainment in a rapidly changing digital age. But, we don’t aim to fight the change of our digital age with traditional entertainment or outdated games, and we don’t have to. Board games are both nostalgic and fresh. We grew up playing board games with our families and we know many people have done the same. The classics like Monopoly and Chess hold a dear part of our childhoods and were some of the best times around the family dinner table. But, board games aren’t all nostalgia and sentimentality, a new wave of games has seized a new audience with reports of an increasing market size and industry growth. For example, the game Exploding Kittens raised $8.78 million on Kickstarter in January 2015.
Board games are going through a golden age. Game developers from the big publishing houses of Hasbro to the growing indy community found on Kickstarter have been revolutionizing the gaming industry and reaching new and growing markets, sometimes even straddling the line of digital gaming. Quite simply, they have innovated an age old experience. We seek to continue this trend with board game cafés.
By creating a space that is public and social, we are revolutionizing a tradition that began in the home, evolved into a niche hobby, and is now breaking out into mainstream culture. Board game cafés have done well in Asia, Canada, and several U.S. cities. We are inviting St. Louis to join us in an experiment to build community, have fun, and disconnect from distractions.
We personally feel the need of students for board game cafés but we also believe that business professionals will commit to the movement. As the Harvard Business Review has pointed out, it is advantageous for businesses to have their members play strategy games. Not only does it help them relax and have fun outside work, but it strengthens their strategic-thinking skills. Business leaders are realizing the value in unconventional creative processes like design-thinking and many boardrooms are starting to resemble a toy store. We think that board game cafés fit this culture perfectly.
For more information: revolutiongamehouse.comLee Jeffries career began as a sports photographer, capturing the beautiful game of football in Manchester. Then a chance meeting with a homeless woman living in the streets of London changed his life forever. He has since dedicated himself to capturing gripping portraits of the disenfranchised.
Shooting exclusively in black and white, Lee Jeffries’ 135+ pictures can be viewed in his Flickr Photostream. The majority are closeup portraits with incredible detail. Each photograph exudes so much raw character and depth, you find yourself studying each shot with great intensity. Below is a sample of his large collection, the Sifter strongly recommends you check out his entire set on Flickr.
BLACK AND WHITE PORTRAITS OF THE HOMELESS – LEE JEFFRIES
Lee Jeffries lives in Manchester in the United Kingdom. Close to the professional football circle, this artist starts to photograph sporting events. A chance meeting with a young homeless girl in the streets of London changes his artistic approach forever.
Lee Jeffries recalls that, initially, he had stolen a photo from this young homeless girl huddled in a sleeping bag. The photographer knew that the young girl had noticed him but his first reaction was to leave. He says that something made him stay and go and discuss with the homeless girl. His perception about the homeless completely changes. They become the subject of his art.
The models in his photographs are homeless people that he has met in Europe and in the United States: «Situations arose, and I made an effort to learn to get to know each of the subjects before asking their permission to do their portrait.» From then onwards, his photographs portray his convictions and his compassion to the world.Australians can map their genomes for $1,000 after institute buys world-first machine
Updated
Individual genome sequencing will soon be accessible on a broad scale in Australia, with the world-first purchase of a high-tech sequencing machine.
Sydney's Garvan Institute has become one of the first organisations in the world to purchase a sequencing machine that brings the cost of mapping an individual's genome down to less than $1,000.
A decade ago, it cost more than $1 billion for a team of scientists around the world to map the entire human genome.
The Garvan Institute's Professor John Mattick says the Illumina sequencing system means around 18,000 individual genomes could be sequenced every year.
"We can now really roll up our sleeves and start to explore genetic variation in the population to understand normal human biology and disease," he said.
Professor Mattick says individual sequencing will allow doctors to tailor a patient's treatment to their specific genes.
Topics: dna, genetics, science-and-technology, health, dna-testing, australia
First postedYesterday’s America’s Cup parade in Auckland is drawing intense scrutiny today, as parents who attended say it was “completely ruined” by Helmsman Peter Burling’s refusal to dress as Santa Claus.
“Disgraceful, really,” said Dylan Greysome, who weathered the wind and rain to bring his children to the parade. “Honestly put a damper on the whole thing. The rain, we could deal with that, but no Santa? I mean come on.”
Linda Draper said her two children, aged 2 and 4, were “devastated” when Santa never showed, despite “ample opportunity” provided by a lengthy procession.
“There were cars and floats for miles, you could’ve had at least one Santa Claus,” she said. “I spent three hours last night trying to convince my kids to come along. I promised them Santa, and now Team New Zealand are making it look like I lied to them.”
Responding to criticism, Burling has put forth a bizarre excuse, saying he didn’t dress as Santa because “it wasn’t a Santa parade.” But that explanation isn’t sitting well with parents.
“What does he mean it wasn’t a Santa parade?” said Draper. “I have no idea what that means.”
Grant Dalton is also under fire to not being Dave Dobbyn.
“That was a disappointment to many as well,” she added.
Organisers are hoping for a do-over when the parade hits Wellington on Tuesday, and while there’s still no word on whether Burling will cave to the pressure to be Santa, Grant Dalton has said he will endeavour to dress as Dave Dobbyn.
But that effort isn’t convincing a growing number of outraged, many of whom now believe Team New Zealand “must” construct a sleigh as their vessel for the next America’s Cup.
Prime Minister Bill English said he could understand parents’ “frustration,” and hoped that Team New Zealand would find it in themselves to construct a sleigh for the cup’s defence, as that was “the least they could do.”
When pressed further, English was forced to concede that “is actually probably the most they can do.”
“Yeah, I have to admit, I can’t imagine they could realistically do any more than that,” he said.With the Will & Grace cast doing a 10-minute special episode on the upcoming American Presidential election, hopes are high that the hit foursome – Debra Messing (Grace), Eric McCormack (Will), Megan Mullally (Karen) andSean Hayes (Jack) – will return for a reboot of the massively popular series that wrapped 10 years ago.
The short episode is classic Will & Grace. The actors haven’t aged a day and the script cackles with the campy humour that made Jack and Karen such an irresistible pair. The original series ran from 1998 to 2006 for a total of eight seasons, and like Friends, it came to define a new genre of comedy on American TV that was personal, conversational and side-splittingly funny.
Will and Grace are childhood friends who live together in a New York that is instantly recognisable for its tastefully done but too-small apartments. Will is a lawyer and Grace an interior designer. Will is also gay and one of his best friends is Jack, who has professionally done everything under the sun but likes to call himself an actor.
While Will is staid and uppity, Jack is flamboyant. He ticks all the stereotypes of gay men – he is into opera, he is lusty, he has "gay voice". Finally, there is Karen, the most interesting character of the lot, married into wealth but working as Grace’s assistant to pass the time and regale the audience with her quips.
At a time when LGBT characters on television are a dime a dozen, it is worth noting that Will & Grace was one of the first shows that included two out gay men as the main characters. Critics, even at the time, took issue with the portrayal, but by refusing to be politically correct, the show showed a slice of gay life that is all too real.
Transparent’s third season, currently streaming on Amazon, has academics for characters who swing between their politics and their passions.
To this reviewer, at least, before the debate over portrayals came the sheer primacy of the show. To most gay men, Jack represented the extreme as well as the truth of everything about us – our effeteness, our joys and frustrations, and of course, our anxieties.
While Will and Grace could pass for a straight couple (Grace is straight at any rate), Jack epitomised the quintessential gay lifestyle. Wrapped in comedy, the show did not shy away from exploring, say, why Jack remains defiantly single.
Do gay men shun traditional romantic structures because they are different, or are they different because they do so? As America came of age on LGBT issues, Will & Grace put forth these questions – in its unique exaggerated style – before the audience.
The America of today – and the American television of today – are entirely different beasts than they were during the show’s telecast. LGBT issues are mainstream and gay marriage is legal. Some of the most popular shows include storylines involving LGBT characters – and representation has become diverse. For every effeminate boy mulling how to come out (Jude and Connor on The Fosters), there is a merciless gangster who is also a tender gay lover (Omar Little on The Wire).
Indeed, the conversation has now shifted to bringing LGBT stories to the heart of narratives. Transparent, about a man transitioning in his 60s, has trans people on its writing staff in order that the series best represents the struggles of the community.
That said, some of today’s shows can also be weighed down by needless political correctness. In the clamour for acceptance, the danger is that the richness of the storyline might be sacrificed.
Transparent’s third season, currently streaming on Amazon, has academics for characters who swing between their politics and their passions. While this makes for engaging TV, it does not necessarily represent the real conflicts of LGBT lives.
Will & Grace, should it return, will therefore be a welcome addition to LGBT television. Gayness is different enough – and by showcasing it for what it is, the show heralded a new freedom for writers to imagine LGBT characters.
In some ways, today’s television is a cultural beneficiary of shows like Will & Grace and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which did not strive to make gayness normal but merely acted as primers on the topic. Jack, in all his wonderful campiness and his essential difference, is a model for us all.
Also read: Paresh Rawal to SRK, how Bollywood plays eunuchs and cross-dressersBy Sian Norris
An article appeared in the Daily Mirror today, reporting on a controversial study from Canada. The researchers argued that psychedelic drugs – such as LSD or magic mushrooms – could be given to domestic violence abusers to try and reduce re-offending.
The study looked at 302 drug-addicted prisoners after their release. They found that ex-inmates who took psychedelic drugs were 'less likely to be arrested for domestic violence than their sober compatriots'. Results showed that 42% of prisoners who did not take such drugs ended up being arrested for battering their partners within six years, compared to 27% of people who dropped acid, took mushrooms or ecstasy.
The project's leader, Prof Zach Walsh, said: "This study…speaks to the public health potential of psychedelic medicine. As existing treatments for intimate partner violence are insufficient, we need to take new perspectives such as this seriously."
There’s a serious problem at the heart of this research – summed up with the word "treatments". The study begins from the flawed position that men who commit violence against women are somehow'sick' and therefore need to be 'treated' in a medical fashion.
But this is to ignore the fact that male violence isn't an illness. The vast majority of men who beat, rape and bully women are not sick. They are making a choice to do harm. They choose to use violence to control and abuse women.
In the UK, it’s estimated that 1.2 million women experience domestic abuse and 85,000 women are raped every year. Walsh is right to call this a'major public health problem'. The levels of injury and psychological harm caused to women as a result of male violence not only have expensive implications for the state, but they entrench gender inequality. When women are raped, beaten and killed because we are women, we cannot ever have true freedom or equality. So of course more action must be taken to reduce what the UN calls an epidemic of male violence against women and girls.
But that action cannot start with the belief that men who abuse women are'sick' and in need of medical care.
Because to do this is to argue that male violence is something that simply happens; that the abuser can't help it, that it is somehow inevitable. And if we accept that argument, then we are accepting that male violence can never be challenged – or stopped.
or... maybe violent men could take responsibility for their actions & stop beating women? https://t.co/8dNwciO8VE — sianushka (@sianushka) April 28, 2016
There's an insistence on pathologising male violence against women that is not seen in other violent crimes. No one starts from the position that a man who punches another man on the street is'sick' and in need of medical treatment (although, of course, this can be the case).
But when it comes to men's crimes against women, we tend to try and find ways to reduce his responsibility for violence. We might blame the victim, for example, arguing that her short skirt caused her harassment. We might express empathy for the abuser, calling a domestic abuse murder a "crime of passion".
And we try to reduce male violence against women to some kind of sickness – an unstoppable cancer that just happens to lead to the deaths of women and children.
If we start from the position that abusive men need 'treatment', then we are saying they cannot possibly be responsible for their violent actions. We're saying that the punch thrown, the rape committed, the scream in the face, the gunshot, simply couldn't be helped. After all, sickness can't be helped. Sickness isn't a choice.
But male violence is a choice. The men who rape, beat and abuse women are not sick. They don't necessarily need medical care. They have made a choice. And that choice causes physical and psychological injury to over a million women in the UK every year.
We have to shatter the myth that male violence is about a loss of control; about a lack of choice. Domestic abuse is not a case of men lashing out – there's no such a thing as a crime of passion, and stalking is not a romantic response to heartbreak.
If we are ever to end male violence, then we have to call it what it is. We have to recognise it as a very deliberate exercise of power and control. It is the brutal tool of a brutal patriarchy that oppresses women – that robs women of our safety and our freedom.
These studies can feel comforting. It can feel safer to think that if we could just give abusive men a drug, then we can stop the epidemic of violence that destroys and ends lives. But I often think that these studies give one group of people the most comfort – and that's the violent men themselves. Because whenever we say to men that they can't help their violent actions, then we are reassuring them that their behaviour will be tolerated. We’re saying that we’re willing as a society to accept the causes and consequences of male violence as a fact of life. It's not.
Sian Norris is a writer and feminist activist. Follow her on Twitter here.
The opinions in politics.co.uk's Comment and Analysis section are those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the website or its owners.The most jarring thing about seeing Martin Brodeur in Gatineau was the white mask. No red, no black, no Devils’ colours or logos or anything.
“I now look like any other goalie out there,” he laughs.
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Brodeur is skating with Les Olympiques this week, joining son Anthony, who plays for the team. (Another son, Jeremy, is with OHL Oshawa.) As interviews run late on Tuesday, Anthony texts to see if Martin will join a group of players for sushi lunch. When someone jokes Brodeur is only invited to pay, he says he picked up a big dinner the night before.
It’s pretty special. NHL fathers don’t often get such opportunities with their sons.
But Martin Brodeur wants more. Another chance at big-league shooters, one more try to go out on his own terms. Last year was a frustrating one for him, Cory Schneider and the only NHL team he’s ever known.
Despite a massive outpouring from New Jersey’s fans at his final home appearance (“It was unbelievable,” he said), Brodeur didn’t enjoy the 2013-14 countdown. The missed playoffs, the loss of his starting job, the general disappointment, no one was happy.
“The last two seasons have been hard,” he said in an interview that will air during Wednesday night’s pre-game show. (A longer version can be seen Thursday.) “We missed the playoffs both occasions, and…my playing time was kind of cut a little bit and not to my liking…I thought I was going to play a lot more and be more productive.”
“I’d like to end it…not leaving like that.”
It’s easy to look at him, see a 42-year-old going to the Hall of Fame, and say, “No sympathy.”
But, whenever a situation like this arises, I remember an interview with Wade Redden when the Rangers sent him to AHL Hartford. Redden wanted to quit, but was convinced by Curtis Leschyshyn (among others) not to leave angry at the game. That always stuck with me. Redden gutted it out and wrote a much better ending.
Very few of us get to write our own goodbyes.
“I think I understand more than people think,” Brodeur said. “If I’m 30 years old and this is happening to me…I would be really upset. But now, I’ve played enough, I’ve done everything I needed to do. What I’m trying to achieve right now is something a little selfish because I want to play the game. I love playing the game, I don’t care what I did in the past in my career…and I’d love to help a good hockey team to maybe challenge for the Stanley Cup.
Brodeur says “there’s a date in my head” that is his deadline, but won’t reveal it. It’s believed there are four or five teams on his list, with a Western Conference lean. And, he understands he’s not the starter.
“I’m not here to steal anybody’s job,” he says.
He just wants a chance at one.
30 THOUGHTS
1. Brodeur has a job-in-waiting with the Devils. Will he be a GM? “ |
from the room service guy to the bus driver ferrying the team to the stadium — expecting nothing less than a title triumph, the pressure can be unbearable.
Senior pro Virat Kohli should know, having been part of the 2011 World Cup team.
Also Read: Here's the 'T20 Dream Team', according to Twitter
"It's very difficult to ignore everything that's been said to you and people, who come up to you and say, 'we want you to win the World Cup.'
"At home, we expect that. We are sort of prepared for that. The skill required in all these major events is how you manage yourself off the field. On the field is probably the safest and the quietest place for you.
Also Read: Raina almost the complete cricketer for T20s and ODIs, says Greg Chappell
"The field is actually a getaway, a place where you release pressure in big tournaments like these. It's a chance to express yourself, but the key will be on how you manage yourself away from the ground. That requires a collective effort. No one can drift away and focus on the plans that opposition teams are making. It's important to focus on what we are doing," Kohli said during his pre-match press conference yesterday.
While the 2011 World Cup team had some veterans like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan, the current team has many youngsters. Kohli urged the young guns to view this pressure as an opportunity to rise to the occasion.
"You have to take these things as a challenge or an opportunity (rather) than pressure. I'm very happy when pressure situations or big tournaments arrive, because it gives me an opportunity to perform and make my team win. It's not a goal in terms of numbers, but it just gives you the feeling that 'I won and the team won, or I contributed, or I got the team into a situation from where we could win'.
"As a youngster, before the 2011 World Cup, I had a lot of anxiety to prove myself, establish myself. "These youngsters, Hardik (Pandya), (Jasprit) Bumrah, also have that, but these people have more confidence than what I had when I came into the team, because these guys have played a lot of T20 cricket and played with big stars in the IPL (Indian Premier League). Their preparation and mental strength is very different from when I came in," he said.
Captains' wishlist
MS Dhoni India
> Openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma provide the perfect start
> Virat Kohli scores big
> Ashwin restricts flow of runs
Kane Williamson New Zealand
> Pacers Trent Boult and Tim Southee breakthrough early
> He and Guptill get off to a flying start
> Kohli has an off dayWhen undercover investigators made their way onto Chinese fur farms, they found that many animals are still alive and struggling desperately when workers flip them onto their backs or hang them up by their legs or tails to skin them. When workers on these farms begin to cut the skin and fur from an animal's leg, the free limbs kick and writhe. Workers stomp on the necks and heads of animals who struggle too hard to allow a clean cut.
When the fur is finally peeled off over the animals' heads, their naked, bloody bodies are thrown onto a pile of those who have gone before them. Some are still alive, breathing in ragged gasps and blinking slowly. Some of the animals' hearts are still beating five to 10 minutes after they are skinned. One investigator recorded a skinned raccoon dog on the heap of carcasses who had enough strength to lift his bloodied head and stare into the camera. Before they are skinned alive, animals are pulled from their cages and thrown to the ground; workers bludgeon them with metal rods or slam them on hard surfaces, causing broken bones and convulsions but not always immediate death. Animals watch helplessly as workers make their way down the row.
Undercover investigators from Swiss Animal Protection/EAST International toured fur farms in China's Hebei Province, and it quickly became clear why outsiders are banned from visiting. There are no penalties for abusing animals on fur farms in China—farmers can house and slaughter animals however they see fit. The investigators found horrors beyond their worst imaginings and concluded, "Conditions on Chinese fur farms make a mockery of the most elementary animal welfare standards. In their lives and their unspeakable deaths, these animals have been denied even the simplest acts of kindness."
On these farms, foxes, minks, rabbits, and other animals pace and shiver in outdoor wire cages, exposed to driving rain, freezing nights, and, at other times, scorching sun. Mother animals, who are driven crazy from rough handling and intense confinement and have nowhere to hide while giving birth, often kill their babies after delivering litters.
The globalization of the fur trade has made it impossible to know where fur products come from. China supplies more than half of the finished fur garments imported for sale in the United States. Even if a fur garment's label says it was made in a European country, the animals were likely raised and slaughtered elsewhere—possibly on an unregulated Chinese fur farm.
The only way to prevent such unimaginable cruelty is never to wear any fur. Take PETA's pledge to be fur-free today!Image: PD
1. In a meta-analysis, higher consumption of dietary marine polyunsaturated fatty acids was associated with a lower risk of breast cancer.
2. No beneficial association was found with either overall dietary fish intake or ALA intake (a non-marine polyunsaturated fatty acid).
Evidence Rating Level: 1 (Excellent)
Study Rundown: The major finding of this meta-analysis is a dose-dependent decrease in breast cancer risk with increasing consumption of marine n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Although research in animal models suggests PUFAs have cancer-fighting properties, investigations of PUFAs and cancer risk in humans has been inconsistent.
This study is one of the first to quantify an overall and dose-dependent association between types of PUFA intake and breast cancer risk. Inclusion of only prospective studies in this systematic review mitigates many potential sources of bias. However, study findings are limited by lack of information on BMI, a demonstrated confounder, in many of the studies. Additional prospective investigation of the relationship between marine n-3 PUFA intake, BMI, and breast cancer risk is merited.
Click to read the study in BMJ
Click to read an accompanying Press Release in BMJ
Relevant Reading: Uptodate: Fish oil and marine omega-3 fatty acids
In-Depth [systematic review and meta-analysis]: Researchers included English-language, prospective cohort studies evaluating the association between dietary intake of fish and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) with the incidence of breast cancer in a systematic review and meta-analysis. In the cohort studies included, exposure levels were measured using both dietary intake and tissue biomarkers and classified by type of n-3 PUFA intake, specifically dietary fish, marine n-3 PUFAs or non-marine PUFAs.
Overall, 26 publications met inclusion criteria, representing a total of 20,905 cases of breast cancer and 883,585 participants studied. Among the 17 articles evaluating the association of marine n-3 PUFA and breast cancer, n-3 PUFA intake was associated with a 14% decreased risk of breast cancer (RR=0.86, 95% CI=0.78-0.94). This effect estimate was more pronounced in models adjusted for BMI (0.74, 0.64-0.86) compared to those that were not (0.90, 0.80-1.01). Eight articles were eligible for dose-response analysis, which documented a 0.1g/day increase in dietary marine n-3 PUFA was associated with a 5% lower risk of breast cancer (0.95, 0.90-1.00). No association was found for overall fish intake or ALA exposure.
By Maren Shapiro and Leah Hawkins, MD, MPH
More from this author: USPSTF recommends chemoprevention for women at high risk for breast cancer, IUD contraception equally safe in teenagers as in older women, Black men less likely to receive follow-up for elevated prostate cancer marker, PSA, More U.S. women using emergency contraception pill, No-cost contraception reduces unintended pregnancies
© 2013 2minutemedicine.com. All rights reserved. No works may be reproduced without written consent from 2minutemedicine.com. Disclaimer: We present factual information directly from peer reviewed medical journals. No post should be construed as medical advice and is not intended as such by the authors or by 2minutemedicine.com. PLEASE SEE A HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IN YOUR AREA IF YOU SEEK MEDICAL ADVICE OF ANY SORT. Content is produced in accordance with fair use copyrights solely and strictly for the purpose of teaching, news and criticism. No benefit, monetary or otherwise, is realized by any participants or the owner of this domain.Nike KD 6 – Black – Orange – Red
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Could this be a possible KD 6 that’s meant for March Madness? The colorway doesn’t get too wild with respect to the blocking, but it’s certainly not a NIKEiD creation (Trust us, we tried). That leaves the NCAA connection as a possible one-perhaps Durant’s line is finally going the TB route this year. Continue reading for a couple more angles on this upcoming pair and then let us know what you think of them down in the comments section. Also, check back in with Sneaker News to find out a release date in the event of a retail arrival.
Source: gc911The Minnesota Vikings’ attempt to rename a portion of Chicago Avenue “Vikings Way” fell flat at City Hall on Monday night, when the city’s planning commission unanimously rejected the proposal.
The plan to rename the street in front of the future Vikings stadium has drawn significant attention in recent weeks, particularly from critics of the team. An application submitted to the city said that in addition to making the stadium their permanent business address, the team “strongly object[s] to having the street running in front of the stadium named after one of its opponents and neighboring rival” — a reference to the Chicago Bears.
The City Council is likely to have the final say. City Council Member Jacob Frey said he would like to see the team make more concessions on public access to the nearby Commons park before agreeing to a change.
Commissioners opposing the change Monday said it did not appear to meet city guidelines for street renaming, which emphasize not changing a street’s name in a section that keeps the old name on either side, and not naming streets after a particular business.
The hearing also revealed that one address unaffiliated with the Wilfs or the stadium authority would be affected: The Hennepin County Medical Examiner. The morgue’s address is now 530 Chicago Avenue, and city staff said it would have to change if “Vikings Way” is approved.
“My understanding of our policy here is that we don’t want private businesses to change the names of streets in front of their business,” said Council Member Lisa Bender, a member of the commission. “So if this was a proposal for Target Way instead of Nicollet Avenue or Wells Fargo way instead of Chicago Avenue, would we expect to be recommending approval of this name change?”
The Vikings have highlighted the precedent of renaming a street Twins Way beside Target Field. Commissioners said it was different, however, since Twins Way is not part of a larger contiguous street.
“Twins Way was actually former 3rd Avenue North, which was an orphan section of the road when the stadium was built,” said Commissioner Ryan Kronzer. “So it actually needed a new name.”
Commissioner Sam Rockwell said the Vikings had an opportunity to brand U.S. Bank Stadium with their name.
“We allow business names to be displayed in public. We allow them to be displayed on the buildings,” Rockwell said. “The Vikings decided to sell the [stadium] naming rights, which was their prerogative. But that was giving up a right of publicly displaying the name. It does not need to be compensated with city of Minneapolis advertising space.”
Vikings Vice President Lester Bagley said following the vote that the team has worked cooperatively on the construction of the Commons and contributed to the pedestrian bridge to be built over the stadium-area light rail station.
“To have this occur today is just disappointing,” Bagley said. “We asked for the street name to be changed to Vikings Way because the Vikings are a long-term iconic business. This would be our mailing address. This would be an honor to the Minnesota Vikings history and future.”
Frey said that any approval should be contingent on maximizing public access to the Commons, which can be reserved during Viking game days and other events during the year under a 2014 agreement. That could involve ensuring events there have no ropes or entrance fee.
“If we can return the Commons to a people’s park, I’m certainly willing to compromise on the editing of a street sign,” Frey said.
Twitter: @StribRoperI was intrigued when I saw “The Tax Relief Act of 2015” on the House agenda today. It’s too bad that it’s relief ONLY for datacenters. HB 934, introduced by Reps. (Jason) Saine, (John) Szoka and (Bill) Brawley, provides a sweet tax deduction for equipment and electricity used at specifically described — but unnamed — IT datacenters in North Carolina.
I know. We all got our hopes up that this tax relief would be for ALL OF US. But Saine just finished introducing legislation giving local officials — moaning about loss of revenue to play with — new methods for draining our wallets. It would be completely out of character for him to do something nice like that for those of us who don’t write FAT campaign donation checks.
Yes, “the conservative revolution” is humming along like a, um, finely tuned machine.A SENIOR vandal led police on a 300m chase on a toy scooter after allegedly scrawling graffiti across the Kingscliff police station.
Police intercepted the man a few blocks from the station after spotting the 61-year-old spraying ‘Kingy Boyz Rule’ and other illegible slogans in orange paint on the building early yesterday morning.
POISON PILL MUM COULD WALK FREE NEXT YEAR
STINGRAY KITE GAG NOT AS EASY AS IT LOOKED
media_camera Graffiti on the walls of the Kingscliff police station Police. Picture Mike Batterham
Despite his age the man put up quite a fight, injuring two officers while they tried to arrest him, with Detective Inspector Brendon Cullen saying one officer suffered a shoulder injury.
“One of the officers will be off work for one week with a shoulder injury and the female officer suffered some grazes to her hand,” he said.
“The reasons why he went to these lengths I’m not completely sure, but needless to say the actions we are alleging are quite irrational, particularly with police being in the building at the time.
media_camera The vandal who sprayed graffiti on the station walls was not the “usual suspect”. Picture Mike Batterham
“It’s not our usual type of graffiti suspect, at that age.”
Police said there was no CCTV footage of the incident, as the man had spray painted all cameras prior to committing the offence.
Police have charged him with multiple offences including resist arrest, malicious damage and two counts of assault police.
The man will appear in Tweed Heads Local Court on June 30.There has been quite a campaign to encourage people to put Senator Stephen Conroy last on the Victorian Senate ballot paper, in light of his never-ending attempts to filter the internet in Australia.
I can sympathise – several years ago, I was advising people to put Senator Richard Alston last on the same ballot paper, for similar reasons, and did so myself. I was wrong to do this.
By putting Senator Conroy last, you are effectively saying that his policies are worse than everyone else on the ballot paper. I am utterly against the filter, but, that said, there are plenty of issues just as serious, and there are some absolute nutcases standing for election for Victoria’s senate seats. Let me provide a few examples:
Family First are a group of extreme religious social conservatives, and most of their members belong to strange pentecostal sects. They too want a mandatory filter, but beyond that, they want to ban internet pornography entirely (good luck with that), they’re firmly against abortion and euthanasia, and they believe that “Small Business (are) the True Heroes of the Economy”, whatever that means. Now, I’m not saying that Family First are a front for whack-job churches like Hillsong and the Assembly of God, but whenever Senator Steven Fielding opens his mouth, I’m pretty sure he’s speaking in tongues. Their Queensland lead Senate candidate has, err, issues, and in the last election, the party demonstrated their lack of judgement by endorsing Pastor Danny Nalliah of Victoria’s-bushfires-were-an-act-of-retribution-from-God fame. Stephen Conroy may be a devout Catholic, but he’s not beyond ignoring stupid church doctrine and taking advantage of the NSW surrogacy laws, something which his own state doesn’t allow. He’s far better than the Family First nutters and should be put higher on the ballot paper than them.
The Citizens Electoral Council are a pack of Larouchite loons who should be put absolutely last on any sane human being’s ballot paper. Conroy is far preferable to them.
We all know who One Nation are, and what they stand for. The only reason I put them above the Citizens Electoral Council is that One Nation couldn’t organise a dinner in a room full of fish-and-chip shop owners. They’ve proved that they’re too incompetent to be dangerous. Nevertheless, they’re racist and extreme-right. Conroy is easily better than them.
The Liberal Party of Australia is a socially conservative party with an almost-dead small-l liberal faction. It is led by a man who, when health minister, pulled out all stops to keep RU486 banned in Australia. He believes that “climate change is crap” and is so creepy that he talks to the media about his daughters’ virginity. One of the Liberal Party’s Victorian candidates that is running for re-election is a former National Party member named Julian McGauran. The Age has an interesting article that refers to him. Definitely going below Conroy.
Obviously, there are plenty of good parties to put above Labor: the Greens, The Australian Sex Party and The Australian Democrats are all socially liberal parties. Stephen Mayne (of Crikey fame) is also running for the Senate, and while I disagree with a few things he’s said in the past, he’s shown himself to be honest and generally progressive.
But to put Senator Conroy last on your ballot paper is to say that he’s worse than a herd of far-right, bigoted religious fundamentalists, who want to interfere with your life. Despite his ridiculous stance on the filter, I don’t believe that he is as bad as them.Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein met with The Washington Post editorial board on Aug. 25. This is a full audio recording of that conversation. (Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)
FRED HIATT, EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR: Thank you for coming in. Tell us what qualifications you think a president should have, what makes for a successful president?
JILL STEIN, GREEN PARTY NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT: I think, especially in this day and age of grave doubts about our institutions, our public institutions, our government, our courts, across the board, the executive, I think it’s really important to come to office with a clean slate, without a history of backroom deals, without a legacy of funding from corporations, from lobbyists and super PACs. I am the one candidate in the race who actually meets that criteria. I come to this as an activist, very engaged in my community and my state, and at the national level, having worked to change regulation and legislation for the better, and that runs the gamut from cleaning up coal plants in Massachusetts, helping to shut down toxic incinerators, working with various groups in Massachusetts to change districting, the legislative districting, to increase the representation of the communities of color. We were successful in our redistricting efforts. Maybe the most important was working with a broad coalition to pass campaign finance reform in Massachusetts. We actually passed a clean elections law. Unfortunately after being passed by a two-to-one margin by the voters it was repealed by the legislature, an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature that got rid of this unnecessary competition and threat to single-party hegemony. They cast it aside, but it was an accomplishment to have passed it.
I worked at the national level with a broad coalition of public health groups to clean up certain pesticides and to get them off the shelf, toxic pesticides that are poisonous for child development, Dursban in particular. At that point I realized, one down, hundreds more to go, and became very aware that we needed to change the system. Anyhow, that’s when I got recruited into electoral activism, but I come to this with a history of building coalitions to advance the public health, to promote good jobs. We actually worked on a referendum, I should mention as well, to promote jobs in clean renewable energy at the state level, at least to go on record that there was enormous public support for moving in that direction and shifting public subsidies from fossil fuels and other harmful large interests into sustainable development at the local level.
So that’s the kind of experience I come with, building broad coalitions across many public interest groups in order to advance the public interest, and we’ve discovered in the process of this that our biggest obstacle is entrenched political power for advancing the public interest. The first election that I was “tricked” into running for office — this was against Mitt Romney in the 2002 election for governor — we fought our way into a televised debate, just with large demonstrations that were demanding that the debates be opened up and made real and relevant and actually insert real discussion into those debates. So I was admitted along with other independent candidates into a single televised debate which took place in a studio without a live audience, and the lessons of that debate really spoke volumes. For one thing the agenda which you’ve heard me articulate before went over like a lead balloon inside that TV studio which was just candidates and the moderator, but when we walked out I was mobbed by the press — for the first time and the last time that I was mobbed by the press — and what they told me was I had won the debate on the instant online viewer poll. Who knew there was an instant online viewer poll going on? Certainly I didn’t know. I don’t believe anyone in the room knew; that was the last time than an instant online viewer poll was done in a televised political debate that I’m aware of, and I was promptly yanked out of the debate. We went to court but to no avail, unfortunately, you know, and I think it was just really clear that we had tapped a nerve and that what I had to say — what the Green Party and our candidates generally have to say, with the unique liberty of being unconstrained by large lobbying and corporate interests, what we can say about jobs, about climate, about a strong public school system, about these wars for oil that are making us less safe not more safe and which are bankrupting us, costing us half of our discretionary budget and almost half of our income taxes to support this military budget which arguably has not advanced our interests or our security since the 9/11 World Trade towers came down — so at any rate I think those issues are very much of interest to people and they resonate even more now than they did back in 2002.
HIATT: We are going to talk a lot about issues, I hope, but just to be clear, your view is that experience, in terms of managing a large operation, dealing with Congress, having three million employees — experience would be a disadvantage coming to this job.
STEIN: No, certainly not a disadvantage, but I don’t believe that it is rocket science, and, shall I say, I think the most important critical skill to bring to public office now is the freedom to actually respond to the public interest and to work aggressively and creatively to find common ground among diverse interests and to move forward on an agenda that benefits us all, at a time when not only is public confidence at a record low in our institutions of government but arguably at a time when we are probably more imperiled than we have ever been in human history, particularly from the point of view of climate change which we see massively escalating around us–
HIATT: Just to be clear – when you say “it is not rocket science”, the “it” refers to what?
STEIN: You know, I think somehow our presidents have managed, even many who are certainly not very qualified in the scheme of things, have managed to run the administration with the support that a president can mobilize, and that includes, you know, the members of the administration.
HIATT: So “it” is being president.
STEIN: Yes – well, the administration of being president, which is a part of it, but I think the real missing link in our democracy is not so much a good administrator, it’s not so much a businessman with a sense of how to run a business, I really think what’s missing from the picture nowadays is a sense of democracy and how to actually engage the public in being the engine of our democracy that actually serves our future. I think this is the elephant in the room—or I should say, the elephant that’s not in the room that needs to be in the room—in how we put together a government that can actually represent the interests of everyday people who are being thrown under the bus, and that’s not just economically, you know, I, as a mother, am especially concerned about a younger generation who’s held hostage in debt, who does not have the jobs they need in order to repay that debt in order to get a home of their own, our birthrate is plummeting in this country, it’s a real sign of a human rights disaster which is generational, and the climate is unraveling on their watch. I don’t think we are going to be able to fix these problems which is only digging us in deeper.
And I think it’s not just me that thinks this, I think this is what the American public is demanding right now and what we see in poll after poll is the majority of Americans essentially saying they are very unhappy: They do not like and they not trust the two candidates that these two parties have produced as well as the parties themselves, and we see that with the largest plurality of voters now being independent. I think we are at a very powerful moment in an election that represents a political realignment, with Republicans having fallen apart, the Democrats moving substantially to the right and showing signs of continuing to do so. We are producing one combined Demo-Republican corporate party right now, which is serving well its large funders, and Hillary Clinton, I think, shows a number of indications continuing to – continuing along that pathway. But everyday people I think are not happy with this process and would like to see it fundamentally changed.
RUTH MARCUS, DEPUTY EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR: What are the specific things that you would point to — you mention Hillary Clinton — what are the specific indicia you would point to continuing along this pathway?
STEIN: In particular I would point to the appointment of Ken Salazar [as the head of Clinton’s transition team], who has certainly been, number one, he’s a partner in [a] colossal law and lobbying corporation, and that he has been a good friend and faithful servant and proponent of the fossil fuel industry of fracking, which he denies has ever caused a single problem of any sort, a proponent of the Keystone pipeline, a proponent of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And then you have the Democratic Party’s platform process, which could not find a way even to adopt on a voluntary basis many of these issues including opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. So in my view we are likely to see a continuation. You can also look at Hillary’s new organization for reaching out to Republicans. The massive influx of Republicans into her campaign —
MARCUS: That’s a bad thing?
STEIN: In my view – well, put it this way, it reflects what her agenda is. And I think it reflects this political realignment which is taking place right now: that you have Trump sort of going off the deep end with a remnant of the Republican Party, but you have you know, you have 50 officials, regulators, security administrators, etc. who’ve all kind of landed in Hillary’s camp and the group just grows as the consensus grows that she is the vehicle for the shared Republican and Democratic agenda. Not that there aren’t differences between them, but those differences aren’t enough to save your job, to save your life or to save the planet, and I think this is of concern for those people outside of the inner circle of those parties.
HIATT: An issue between them has been NATO and the NATO Alliance. What’s your view?
STEIN: I think we need to take a good hard look at NATO. In my view NATO needs to be part of a re-examination of a foreign policy that has been based on economic and military domination and we need to look at what the consequences of this kind of foreign policy are. And, you know we spent 6 trillion dollars –
HIATT: What’s the domination, where NATO comes into it?
STEIN: Well, NATO for example is how we can do an end run around our own internal process when we want to create regime change somewhere.
HIATT: So your running mate [Ajamu Baraka] referred to the “gangster states” of NATO. Do you share that view?
STEIN: Well he uses language I would not use. But, shall we say, I don’t think it represents American democracy to do an end run around our process or determining when we will go to war.
HIATT: Well he uses language, but what does he mean? Do you agree?
STEIN: I think he means the same thing I’m saying.
HIATT: ‘Gangster’ means criminal.
STEIN: Ah, that’s not what I’m saying. Well, criminal? Does it violate international law? Yes. I think it does violate international law.
MARCUS: What violates international law?
STEIN: For example, sending in the troops to Libya. Sending in the troops to Iraq for that matter. I think the criteria for invading other countries is that we need to be under imminent threat. And I think it would be hard to establish that we were under imminent threat, say, in Libya. Or in Syria for that matter. I would argue that this is not consistent with international law or human rights, and that that should be the basis of our foreign policy going forward. And you know, why? According to a recent study, it will cost us 6 trillion dollars including our ongoing healthcare expenditures, for the wounded soldiers, just from Iraq and Afghanistan alone. 6 trillion dollars and tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers that have been wounded or killed and a million people killed in Iraq alone, which is not winning us the hearts and minds of people in the Middle East. And what do we have to show for it? Failed states, mass refugee migrations which are tearing apart Europe and the Middle East, and worse terrorist threats, in fact. It’s widely acknowledged that ISIS grew out of the catastrophe in Iraq. Al Qaeda itself grew out of the chaos in Afghanistan and the efforts of the U.S. and the Saudis to create an international jihadi movement in order to disrupt the efforts of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. So with one hand we fight terrorism, we and our allies, but with the other hand, we and our allies have also supported terrorist movements and terrorist organizations. And this is not working. We call for actually a weapons embargo to the Middle East. Since we are supplying a majority of weapons to the region, we can go a long way to initiate this weapons embargo. We also call for a very serious discussion with our allies — and Hillary Clinton herself identified the Saudis as still the leading source of funding for Sunni jihad around the world in a leaked State Department memo as secretary of state. So we need to have a frank discussion with our allies that we are turning over a new leaf, that we will stop our funding for such enterprises and that we expect our allies to do the same. So we’re proposing essentially a weapons embargo, a freeze on the bank accounts of countries who continue to fund terrorist enterprises and also we call on allies like Turkey to close their borders to the movement of jihadi groups.
HIATT: So you shifted to the Middle East, of course NATO has been involved, but to come back to core NATO, Vice president Biden was in Latvia a day or two ago, and said that he believes the alliance is important he help preserve the independence of those Baltic states against possible aggression from Russia and that they should ignore Trump’s criticisms. What do you think about NATO’s role there?
STEIN: At this point, I’m not prepared to speak to that in detail, but I will say that coming out of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the expansion of NATO and the unification of Germany that we made a very clear commitment that NATO would not move one inch to the East, yet we certainly have. I would only note that there’s provocation going on here on both sides and that it’s very important for us to have a diplomatic approach to this. Uh, where was this published? Just yesterday there was discussion about how much the weapons industry is salivating over the expansion of military funding, not only for our own budget but for NATO countries looking to expand the profits of the U.S. weapons industry through the – um – what they call the opportunity of conflict.
HIATT: What do you think Putin’s goals are?
STEIN: Not good. Not good. I would have no faith and trust in Putin, but on the other hand I think to be needlessly militarizing this conflict is not in the interest of the American people. It’s certainly – and take the Middle East as a case in point, a case study of where we’ve had incredible chaos – who has benefitted from this? I don’t think the American people, I don’t think the people of the Middle East. You know, again, failed states, worse terrorist threats, mass migrations. If the weapons industry is exerting inordinate influence in Washington and their lobbyists are moving through the revolving door as they have historically, this is not a good thing for us. And a foreign policy that fails to safeguard against what President Eisenhower warned as the inordinate power of the military industrial complex, we are living his warnings right now. We could easily see Russia, Ukraine, Crimea explode into nuclear war, as we could with the approach that Hillary Clinton is advocating in Syria.
LEE HOCKSTADER, EDITORIAL WRITER: You referred to provocations on both sides, which suggests a moral equivalence. What are the eastward provocations from NATO or from Ukraine toward Russia that you think are – you seem to think are just as bad?
STEIN: I don’t want to say “just as”. I don’t want to imply a moral equivalence. What I want to do here is clarify that there are opportunities for diplomacy before we have this rush into wars that could spin out of control in the blink of an eye. And, you know, it wasn’t a secret that –
HIATT: Wasn’t the Minsk process – hasn’t diplomacy been tried?
STEIN: It’s a complicated story, and I won’t pretend to be able to summarize it for you here and now. But I will say that it was clear, you know, that [Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs] Victoria Nuland, you know, was right there on YouTube discussing the coup before it occurred and the role of the U.S. in choosing who the next leaders would be. So this is just to say that it’s clear that there’s been some interventions on both sides.
HIATT: She was discussing the coup? What’s the evidence of that?
STEIN: Victoria Nuland was on record – phone calls from Victoria Nuland discussing who would take over when – shall I send you the YouTube link?
HIATT: Yeah. And if I can just do one more foreign policy question — In the same article where your running mate talked about gangster states, he said that the – in Syria there had been “three years of unimaginable atrocities fomented by a demented and dying U.S. empire.” What does that mean?
STEIN: I don’t know how that, you know, I have talked to him about that question and he has said it’s a complication situation in which there’s blame to go around on all sides. So I don’t know if that was taken out of context, but I know that he certainly does not consider other parties to be held harmless – that there has been regrettable moves on all sides.
HIATT: But do you agree that there’s a “demented and dying U.S. empire”?
STEIN: Well, I think our empire is extremely — I mean, how many bases do we have exactly? You know, we don’t even know. Is it 700? 800? 900? How many do all other countries have added together? I understand it’s about 30. I think there’s something wrong with this picture. It’s hard to say that is not an empire. I mean, arguably that’s more empire than there has been in the history of the world. I think there’s a — shall we say – we have an extremely unbalanced situation right now where we have been leading the charge on regime change. I think there’s not much question about what led to regime change in Iraq, what led to regime change in Libya. And these have been an absolutely catastrophic and — although they’ve led to greater quagmires in the Middle East. So I’m not by any means, you know, I would never say that this is U.S. policy alone. We are part of a very complex dynamic, but I think militarizing this dynamic and having 700 bases and a war budget that occupies more than 50 percent of our discretionary budget is very problematic. And this badly needs to be discussed now because we are about to plunge headlong into several new conflicts, each of which could go nuclear in the blink of an eye. And I do want to acknowledge that Hillary’s proposal to establish a no-fly zone over Syria is extremely troubling when this is sort of the first line of approach to another nuclear-armed power where we could see things get very bad very quickly.
MARCUS: And you think the U.S. approach to Syria should be what?
STEIN: I think number one, we need a weapons embargo. Number two, we need to |
on the morning of the 25th. This was not true.
On Tuesday the 25th, a young woman answered the phone, got about halfway into stating her name before she dropped the receiver. After some fumbling around, a second young woman said “hello”. I said “hello” back, and there was then an awkward silence. After some prodding, she admitted that she was in fact a Clipper service agent. After looking at my account, she insisted that what I needed to do was go to a BART fare gate, tag my card, and when the screen flashed the red “See Agent” message, to do exactly the opposite of what it instructed: stand still and hold the card on the reader for another ten seconds. This, she assured me, would definitely unlock the card. I had and still have a suspicion that she was yanking my chain, but I figured nothing ventured nothing gained, right? To the intense annoyance of the people in line behind me at Montgomery station, I tried this, not once but three times: it of course did not work.
Yesterday, the 28th, a young man informed me that actually it wasn’t the BART fare gate that I needed to tag against, but the ticket collection machine. Possibly the red SFMTA one instead of the blue BART one. And if that didn’t work, I should take the card to the Embarcadero service booth, since obviously it was damaged. This of course also did not work, and the BART gate agent at my station assured me that the card was not damaged, just blocked.
Today, I left work early and took my card to the Embarcadero service booth ($3.50 round trip, but what’s a few dollars when I’ve already wasted several hours?), where a very friendly gentleman attempted first to unblock the card himself, then to call Clipper HQ to get more information, and then lastly to attempt to issue me a new card. As you’ve probably already guessed: Clipper HQ couldn’t tell him anything more than they’d told me, and the system would not let him issue me a new card. He confessed to me as he handed me the card back that his personal recommendation was to never ever use AutoLoad, because “this is always what happens when anything goes wrong with it.”
So here I am: the Clipper website insists that autoload is working, and in fact has helpfully charged me roughly $60 to top off both my BART pass and my MUNI e-cash. But the card still doesn’t work, and nobody at any level of Clipper customer support seems to have any idea how to unblock it. Probably the smart thing to do at this point would be just to cancel the account completely, dispute the last autoload transaction with Visa, happily resume using BART’s paper tickets, and regale friends at bars with this story for a few months in hopes of having them buy me drinks out of sympathy, but literal-minded sort that I am, I find myself thinking that if the card was blocked from the central office with no interaction with me needed, surely the card can be unblocked remotely just as easily without me having to do some sort of complicated dance between multiple card readers.
Please feel free to contact me via email or the phone number below if I can offer any more useful (or at least funny) information about this. As above, any help you could offer would be deeply appreciated.
Yours,
-Doctor Memory, Esq, PhD, OTO, OGS, etc
San Francisco, CAThe number one money sinkhole for many website owners comes from outdated content. Outdated content is any content that you have that is no longer relevant, or doesn’t help the website either financially or content-wise.
The problem with outdated copy is that it can be so easy to become inundated by it. The quality of your content is directly related to the quality of your site as a whole. This means that the more outdated content that you have clogging up your website is the less efficiently it performs.
[Tweet “Monitoring the #quality of your #content is an ongoing job, one that doesn’t have a clear end point.”]
What Qualifies as Outdated Content?
Depending on what sort of site it is that you run, outdated content can vary. Websites that hold searchable listings might have a database that is flooded with dead links or links to old contact sites for certain clients. In the case of a retailer or wholesaler, it could come down to stating that a product is stocked when in reality it isn’t. Professional company websites can also suffer from this malady by having members of staff up on their company listing who no longer work with them. The impact of this content varies from site to site as well. In the case of the professional company website, it simply makes them look inept at maintaining their website. In the case of the retail store or the search database it can lead to loss of income.
5 Ways Outdated Content Makes You Look Bad
You might think that just because a piece of content isn’t current, it doesn’t generate a whole lot of traffic. This is a huge misconception. Many times, it’s the existing content that causes the majority of your incoming traffic. Lots of people use search engines that direct them to pages that have been existing for a long time and have slowly climbed up the rankings for a particular keyword. When that “old” page gives the user misleading or outdated information the user is left to assume the worst.
In fact, outdated content almost always leads to the reader jumping to one or more of these conclusions:
That your website is going out of business That your customer service must be terrible That your company is lackadaisical and just aren’t “with it” That your website managers are technologically incompetent They’re not good enough for my money
All of these things work towards causing you to lose revenue through lost conversions. This is definitely not where you want your site to be going. There are ways to get around outdated copy and to revamp content and keep it fresh to avoid these generalizations being applied to your website. The most effective method of dealing with outdated content is auditing.
What is Content Auditing?
Before you can properly fix your outdated content, you are going to need to figure out where that content is and how badly it affects your current website. In order to do this, you can utilize a methodology called “content auditing”. In a nutshell, content auditing is a means by which the pages of your website are examined for things like broken links and outdated information. After the offending pages are identified, we can move on to making those content pages more viable by updating the information, removing dead links and generally cleaning up the copy.
The end result is a website that looks professional and features well on search rankings. Keeping your content current is as important as having a page that exists for a long time. The longer your page in in existence, the more trustworthy Google tends to find it. By refreshing the content on the page you make it a little bit more popular in the search rankings, which can translate into increased traffic and possible increased income through conversions and advertising.
How Can Content Auditing Help You? 5 Ways
Content auditing can help any website to become better and more efficient. When you content audit, you remove spurious information and revamp the copy in pages that need it. You check your current information and edit pages where the information needs to be updated. All of these can lead to a lot of different positive benefits for the entire site, including:
Avoiding Panda penalties: Google’s Panda algorithm is very picky when it comes to certain things such as outdated content. An audit helps you to keep your information up to date to get away from this pitfall Fix Pages for Copywriting: Some of your pages may be in dire need of an overhaul. An audit helps you to pinpoint these and allow you to fix individual pages without having to rewrite entire swathes of your site Consolidation: Some pages would be better if they were combined into one page. Information that is very closely linked can be placed on the same page, eliminating the need for a redundant page and making your site architecture more pleasing. Determine Keyword Specifics: Each page has a set of keywords that they are ranking for. By doing an audit you can figure out what those keywords are and if they suit you. You might be surprised at what keywords your site ranks for! Remove Bad Pages: Some pages just cannot be salvaged and your best option would be to remove them completely instead of getting visitors that end up with a bad impression of your site. Content auditing makes this easy by giving you an overview of which pages tend to shunt users off-page and which ones send users to other pages within your site.
Outdated Content is Slowly Killing your Site
Just like a bad investment, outdated content takes away a little more of your possible income every month. It’s like an invisible lurker that steals away your customers and leaves them hating your site. You can fight back against it by doing regular content audits. These ensure that you are always at the top of your game regarding your content needs and that no outdated information exists on your site. Auditing can be a time consuming process, so you might be best served by finding a copywriting company to aid you in salvaging your site. The sooner you get down to it, the better it’ll be for both you and your website.
Photo credit: InnerVisionPRO / iStockTwo of four incumbent Fort Smith Directors do not face opposition in November, but Directors George Catsavis and André Good will again have to gain voter approval for another four-year term.
The city’s four ward positions are up for election in 2016. The three at-large positions, also four-year terms, will be on the ballot in 2018. The race for Ward 4, of which Catsavis is the incumbent, drew four candidates, and the Ward 2 race, with Good being the incumbent, drew two candidates. Directors Keith Lau (Ward 1) and Mike Lorenz (Ward 3) did not draw opposition and are automatically re-elected, said City Clerk Sherri Gard.
The filing deadline was Thursday (May 26) at noon. Following are those who filed for each ward.
Ward 1
Director Keith lau
Ward 2
Director André Good
Bruce Wade
Ward 3
Director Mike Lorenz
Ward 4
Director George Catsavis
Robyn Dawson
Neal Martin
Zachary Muncrief
THE UNOPPOSED
Lau, who will be re-elected to his second term, said he is happy to not be on a ballot during “a cluttered election year that is going to be a challenge to anyone.”
Not having an opponent will allow him to stay focused on what he said was progress made during his first term. Lau said he wants to keep pushing for a “permanent” solution for the police and fire pension fund.
The Board in 2015 voted to return benefits under the pension plan back to the levels in place in 2004. That action saves the city an estimated $477,000 in this fiscal year and up to $516,000 by year 2026. But based on estimates, additional spending reductions and revenue increases totaling approximately $2.1 million annually are needed to keep the LOPFI contribution fund solvent beyond 2030.
“We’re not where we need to be on that, but I think we moved a bit in the right direction,” Lau said.
Lau, who along with Director Tracy Pennartz who have been the most vocal about city spending and efficiencies, said he plans to monitor spending related to the city’s estimated $480 million order by the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the city’s sewer system.
Lorenz also is pleased to not have to worry about a campaign and instead stay focused on being a director. He said he plans to continue the push “to turn around our customer service culture inside the city.” Recent turnover in key city positions is an opportunity, Lorenz said, to bring people in who are willing to change the culture.
“We made some progress in some little areas, but that’s probably my biggest focus right now … (to get to) where we treat people like a real customer and not just a service provider,” Lorenz said.
THE WARD 4 RACE
Catsavis is running for his second four-year term. Catsavis survived a municipal primary and general election in 2010 to complete the two years of a four-year term vacated by former Director Bill Maddox.
Dawson, 52, is the principal at Spradling Elementary School in Fort Smith. She was hired in that role in 2011. She began teaching in Fort Smith in 2002, and was hired as a principal in the Dover Public School system in 2007. She then became a principal in the Mena Public School system in 2009.
Wade, 63, is a retired business owner from Houston. He moved to Fort Smith in 2002, and is running because “not only does the city need to be informed about the ward, but the ward needs to be better informed about the city.”
Martin, 40, is a manager of application development for Little Rock-based Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, and the most recent to qualify for the board election. He grew up in Fort Smith, but a job sent him packing to Kansas City. He and his family returned to Fort Smith in 2010.
Muncrief, 33, was the most recent to file for the Ward 4 race. He was born in Oklahoma, grew up in Reno, Nev., and moved to Fort Smith when he was 19. He works at the Choctaw Casino in Pocola, Okla., and is married with four children.
What he sees has a lack of transparency with city government is a big reason Muncrief said he entered the race. He said the Board now “enjoys voting to skip the bidding process for city contracts.”
“So these multi-million dollar construction projects are going without a bidding process so that to me lacks transparency in government,” Muncrief said.
Comments
commentsNed Luke (born October 4, 1958) is an American actor. He is known for voicing and acting as Michael De Santa in the 2013 acclaimed video game Grand Theft Auto V[1] and Raffles in the animated movie Rover Dangerfield. He has appeared in 29 movies and television shows to date and has also appeared in a few commercials.
Early life [ edit ]
Ned Luke was born in Danville, Illinois, to Cindy (née Smith) and Fred Luke. His maternal grandfather was actor Paul Birch.[2]
He graduated from Danville High School in 1977 where he was a bi-sport athlete and honor student. He later attended the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois. He has four siblings.
Career [ edit ]
Luke's first major voice role was in Rover Dangerfield, where he played a sheepdog named Raffles opposite Rodney Dangerfield. He was cast as a guest star in several TV shows throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, and has appeared in about 100 television commercials featuring products such as Budweiser and Burger King.
In 2007, having grown disenchanted with show business and desiring that his son experience where he grew up, Luke decided to take a break from acting and moved his family from Los Angeles to his hometown of Danville, where he opened a restaurant with his brother. After two years, he decided to return to acting and he and his family moved to New York City. His agent suggested he audition for the role of Michael De Santa, one of the three protagonists of Rockstar Games' newest entry in the popular Grand Theft Auto series - Grand Theft Auto V. Luke initially scoffed at the idea of being in a video game, but after reading the script decided to proceed with the audition.[3] Luke was eventually cast as one of the game's three protagonists, Michael de Santa. Grand Theft Auto V went on to set several sales records and has become the highest grossing video game in history.[4]
Personal life [ edit ]
Luke married yoga instructor and part-time actress Amy Sax on November 12, 1997. They have one son and live in Westchester County, New York.[5] Luke is nearly deaf in his right ear.[6]
Filmography [ edit ]
Film [ edit ]
Year Title Role Notes 1984 The Bear Football Player 1991 Rover Dangerfield Raffles Voice only, supporting role 1996 The Nutty Professor Construction Worker Uncredited 1997 On the Line Officer Al (TV Movie) 1999 Citation of Merit Sergeant Smith Short film 2017 American Gothic Bill
Television [ edit ]
Video games [ edit ]
Accolades [ edit ]
Year Nominee/work Award Result 2014 Grand Theft Auto V Behind the Voice Actors Award for Best Vocal Ensemble in a Video Game NominatedParents of children with attention deficit problems are always looking for new strategies to help their children cope. An interesting new study suggests that spending time in nature may help.
A small study conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign looked at how the environment influenced a child’s concentration skills. The researchers evaluated 17 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, who all took part in three 20-minute walks in a park, a residential neighborhood and a downtown area.
After each walk, the children were given a standard test called Digit Span Backwards, in which a series of numbers are said aloud and the child recites them backwards. The test is a useful measure of attention and concentration because practice doesn’t improve the score. The order of the walks varied for all the children, and the tester wasn’t aware of which walk the child had just taken.
The study, published online in the August The Journal of Attention Disorders, found that children were able to focus better after the “green” walks compared to walks in other settings.
Although the study is small, the data support several earlier studies suggesting that natural settings influence psychological health. In 2004, a survey of parents of 450 children found that “green” outdoor activities reduced A.D.H.D. symptoms more than activities in other settings.
“What this particular study tells us is that the physical environment matters,” said Frances E. Kuo, director of the university’s Landscape and Human Health Laboratory. “We don’t know what it is about the park, exactly — the greenness or lack of buildings — that seems to improve attention.”
Dr. Kuo noted that the study used tight controls to make sure that the walks were identical except for the environment. Who the child was with, noise levels, the length of time, the time of day and whether the child was on medication stayed constant.
“If we kept everything else the same, and we just changed the environment, we still saw a measurable difference in children’s symptoms,” Dr. Kuo said. “And that’s completely new. No one has done a study looking at a child in different environments, in a controlled comparison where everything else is the same.”
Dr. Kuo said more children were initially involved in the study, but logistical problems like weather changes, late arrivals or changes in medication made it difficult to maintain tight control, leaving the study with just 17 children from which to draw conclusions.
Despite the small size, the study is important because it involves an objective test of attention and doesn’t rely on children’s or parents’ impressions. During the walks, all of the children were unmedicated — participants who normally took medications to control their A.D.H.D. symptoms stayed off the drugs on the days of the walks.
The researchers found that a “dose of nature” worked as well or better than a dose of medication on the child’s ability to concentrate. What’s not clear is how long the nature effect can last.
Dr. Kuo said that while there are “hints” exposure to green outdoor settings offers a benefit, the science isn’t advanced enough to give parents a strict formula.
“We can’t say for sure, ‘two hours of outdoor play will get you this many days of good behavior,’ but we can say it’s worth trying,” she said. “We can say that as little as 20 minutes of outdoor exposure could potentially buy you an afternoon or a couple of hours to get homework done.”
Dr. Kuo said it’s notable that parents themselves consistently report benefits for their children from green settings.
“One reason we believe this is that if the effect were short-lived, we don’t think that parents would have so consistently observed it,” she said. “But they do. They report it over and over.”Several prominent Leftists and centrists are planning to launch a new campaign supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the agenda he presented in his Bar Ilan speech, Ynet learned Tuesday.
The campaign, titled "Blue & White Peace," is meant to bolster Netanyahu's support of the a two-state solution
Among those lending their support to the new initiative are former ministers Ami Ayalon and Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, former Israeli Air Force Chief Eliezer Shkedy, former Deputy Foreign Minister Dr. Yehuda Ben Meir and Attorney Gilad Sher, who headed the 1999 Israeli mission to Camp David.
Bar Ilan Speech Netanyahu backs creation of Palestinian state Roni Sofer Prime minister endorses creation of Palestinian state, stresses any such entity will have to be demilitarized and acknowledge Israel as a Jewish nation. 'The claim that territorial withdrawals will bring peace with the Palestinians has up till now not stood the test of reality,' says Netanyahu Netanyahu backs creation of Palestinian state
Geneva Initiative CEO Gadi Baltiansky, former Shin Bet chiefs Yaakov Peri and Carmi Gilon, former deputy minister Dalia Rabin and former Knesset Member Etti Livni.
Another individual involved is former Foreign Ministry Director-General Avi Gil, who is a close associate of President Shimon Peres
Sources familiar with the campaign told Ynet Peres has been kept abreast of its details.
'We need to focus on the main agenda'
The group came together following the prime minister's June policy speech at Bar Ilan University. The speech focused on the two-state solution, a notion to which Netanyahu lent public support for the first time, as well as Israel's need to separate itself from the West Bank.
"We want to focus on the main agenda and it's important to us to bring in people who are not affiliated with the Left in order to send the message to as many publics as possible," said a source close to the group.
"Movements that believe in this solution should support the government, not oppose it. We have to push the consensual issues, or those that are near-consensual. The prime minister is facing more than ideological hurdles, we have to lend him our public support," a former top security figure who joined the group told Ynet.
Willing to elasticize? Netanyahu at Bar Ilan (Photo: AP)
The group's efforts to enlist the support of as many public figures as possible is in full swing. Future plans include forming a public council to represent the members, as well as fundraising activities.
The first phase of the group's campaign is expected to include massive online presence. "The primary goal is to form online support groups," said a group source.
Several leftist initiatives, meant to promote private plans aimed at achieving a breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, have been put forward over the years, many of them stemming from the premise that a Right-led government would be unwilling to pursue the peace process.
'Go with the flow'
According to a source close to the group, while Netanyahu has given no indication that an ideological change on his part is imminent, "he has been willing to elasticize his positions on various matters".
"We feel that if he thinks he has significant public support for the two-state solution it would be easier for him to act on it. The majority of the Israeli public supports this solution and we want to express that support," an official source told Ynet.
"Blue & White Peace" will have nothing to do with the prime minister's political affiliation, said other sources in the group, as it will focus solely on promoting the idea of a Palestinian state.
"The idea is to go with the flow, so to speak. The Left may have won an ideological victory in the last election, but it lost politically," said another source.
"Some in the Left have already given up, so we have to help those in power – whoever they are. We don't care about political affiliation, we care about pushing the idea. If Netanyahu can enter negotiations, we want to help him."
Nevertheless, the group stressed that the future campaign will not signal any personal endorsement of Netanyahu. "The idea is to back anyone who truly wants to advance the two-state solution. As long as Netanyahu truly acts on the agenda expressed at Bar Ilan, we will support him."By Peter Sopher
Economics is the focus of many debates surrounding Germany’s aggressive “energy transition” (or Energiewende), which plans to move the country to nearly 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. Critics say Energiewende’s costs are unjustifiable, arguing they hurt the country’s international competitiveness and systemic inefficiencies exacerbate these costs.
At first glance, it’s hard to argue with them. The scale of investment in Energiewende can seem intimidating: So far, Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates the total cost of Germany’s clean energy expansion at €106 billion. Furthermore, the Wall Street Journal quotes government sources when predicting total costs through 2040 to be about €1 trillion.
By contrast, however, Germany’s annual investment in fossil fuels has been €90 billion; and, investments in Energiewende go into electric grid upgrades that would need to happen in Germany anyway, whereas fossil fuel investments leave the country.
When viewed in context, there are many reasons to believe investments in Energiewende will reap economy-wide rewards, giving Germany a competitive global advantage over other countries that lagged behind investing in the future.
Energiewende is creating jobs, raising GDP, and attracting business
The German example shows an energy transition can lead to overwhelmingly positive, balanced, and pervasive employment impacts.
In 2004, Germany’s renewable energy sector employed 160,500 people, and that number doubled to 367,000 by 2010. The net employment gain from renewable energy in 2009 alone was 70,000-90,000, compared to the “business-as-usual” scenario in which energy was provided by fossil fuels. And this trend is only expected to continue.
The projected net employment gains for 2020 and 2030 are 23,000-117,000 and 105,000-241,000, respectively. Furthermore, because of indirect employment from supplying intermediate products and components to the renewables sector, all regions of Germany are set to benefit from renewable energy expansion.
As with employment, Energiewende also promises to positively impact Germany’s GDP. By 2030, German renewable energy exports are expected to reach €47–69 billion (€33-48 billion in 2005 Euros). In addition, relative to a scenario with no renewable energy policy, costs to the German economy are negative for all realistic scenarios. In 2009, total profits of German manufacturers of renewable energy facilities were €16.4 billion. Projected profit ranges for 2020 and 2030 are €28 billion-€42 billion and €43 billion-€60 billion, respectively.
Large industries, small businesses, and residential consumers share these economic benefits. Heinrich Böll argues, “contrary to one common misconception, renewables have turned Germany into an attractive location for energy intensive industries.” In 2012 alone, renewables had driven down wholesale electricity prices by over 10 percent; and, cheaper electricity prices translate to lower business expenses. In addition, as of 2013, farmers and individuals owned renewable energy investments amounting to over €100 billion.
Paying for renewables now makes practical sense
The costs of renewable energy, such as wind, solar, and others, in Germany have fallen and are expected to continue to fall in the future as manufacturers accumulate experience, make improvements, and enjoy economies of greater scale. At present, premier wind farms produce electricity at a price comparable to that of gas and coal plants. In addition, the levelized cost of energy for solar PV has fallen 78 percent over the past five years, and PV is now competitive with residential electricity tariffs in many countries, including Germany.
Furthermore, while renewables fuel sources have no fuel costs, Germany’s costs of importing oil, gas, and hard coal have increased by factors of 2.77, 2.68, and 2.26, respectively, over the past ten years. In addition, steel and cement prices jumped between 2000 and 2011, contributing to the cost of constructing a new power plant rising by 70-100 percent in many cases.
While the costs of Energiewende are growing, the majority of electricity price increases in Germany have been a result of rising fossil fuel costs. Energiewende costs were only responsible for about 29 percent of the average electricity prices’ jump of €0.118/kWh between 2000 and 2012. During this same period, costs of electricity generation, transport, and distribution of conventional power have risen by 46 percent of the entire price increase.
Finally, we can’t forget the societal costs associated with continuing to rely on fossil fuels for electricity. CESifo DICE quotes Küchler and Meyer when reporting, “The societal costs of one kWh of wind energy amount on average to 8.1 cents, and those of hydropower to 7.6 cents. In comparison, one kWh of coal power costs on average 15.6 cents (lignite) or 14.8 cents (hard), of natural gas 9.0 cents, and of nuclear 42 cents.”
All of this is to say, capitalizing on renewables now makes for a prudent investment that will pay for itself as both the actual and societal cost of obtaining, generating, and moving conventional energy sources continues to increase.
Cost vs. price: understanding the difference matters
Spiegel Online International points out that “German consumers already pay the highest electricity prices in Europe.”
But such a position is short-sighted. While the price of a kilowatt-hour of energy is high in Germany, the cost of electric bills is not unreasonable. The average German and American electric bills, at about $100/month, are the about same. Germany’s energy efficiency leadership enables them to afford high rates without especially high bills.
An additional insight into Energiewende’s industrial affordability comes from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which states, “averaged over all industrial enterprises, energy costs account for a mere 2 percent of a company’s gross production value.” Similarly, CESifo DICE finds Energiewende affordable on the residential level; as of 2012, electricity expenditures only accounted for 2.5 percent of a private household’s consumer budget.
Putting “low income” in context
All sides agree heightened energy costs due to Energiewende have a greater adverse impact on the poor than on other social classes.
As Spiegel Online International expresses:
“In the near future, an average three-person household will spend about €90 a month for electricity. That’s about twice as much as in 2000…But despite those price hikes, government pensions and social welfare have not been adjusted. As a result, every new fee becomes a threat to low-income consumers.”
To this point, WWF notes “private households on low incomes need energy advice and support, e.g. to buy highly efficient appliances. Needy households which are hit especially hard by rising electricity prices should be supported with subsidies.”
For international context, however, even when compared to some of the most developed countries in the world, such as the United States, energy poverty is less prevalent in Germany. In 2011, 312,000 German households had their electricity cut off. Meanwhile, there were 16 million living in energy poverty in the United States.
Conclusion
Energiewende has already positively impacted the country’s GDP and employment situation, and this state of affairs promises to continue as renewable energy prices trend downward and the costs of importing fossil fuels trend upward.
Moreover, criticisms of Energiewende’s costliness tend to lack perspective. While electricity prices are high, electricity bills are as affordable as those in the United States. Renewables have caused electricity prices to rise in Germany over recent years, but conventional fuels have contributed to even larger increases. And energy poverty is a serious issue, but relative to other developed countries, Germany has fared favorably.
Regarding Energiewende’s long-term economic ramifications, Heirich Böll foresees even more economic benefits. Germany’s goal is to gain “first-mover advantage” and develop high value engineering technologies, such as those required for solar panels, wind turbines, biomass and hydro power plants, battery and storage systems, smart grid equipment, and efficiency technologies.
Finance professionals spend their careers searching for investments that entail manageable upfront costs, low risk, and extraordinary potential. So far, Energiewende has fit this mold.By Afzal Sumar
The history of the development of the Jaʿfarī Shiʿa Islamic legal school has always fascinated me, all the more so when I continuously observed that existing academic works in the English language purporting to discuss the origins and development of the Islamic legal schools almost always ignored discussions of the inception and development of this school. This is even though Imam al-Ṣādiq (d. 148 AH / 765 AD) and the other Shiʿa Imams both prior to and succeeding him, who contributed to the Jaʿfarī madhhab’s development, were well known and respected contemporaries of the scores of legists who formed personal schools of law during the first and second century of the hijrah, many of which schools are now defunct except for the four existing Sunni schools. Indeed many of these early legists including the eponyms of the four existing Sunni legal schools had scholarly interactions with and transmitted from the Imams ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn (d. 95 AH / 713 AD), Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī (d. 114 AH / 743 AD), Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad, and ʿAlī ibn Mūsā (d. 203 AH / 818 AD), as will be shown during the course of this essay, and held them in high repute. Yet even though the four Sunni legal schools had and continue to have many areas of differences between them, with some of them rejecting the tools of legal deduction prominently used by another, their development tends to be discussed together in one volume and mention will even be made of those legists whose legal schools are non-existent today, yet Imam al-Ṣādiq or al-Bāqir will hardly get a passing mention! Indeed, I was surprised at how studiously Wael Hallaq avoided mentioning Imam al-Ṣādiq or al-Bāqir throughout his otherwise worthy book on the history of Islamic law.
Perhaps this is a reflection of past legacy, which was to view the Jaʿfarī madhhab as being one completely out of the ordinary or perhaps it is due to many scholars’ lack of knowledge of Shiʿa resources and literature.
This essay will endeavor to sketch a general outline of the development of the Jaʿfarī madhhab during the time of its founding Imams.
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 1.70 KB Anonymous Operation Golden Eagle: Media Advisory Monday - October 23, 2017 4:00 PM ET On behalf of Anonymous, we send greetings to the worlds media and journalists. This is a special and very important media advisory from Operation Golden Eagle. Sometime in the morning hours of November 5th we will make an announcement and issue a press release that will shake the world. At that time, the purpose and objectives of this Operation, on going since September 1st - will be revealed. This "event" to be announced will likely capture the news cycles for days or even weeks. On the morning of November 5th, events will move very rapidly. We STRONGLY advise interested journalists to drop everything and monitor our Twitter account begining at 8:00 AM ET (see below). We also advise that those who wish to attend a press conference we intend on holding in the days after the 5th should have their passports in order and their bags packed, as there will be very little notice before these press briefings and conferences are announced. This is an event and a story of epic proportions, and once it is announced on the 5th - events will proceed at lightening speed. You have been advised, you won't get a second chance to cover this. NOTICE: We will not even acknowledge, much less answer - any questions regarding this Operation, it's nature, or objectives - until after the press release on November 5th. SINCERELY -- Anonymous We Are Legion. We Do Not Forgive. We Do Not Forget. On Guy Fawkes Day, you should expect a shit storm of historic proportions. ------------------------------------- Twitter: @OpGoldenEagle Website: www.OperationGoldenEagle.cf E-Mail: OpGoldenEagle@riseup.net
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Anonymous Operation Golden Eagle: Media Advisory Monday - October 23, 2017 4:00 PM ET On behalf of Anonymous, we send greetings to the worlds media and journalists. This is a special and very important media advisory from Operation Golden Eagle. Sometime in the morning hours of November 5th we will make an announcement and issue a press release that will shake the world. At that time, the purpose and objectives of this Operation, on going since September 1st - will be revealed. This "event" to be announced will likely capture the news cycles for days or even weeks. On the morning of November 5th, events will move very rapidly. We STRONGLY advise interested journalists to drop everything and monitor our Twitter account begining at 8:00 AM ET (see below). We also advise that those who wish to attend a press conference we intend on holding in the days after the 5th should have their passports in order and their bags packed, as there will be very little notice before these press briefings and conferences are announced. This is an event and a story of epic proportions, and once it is announced on the 5th - events will proceed at lightening speed. You have been advised, you won't get a second chance to cover this. NOTICE: We will not even acknowledge, much less answer - any questions regarding this Operation, it's nature, or objectives - until after the press release on November 5th. SINCERELY -- Anonymous We Are Legion. We Do Not Forgive. We Do Not Forget. On Guy Fawkes Day, you should expect a shit storm of historic proportions. ------------------------------------- Twitter: @OpGoldenEagle Website: www.OperationGoldenEagle.cf E-Mail: OpGoldenEagle@riseup.netEverything we know about the formation of solar systems might be wrong, says University of Florida astronomy professor Jian Ge and his postdoc, Bo Ma. |
. Cow Cow Davenport recommended Smith to Mayo Williams of Brunswick/Vocalion records. Smith then moved with his family to Chicago in 1928. On December 29, 1928 Smith recorded his two breakthrough hits: “Pine Top Blues” and “Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie.” This was the first time the phrase “boogie woogie” appeared on record. On January 14 and 15, 1929 Smith recorded six more sides including “I’m Sober Now” and “Jump Steady Blues.” On March 13, 1929 Pine Top made an unissued recording of “Driving Wheel Blues.” Two days later, at age 25, Smith was accidentally shot by a man named David Bell during a fight that broke out in a dancehall.Revenge by billboard: Scorned lover pays £150,000 for street posters to reveal affair with Obama aide
The spurned mistress of one of Barack Obama's top economic advisers has exacted revenge by plastering details of their affair on giant billboard posters across the U.S.
YaVaughnie Wilkins is said to have paid £150,000 to reveal her relationship with Charles Phillips to the world after he went back to his wife.
The posters, which are three storeys high, show Miss Williams and the senior member of the president's hand-picked Economic Recovery Advisory Board below his initials and a quote saying: 'You are my soulmate forever.'
Shamed: YaVaughnie Wilkins poses with former lover Charles E. Phillips in a poster she placed in New York
There is also a link to a website that is a shrine to his eight-year affair with Miss Wilkins, 41.
It includes pictures chronicling their travels around the world as well as intimate notes and ticket stubs from concerts, films, sports games and Mr Obama' s inauguration a year ago.
One of the giant signs is posted on Broadway near Times Square in New York - one of the world's most prominent advertising hoardings.
A further two have appeared elsewhere in New York as well as one in Atlanta and one in San Francisco, where Miss Wilkins lives and her married ex-lover owns a family home. Each are said to have cost £30,000 to display.
The billboards baffled Americans when they first appeared – with speculation mounting over whether it was a marketing ploy or an apology.
Her extraordinary actions had the desired effect. The chief executive has been forced into an embarrassing public statement in which he admitted their affair.
Adventures: Wilkins set up a website of photos of the couple's world travels, including Sydney, right
Powerful: Phillips, circled, was an adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama
Yesterday Mr Phillips, 50, who is also president of internet giant Oracle, issued a brief three-sentence statement saying: 'I had an eight-and-a-half year serious relationship with YaVaughnie Wilkins.
'My divorce proceedings began in 2008. The relationship with Ms Wilkins has since ended and we both wish each other well.'
There has been speculation that YaVaughnie deliberately timed her campaign to coincide with a major Oracle event next week. Website Gawker noted that the company was due to host an all-day live event on January 27.
Mr Phillips was paid £12million last year and has made around £30million since 2007.
He has recently reconciled with his wife, Karen, according to reports in the U.S.
The couple were seen at an awards ceremony in New York and pictured together at a gala held by the American Museum of Natural History in the city in November. They have a ten-year-old son, Chas.
Miss Wilkins, a California-based actress and writer, was not available for comment yesterday.
Reconciliation: Phillips is back living with his wife Karen (centre) and their 10-year-old son in New York
Pressure: Phillips said he wished Wilkins well after intimate photos posted online forced him to admit the affair
'Soulmates': The website, paid for by Wilkins, shows photos of the pair enjoying holidays abroad
Pressure: Phillips was forced to admit the affair after the billboard posters and website went live
High-profile campaign: Wilkins paid $50,000 for each poster - including this one in New York
Promises: Wilkins put the love notes sent from Phillips during their affair online
Her website shows Mr Phillips and her standing arm-in-arm on the Great Wall of China and posing in Sydney wearing matching 'Australia' jackets.
One of the photo albums from 2001 is set to a karaoke performance of the Smokey Robinson song Cruisin', where a man and a woman can be heard singing: 'This is not a one-night stand.'
There is also a huge collection of notes from Mr Phillips.
One gushes: 'You're all that matters to me.' Another reads: 'I have never met a woman as fascinating as you. You are exactly what I've been looking and waiting for.'
Miss Wilkins wrote: 'Charles, You have my heart for ever - I love you so much.'
California-based web designer Bela Kovacs claimed he was asked to build the site, charlesphillipsandyavaughniewilkins.com, as 'a present for Charles'.
Last night visitors to the website were met with a'service unavailable' message.
The White House refused to comment last night on whether the billboards would affect Mr Phillips's position.
But an administration aide said it was being treated as a 'private matter.'
An expert software analyst, Phillips is viewed as one of the most powerful people in the industry. He joined the company in 2003 and previously worked for Morgan Stanley. He is a former captain in the United States Marine Corps.
New York bloggers have gone into overdrive today with some claiming Phillips led a double life - presenting himself as a divorcee while still married.
Revenge: YaVaughnie Wilkins paid for three posters, which baffled Americans when they first appeared
Tsarinamisha, who claims to be a 'close friend' of the couple,' wrote on Gawker's website: 'I can assure you he portrayed himself as having been legally divorced in 2003.
'Their closeness and the fact that their relationship was very public led no one to believe otherwise.
'They attended family and professional events as a couple, lived together for eight years and bought a home about two years ago.
'I was a guest at numerous of their parties and he introduced her to numerous people, including his son, as his girlfriend.'
Intimate: Love notes were posted on the website, which Wilkins paid £860 to have built
Spurned: Wilkins posted the details on the affair online after Phillips went back to his wife, Karen
Dbishty, who like Tsarinamisha, left a post on Gawker's website said: 'There was never any indication there was a third party in their relationship.
'Charles and YaVaughnie spent quite a bit of money on their estate so it doesn't make sense that things have turned out this way.
'The realtor at Coldwell Bankers and contractors at Genesis, Inc. and Bethe Cohen Design associated with the couple have nothing but glowing things to say about YaVaughnie and Charles.
'If he is married, YaVaughnie did not know. She believed him, as we all did, when he said he was divorced.'
However, another blogger on the Gawker site said Phillips was still attending events with his wife – including the American Natural History Museum’s gala event last November.
Details: Wilkins' website detailed photographs dating from 2001Howard Stern is speaking for the first time about the reemergence of interviews he has done with Donald Trump over the past two decades.
On his eponymous radio program Monday morning, Stern said that he was upset that the interviews were being used against Trump and that he himself would never re-release the old interviews.
'I feel Donald Trump did the show in an effort to be entertaining and have fun with us, and I feel like it would be a betrayal to any of our guests if I sat there and played them now where people are attacking him,' said Stern, who was on vacation last week when some of the most damning interviews were released.
He also said that the interviews were never done in the hopes he would 'f*** someone over.'
Stern said this despite the fact that he is a vocal supporter of Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton.
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Weighing in: Howard Stern spoke for the first time about the recent re-release of old interviews he did with Donald Trump (l to r: Donald and Melania Trump with Beth and Howard Stern in 2005)
Stern also took issue with the fact that the tapes were being used because he encouraged 'locker room talk' with Trump.
'A lot of the show that I've been doing for my entire life, radio show publicly, is an effort to sort of do "locker room talk," to express all kinds of s*** and just not even care what anyone thinks' said Stern according to The Hollywood Reporter.
He then added that the great thing about Trump was the fact that he 'loved to talk about sex' and 'loved to evaluate women on a scale of 1-10,' which was a great way to 'entertain the audience.'
'I wasn't imagining that I would be in the middle of this election and literally so prominently mentioned,' said Stern.
'Quite frankly, as someone just said, I'm surprised they didn't find these earlier.'
In one interview, from 2004, Trump imagined what sex with Lindsay Lohan would be like, despite the fact that she was only 18 at the time.
'She's probably deeply troubled and therefore great in bed,' said Trump.
In a 2006 interview, in which he was joined by his daughter Ivanka, he laughed and shrugged when described as a'sexual predator.'
He then mouthed: 'That's true.'
And in 2007 he mocked Anna Nicole Smith's appearance on the show, just days after she died of a drug overdose.
Keeping quiet: Stern (above with Trump in the 90s) said he would not play any of the old interviews himself because it would be a 'betrayal to any of our guests'
In an interview this past August, Stern told The Washington Post that he told Trump why he was supporting client early on in the election.
'Before Trump even got in the race, way before he got in the race, I had announced I was supporting Hillary. I believe she would be an extremely powerful president,' said Stern.
'I don’t dislike Trump as a candidate but I am absolutely enamored by Hillary. And I’ve told Donald that.George Soros told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria over the weekend he is responsible for establishing a foundation in Ukraine that ultimately contributed to the overthrow of the country’s elected leader and the installation of a junta handpicked by the State Department.
“First on Ukraine, one of the things that many people recognized about you was that you during the revolutions of 1989 funded a lot of dissident activities, civil society groups in eastern Europe and Poland, the Czech Republic. Are you doing similar things in Ukraine?” Zakaria asked Soros.
“Well, I set up a foundation in Ukraine before Ukraine became independent of Russia. And the foundation has been functioning ever since and played an important part in events now,” Soros responded.
It is well-known, although forbidden for the establishment media to mention, that Soros worked closely with USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy (now doing work formerly assigned to the CIA), the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the Freedom House, and the Albert Einstein Institute to initiate a series of color revolutions in Eastern Europe and Central Asia following the engineered collapse of the Soviet Union.
“Many of the participants in Kiev’s ‘EuroMaidan’ demonstrations were members of Soros-funded NGOs and/or were trained by the same NGOs in the many workshops and conferences sponsored by Soros’ International Renaissance Foundation (IRF), and his various Open Society institutes and foundations. The IRF, founded and funded by Soros, boasts that it has given ‘more than any other donor organization’ to ‘democratic transformation’ of Ukraine,” writes William F. Jasper.
This transformation led to fascist ultra-nationalists controlling Ukraine’s security services. In April it was announced Andriy Parubiy and other coup leaders were working with the FBI and CIA to defeat and murder separatists opposed to the junta government installed by Victoria Nuland and the State Department. Parubiy is the founder of a national socialist party in Ukraine and currently the boss of the country’s National Security and Defense Council.
Now that the billionaire “chocolate king” Petro Poroshenko is president of Ukraine, the effort to wipe out all opposition in eastern Ukraine will pick up steam. Poroshenko is a near perfect choice for the globalists and EU apparatchiks. He sat on the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine and collaborated with the IMF, Wall Street and the European Commission.
Poroshenko and the February coup leaders are now killing civilians in Donetsk as the effort continues to dislodge and eradicate “pro-Russian militants” and “terrorists,” i.e., armed resistance fighters going up against Right Sector enforcers possibly accompanied by American mercenaries with the help of the CIA. Civilians are also victims in “rebel”-held Slovyansk and neighboring Kramatorsk as retaliation against resistance to the junta in Kyiv intensifies.
The military response with its overly fascist character, including the terrorist torching of a trade union building in Odessa by “pro-regime rioters” (i.e., Right Sector paramilitaries), can be directly attributed to the activism of George Soros and the hands-on approach of the U.S. State Department, various NGOs (which are, in fact, government and Wall Street fronts), and USAID, NED, and the malattributed “Freedom House,” etc.
Following the murder and expulsion of those opposed to the IMF lording over the government and the people of Ukraine, Russia can expect further provocation, especially now that it has stepped away from supporting the resistance. The financial elite and their EU collaborators are determined to diminish and ultimately eliminate any challenge by Russia and the BRICS as these countries move to counter the neoliberal financial agenda.
“The buildup of NATO air and ground forces along the borders of Russia in eastern Europe and President Barack Obama’s American power-influencing trip to Asia have a single purpose,” Wayne Madsen wrote earlier this month. “The seen and unseen forces who dictate policy to their political puppets in Washington, London, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, and other vassal capital cities have decided to smash BRICS – the emergent financial power bloc encompassing Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.”Getting started with CSS sourcemaps and in-browser Sass editing
Tim Lucas Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 9, 2013
The end result: command-click a property, inspect the source, edit the Sass in-browser, and see the changes appear live.
CSS sourcemaps allow the browser to map CSS generated by a pre-processor, such as Sass, back to the original source file, including exactly which Sass mixin, placeholder or variable is responsible for a given line of CSS. And when you combine sourcemaps with Chrome’s new in-browser local file editing (workspaces) and automatic stylesheet reloading, you end up with a very fast in-browser editing workflow.
So refill your CSS is awesome mug and boot up Chrome Canary, it’s time to get up-and-running with these two new features.
Install Sass 3.3+
At the moment sourcemap support is only available in the yet-to-be-released Sass 3.3, which you can install with the following voodoo:
gem install sass -v '>=3.3.0alpha' --pre
With or without sudo, depending on how you roll.
Configure Sass
Once you have the latest Sass you simply use the new sourcemap flag:
scss --sourcemap sass/styles.scss public/styles.css
If you tried this before Sass 3.3 you’ll notice this is different to the old debug-info syntax. That syntax has now been deprecated and won’t work in Chrome Canary or future versions of Chrome.
If you want Sass to automatically recompile the CSS whenever the SCSS file changes (you’ll want this later when editing the Sass in-browser), use the watch flag and specify the input:output directories.
scss --sourcemap --watch sass:public
If you inspect your compiled CSS file you should should now see a sourcemap statement on the last line:
/*# sourceMappingURL=styles.css.map */
and there’ll be a styles.css.map file, looking similar to:
{
"version": "3",
"mappings": "4DAUA,qFAWQ,CACJ,OAAO,CAAE,KAAK,CAOlB,…",
"sources": ["../sass/_vars.css”,”../sass/styles.scss"],
"file": "styles.css"
}
That’s it for adding a sourcemap to your CSS.
Verify source maps are working
The latest version of Chrome Canary as CSS and Javascript source maps enabled by default.
If you had a previous version of Chrome Canary installed you might need to enable CSS source maps under dev tools General settings.
To see your source map in action, simply open the Elements inspector and in the properties list instead of your styles.css file you should now see the original source file name and line number, in this case styles.scss:63
If your source files are in a publicly accessible location you can click the filename, in this case styles.scss:63, and it will open in the Sources panel; no extra steps required.
In this case the original SCSS source isn’t accessible to the public, so clicking those links will only take you to an empty page in the Sources panel. To fix this we need to create a workspace and a remote-to-local file mapping.
Create a workspace
Your Chrome workspace is how you give Chrome permission to access the file system, and to have those files show up in your Sources panel.
Open your developer tools settings, and under Workspace add your site’s root folder.
If you open the Sources panel, and expand the sidebar, you’ll now find your local files listed alongside remote files.
Create a file mapping
We need to map the remote sass file, which was returning a 404, to one of the local files in your newly setup workspace.
Find the remote, non-existing Sass file from your site’s sources, and choose “Map to File System Resource”
Choose the matching file from your workspace:
Finally you’ll be asked to restart Chrome dev tools.
If you return to your elements inspector and hover over the filenames you should now see they point to local file paths:
and if you follow that link it should open up in the Sources panel, highlighting the line in the original source:
You can also command-click on a single property:
and be taken to the line for that specific property, whether it’s in a mixin, placeholder selector, or otherwise:
Auto-reloading your stylesheet
Whenever a Sass file is saved in Chrome it will attempt to reload it from the server so you can see your changes instantly. For this to work you need to ensure your Sass files are being recompiled whenever your files are modified. Starting Sass with the --watch flag will keep Sass running indefinitely, watching for any file changes and recompiling them as soon as they’re modified.
Tool support
Sass is the only CSS processing tool capable of generating sourcemaps at the moment, thanks to the Chrome dev tools team contributing the initial sourcemap support to Sass and Nathan Weizenbaum getting it ready for release. And Chrome Canary is the only browser capable of understanding them. But it’s an open format, based on the Javascript sourcemap which already has wide browser support, so it shouldn’t be long before we see it across the other browsers.
And as far as getting support in other CSS processing tools, such as Less, rework and Compass, well it’s time to get forking!Poland's president says he hopes Canada will increase its military presence in his country in order to help deter Russian aggression.
In an interview with CBC News Network's Power & Politics, Andrzej Duda said it is "beyond any doubt" that Russia has an "expansionist, imperial policy," and he would like to see Canada increase its military personnel and equipment in Poland.
Western allies are considering sending about 4,000 additional troops to the Baltic states and Poland on a rotational basis. The move is being worked out ahead of a NATO conference in July, which Duda is hosting in Warsaw.
Asked if this number of troops would satisfy Poland's concern about Russian aggression, Duda said he would like to see more.
"This is a big group of soldiers," he said through a translator, adding, "I would like them to be joined by soldiers from other NATO member states … also by Canadian soldiers."
Canada has 220 troops stationed in Europe as part of NATO's Operation Reassurance. They are due to come home at the end of June. Duda is touring NATO member states to lobby for the troop increase ahead of the July summit.
Polish President Andrzej Duda pushes back against critics who say Polish democracy is crumbling. 0:49
Concerns over Polish democracy
Duda's request comes as the European Union has issued its own demands of Poland.
Since its election last year, the conservative Law and Justice Party has been criticized for attempting to rein in the Polish Constitutional Court.
After it took power, Duda's government refused to seat judges appointed by the previous government, appointing its own judges instead. It later amended legislation to effectively curtail the power of the top court.
The issue has led to ongoing protests in Poland. Tens of thousands took to the streets in Warsaw this past weekend.
The ruling party has also been accused of taking control of the country's public media. Poland's treasury minister is now in charge of hiring — and firing — public TV and radio management.
Last month, the EU called on Poland's government to respect democracy. Members of the European Parliament passed a resolution saying the paralysis of the country's top court poses a danger to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.
Political conflicts
Duda rejects the accusations that Poland's democracy is crumbling. He concedes there is a "political conflict" over the constitutional court, but nothing more sinister than that. Rather, he says it's the opposition party that is disappointed by its recent loss of power that is trying to use its connections in the European Parliament to stir up trouble.
"They are using that influence. Very often they are depicting the situation in our country in a false way," Duda said.
"The fact that people are free to demonstrate, the fact that nobody interferes with the demonstrations, the fact that there is absolute freedom of speech, this is a testament to the democratic system in Poland," Duda said.
When asked if NATO member states could put pressure on Poland to respect the rule of law in return for the military presence it is requesting, Duda insists these are two separate issues.
He said that on the one hand, "temporary political conflict … is just normal in every democratic state." On the other hand is military security, which Duda characterizes as much more important.
"Political disputes like the one we're going through in Poland are just temporary and passing," he said. "I don't think that wise politicians would like to combine these two things in any way."
Meeting Trudeau
Duda met Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday to discuss security and trade issues. The Prime Minister's Office did not respond by the time of publication when asked if Trudeau brought up the EU's rebuke of Poland over democracy concerns.
Duda, 43, said he had "a very good conversation" with Trudeau. They had met briefly at the nuclear security summit in Washington in March, where Trudeau noted that with Duda attending, he was no longer the youngest leader in the room.
"I think we have a similar view of the world," Duda said of Trudeau. "Of course we might differ in our views, but we have this young outlook on the world. We try to look very far into the future, both of us."In 2009, before I was blogging here at PsychCentral, a reader of another blog asked me to address the topic of asexuality. The post I wrote, “Asexuals: Who are they and why are they important?,” immediately became one of my most popular articles, garnering tens of thousands of page views in short order.
I first learned about the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) while researching that blog post. Because I reviewed some of the basics back then, I’ll just share the opening sentences of the overview at AVEN before moving on:
“An asexual is someone who does not experience sexual attraction. Unlike celibacy, which people choose, asexuality is an intrinsic part of who we are. Asexuality does not make our lives any worse or any better, we just face a different set of challenges than most sexual people. There is considerable diversity among the asexual community; each asexual person experiences things like relationships, attraction, and arousal somewhat differently.”
The new point I want to make here is how far the asexuality movement has come in just a few years. Dave Jay, who founded AVEN, has made the rounds in the media, from MTV to The View. He has been taken seriously in more intellectual venues as well. Just recently, the Atlantic magazine published, “Life without sex: The third phase of the asexuality movement.”
Third phase? Hey, wait, what were the first two?
They were consciousness-raising and mobilization. Phase 3, which Jay believes the movement is heading into now, involves “expanding mainstream beliefs about what a ‘normal’ sex drive looks like.”
If you are asexual, in the midst of the contemporary Western culture that so celebrates sex, you are likely to feel defective. Jay knows that from experience. His mission is “taking that feeling of defect and turning it into a positive identity.”
I have taught introductory psychology courses, but I did not realize, until I read Jay’s quote in the Atlantic article, that “Freud originally defined libido as lust for life, not lust for sex.”
Asexuals are believed to comprise 1% of the population. The vast majority of single (and married) people are not asexual. Still, the message of the asexuality movement is a profound one, and totally consistent with the point of view that guided me as I wrote Singled Out. Rachel Hills, author of the Atlantic article, put it this way:
“If we stop defining our significant relationships only as those that are romantic or sexual, being single will take on a whole new meaning. If we broaden our emotional focus from the person we share bodily fluids with to the sum of our friendships, acquaintances, and colleagues, our communities will grow stronger. If we stop treating penetrative sex as the be all and end all of physical intimacy, we will experience greater heights of pleasure. And if we can accept that although sex can be ecstatic and affirming and fulfilling, it is not all those things to all people all of the time, we will relieve it of some of its cultural baggage.”
Asexual figure photo available from Shutterstock.President Donald Trump said the suspect in the New York terror attack had been allowed to bring in 23 people as a 'primary point of contact,' as he called for changes in the U.S. immigration system just hours after the attack.
'This man that came in – or whatever you want to call him – brought in, with him, other people,' the president said at the White House today. 'And he was a point, he was the point of contact – the primary point of contact for, and this is preliminarily – 23 people that came in, or potentially came in with him.'
'And that's not acceptable,' the president added.
Trump called for a'merit-based' system, as he called for ending the diversity-based lottery program that allowed Uzbekistan-born Sayfullo Saipov to come to the country.
President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet Meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, where he said the suspect in the New York terror attack had been allowed to bring in 23 people as a 'primary point of contact'
'We want a merit-based program where people come into our country based on merit. And we want to get rid of chain migration,' Trump said, referencing the phenomenon where immigrants who come to the U.S. then try to bring family members here.
'So we want to get rid of chain migration, and we've wanted to do that for a long time. And I've been wanting to do it for a long time. And we'll be asking Congress to start working on it immediately,' Trump said.
He blamed Democratic 'obstructionists' for stopping the legislation, although Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona noted on Twitter Wednesday that Democratic Senate leader Charles Schumer of New York proposed scrapping the diversity visa program as part of a broader immigration reform both Flake and Schumer were a part of.
Trump called Saipov 'an animal' during remarks before a cabinet meeting at the White House.
'We need strength. We need resolve. We have to stop it. So we're going to get rid of this lottery program as soon as possible. He came in through the Diversity Program, as you know, and we're going to stop that,' Trump vowed.
The president also called the justice system a 'joke' and called for ending 'chain migration'
The president blasted the diversity lottery that allowed the suspect to get a legal visa from Uzbekistan
The president does not have the authority to unilaterally end the lottery program that was implemented by Congress in 1990.
He has endorsed Senate legislation that would replace it with a merit-based program, but it is not guaranteed to pass even if it comes to the floor for a vote.
The White House could order the State Department to reduce the maximum number of lottery visas awarded annually from 50,000 to as few as zero.
'The 'diversity lottery' – sounds nice. It's not nice. It's not good,' Trump told reporters.
THE 'DIVERSITY VISA' LOTTERY In the government fiscal year ending September 2015, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the State Department received about 9.4 million applications for Diversity Immigrant Visas. The applications included petitions for another 5 million spouses and children who would be admitted to the U.S. with lottery winners, for a total of 14.4 million potential visa recipients. About 125,000 of them were lottery-selected, giving them the right to apply for immigrant visas – a number that the State Department cut off at 50,000 on a first-come, first-served basis. Uzbekistan was the 8th-highest represented nation among the lottery winners that year. THE TOP TEN: Cameroon: 5,000
Liberia: 5,000
Iran: 4,992
Egypt: 4,988
Ethiopia: 4,988
Democratic Republic of the Congo: 4,943
Ukraine: 4,679
Uzbekistan: 4,368
Russia: 4,103
Kenya: 3,534
The president also called for 'quick justice' and treating the suspect as an enemy combatant.
'We need quick justice and we need strong justice – much quicker and much stronger than we have right now,' Trump said. 'Because what we have right now is a joke and it's a laughingstock. And no wonder so much of this stuff takes place.'
Experts say the suspect would almost certainly be facing life in prison or confinement at a top-security prison for life under the current justice system after being tried and convicted.
Trump suggested that Americans were'suckers' for supporting a system that allowed lax oversight of people allowed to fast-track their visa applications on the basis of a randomly drawn number.
'We want people that are going to keep our country safe. We don't want lotteries, where the wrong people are in the lotteries,' he said.
'And guess what? Who are the suckers that get those people,' Trump said.Guns
The United States government is funding the National Council of La Raza with our tax dollars. La Raza, which literally means in Spanish “The Race,” is a radical organization that advocates open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens. I pulled and analyzed the tax return Form 990, the form filed by 501(c) 3 organizations to the IRS, and here is what was reported:
Government Grants (contributions) to the National Council of La Raza
2008 Tax Returns, (October 1 2008 to September 30, 2009) $5,136,535
2007 Tax Returns $3,458,351
2006 Tax Returns $3,353,319
Three Year Total $11,948,205
What do people get paid at La Raza?
According to the 2008 tax returns seventeen people listed as officers, directors, trustees, key employees and highest compensated employees of the National Council of La Raza have an income ranging from $119,675 to $378,446, the latter of which goes to Janet Murguia, president and CEO.
To put that income figure in perspective a rank and file United States Senator makes $174,000. A United States Marine Sergeant with five years of service earns a base salary of $29,376, including the raise received for 2011.
Lobbying:
Part II, Section 1b indicates lobbying expenditures to influence a legislative body amounted to $550,787.
Section 1g indicates lobbying expenditures to “Grassroots nontaxable amount” of $250,000.
Here is the quick analysis: The US government pays La Raza to lobby the US government for money.
The United States of America is facing a multitude of critical issues. Two of those issues are wasteful government spending and illegal immigration. Cutting funding for the National Council of La Raza would begin to help in both of those issues.
Now you sound off. Should the United States taxpayer be funding the National Council of La Raza?Twenty-two years ago in 1994, 38-year-old school teacher Robert Pollard & his merry band recorded Bee Thousand in a Dayton, Ohio basement on a 4-track cassette recorder. This improbable rock classic became an enormously influential album; Spin and Pitchfork have called it one of the best records of the ’90s, and Amazon picked Bee Thousand as #1 on their list of the 100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums Of All Time. An amazing live band with a rabid following, the Washington Post called GBV “the Grateful Dead equivalent for people who like Miller Lite instead of acid!” After 22 albums, 24 solo records and countless side projects, Pollard has recorded a new GBV album by himself and has assembled an exciting new GBV line-up for 2016 touring: Doug Gillard (guitar), Bobby Bare Jr (guitar), Mark Shue (bass) and Kevin March (drums).
Speedy Ortiz
Attention came swiftly following Speedy Ortiz’s 2012 Sports EP on the Boston-centric label Exploding In Sound, and with good reason. Massachusetts-based songwriter/guitarist Sadie Dupuis’ knotty, lyrically dense songs were fully realized by her bandmates, with intricate guitar lines crisscrossing over Darl Ferm’s fluid bass and Mike Falcone’s precisely executed drumming in a way that was simultaneously catchy and jarring. After the success of its 2013 Best New Music-honored debut full-length Major Arcana, the band formalized its assault through a year and a half of relentless touring with bands in whose brainy-slash-brawny legacies it followed—among them Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Ex Hex, and The Breeders. In 2014, the band added guitarist Devin McKnight of the Boston-based post-punk group Grass Is Green, whose guitar parts both match and challenge Dupuis’.
Speedy Ortiz’s second proper album—Foil Deer, recorded at Rare Book Room in Brooklyn when the band wasn’t pushing forward on its hectic 2014 tour schedule—comes out on April 21, 2015. The songs represent a leap forward, possessing a lightness that mirrors Dupuis’s post-grad school outlook; they also have a deliberate nature to them, one that emanates from extra studio time and more experimentation with the band’s essential form. (Ferm contributes a few unexpected guitar parts; Falcone’s vocal harmonies zing in with more force.) Speedy Ortiz possesses big-tent rock swagger and punk’s restless yet intimate spirit in a way that makes the impulses seem identical; while the quartet can still command crowds at festivals like Primavera Sound and Pitchfork Music Festival, they also relish playing Boston’s teeming basements alongside the city’s next generation of bands. That willingness to push not just forward, but in all directions, makes Speedy Ortiz one of rock’s most exciting outfits.This Saturday I got the award ”Gamer of the year” (Årets spelare) that is handed out by the Swedish youth organization Sverok every year. The motivation states that I got the award for my work within esports. For how I’m trying to make it more welcoming for everyone and for how I’m trying to make it accessible for people outside of esports (mostly in Sweden).
I am very happy about this award. It’s an honor to get it. It feels like a confirmation that what I do is appreciated, and it encourages me to continue doing what I do. I will continue to cast StarCraft and make it as understandable as I can for people who are new to the game and I will continue to talk and write about things that I think are important. Making esports more welcoming for everyone is important to me.
Big thanks to Sverok!
Sverok is an umbrella organization for gaming clubs in Sweden. They are the biggest youth association with about 80 000 members in the country. It’s everything from board games and role-playing games to e-sports.88 Single Page Website Designs For Design Inspiration
One of the interesting trends which I noticed recently is to showcase your work in single page design. It’s kind of ironic to see what designers can do with single pages as modern age designers love to experiment with things and observe how people interact with their work. Even though this is not a common trend to follow but still as the new design styles come up, and as more and more designers notice them and make use of them in their work, this kind of trends emerge.
In this presentation, you’ll find a variety of highly-creative, beautiful and most importantly inspirational designs which is following the same trend of single page designs. We don’t want you to follow any specific trend as the aim here is to stimulate your creativity and to inspire your imagination to create your own design trend because your website represents you and your brand.
You may be interested in the following related articles as well.
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Single Page Website Designs For Design Inspiration
Throughout history, great artists always found new ways to show their creativity to express themselves and create new trends and techniques to remark their work apart from the rest of the crowd. The Definition of design |
directs our lives and shapes them so they achieve “equality,” “inclusion,” and “social justice.”
The price of this concentration of power, of course, is the weakening of ordered liberty, the political freedom to manage our own lives with a minimum of interference from the state, and with personal responsibility for our actions. By promoting the notion of a risk-free world, the progressives lure people with the promise of cost-free utopia, one that will always fail given the destructive potential of human beings. But without risk and accountability there is no true freedom––that’s the devil’s bargain the left always offers.
Gun control hysteria is just another tactic for compelling us to make that bad deal. But if we want people to be free, we have to accept that many will use that freedom viciously or carelessly. What we should do is hold them personally responsible for their actions. But to demand a risk-free world is to demand a world without freedom, for only extensive and intrusive coercion can create such a world. Any law that promises to reduce risk thus bears the burden of showing how the elimination of the risk is worth not just the loss of a benefit, but of political freedom. So far, those shilling for gun control have failed to make that case.arklan
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LegendaryActivity: 1666Merit: 1002 ASICMiner USB group buy- orders closed, pay for extra! May 04, 2013, 02:53:52 PM
Last edit: August 18, 2013, 12:10:36 AM by arklan #1 ok fellas. we are BACK and taking order's! each PREVIOUS BUYER can place an order for USB miners at.175 per unit. the.075 is for my fee and shipping - which will be fedex ground.
Ordering is open until august 9, 6 pm mountain time (that's friday, about 1:20 from current forum time) payment is due ASAP so i can place the order and get the shipment from friedcat on it's way as of the 10th.
Timer removed. End time: 2013-08-09+18:00:00
Now, email all three of these fields to Arklan:
-Address you sent payment from that you used in line 1
-message entered in line 2
-signature that bitcoin-qt populated.
On Arklan's end, he will use those 3 pieces of information in the verify tab and it will confirm that all the information is correct.
Do not make any of the info public. Make sure everything is copy and pasted verbatim. Make sure only the seller knows this information.
Hope this helps.
[/quote][/s][/code]
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brucemangy
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Full MemberActivity: 169Merit: 100 Re: ASICMiner Block Erupter USB group buy May 04, 2013, 03:22:26 PM #5 the real question is : "how many people are interested in the product?" and "where are they located?"
EDIT I'm in France and i would be in for 3 Block Erupter USB 297 to go :>
at current difficulty, I calculated a ROI of 133 days... (btc went down a little, but i do not really expect diff to explode, BFL is not going to deliver "en masse".)
cheaper than FPGA but still not as good UNAVAILABLE asic!
the price per MH is like the 66 btc/Asicminer blade... :/
arklan
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LegendaryActivity: 1666Merit: 1002 Re: ASICMiner Block Erupter USB group buy May 04, 2013, 03:25:59 PM #7 Quote from: brucemangy on May 04, 2013, 03:22:26 PM the real question is : "how many people are interested in the product?" and "where are they located?"
I'm in France and i would be in for 3 Block Erupter USB 297 to go :>
at current difficulty, I calculated a ROI of 133 days... (btc went down a little, but i not really expect diff to explode, BFL is not going to deliver "en masse".
cheaper than FPGA but still not as good UNAVAILABLE asic!
even if we disregard BFL - we know avalon is selling chips, and has sold in the realm of 500k of them, to be shipped in june, if i recall. that ain't no pile of peanuts. even if we disregard BFL - we know avalon is selling chips, and has sold in the realm of 500k of them, to be shipped in june, if i recall. that ain't no pile of peanuts.
brucemangy
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Full MemberActivity: 169Merit: 100 Re: ASICMiner Block Erupter USB group buy May 04, 2013, 03:30:06 PM #9 Quote
even if we disregard BFL - we know avalon is selling chips, and has sold in the realm of 500k of them, to be shipped in june, if i recall. that ain't no pile of peanuts.
true... i forgot about that.
But you believe it's gonna be so easy for everyone to get their chips on PCB and running?
If you could just put the asic on a test board, cut some wire and put some reistance and make it run i would say yes... but it is not the case.
I do not find anyone having a working PCB that he offer to sell IN QUANTITY. true... i forgot about that.But you believe it's gonna be so easy for everyone to get their chips on PCB and running?If you could just put the asic on a test board, cut some wire and put some reistance and make it run i would say yes... but it is not the case.I do not find anyone having a working PCB that he offer to sell IN QUANTITY.
arklan
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LegendaryActivity: 1666Merit: 1002 Re: ASICMiner Block Erupter USB group buy May 04, 2013, 03:31:57 PM #11 Quote from: brucemangy on May 04, 2013, 03:30:06 PM Quote
even if we disregard BFL - we know avalon is selling chips, and has sold in the realm of 500k of them, to be shipped in june, if i recall. that ain't no pile of peanuts.
true... i forgot about that.
But you believe it's gonna be so easy for everyone to get their chips on PCB and running?
If you could just put the asic on a test board, cut some wire and put some reistance and make it run i would say yes... but it is not the case.
I do not find anyone having a working PCB that he offer to sell IN QUANTITY.
true... i forgot about that.But you believe it's gonna be so easy for everyone to get their chips on PCB and running?If you could just put the asic on a test board, cut some wire and put some reistance and make it run i would say yes... but it is not the case.I do not find anyone having a working PCB that he offer to sell IN QUANTITY.
true. burnin's assembly service/pcb making is seemingly very popular, but i have no idea how many he'll be able to make and ship at what kind of rate. true. burnin's assembly service/pcb making is seemingly very popular, but i have no idea how many he'll be able to make and ship at what kind of rate.
romerun
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Bitcoin is new, makes sense to hodl.
LegendaryActivity: 1078Merit: 1001Bitcoin is new, makes sense to hodl. Re: ASICMiner Block Erupter USB group buy May 04, 2013, 03:41:26 PM #12 it's portable,
it's cute,
sip on electricity,
and you can have it now,
while Avalon batch 2 will take months to finish,
also better customer support, less hassle than Avalon
SebastianJu
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Legendary Escrow Service - Tip Jar in Profile
LegendaryActivity: 2296Merit: 1013Legendary Escrow Service - Tip Jar in Profile Re: ASICMiner Block Erupter USB group buy May 04, 2013, 03:49:16 PM #15 Quote from: stepkrav on May 04, 2013, 03:44:05 PM i guess group buys should be organised by location.
I guess too many groupbuys will be a problem because of the spread of payments that could lead to no one reach the price for 300 units. I think it there are 3 GB, one in America, one Asia and one Europe could work out probably. I guess too many groupbuys will be a problem because of the spread of payments that could lead to no one reach the price for 300 units. I think it there are 3 GB, one in America, one Asia and one Europe could work out probably. Please ALWAYS contact me through bitcointalk pm before sending someone coins.The top ranked Ohio State Buckeyes traveled as far east for a conference game as they have this weekend as they made the 510 mile journey to Piscataway to face Rutgers. While the historic visit was much hyped, the game turned into a rout as the Buckeyes trounced the Scarlet Knights 49-7 in a game that was never in doubt from the opening whistle.
In many ways, it was symbolic of Rutgers’ brief tenure in the Big Ten – little competition on the field, but plenty of attention (and generated revenue) off the field.
In spite of a predicted blowout coming to fruition, Rutgers-Ohio State was played in primetime within a stone’s throw of the largest media market in the country. (For now, let’s continue with the Big Ten’s theory that the Empire State Building is catching hold of Scarlet Knights and Big Ten fever.) And to this point, that’s Rutgers’ biggest contribution to the Big Ten – television eyeballs.
Well, scratch that. It’s not even necessarily television eyeballs. It’s just televisions… whether they’re actually being watched or not.
The biggest victories Rutgers and Maryland have provided the Big Ten since east coast expansion have not been in football or basketball, but in television revenue. BTN has upped their subscriber base and their advertising revenue thanks to getting clearance on cable systems back east. Keep in mind that just one carriage agreement in New York is going to net about $50 million annually to the conference.
Even their Big Ten compatriots are aware of the real reasons why Rutgers and Maryland are in the conference. Just check out this Urban Meyer quote via the New York Times:
The reasoning has a lot to do with geography. Ohio State Coach Urban Meyer, who will lead his top-ranked Buckeyes into Piscataway on Saturday night for a nationally televised game, said that New Jersey had “as good high school football as anywhere in the country, and obviously a ridiculous amount of TV sets.” Those TV sets may help the Big Ten negotiate a blockbuster new television deal in the next year, and they have already helped the Big Ten Network, according to its president, Mark Silverman. The network, which is now in more than 60 million homes nationally, added eight million subscribers in the New York metropolitan area in the past year, a period that coincided with Rutgers’s first year as an associate member of the Big Ten. It also experienced a 20 percent year-over-year rise in advertising revenue — more than twice what would have been expected without conference growth.
Just how much will those “ridiculous amount of TV sets” help the Big Ten and its member institutions? We all know Big Ten TV rights are one of the last fishes out there to catch in the sports media landscape with most of the other major properties well locked up into the next decade. With rights fees still exponentially increasing across sports, and with an expanded Big Ten looking to cash in thanks to their eastward expansion into more homes and more markets, the conference is setting up for a huge payday.
Just how huge? Payouts to each school could well exceed $40 million dollars:
But Rutgers will fully vest as a Big Ten member in 2022, and will then start receiving a conference and N.C.A.A. payout estimated at $35.5 million a year. But that figure, too, is conservative: The Big Ten is set to sign a new deal for national broadcast rights next year, which, combined with continued growth at the Big Ten Network, is expected to establish annual payouts exceeding $40 million for each program. Barchi, echoing a criticism he himself has made, said, “Right now, at Rutgers, athletics is siphoning dollars away from the academic mission.” He added: “That is why we have a plan to eradicate that imbalance. I am fully convinced that if we stay the course, that is what’s going to happen.”
Forty. Million. Dollars.
Traditionalists might still cringe at the thought of Ohio State visiting Rutgers or Michigan visiting Maryland. With the conference superiority debate at such a premium these days, the two east coast schools aren’t exactly helping the Big Ten’s reputation and winning any extra bragging rights. One school suspended their coach while the other was fired just this season. It’s going to take an awful lot for longtime Big Ten fans to ever get excited about the on-field prospects of the two schools and what they might contribute to the conference.
But this is what makes Jim Delany the mad genius that he is – the addition of Rutgers and Maryland was never about increasing the Big Ten’s New Year’s Day bowl victories or odds at a national championship. They were about the increase in dollars that would come by expanding east. At least in that category, Rutgers and Maryland have provided one victory that is worth its weight in gold.
[New York Times]Photo Illustration By Steve Kovach A few weeks ago, Google chairman Eric Schmidt let it slip that the company had plans to market "a tablet of the highest quality" within the next six months.
That led to a lot of speculation, but Google refused to clarify Schmidt's statements.
Now DigiTimes is reporting that the so-called Nexus tablet will be a 7-inch device running Android Ice Cream Sandwich. It'll also be priced to compete with Amazon's $199 Kindle Fire.
DigiTimes' sources from Google's supply chain say the tablet could be ready by this April.
The DigiTimes report feels a bit wishy-washy to us since Google's Taiwan office denied knowing anything about a Google-branded tablet, so we're treating it as a major rumor. Plus, DigiTimes has a very hot and cold record when it comes to reports like this.Need some red-carpet sparkle? Look to the Middle East, as these A-listers did…
The 74th Golden Globe Awards took place yesterday in LA, and it’s fair to say another kind of LA dominated the night.
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Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone’s La La Land won every award it was up for (including best actor and actress nods for the pair) but when it came to the red carpet, many stars were looking further afield for sartorial expertise.
And there’s one country in particular that seems to be churning out kings and queens of couture faster than any other.
Read:
A Year In Style: Sheikha Mozah’s 12 Best Fashion Moments From 2016
A Year In Style: Amal Clooney’s 10 Best Fashion Moments From 2016
Reams of celebrities plumped for show-stopping gowns from Lebanese designers at the awards, with lashings of lace, tonnes of tulle and gemstones galore from labels including Zuhair Murad and Elie Saab.
So with no further ado, here are our favourite looks of the night…
Read:
A Year In Style: Queen Rania’s 15 Best Looks From 2016
A Year In Style: Princess Haya’s 10 Best Looks From 2016
Reem Acra
The Beirut-born designer, who rose to fame thanks to her eponymous bridal line, dressed Bridesmaids star Kristen Wiig and Gone Girl actress Emily Ratajkowski.
We particularly love the demure high neck, fluttery sleeves and gently floor-sweeping cut of the lacy gown, while the buttercup-hued silk and interwoven bejewelled necktie of Ratajkowski’s number really helped her stand out on the red carpet. (Well, to be honest, with that face she doesn’t need much help turning heads).
Want to get the Golden Globes look yourself? You can find Reem Acra at Harvey Nichols Dubai, and at shopbop.com.
Zuhair Murad
This Ras Baalbek-born designer has long been a go-to for starlets when it comes to award shows and premieres, and last night was no different. Elsa Pataky, Tracee Ellis Ross (who scooped best actress in a TV comedy or musical), Sofia Vergara, Olivia Culpo and Lily Collins were all decked out by the label, and it’s almost impossible to pick a favourite amongst the four.
However the details that most caught our eye were the sculptural fit of Ross’ strapless ankle-grazer, and the blush-pink hue of Collins’ voluminous gown.
Want to get the Golden Globes look yourself? You can find Zuhair Murad at Harvey Nichols Dubai, and at Bloomingdale’s.
Georges Chakra
The Beirut-based haute couture creator dressed Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and we adore the split one-shoulder cut and figure-skimming silhouette.
Elie Saab
He’s long been known as the Middle East’s most famous fashion export, and the Lebanese designer didn’t disappoint at this year’s Globes. Saab kitted out Total Recall actress Jessica Biel in a mind-bending printed gown, featuring a rather daring neckline and bucolic embroidery.
Want to get the Golden Globes look yourself? You can find Elie Saab at Boutique 1.
Rani Zakhem
E! host Giuliana Rancic opted for a diaphanous metallic floral number by this Lebanon-born and Kenya-raised designer. We particularly love the way the romantic bottom half is paired against the sportier halter neckline.
And a special mention should go to…
Naeem Khan
He may not be Lebanese, but this Mumbai-born designer, who dressed Mandy Moore and Gina Rodriguez, is a favourite of Jordan’s Queen Noor. Brownie points go to the Gatsby-esque fringing, and the delicate floor-length cape.
– For more about Dubai’s lifestyle, news and fashion scene straight to your newsfeed, follow us on Facebook
Images: GettyPolice responding to a report of an assault in which Clark was a suspect said they arrived to find him interfering with paramedics who were trying to treat the victim. Police say a struggle followed and Clark was shot.
Some community members have alleged that Clark was handcuffed when he was shot, but the head of the police union has disputed this.
State and federal investigations are underway.
The protesters have demanded the release of any videos showing the shooting and that the Hennepin County attorney's office take full responsibility for prosecuting the officers instead of leaving it up to a grand jury to decide whether they should face charges.
Seven people were arrested during the eviction early Thursday for obstructing the legal process, and another was arrested for trespassing, Police Chief Janee Harteau told reporters.
All eight were taken to the county Jail, and she said she thought at least some were soon released. Nobody was injured, she said.About
If you want to watch our Kickstarter video in fullscreen, the 1080p version is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OdWBWxd5n4
We've been designing and manufacturing film equipment for nearly 8 years. Our first dolly, the Black Bear Dolly, has been on the market for about 4 years and has been praised by filmmakers around the world--from independent filmmakers to the Walt Disney Company, major Universities, the United States Army and many others.
But this first dolly was largely out of reach for many independent filmmakers on a smaller budget.
That's why we're here. And that's why we designed Koala. With Koala, we wanted to design something that was more accessible to indies, more portable, easier to use BUT just as powerful. Kickstarter allows us to lower manufacturing costs by knowing just how many units we'll need to produce, in advance. And then offer a professional-grade dolly to filmmakers at an affordable cost.
There are two ways to pledge toward Koala.
1.) Pledge toward a Koala "Platform Configuration" and add on the accessories you want for a custom Koala built to fit your needs (see accessories list below).
2.) Pledge toward a Koala "Full Configuration" and get a Koala outfitted with every available accessory in one package.
Koala is built to accomplish all the tasks of full-size ground dollies, track dollies and linear rail dollies all in a single, portable system. The dolly features a welded aluminum frame with a 3/4" ply decking covered in a vibration-dampening PVC rubber composite top. The ground wheels are equipped with solid, run-flat tires.
Track Wheels allow Koala to function on dolly track. They install in a matter of seconds with no tools. With the Track Wheels installed, Koala can roll on ground and track with no adjustments. You don't have to remove the ground wheels when rolling on track. And you don't have to remove the Track Wheels when rolling on ground.
You can also use PVC tubing in place of dolly track for a more inexpensive alternative.
Koala can function in both two wheel steer and four wheel steer modes. By attaching the Four Wheel Steer to Koala, all four wheels turn when the steering t-bar is turned. This gives you an incredibly tight turn radius at just 27" (versus 60" in two wheel steer mode) and greater maneuverability overall. The Four Wheel Steer unit attaches to the Platform Configuration in about a minute. No tools are necessary for installation.
The Pushbar interfaces with the steering t-bar and allows you to set a desired steering radius, then take your hands off the steering bar and push from the Pushbar for repeatable turns. This is a particularly useful way to get precision into your shots, as you can practice your move until it is as you desire, then set your steering radius and be ready to go without the need to find the move every time you roll. Shots where an actor or actress has a mark to hit or the camera itself has a mark to hit benefit greatly from this type of precision.
Koala has the ability to utilize a total of six ground wheels at one time. In two wheel steer mode and in four wheel steer mode, you can utilize the extra ground wheels for a "dually" configuration that adds greater stability and ground surface contact for smoother shots.
The Low Slung Bracket enables you to get extra low shots. It is machined to accept a wide array of accessories to give you greater versatility in shots and angles. You can mount a ball head, elemac mount and many other accessories or mount your camera directly to the end of the Low Slung Bracket. And, in conjunction with the Black Bear Mount, you can attach the Low Slung Bracket to Koala in seconds with no tools directly into the seat post holes.
The Black Bear Mount is the only device of its kind. It allows you to mount a wide variety of accessories, including Elemac mounts, the Low Slung Bracket, Bazookas and other accessories. But what makes the Black Bear Mount so impressive is that it is a completely tool-less way to mount to your dolly deck. Normally, in order to attach something like a Low Slung Bracket or a Bazooka, you would have to drill holes into your dolly deck and bolt accessories onto the dolly with a wrench. The Black Bear Mount allows you to mount your accessories directly to your dolly without the need to modify your dolly deck at all and with no tools. The Black Bear Mount just slides into the seat post holes and hand tightens from under the deck. It takes a few seconds to mount and you're ready to shoot.
Koala's modular design allows it to expand to meet your needs in virtually any circumstance. But there is a design element built into Koala that allows for expansion beyond even its own platform. All of Koala's accessories will interface with a full-size platform dolly called the Black Bear Dolly, which means that if you ever have the need for a larger, less portable dolly, you can port all your accessories from Koala to the Black Bear Dolly whenever you need. Koala was built to be able to work fluidly with the Black Bear Dolly so that you can plug and play with your chosen functionality by porting over accessories from one unit to the other. This kind of design and engineering is truly unique to camera platforms and Koala is the only one of its kind with these types of capabilities.
Design Story
Koala came out of an idea to produce a more cost effective product for independent filmmakers. We started from scratch to create a brand new, super-portable product that would be accessible to everyone. Prototyping began with a simple, cardboard cutout so that we could get the right idea for the size of the design. It had to be just the right size for a platform-style dolly--small enough to be portable but large enough to be able to carry a rider, large cameras, cranes and any other accessories filmmakers need. After experimenting with cardboard templates cut to different shapes and sizes, we settled on what looked to be the perfect medium between portability and functionality.
The next step in the design process was turning this cardboard template into a raw prototype.
We took what we had and cut the first deck out of plain 3/4" plywood. It took three iterations of this original plywood prototype deck before we settled on the exact dimensions.
From there, we created a sub-frame out of aluminum, matching the frame dimensions to the already completed deck dimensions. We went through a half dozen different frame designs, trying to find the perfect design that could accommodate all the features we wanted for Koala.
With a few final touches, we had a completed prototype that we took into the field for extensive testing. Ultimately, this prototype was what we used to shoot our Kickstarter video.
Our Team
Our team consists of a small group of five hard-working individuals out of Phoenix, AZ: Jackson (founder and lead engineer), Mike (CNC machinist and woodworking extraordinaire), Bill (chief MIG welder), Mallory (logistics expert), Fernando (metal finishing). Jackson started out with the idea for Black Bear Studio Systems when he was a grad student at UCLA's film and television program. During the filming of his first project, he found that the equipment needed for independent filmmakers like himself was difficult to come by and better suited to larger productions. In response, he created the first designs for a new type of equipment, designed around the needs of independent filmmakers.
Manufacturing Plan
Our manufacturing plan is laid out in enormous detail and has been honed by years of manufacturing our first product, a large studio dolly called the Black Bear Dolly. The pipeline for the production of Koala is as follows:
With a full functioning prototype of Koala already in play, half the battle of manufacturing is over. With Kickstarter funds, we would start with a mass purchase of raw materials, which is how we are going to get the limited number of Koala's available out at the lowest possible cost. After materials are purchased, production begins.
All of our frames are produced in house on a machine with.0005" repeatability. Once machining is complete, all frames will be welded in house. Simultaneously, our local CNC operator will be producing tons of beautiful dolly decks and tiny little crates for them to ship in. Then last, after the welded units are beautified with a nice polish, they will be assembled, packed with love, and sent off to all of our wonderful customers.
Because this product has already been tested and perfected, the manufacturing is expected to go very smoothly. We have the utmost confidence in our manufacturing abilities after previously having produced other camera motion systems for several years.A state question proposal to bring medical marijuana to Oklahoma has garnered enough signatures to be placed on the November ballot. (MGN)
A petition to bring the matter of medical marijuana to a vote has garnered enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.
Governor Mary Fallin announced Aug. 23 that proposed State Question 788 has gained enough signatures to be placed on the November ballot. The secretary of state's office counted 67,761 signatures, only 65,987 are required.
Joe Dorman whose become the face for Oklahomans for health is ecstatic. He wants to see people with disorders like PTSD and epilepsy get the help they need.
"Fortunately in this instance we received 1,800 signatures more than was needed to get it to the ballot so everyone is very happy," Dorman said. "This is historic because this is the very first volunteer driven petition to see success in the state of Oklahoma no other volunteer petition has achieved this opportunity to make the ballot."
The proposed state question still must clear several hurdles before being placed on the ballot for a vote. Law requires the Oklahoma Supreme Court to determine whether the signatures counted are sufficient for the proposal to be placed on the ballot.
Attorney General Scott Pruitt then must review the ballot title. The ballot title then can be challenged by a member of the public.
Dorman remains hopeful though, after all Oklahoma has already made some progress when it comes to medical marijuana allowing trials of a cannabis derivative.
"Under the statue that we wrote this would be completely under the care of a medical doctor here in Oklahoma and if the patient is a minor, it would take two doctors to sign off on this," Dorman said.
The proposed question would allow for the licensed use, sale and growth of marijuana in Oklahoma for medicinal purposes. It would require a license for use and possession of marijuana.NOTA could get rid of lazy incumbents, improve turnout, and discourage negative campaigning.
I am a big fan of having a “None of the Above” option on ballots. I know it is the Rodney Dangerfield of election reforms. It gets so little respect that the only state that offers NOTA is Nevada, and there it decides nothing because if “no one” wins — as he has a few times — nothing happens. In fact, just last month U.S. district judge Robert Jones ruled NOTA unconstitutional for precisely that reason.
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The lawsuit opposing Nevada’s NOTA was brought by two of the state’s Republican members of the Electoral College. They argued that, theoretically, the law could provide for a runoff or appointment of new candidates when NOTA wins the most votes. Then it would be constitutional. But — so their suit went — because the law in reality doesn’t do either of those things, voters who vote “None of the Above” are being unconstitutionally discriminated against.
#ad#Luckily, late last week a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Judge Jones’s ruling and reinstated NOTA as an option for Nevada voters. The unanimous ruling was agreed to by both Judge Stephen Reinhardt, one of the circuit’s most vehement liberals, and Carlos Bea, one of the circuit’s staunchest conservatives.
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Why were Nevada Republicans trying to neuter NOTA? My sources there describe the logic of NOTA’s GOP opponents: People usually check “None of the Above” as a protest vote; anyone choosing NOTA would probably otherwise protest by choosing the challenger, i.e., Romney; but if NOTA is available as an option on the ballot, that’s a vote not cast for Romney. The NOTA vote comes out of his hide.
I have no idea how NOTA might affect the 2012 presidential election. I do know that it has reduced — to the second-lowest in the nation — the number of Nevada voters who leave their ballots blank in the presidential contest. I’m glad it will remain on Nevada’s ballot, even if it is only symbolic.
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Many voters might wish that such a ballot option were more than mere symbolism. If I had my way, a plurality or majority vote for NOTA would trigger a special election with new candidates. If people fret that allowing a vote for NOTA casts the election in too negative a light, the ballot line could instead read: “In Favor of a New Election.”
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“None of the Above” would have been extremely useful in many past elections. Take the infamous 1991 race for governor of Louisiana between Democrat Edwin Edwards, who later went to prison for corruption, and Republican David Duke, a racist who was a former head of the Ku Klux Klan. In a Mason-Dixon poll taken right before the vote, 66 percent of Louisiana voters wished they had the NOTA option. In a hypothetical runoff election against Duke and Edwards, NOTA finished with about a third of the vote and could easily have won if major political leaders in the state had campaigned for it.
Millions of Americans are tired of entering polling booths and having to choose the “lesser of two evils” or even, as wags have it, “the non-evil of two lessers.” In most election years, a fifth or more of House incumbents face no major-party opposition. Perhaps it’s time that entrenched incumbents in one-party districts actually had something to fear from voters.
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#page#NOTA has worked overseas. It played a key role in establishing democracy in the crumbling Soviet empire. In 1989, the Communists in Poland grudgingly allowed a semi-free parliamentary election; they thought they had rigged the game by guaranteeing that many of their candidates had no opponents. But they forgot that voters would be able to cross out the names of candidates they rejected.
This allowed voters to defeat even the sitting Polish prime minister and dozens of other Communist incumbents because these candidates didn’t get the required absolute majority of votes. “This device changed history, because it proved how far people despised the Communist rule,” trade-union leader Lech Walesa once told me. “It accelerated the entire decline of the Communists in Eastern Europe.”
#ad#NOTA also played a role in the end of Communism in the former Soviet Union. The failure of many incumbents to win a majority of votes in parliamentary elections in 1991 led to new elections with new candidates in 200 out of 1,500 races for the Congress of People’s Deputies.
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In the runoff elections, more than 100 Communist incumbents were defeated. Boris Yeltsin, who presided over the dissolution of the Soviet Union later in 1991, told me during a visit to the U.S. that the Soviet version of NOTA “helped convince the people they had real power even in a rigged election, and [it] played a role in building true democracy.”
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Even in Nevada, the toothless version of NOTA has had an impact. Don Mello, a former state legislator who authored the 1976 law providing the ballot option, noted that if NOTA wins, the candidate who finishes second is humiliated. A significant NOTA vote, he told me, “forces the winner to undergo a reality check, and if he was falling down on the job, he usually walks the straight and narrow after that.”
NOTA has supporters from across the political spectrum. The staunchly conservative New Hampshire Union Leader once wrote in a publisher’s note that “NOTA is the only issue we’ve ever agreed on with the Boston Globe and Ralph Nader.” The late Seymour Martin Lipset, a respected political scientist at Stanford University, supported NOTA because it would represent an American version of the “no confidence” vote that frequently brings down parliamentary governments in Europe. In 2010, then-Representative Pete Hoekstra of Michigan proposed making a “None of the Above” option on ballots for federal elections mandatory. A new election would be required if NOTA placed first. Hoekstra is now a GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate, running against incumbent Democrat Debbie Stabenow.
The late Tony Schwartz, a New York political consultant who did commercials for Democratic presidential candidates ranging from Lyndon Johnson to Bill Clinton, was a big NOTA fan. He once shared with me a sample commercial he would have run in favor of NOTA:
Taxes go up while businesses shut down. Who’s going to fix this mess? Republicans, Democrats, the White House? Let’s choose. Who was not tainted by the recent financial scandals? Clearly, None of the Above. Which candidates refuse to be influenced by special interests? Clearly, it’s NOTA. Which elected officials do not raise taxes or run down public schools, do not put image above issues or make promises that are impossible to keep? The choice then is clear. At the voting booth select NOTA. NOTA. A reliable option. Because if the candidates won’t change, we’ve got to change the candidates. Paid for by the None of the Above Committee.
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NOTA would be far more effective than campaign-finance reform in reducing the overwhelming advantages of incumbency. In many races, second-rate incumbents win by beating third-rate challengers. With NOTA, a sitting officeholder could lose an election and give another candidate a chance even in a hopelessly gerrymandered, one-party district. And if NOTA came at all close to winning, even the most entrenched incumbents might be forced to rethink their positions and inject some needed humility into their approach.
NOTA might even discourage highly negative campaigning, because candidates would be running for the approval of voters — not just to offend fewer people than their opponents do.
Finally, adding NOTA to the ballot might improve the nation’s abysmal voter turnout. When confronted with the option of bad versus worse, disenchanted people could use NOTA to say, “Give me a better choice.” Isn’t that one of the things American democracy should be all about?
— John Fund is national-affairs columnist for NRO and a co-author of the newly released Who’s Counting? How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk (Encounter Books).Ed Woodward certainly can't be accused of failing to learn on the job in his role as executive vice chairman at Manchester United, but then again he has had the perfect motivation. It isn't just the expectations of the supporters, or the club's |
these people had.”
Archaeologists stumbled on the site by chance and have been taken aback by finds in a remarkable state of preservation. These include two extremely rare cavalry swords – one of them complete, still with its wooden scabbard, hilt and pommel – and two wooden toy swords. One has a gemstone in its pommel.
As well as other weapons, including cavalry lances, arrowheads and ballista bolts – all left behind on the floors – there are combs, bath clogs, shoes, stylus pens, hairpins and brooches. Sections of beautifully woven cloth have also been unearthed. They may have come from garments and have yet to be tested.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The barracks was discovered beneath the fourth-century stone fort of Vindolanda. Photograph: Sonya Galloway
There are also two wooden tablets covered in marks made in black ink. They are thought to be letters, but their contents have yet to be deciphered as they were rushed into a conservation laboratory to ensure their survival.
The barracks, which dates from AD105, was found beneath the fourth-century stone fort of Vindolanda, south of Hadrian’s Wall near Hexham, Northumberland. It is one of the site’s earliest barracks. Hadrian did not begin his 73-mile defensive barrier – to guard the north-western frontier of the province of Britain from invaders – until 122.
The artefacts survived because they were concealed beneath a concrete floor laid by the Romans about 30 years after the barracks was abandoned, shortly before 120. The concrete created oxygen-free conditions that helped preserve materials such as wood, leather and textiles, which would otherwise have rotted away.
Birley said: “The swords are the icing on the cake for what is a truly remarkable discovery of one of the most comprehensive and important collections from the intimate lives of people living on the edge of the Roman Empire at a time of rebellion and war. What’s exciting is that [they] are remarkably well-preserved … There is a huge range of stuff – their hair combs, pots, wooden spoons, bowls, weapons, bits of armour, and their cavalry bling.
“Even for us, it’s very unusual to get things like complete Roman swords, sitting on the ground in their scabbards with their handles and their pommels. We were slightly dumbfounded by that. Then, to find another complete sword in another room next door only two metres away, two wooden swords and a host of other cavalry equipment, all in beautiful condition, is just terrific.
“Archaeologists would never expect to find a Roman cavalry sword in any context, because it’s like a modern-day soldier leaving his barracks and dumping his rifle on the floor … This is a very expensive thing. So why leave [it] behind?”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Moments after being uncovered, the strap junction still shines because of the airless conditions in which it was preserved. Photograph: Sonya Galloway
He recalled feeling “quite emotional” over the discovery: “You can work as an archaeologist your entire life on Roman military sites and never expect, or imagine, seeing such a rare thing, even at Vindolanda. It felt like the team winning a form of archaeological lottery, and we knew we had something very rare and special before us.”
Archaeologists lifted up a piece of concrete flooring while exploring the foundations of the fourth-century stone fortress. They were struck by a layer of black, sweet-smelling and perfectly preserved anaerobic soil in an area where it was completely unexpected.
Hidden in this soil, they went on to find, were the timber walls and floors, fences, pots and animal bones from the abandoned barracks. To their astonishment, excavating about 3.5 metres down, they uncovered eight rooms, with stables for horses, and living accommodation, with ovens and fireplaces.
They believe that the base was home to more than 1,000 soldiers and probably many thousands more dependants, including slaves. The Romans had covered over this early barracks with concrete and heavy clay foundations before building another above it. At Vindolanda, garrisons would arrive, build their forts and destroy them when leaving.
Birley said: “We have got successive barracks above them, some of which are also cavalry, but they’re much later and not preserved with anything like the range of material that has come from within the anaerobic conditions. What you’re seeing here is the full range of stuff, and all those little details that normally rot away completely.”
Cavalry swords are very rare, even across the north-west provinces of the Roman empire, he said, partly because they are so thin. “They’re very light, a couple of feet long, designed to slash somebody as you’re riding past, with a wickedly sharp blade and a point.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reenactors at Hadrian’s Wall: it is believed up to 1,000 soldiers lived at the 2nd-century garrison. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images
Other finds include copper alloy cavalry fitments for saddles, strap junctions and harnesses. They are in such fine condition that they still shine and are almost completely free of corrosion. The strap junctions are preserved so beautifully, he said, that they have all their alloy links – incredibly rare survivals.
Much of the pottery has graffiti, from which the archaeologists hope to work out the names and stories of some of the people who lived here.
The discovery is all the more emotional for Birley, as his archaeologist father, Robin, headed the team that discovered the famous Vindolanda writing tablets in 1973. The new tablets may give further insights. They are letters either sent to, or written by, the people living in those buildings.
Birley said: “So, as a collection of stuff, it doesn’t really get better than that. Some of the documents will hopefully give the names, the characters, what they’re thinking about, what they’re doing.”
Quite why so much valuable material was left behind has yet to be discovered. One theory is that the barracks was abandoned in a hurry. Birley said: “There was strife. This is the precursor to Hadrian coming to the UK to build his wall. This is the British rebellion. So you can imagine a scenario where the guys and girls at Vindolanda are told: ‘We need to leave in a hurry, just take what you can carry.’ If it’s your sword or your child, you grab the child.”“watch out for generation y, they will be a nightmare for men”. Those feminist women who indicated Generation Y as being a nightmare for men are correct. Things have hit a tipping point in our culture by that time. Children from that generation onwards have been raised on nothing but feminism. By the time of Generation Y, feminists have taken over academia, media and the law, they control public discourse. Feminism by the time of Generation Y is more than a revolutionary movement; it is the culture itself. It is Western culture. the-spearhead.com/2010/11/02/feminists-who-cares-if-its-your-kid/#comment-50531
I repost this comment, because it is very scary and very shocking. The consequences of feminism are scary and shocking enough. It is very scary to imagine that this is just the beginning! An entire generation grown up with feminist indoctrination from kindergarten to university. Feminist dogma, feminist thinking, feminist warped logic became part of their mind.
A scary article. Feminism has barely begun! It will take over completely. Due process will disappear even further for men. Women will get even more power to get men evicted from their home and jailed for unproven accusations of rape and child abuse, jailed for non-payment of child support even if the child is not theirs, and worse.
Feminists think about these things. They plan generations ahead. I have heard many feminist women tell me “watch out for generation y, they will be a nightmare for men”. Yes they do, well said. Radical feminism – the basis and instinct of all feminism – is based upon this sophisticated, long-term thinking approach. (Radical) feminism is about progressively eliminating all male power – oops, “the patriarchy”. Eliminating anything which could possibly lead to male power in any and all forms. There’s nothing wrong with this approach per se – it’s necessary. What wrong is the group exercising this approach – feminist females – and that they are allowed free reign to do so. In the absence of masculinist men adopting a long term revolutionary radical mindset (to empower men and keep females in check), feminist females will instead adopt that approach. Life is zero sum; the battle of the sexes is real. (Christian/Enlightenment liberal philosophy about the possibility of universal equality and liberty is bunk.) Likewise there’s nothing wrong with “social engineering” – the negative connotion it has among men’s rights types is unfounded. Those feminist women who indicated Generation Y as being a nightmare for men are correct. Things have hit a tipping point in our culture by that time. Children from that generation onwards have been raised on nothing but feminism. By the time of Generation Y, feminists have taken over academia, media and the law, they control public discourse. Feminism by the time of Generation Y is more than a revolutionary movement; it is the culture itself. It is Western culture. (Note that this phenomenon of feminism taking over the culture is exclusive to regions based on Liberal Democratic Capitalism.)
Source: the-spearhead.com/2010/11/02/feminists-who-cares-if-its-your-kid/#comment-50531
This comment was on Spearhead, and even on this men’s right site was voted down into invisible oblivion. I am not sure how much I support the rest of the comment. I reposted the most interesting part. So please go on reading the rest of the article on the-spearhead.com/2010/11/02/feminists-who-cares-if-its-your-kid/#comment-50531
Human-Stupidity.com Analysis
Human-Stupidit.com has shown that feminism and its laws are a prime example of warped thinking, unconscious distortions and manipulative speech. The fact that an entire generation grew up conditioned by feminist thinking is extremely scary to everybody who thinks that feminism has already gone overboard.
The effects can already be observed. Moderate men’s rights writers get kicked out of websites and, amazingly, even get kicked off men’s rights websites. Speaking against feminism might soon be included in hate laws and totally banned. Nowadays research on issues like adolescent and child sexuality is even more taboo than research about gender and race differences.
RelatedVANCOUVER—An elderly couple forced to live in two separate residential care homes in British Columbia have been reunited. Their granddaughter Ashley Bartyik posted an announcement on Facebook saying the couple are now staying at Morgan Heights facility in Surrey.
This photo of Wolfram and Anita Gottschalk weeping when they were briefly reunited during a visit was posted on Facebook by their granddaughter Ashley Bartyik. ( Supplied )
“The reunion saw tears of joy for all involved,” she says in the statement. Wolfram and Anita Gottschalk gained global attention in August when Bartyik shared a heartbreaking photo of the couple weeping when they were briefly reunited during a visit with each other. At the time, Bartyik said her grandparents had never spent more than a few days apart during their decades of marriage until Wolfram was forced to live alone as a result of his changing health care needs.
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Wolfram, 83, suffers from dementia and after experiencing congestive heart failure in January, he was moved to the Yale Road Centre residential care facility. Anita, 81, immediately got on a wait list to get moved into a residential care home so they could be together, but she ended up placed at an assisted-living unit at Morgan Heights, which was a 30-minute drive from the Yale Road Centre. A spokeswoman for the Fraser Health said the lack of vacancies and the couple’s considerably different health care needs were behind their separation but the health authority was committed to reuniting the couple. Shortly after the first photo was shared, the family learned Wolfram was diagnosed with lymphoma and Bartyik said she feared he would die before being reunited with her grandmother. But Bartyik says the couple will now spend their final years together as Wolfram was moved to the same care home as Anita on Thursday. She says the family will continue to advocate for other couples experiencing similar challenges of separation.
Read more about:The votes are in, recount is over, the hand-wringing continues and the protests have just begun: Welcome to Inauguration Day 2017 as Donald Trump gets sworn in as the 45th President of the United States on Friday. Dispensing with Thursday’s pregame festivities, let’s get right down to how the public can follow the action from speeches to swearing-in to celebrations and beyond.
How and where to watch
We’ll be livestraming the ceremony here at Deadline, but all of the broadcast and cable news networks will be covering the events live for most of the day. On the audio airwaves, there will be coverage on National Public Radio, ABC Radio News, CBS Radio News, NBC News Radio,Fox News Radio, Voice of America, Westwood One News, SiriusXM Satellite Radio and elsewhere. There will be no shortage of ways to tune in online, either, with multiple livestreams on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
What is happening
The swearing-in ceremony begins at 11:30 AM ET (all times Eastern going forward) with VIPs gathered on on the western front of the Capitol. Trump will be given the oath of office by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. — who, as you might recall, flubbed it when he was swearing in Barack Obama for the first time in 2009 — at about noon. Trump then will give his inaugural address.
Here is the rest of the day’s schedule (times approximate):
Luncheon: 1 PM
Review of Armed Forces: 2 PM
Inaugural Parade: afternoon
Inaugural balls: 7 PM until????Shares
Real-time strategy games like Age of Empires ask you to spin many plates at once. You’ll often need to crush enemies while also managing resources on the fly. In addition, you’ll explore fairly large maps, scouting for new locations for your epic civilization to expand to.
The Age of Empires series’ most distinctive qualities are:
Resource gathering and management
Aspects of exploration
Grand scale economic and diplomatic systems
Historical setting and content
Medium to large scale tactical conflicts
Technological advancement systems
In recent years, this once popular strategy formula has fallen a bit out of fashion. However, there’s thankfully still a lot of real-time strategy games like Age of Empires out there to appease fans like yourself. Here are 10 of them!
Note: Keep in mind that none of these suggested games are exactly like Age of Empires. However, each game mentioned is guaranteed to contain one or more Age of Empires-like qualities for you to enjoy!
Note: All images / videos are copyrighted to their respective owners. This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
1. Age of Mythology
It comes as no surprise that Age of Mythology makes our list of games like Age of Empires. A direct spin-off, Age of Mythology tweaks the historical leanings of Age of Empires by diving into the realm of mythology. The addition of Gods, monsters, and magic to the classic real-time strategy formula will feel both familiar and fresh to you at the same time. So, if you want PC games like Age of Empires that don’t deviate too far from the beaten path, Age of Mythology is most definitely your first go-to option.
2. Empire Earth
Made by Rick Goodman (who designed Age of Empires) for PC, Empire Earth shares a number of similar qualities with Age of Empires. For starters, it offers real-time strategic gameplay set against a historical backdrop that stretches half-a-million years. Empire Earth’s graphics also look somewhat alike to Age of Empires in style – albeit rendered in full 3D. There’s also a huge variety of unit types for you to choose from. These include stone-age rock throwers, Roman warriors, medieval knights, World War 2 vehicles, enormous robots, and more.
Hardcore Age of Empires fans have criticized the game for having almost too much content to the point of sacrificing strategic depth and pacing. However, Empire Earth is still highly praised for its ambitious design and nuanced historical settings.
Overall, if you’re keen on for more games like Age of Empires, you owe it to yourself to give the original Empire Earth a try, along with its (sequels).
3. The Settlers Online
Like most games like Age of Empires, The Settlers Online gives you the chance to build empires, expanding them as you battle competiting foes. Granted, there aren’t as many unit types available compared to Age of Empires. However, most individual units balance themselves out nicely in stats, abilities, and upgrades.
As a newer game, The Settlers Online also features decent building and unit modelling – especially for an online game. The game’s social aspects are also well-implemented. In addition, the online fan community is mostly supportive and welcoming.
Best of all? The Settlers Online is completely free-to-play! Perfect if you’re in need of more strategy games like Age of Empires but aren’t keen to fork out money.
4. Empires: Dawn of the Modern World
Another creation by Goodman, Empires: Dawn of the Modern World is a real-time strategy game that tasks you with guiding a civilization through five distinct historical epochs (i.e. the Middle Ages all the way up to World War II). Similar to other games like Age of Empires, you’ll carry out lots of resource gathering, military training, and building construction. Battles are also deeply strategic. In addition, you’ll get a whooping nine civilizations to choose from, including the French, English, and Chinese.
Gamespot’s Sam Parker actually applauds Empires: Dawn of the Modern World as a significant step-up from Age of Empires’s basic gameplay. Of course, this is somewhat debatable, given Age of Empire’s longer-lasting appeal. However, there is little doubt that Empires: Dawn of the Modern World stands strong alongside other games like Age of Empires for the similar gameplay it offers.
5. Cossacks: European Wars
Cossacks: European Wars has a bunch of features similar to other games like Age of Empires. For one, there’s the usual resource gathering, building construction, and army growing processes. However, the game doesn’t have the same historical expansiveness as Age of Empires. Instead, European Wars doubles down on letting you relive some of the most famous battles of 17th and 18th century Europe with rich historical detail.
What sets Cossacks apart from other games like Age of Empires is the absolutely huge armies you get to control. You’ll be able to define unique formations for thousands of soldiers. The formation you choose will play on each unit’s various strengths and weaknesses.
The game also has two popular followups – Battle for Europe and Napoleonic Wars. You might want to try both of these before Cossacks 3 gets released.
6. Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
Fun fact: Galactic Battlegrounds was actually built using the Age of Empires II engine. No surprise then that the graphics-style closely mirrors a few other mentioned games like Age of Empires. You’ll also get to do your usual exploration, research, and conquering – with a number of major sci-fi tweaks of course.
A few Reddit users have referred to the game as “Age of Empires 2 with Star Wars“. Of course, the diversity of historical setting is sacrificed – but, hey, you also gain John Williams’ famous score and all the Star Wars trappings you’ll ever want! Overall, Galactic Battlegrounds is a must-try if you’re even remotely turned onto games like Age of Empires.
Want more real-time strategy games like Age of Empires?
List continues on Page 2 –>Florida State eyes a third straight ACC championship on Saturday as the Seminoles look to notch a spot in college football’s first playoff and extend the nation’s longest winning streak to 29 games. The streak for Florida State is by far the longest in school’s history and as FSU seeks a 15th ACC title, it’ll be returning to the location and facing the team with which the streak began.
The hype was minimal when Florida State and Georgia Tech met on December 1st, 2012. The Yellow Jackets actually finished third in the Coastal division that year with an overall record of 6-6, but got the nod to go to Charlotte since both North Carolina and Miami were dealing with sanctions.
Florida State was coming off a loss at home to rival Florida as it looked for its first ACC crown since 2005. Florida State had won the ACC Atlantic two years prior, but had no answer for Virginia Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor in a 44-33 loss to the Hokies for the conference title.
Early on in the 2012 ACC Championship, it looked as though it would be the 10-2 Seminoles’ night. Florida State raced to a 21-3 lead against a seemingly over-matched Yellow Jackets team.
Georgia Tech’s defense stiffened in the second half and the offense managed to chip away, drawing an 18-point deficit down to six before getting the ball back with two minutes to play. The crushing of Florida State’s ACC dreams however, were not to be as sophomore safety Karlos Williams deflected a Tevin Washington pass to himself for the game-sealing interception.
The 21-15 win lifted a huge weight off a program that had gone six straight years without a conference crown after winning the ACC 12 times in the previous 15.
A narrow victory over a 6-6 team in the ACC Championship didn’t exactly bring much national acclaim for Florida State nor did its 31-10 take-down of MAC champion Northern Illinois in the Orange Bowl, but few knew at the time that it was the beginning of something special.
Following Florida State’s Orange Bowl victory over the Huskies, head coach Jimbo Fisher talked about how the recent accomplishments set the standard for FSU moving forward as a football program. Boy, was he right.
The duration of Florida State’s ongoing streak which has spanned parts of three separate seasons has taught us a number of things, including that no two teams are the same.
The 2012 team which became the first at FSU in 13 years to win a BCS bowl and first in nine to finish in the top 10, often played down to its competition, particularly away from home.
The 2013 squad bulled through the competition winning by an average of six touchdowns-per-game, but when the going got tough, the Seminoles showed the heart of a champion, rallying from 18 points down to top Auburn 34-31 in the final BCS National Championship.
Things have not come nearly as easily this season, but the ability to battle through adversity has remained as Florida State has been forced to mount a game-winning drive in the final quarter four times while erasing five halftime deficits. The teams have been different, but the one constant has been winning.
It’s been over two years since the winning streak began for Florida State and with a berth in college football’s first-ever playoff on the line Saturday against 11th-ranked Georgia Tech, the ‘Noles are hoping the streak can extend into the 2015 calendar year.
Few would have guessed two years ago that a 6-point victory over a 6-win team would have such a lasting impact, but that 21-15 victory in Charlotte gave FSU the title of “champions”. That’s a title the Seminoles have been unwilling to relinquish ever since.The Hub Network to Become Discovery Family Channel on October 13
Quite a bit of buzz popped up a few days ago when Discovery announced that The Hub would be axed, replaced with Discovery Family. We now have a full press release detailing the transition, happening as soon as October 13th!We have confirmation that Friendship is Magic will be joining the rest of Hasbro Studios big hits during the daytime, with Discovery taking over with their family focused content during the primetime.Now we just need that season 5 release announcement and all will be right in the world.Full press release below the break!-- Hasbro and Discovery Partnership Focused on Continuing Successful Creation of Entertaining and Award-Winning Content for Kids and Families ---- Discovery Communications and Kids Television Veteran Tom Cosgrove Named GM of Discovery Family Channel Under the Leadership of Group President Henry Schleiff --SILVER SPRING, Md. & PAWTUCKET, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Discovery Communications (NASDAQ:DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) and Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) today announced The Hub Network will become Discovery Family Channel effective October 13, 2014. The network will broaden its programming focus to serve families in primetime and continue to showcase Hasbro Studios award-winning children's content in daytime.During the daytime, Discovery Family Channel will offer a robust line up of brand new Hasbro Studios' series as well as beloved library programming, including MY LITTLE PONY, LITTLEST PET SHOP and TRANSFORMERS RESCUE BOTS, while during primetime, the network will serve a growing family audience that began to develop under The Hub Network. Primetime programming will draw from Discovery's three decades of leadership in creating the highest-quality, real-world content that appeals to the entire family in the Natural History, Adventure, Animals and Science genres. Initial series will include SUPERHUMAN, TIME WARP, FLYING WILD ALASKA, AFRICA and EXTREME ENGINEERING: BIGGEST REVEALS."The next chapter of our collaboration will harness the incredible content strengths of both Discovery and Hasbro to program Discovery Family Channel with highly-rated award-winning storytelling around Hasbro's brands and Discovery's most popular non-fiction shows that appeal to both children and families alike," said Hasbro President & CEO Brian Goldner. "Discovery Communications has a nearly 30-year track record of building television brands that create maximum value for advertisers and distributors through their world-class raft of programming and we look forward to evolving this network together."Under the executive management of Group President Henry Schleiff, Tom Cosgrove will assume the role of general manager of Discovery Family Channel and will manage all network operations and programming, working closely with the Hasbro Studios team as the new channel will prominently feature Hasbro Studios-produced content in daytime. Schleiff has overseen the successful turnaround and growth of several networks within the Discovery portfolio. Previously, Cosgrove served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Discovery Channel and Science Channel and has held senior leadership positions at ABC Family, Fox Family, Fox Kids and TV Guide Channel prior to his time at Discovery. Most recently, he led 3net and 3net Studios."Hasbro is a world-class company with franchises and characters that appeal to kids and families around the world. They have been terrific partners over the past several years as we developed our kids television audience in the U.S., and we look forward to a continued strong collaboration as we evolve to the Discovery Family Channel together," said Discovery Communications President & CEO, David Zaslav. "Henry's proficiency in developing and growing strong brands combined with Tom's experience on Discovery's flagship brand and deep background in family programming make for a perfect leadership team to drive the network toward future growth."The repositioning to Discovery Family Channel builds upon Discovery's ongoing strategy to maximize its portfolio of channels to satisfy viewers and drive value for distributors and advertisers, while working alongside quality content partners to create long-term value. The Hub Network has grown from nearly 56 million homes in 2010 to approximately 70 million U.S. homes today. Since launch, the strong performance of Hasbro children's content helped lift the network's total day P2-11 delivery by +89% and for the past three years, The Hub Network has consistently been the most co-viewed children's cable network among kids 2-11 watching with adults 18-49--a trend the partners plan to continue with Discovery Family."Brian and I want to thank the entire team at The Hub Network for their passion and dedication in building this brand over the past five years," added Zaslav. "They are a fantastic group of executives, guided by a tremendously creative and inspiring leader in Margaret Loesch. We are grateful for their work in creating a channel of which Discovery and Hasbro have been incredibly proud."Discovery Family Channel will continue as a joint venture of Discovery Communications and Hasbro, with Discovery Communications taking a 60% ownership position in the new channel and Hasbro's stake decreasing to 40%. The network will be consolidated and managed under the Discovery portfolio of networks.About Discovery CommunicationsDiscovery Communications (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) is the world's #1 pay-TV programmer reaching 2.7 billion cumulative subscribers in more than 220 countries and territories. Discovery is dedicated to satisfying curiosity, engaging and entertaining viewers with high-quality content on worldwide television networks, led by Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery and Science, as well as U.S. joint venture network OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. Discovery also controls Eurosport International, a premier sports entertainment group, including six pay-TV network brands across Europe and Asia. Discovery also is a leading provider of educational products and services to schools, including an award-winning series of K-12 digital textbooks, through Discovery Education, and a digital leader with a diversified online portfolio, including Discovery Digital Networks. For more information, please visit www.discoverycommunications.com.About HasbroHasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) is a branded play company dedicated to fulfilling the fundamental need for play for children and families through the creative expression of the Company's world class brand portfolio, including TRANSFORMERS, MONOPOLY, PLAY-DOH, MY LITTLE PONY, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, NERF and LITTLEST PET SHOP. From toys and games, to television programming, motion pictures, digital gaming and a comprehensive licensing program, Hasbro strives to delight its global customers with innovative play and entertainment experiences, in a variety of forms and formats, anytime and anywhere. The Company's Hasbro Studios is responsible for entertainment brand-driven storytelling around Hasbro brands across television, film, commercial productions and short-form. Through the company's deep commitment to corporate social responsibility, including philanthropy, Hasbro is helping to build a safe and sustainable world for future generations and to positively impact the lives of millions of children and families every year. It has been recognized for its efforts by being named one of the "World's Most Ethical Companies" and is ranked as one of Corporate Responsibility Magazine's "100 Best Corporate Citizens." Learn more at www.hasbro.com.HAS-IRPhotos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20140925005367/en/Media:Discovery CommunicationsCatherine Frymark, 240-662-2934orHasbroJulie Duffy, 401-727-5931orInvestor Relations:Discovery CommunicationsJackie Burka, 212-518-5642orHasbroDebbie Hancock, 401-727-5464Source: Hasbro, Inc.News Provided by Acquire MediaThe drinks are on Brandon Laird -- if you can find your way to the Far East.
The former major leaguer -- who had brief stints with the New York Yankees in 2011 and the Houston Astros in 2012 and 2013 -- now plays for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan. His home run off a Kirin Beer sign on Tuesday earned him a year's supply of beer and $10,000, according to a report in the Japan Times.
Brandon Laird won a year's supply of beer with this home run https://t.co/VLMW83joZf via @PacificleagueTV #lovefighters #NPB — Jason Coskrey (@JCoskrey) May 10, 2016
"Definitely not drink it," Laird said, when asked what he'd do with his thirst-quenching prize. "Maybe give some to the batting practice pitchers or whoever wants it."The TransPacific Partnership (TPP) is a "polluter-friendly" deal that "poses a panoply of threats to our climate and environment," a new report from the Sierra Club finds.
Released Wednesday as the United Nations COP21 climate summit in Paris is underway, A Dirty Deal: How the Trans-Pacific Partnership Threatens Our Climate (pdf) details how the TPP would erect barriers to a needed clean energy transition while bolstering corporate power and interests.
While the final text of the deal that includes the U.S. and 11 Pacific Rim nations was released last month, the environmental organization describes its report as "the first comprehensive review of the TPP’s climate implications."
"After years of extraordinary secrecy," the report states, "it’s finally clear what TPP negotiators were trying to hide: The TPP is a raw deal for communities and our climate."
With the words "climate change" entirely absent from the 6,000-page deal, it offers "a clear sign it is not 'a 21st-century trade agreement.'" Not only would the deal not address climate change—it would actually make it worse, the publication states.
The group's analysis finds that, if approved, the TPP would: empower fossil fuel corporations to attack climate policies in private tribunals; lock in dirty fossil fuel production by expediting natural gas exports; increase climate-disrupting emissions by shifting U.S. manufacturing overseas; and impose new limits on government efforts to combat climate disruption.
Explaining how the deal would increase carbon emissions with a shift towards more overseas manufacturing, Ben Beachy and Ilana Solomon of the Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Program write in a blog post that
"As the world’s leaders gather in Paris to tackle climate disruption, the U.S. is pushing its largest trade deal in history, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which not only fails to mention the climate crisis, but is actually counterproductive," Solomon said in a media statement.
In addition to criticism the deal has received based on its threats to the environment, it has been opposed by a range of organizations for its threats to digital rights, public health, food safety, democracy, and workers' rights.
When the deal was released last month, it began a 90-day countdown for President Barack Obama to sign it. After his signature by Feb. 4, 2016, the deal must ratified by the U.S. House and Senate.
Boing Boing joins other other organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation in efforts to kill the deal, and is encouraging people "[t]o overwhelm Congress members with emails and messages from their constituents demanding that they vote down the TPP when the implementing legislation comes before them."
"Congress should reject the toxic Trans-Pacific Partnership to ensure that we do not undermine any climate deal that emerges in Paris," Solomon addedA commentary on Monday in People’s Daily, the Communist Party newspaper, by Chang Jiwen, a legal scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and two of his students, Liu Kai and Guo Shunzhen, cited results of a survey posted on the website of CCTV, China’s national broadcaster, where 64 percent of respondents agreed that eating dogs should be banned.
In an email, Mr. Li said that he expected millions more to join the global call by June 21, and that “China will score a huge reputation-improvement score” if its government shut down the event.
The petition on the website of Humane Society International addresses President Xi Jinping, saying that by ending the festival, “you will clearly show your leadership in protecting the well-being of both people and animals, and demonstrate that China’s global reputation as a progressive nation will not be besmirched by such activities.”
The animal welfare groups Raise UR Paw and Duo Duo, as well as Care2 and Avaaz, have also posted the petition.Indian spice; dried latex from the rhizome or root of several Ferula spp.
Asafoetida in a jar
Asafoetida (; also spelled asafœtida)[1] is the dried latex (gum oleoresin) exuded from the rhizome or tap root of several species of Ferula, a perennial herb that grows 1 to 1.5 m (3.3 to 4.9 ft) tall. It is part of the celery family Apiaceae. Asafoetida is thought to be in the same genus as silphium, a plant now believed to be extinct, and was used as a cheaper substitute for that historically important herb. The species is native to the deserts of Iran and mountains of Afghanistan, but is mainly cultivated in nearby India.[2]
Asafoetida has a pungent smell, thus its trivial name stinking gum, but in cooked dishes it delivers a smooth flavour reminiscent of leeks. It is also known as food of the gods, devil's dung, jowani badian, hing, hengu, inguva, kayam, and ting.[3]
Uses [ edit ]
Cooking [ edit ]
Containers of powdered asafoetida
This spice is used as a digestive aid, in food as a condiment, and in pickling. It plays a critical flavoring role in Indian vegetarian cuisine by acting as an umami enhancer.[4] Used along with turmeric, it is a standard component of lentil curries such as dal and sambar, as well as in numerous vegetable dishes, especially those based on potato and cauliflower. Kashmiri cuisine also uses it in lamb/mutton dishes such as Rogan Josh.[5] It is sometimes used to harmonize sweet, sour, salty, and spicy components in food. The spice is added to the food at the time of tempering. Sometimes dried and ground asafoetida (in very small quantities) can be mixed with salt and eaten with raw salad.
In its pure form, it is sold in the form of chunks of resin, small quantities of which are scraped off for use. The odor of the pure resin is so strong that the pungent smell will contaminate other spices stored nearby if it is not stored in an airtight container. Many commercial preparations of asafoetida use the resin ground up and mixed with a larger volume of other neutral ingredients, such as gum arabic, wheat flour, rice flour and turmeric.[6] The mixture is sold in sealed plastic containers with a hole that allows direct dusting of the powder. Asafetida odour and flavour become much milder and much less pungent upon heating in oil or ghee. Sometimes, it is fried along with sautéed onion and garlic.
Asafoetida is considered a digestive in that it reduces flatulence.[7] It is, however, one of the five pungent spices generally avoided by Buddhist vegetarians.
Traditional medicine [ edit ]
In Afghanistan, extract of the dried gum is taken for menstruation, whooping cough and to treat ulcers as an oral mouth wash. Hot water extract of the root is taken as an ant |
Vehicular Homicide Antidepressants 2011-09-15 Georgia Woman Kills 3 Teen-aged pedestrians: Obstructs Officer
Fraud Med For Depression 2011-09-15 Mississippi Woman Working at Health Clinic Commits Fraud
Stand-Off With Police Med For Depression Withdrawal 2011-09-14 West Virginia Man Has 3 Hour Stand-Off With Police: Threatens Suicide & Harm to Others
Murder Paxil Antidepressant 2011-09-13 Kentucky Younger Brother Shoots his Older Brother 18 Times
Hallucinations & Delusions Prozac Antidepressant 2011-09-13 U.S.A. Woman Has Hallucinations & Delusions on Prozac
Mania & Anxiety Meds For Depression 2011-09-12 Global ++More Women Taking A/D's: Cause Side Effects Like Mania & Anxiety: Journal Article
Adverse Reactions & Cardiovasular Problems Meds For Depression 2011-09-12 Global ++Adding Another A/D to Existing A/D Produces Serious Problems & No Benefit
Murder-Suicide Med For Depression 2011-09-11 Australia Mother Kills Her Daughter and Then Commits Suicide
Suicide Attempt Effexor 2011-09-10 Canada Patient Attempts Suicide by Taking Overdose of Effexor
Assault Antidepressant 2011-09-09 Mississippi Firefighter Sentenced for Assault on Wife
Statstics Med For Depression 2011-09-09 Australia Claim that 1 In 5 Members of Parliament are On Depression Meds
Shoplifting/Kleptomania Antidepressants 2011-09-08 Australia Woman Senator Arrested for Shoplifting: Had Been Acting Odd on Depression Med
Suicide Effexor 2011-09-08 California 21 Year Old College Student Kills Self: Was Not Feeling Well on Effexor so Doc Doubled the Dose
Stand-Off With Police Med For Depression 2011-09-08 Colorado Former UNC Student Sentenced to Prison For Standoff With Police
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-09-08 England Woman, Mother of Three, Kills Self While on Depression Med
Suicide Cymbalta 2011-09-07 U.S.A. Person Taking Cymbalta For Condition Other Than Depression Kills Self: Peoples Pharmacy
Suicide Antidepressant 2011-09-07 Phillippines Famous Fashion Designer's Daughter Kills Self: Said Med Made Her Feel Weird
Ineffective Zoloft 2011-09-06 Global ++Zoloft Not Effective for Mild to Moderate Postpartum Depression: Medscape
Suicide-By-Cop Med For Depression 2011-09-05 Arizona Woman Becomes Violent: When Police Arrive, Attacks Officer with Knife: Is Killed
Rampage Shooting Lexapro & Two Benzo's 2011-09-03 North Carolina *Eight Dead in Nursing Home: Jury Spares Death Penalty Due to Medications
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-09-02 Canada Famous Hockey Player Commits Suicide
Murder Med For Depression & Bipolar Disorder 2011-09-02 Kentucky Mother Kills her Two Children & Then Holds Her Therapist Hostage
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-09-02 India 20 Year Old Woman Computer Science Major Kills Herself
Murder Med For Depression 2011-09-01 Illinois Mother Kills Her Two Young Children: Flees: Hits 3 Pedestrians
Stand-Off-With Police Cymbalta Antidepressant 2011-09-01 Oklahoma Councilman Has Stand-Off With Police: Wanted Them to Shoot Him
Murder Attempt Med For Depression 2011-08-31 England 74 Year Old Man Attempts to Murder Wife of 50 Years
Bizarre Behavior Antidepressant 2011-08-31 England Man Blames A/D for Aggressive, Perverted & Disturbing Behavior
Assault Paxil & Amphetamine 2011-08-31 Virginia Woman Assaults Police Officer
Assault Med For Depression & ADHD 2011-08-31 England Boyfriend Assaults his Pregnant Girlfriend
Violence/Felony Med For Depression 2011-08-31 California Mother Attacks Her Son's School Principal: Was Having Problems with Her Med
Ineffective SSRIs & Atypical Antipsychotic As Add-On 2011-08-30 Global ++Soldiers: 89% of Soldiers with PTSD are Taking SSRIs: Add-On of Atypical A/P Ineffective
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-08-29 Illinois 19 Year Old Kills Self: Dose Increased One Week Before: Her Parents will Report It To The FDA
Murder-Suicide Attempted Med For Depression 2011-08-28 North Carolina Mother Kills Her Two Young Daughters & Attempts to Kill Self: Husband Discovers Bodies
Death Med For Depression 2011-08-28 England Football Star Dies From Suspected Overdose of A/D in 2008: Memorial Planned
Murder-Suicide Lexapro & Benzo's 2011-08-26 Idaho College Professor Murders Co-Ed and Himself
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-08-26 Canada 15 Year Old Girl Kills Herself: Her Age is Covered by the FDA Black Box Warning for Suicide
Suicide Zoloft 2011-08-26 England Man Overdoses on Zoloft: Verdict by Coroner is Suicide
Suicide Attempt/Cutting Prozac 2011-08-25 England 13 Year Old Girl Feels Worse on Prozac: Cuts Herself: Few Days Later Attempts Suicide
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-08-25 Rhode Island Woman Drowns Herself
Worsening Depression Antidepressants 2011-08-25 England Famous Television Presenter Advised Not to Take Antidepressants Again For Her Depression
Suicide Meds For Depression 2011-08-24 California Famous Author Iris Chang's Mother Writes Book: She Believes Cause of Iris' Suicide Was A/D Meds
Heart Attack Risk Celexa Antidepressant 2011-08-24 Global ++FDA Warns of Heart Risks for Those Taking More Than 40 mg a day of Celexa
Suicides Zoloft & Effexor 2011-08-24 Australia 16 Year Old Girls, Two of them, Kill Selves: Zoloft & Effexor Banned in Britain For That Age
Assault & Suicide Med For Depression Withdrawal 2011-08-24 California Famous Reality Star's Husband Assaults Her & Then Kills Self: 2 Week Withdrawal
Murder Med For Depression 2011-08-23 England *Man Released From Prison Hospital Because his Murders Were Caused by Psychosis From Depression Med
Suicide Med For Depression & PTSD 2011-08-23 Iraq/Texas Soldier Kills Self: Involved in High Speed Chase With Police the Month Before This
Murder Med For Depression 2011-08-23 California Postpartum: Mother Throws 7 Month Old Son From 4th Floor Garage: Critical Condition
Murder Med For Depression 2011-08-23 Oklahoma 16 Year Old Kills His Grandparents and Burns Down Their House
DUI Med For Depression Withdrawal 2011-08-23 England Driver Was Drinking Because Withdrawal Was Giving Him Nightmares
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-08-22 Michigan 21 Year Old Commits Suicide
Murder Zoloft Withdrawal 2011-08-22 Kansas Four Dead: Man Shoots Wife, Two Children & Mother-In-Law
Suicide Rates Medications for Depression 2011-08-21 U.S.A. ++Suicide Data From CDC for 2007: Increase in All Ages Except 24 & Under: Black Box Warning Working
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-08-21 England 26 Year Old Commits Suicide
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-08-20 England Woman, 27, Kills Self: Leaves Behind her 5 Year Old Daughter
Violence Med For Depression 2011-08-20 U.S.A. Seventh Grade Girl Becomes Violent on Depression Med
Aggression Med For Depression 2011-08-20 England Woman Becomes Aggressive and Has Insomnia on Depression Med
Assault Antidepressants 2011-08-19 England Two Police Officers Attacked by Man on A/D's: No Alcohol Involved
Air Rage Antidepressants 2011-08-19 England/Caribbean Woman Goes Berserk on Airplane: Emergency Landing Is Necessary
Suicide Antidepressants & Anti-Anxiety Meds 2011-08-19 England Man Kills Self With Broken Bottle: No Alcohol Involved
Hostage Taking Prozac & Two Other Meds for PTSD 2011-08-18 Georgia Soldier Holds 3 Fellow Soldiers Hostage at Medical Center
Mortality SSRIs & Tricyclic Antidepressants 2011-08-18 Global ++Elderly on Antidepressants Have 54% Higher Mortality Than Depressed Unmedicated Elderly: BMJ
Murder Prozac Withdrawal 2011-08-17 Alaska Postpartum: Mother Kills 3 Week Old Infant
Murder Med For Depression 2011-08-16 Illinois 21 Year Old Murders his Father
Suicide Antidepressant 2011-08-16 Pennsylvania Fireman, 32 Year Old, Commits Suicide
Suicide Antidepressants 2011-08-16 England Bus Driver Hangs Himself
Murder/ Suicide Attempt Med For Depression 2011-08-15 Island of Jersey/UK Six Dead: Man Knives Families: Tries to Commit Suicide
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-08-14 New Hampshire Soldier Who Had Earned a Bronze Star for Duty in Iraq Kills Himself
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-08-13 Michigan 17 Year Old Girl Commits Suicide: Black Box Warning for Suicidality on Those 24 & Under
Violence Med For Depression & PTSD 2011-08-12 Alabama Soldier, a Vietnam Veteran, Attacks Wife & Grandchildren
Suicide Antidepressants 2011-08-12 England Woman Hangs Herself
Murder Attempt Med For Depression & ADHD 2011-08-11 New Hampshire 17 Year Old Attacks Sleeping Neighbors With Baseball Bat
Murder Attempt Prozac Withdrawal 2011-08-11 South Carolina Mother Shoots Son: One Week Withdrawal
Suicide Wellbutrin Antidepressant 2011-08-11 Washington Famous Romance Writer's Son Commits Suicide
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-08-10 Texas Man Jumps to his Death From Galleria Mall in Dallas Onto Ice Skating Rink
Vehicular Homicide Cymbalta, Seroquel & Benzo 2011-08-10 California Man Loses Control of Car: Goes Over Curb: Kills Woman: No Alcohol Involved
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-08-10 England Man Throws Himself Under Train
Suicide Lexapro 2011-08-10 New York Woman Jumps in Front of Train
Murder Cymbalta & Seroquel 2011-08-09 New York +.8 Year Old Boy Kidnapped & Killed as He Walked Home From School: Every Parents' Nightmare
Murder-Suicide Med For Depression 2011-08-09 India Mother, a PhD in Math, Kills 6 Year Old Daughter & Self: Father Is a Civil Engineer
Powerful Antidepressant Music 2011-08-08 Global ++Music Can Help More Than Medication For Depression: Live Science
Shoplifting Med For Depression 2011-08-08 England Shoplifter Threatened Security With a Knife
Murder Celexa Antidepressant 2011-08-08 Florida 17 Year Old Kills His Parents
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-08-08 Texas Police Officer Commits Suicide
Blunting of Emotional Love SSRIs 2011-08-05 Global ++SSRIs Can Blunt Emotional Love
Murder Med For Depression 2011-08-05 South Carolina Man Murders His Ex-Wife: Known as a Happy, Easy-Going Man
Violence Med For Depression 2011-08-05 England Woman is Sentenced for Vicious Attack in Restaurant
Suicidal Ideation, Falls, Etc. Antidepressants 2011-08-03 Global ++Over 65's More Prone to Suicidal Ideation, Falls, Fractures, Etc. Than Non-Medicated Seniors
Shoplifting Med For Depression 2011-08-03 Ireland Woman's Behavior May Have Been Influenced by Med
Murder-Suicide Med For Depression 2011-08-02 New Jersey Mothers Kills her 8 Year Old Son and Herself
Homicides Antidepressants 2011-08-02 Global ++A/D Induced Akathisia-Related Homicides & Genes of the CYP450 Family: Journal
Birth Defects Effexor 2011-08-01 U.S.A. Two Cases of Babies Dying Whose Mother Took Effexor During Pregnancy
Crime Against Humanity Antidepressant & ADHD Med 2011-07-31 Australia Clinical Trial: Children as Young as 11 Being Given Combo of A/D & ADHD Med
Mania Med For Depression 2011-07-31 Minnesota Man Develops Full Blown Mania on A/D: Believes God Is Talking to Him
Child Endangerment Zoloft & Oxycodone 2011-07-30 Florida Mother Crashes her Car With her 2 Young Children Inside: No Alcohol Involved
Ineffective For Minor Depression Celexa & St. John's Wort 2011-07-30 Global ++Celexa & St. John's Wort Are Both Ineffective Against Mild Depression: NIMH
Anger/Aggression Med For Depression 2011-07-30 England Man Deliberately Damages Friend's Computer
Mass Shooting Amphetamines & Steroids 2011-07-30 Norway Norway Shooter Was Taking a Combo of Steroids & Amphetamines
Assault/Rape Med For Depression & Alcohol 2011-07-29 Australia 62 Year Old Man Attacks 85 Year Old Woman In Public Restroom
Murder-Suicide Med For Depression & Anxiety 2011-07-29 England Postpartum: Mother Kills her Two Young Children & Herself
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-07-29 India Woman Jumps to Her Death
Suicide Wellbutrin 2011-07-29 Maine Coroner Rules that Cmplications From Wellbutrin Were the Cause of Man's Suicide
Delayed Infant Development SSRIs & SNRIs 2011-07-29 Global New Danish Study Finds Correlation Between Pregnant Women Taking A/D's & Delayed Infant Development
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-07-29 England Grandmother, 70, Commits Suicide
Bizarre Behavior Med For Depression 2011-07-28 Australia Woman Urinates in Bleachers at Game: Video Camera Catches Act: Shown All Over the Country
Stand-Off-With Police Med For Depression 2011-07-28 Canada Man Dies After 8 Hour Stand-Off With Police: one Day Withdrawal
Suicide Med For Depression & Anxiety 2011-07-28 Canada 18 Year Old Girl Kills Self: One Day Withdrawal
Emotional Turmoil Antidepressant Withdrawal 2011-07-28 New York Writer Sends Out Letters He Later Regrets Sending
Serotonin Syndrome Antidepressants & Zyvox Antibiotic Combo 2011-07-28 Global ++FDA Warns of Serotonin Syndrome With Combo of All A/D's & the Antibiotic Zyvox
Suicide Prozac 2011-07-27 Iowa Man Kills Self on Prozac: Had Been Taking It for One Week
Felony Antidepressant 2011-07-27 Australia Man Purchases Bomb Making Materials on eBay: Taking an A/D
Murder Med For Depression 2011-07-26 New Jersey Classmate Stabs to Death a Jersey City Medical Student
Murder Med For Depression 2011-07-26 Wales Ex-Miner Stabs to Death Wife of 41 Years
Suicide Antidepressants 2011-07-25 England Man Stabs Himself to Death
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-07-25 England 19 Year Old Hang Himself
Murder Attempt/Suicide Med For Depression 2011-07-25 England Man Almost Kills his Wife: Then Kills Himself
Diabetes Paxil & Statin Drug 2011-07-25 Global ++Combo of Paxil & Statin Drug Could Cause Diabetes: Almost 1 Million People Could Be Effected
Murders Chantix 2011-07-25 Vermont Chantix Involved in Two Different Murders in Vermont: Lawsuits
Murder Med For Depression 2011-07-24 China Grandmother Decapitates 8 Month Old Granddaughter
Serotonin Theory SSRI & SNRI Antidepressants 2011-07-22 Global ++Serotonin Imbalance In Depressed People Does Not Exist: Journal Articles
Suicide Effexor 2011-07-21 Wales Woman Kills Self After Change in Medication to Effexor
Violence SSRIs, SNRIs & Chantix 2011-07-21 Global Meds That Can Cause Violence: Peoples Pharmacy
Assault Med For Depression 2011-07-21 England Perpetrator's Assault was Out of Character For Him
Suicide Antidepressant 2011-07-21 Canada 17 Year Old Kills Himself
Suicide Antidepressants 2011-07-21 England Popular Woman Chef Commits Suicide
Assault Antidepressants 2011-07-21 Scotland Man Assaults Woman When Voices Tell Him to Kill Her
Violence Meds For Depression 2011-07-21 Vermont Five Hour Stand-Off At VA Hospital Ends With Only Minor Injuries: Med For Depression Being Adjusted
Assault Med For Depression & Alcohol 2011-07-20 England Mother Attacks Teacher at Her Child's School
Relapse of Depression Antidepressants 2011-07-20 Global ++Patients Who Took A/D's More Likely to Relapse Than Those Unmedicated Depressed Patients: Journal
Suicides SSRI Antidepressant 2011-07-20 U.S.A. Soldiers: Army: 18 Suicides Per Day: 40% on A/D's at Time of Suicide: No Figure on Withdrawals
Kidnapping Med For Depression 2011-07-18 Massachusetts Boyfriend Attempts to Kidnap his Girlfriend: Also Felt Suicidal
Suicidal Behavior/Possible Murder Med For Depression 2011-07-18 England Suicidal Groom Hires Hit Men To Kill Wife During Honeymoon
Ineffective Zoloft & All Antidepressants 2011-07-18 Global ++A/D's Ineffective for Depression In Alzheimer's Patients: Meta-Analysis From Australia
Murder Antidepressants & Anti-Anxiety Meds 2011-07-16 Missouri Man Shoots & Kills His Ex-Wife
Murder-Suicide Med For Depression 2011-07-15 Arizona Property Manager Kills Wife & Self: Said Med Made Him Worse
Murder-Suicide Attempt Med For Depression 2011-07-14 England Mother Stabs 11 Year Old Daughter: Then Stabs Self: 2 Week Withdrawal
Murder Lexapro & Two Benzo's 2011-07-13 North Carolina Man Kills 8 People in Nursing Home in 2009: Trial Begins Using Prescription Drug Defense
Arson Med For Depression & Alcohol 2011-07-13 England Arsonist Barricades Himself in a Burning Flat & Threatens to Stab Police: 4 Years in Prison
Withdrawal Syndrome Med For Depression 2011-07-12 U.S.A. Man Can't Discontinue his Med Without Becoming Worse Than Before He EverTook a Med
Suicides & Suicidal Thoughts Depression Treatment 2011-07-11 Missouri Three Suicides & 40 People with Suicidal Thoughts Were BeingTreated For Depression In Joplin Tornado
School Shooting Zoloft Antidepressant & ADHD Med 2011-07-11 Alabama **14 Year Old Kills Fellow Middle School Student
Murder Antidepressants & Alcohol 2011-07-11 Pennsylvania Man Kills Wife's Online Love Interest: Cold Turkey Withdrawal from Meds
Withdrawal Syndrome Cymbalta 2011-07-10 U.S.A. Patients Suffers Panic, Anxiety, Dizziness & Insomnia for Many Weeks While Withdrawing
Violence Med For Depression 2011-07-08 Pennsylvania Father Shoots to Death 17 Year Old Depressed Son Who Attacked Him With Knife: Ruled Self-Defense
Shooting Zoloft & Alcohol 2011-07-07 Pennsylvania Tenant Shoots Loaded Gun Out of Apartment Window
Assault Med For Depression 2011-07-07 Ireland Woman Brutally Attacks Neighbor Woman: Given 7 Months in Jail
Mania? 2011-07-06 Florida Casey Anthony Was Manic After Caylee's Death According to Psychiatrist Keith Ablow
Weight Gain SSRI Antidepressants 2011-07-06 Global ++Many People Gain Considerable Weight on Depression Meds
Vehicular Homicide Med For Depression & Alcohol 2011-07-05 Pennsylvania Woman's 14 Year Old Son Dies When Mother Crashes her Car
Vehicular Homicide Med For Depression & Alcohol 2011-07-05 South Dakota Man in Car Hits & Kills Bicyclist
Suicide-By-Cop Med For Depression & Other Psychotropic Drugs 2011-07-05 Connecticut Man Attempts Suicide-By-Cop
Autism SSRI Antidepressants 2011-07-04 Global ++Up to 3.8 Times the Risk of Autism in Babies If Mothers Took SSRIs During Pregnancy: Study
Violence & Murder SSRI Antidepressants 2011-07-04 Global ++Almost 11 Times More likely to Commit Violence/Murder while on SSRIs than on Other Drugs: Study
Suicide Antidepressant & Painkillers 2011-07-03 England Man Commits Suicide While Under Influence of Depression Med & Painkillers
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-07-02 India 24 Year Old Woman Medical Student Kills Herself
Bizarre Behavior Med For Depression 2011-07-02 England Teacher Found Gulty of Unacceptable Professional Conduct
Murder-Suicide Attempt Med For Depression 2011-07-01 England Man Shoots Woman in Head: She is in Serious Condition: Then Kills Self
Chronic Treatment Resistant Depression SSRI & SNRI Antidepressants 2011-07-01 Global ++Possibility SSRIs Cause Chronic Treatment Resistant Depression
Murder Meds For Depression & Anxiety 2011-06-30 Oregon Woman Shoots & Kills Her Landlord
Robbery Med For Depression 2011-06-30 Ireland 52 Year Old Man With No Criminal Record Steals Bag With 500 Pounds In It
Bizarre Behavior Med For Depression 2011-06-29 Colorado Man Detonates Dry-Ice Bombs in Front of Strip Clubs
Murder Med For Depression 2011-06-29 Tennessee Mother Murders Her 16 Month Old Daughter
Car Crash Zoloft & Xanax 2011-06-24 Australia Depression Medication the Reason For Man Running Car off Road According to Police: No Alcohol
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-06-24 India Senior Employee of Space Research Station Kills Self in his Office
Shooting Rampage Wellbutrin Antidepressant 2011-06-23 New York Four Dead in Pharmacy Shooting
Murder Antidepressants 2011-06-21 England Wife Being Treated For Depression Kills Husband With Hammer
Suicide Attempts Antidepressants 2011-06-17 U.S.A. Number of Men Between 21 & 34 Who Attempted Suicide on A/D's Is Up By 155% from 2005 to 2009
Suicide Antidepressants 2011-06-17 England Detention Officer Hangs Himself
Arson Prozac, Paxil & Zoloft Antidepressants 2011-06-17 New Jersey Mother Has Habit of Setting Fires & Attempting Suicide
Suicide Attempt Med For Depression 2011-06-16 California Famous Star of Teen Mom, Amber Portwood, Attempts Suicide
Inappropriate Behavior Med For Depression Withdrawal 2011-06-16 Australia Woman Magistrate Accused of Bullying & Treating Defendants Unfairly
Murder Zoloft 2011-06-16 Virginia Woman, A School Teacher, Kills Husband, a Law Enforcement Veteran: Has No Memory of It
Murder Attempt Med For Depression +Alcohol 2011-06-16 England Man Stabs Neighbor Who Was a Good Friend
Murder Antidepressants 2011-06-16 Texas Man Kills Wife After Doubleing His Dose of Depression Med
Violence Med For Depression 2011-06-15 Wisconsin Woman Attacks Police Officers
Bipolar Disorder Antidepressants 2011-06-15 Global A/D's Lead to Mania Which Leads to Diagnosis of Bipolar: Former Editor of New England J of Medicine
Suicide Attempt Prozac 2011-06-15 Pennsylvania Man Attempts Suicide: Said Prozac Scrambled his Brain
Murder Med For Depression 2011-06-13 Minnesota Man Kills his Wife
DUI Med For Depression & Painkiller 2011-06-13 New York No Alcohol Involved: Woman's Jeep Goes Airborne & Lands on Parked Truck
Missing Med For Depression 2011-06-13 Ohio Mother & 4 Year Old Son Go Missing: Mother Lied About Where She was Going: Out of Character
Affair With Minor Prozac & Marijuana 2011-06-13 Canada Mother, Foster, Has Affair With her 14 Year Old Foster Son
Murder-Suicide Med For Depression 2011-06-12 England Mother Kills Her 5 Year Old Daughter & Herself
Suicide Cymbalta Antidepressant, Xanax & Painkiller 2011-06-12 New York 20 Year Old Crohn's Disease Victim Kills Himself
Robbery/Car Crash Med For Depression 2011-06-11 England Getaway Driver of Robbery Hits Man With his Car
Bank Robbery/Bizarre Med For Depression 2011-06-10 Pennsylvania Mother Dresses Like a Clown & Robs a Bank
Child Endangerment Med For Depression 2011-06-09 Kentucky Mother Picks Up her Children at Daycare: Intoxicated on Depression Med: No Alcohol Involved
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-06-09 California 16 Year Old Kills Self: Suicide Letter: Rejection Sensitivity Which is Common with A/D's
Murder Antidepressant Withdrawal 2011-06-09 Maryland Woman Kills her Ex-Boyfriend's Girlfriend
Self-Harm Effexor 2011-06-09 U.S.A. 16 Year Old Begins Cutting Herself on Effexor: Had Never Before Done This
DUI Effexor & Benzo 2011-06-08 Washington Wenatchee City Councilman Crashes Car Into Building:No Alcohol Involved: Arraigned on DUI
Murder Med For Depression 2011-06-07 Massachusetts Man Stabs his Girlfriends & Then Runs Over Her With His Car
Hostile & Suicidal Behavior Antidepressants 2011-06-07 Pennsylvania Woman Becomes Hostile & Suicidal on Depression Med
Child Endangerment Zoloft & Alcohol 2011-06-06 Massachusetts Woman Crashes her Car in Parking Lot: 8 Year Old Grandson Inside the Car
Suicide Antidepressant 2011-06-06 Colorado Man With Untreated Bipolar Disorder Was Given an Antidepressant at Low Cost Clinic
Murder Med For Depression 2011-06-06 Texas Man Kills Sheriff's Deputy
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-06-05 India 19 Year Old Nursing Student Ends Her Life
Assault Antidepressant Withdrawal 2011-06-04 Georgia Woman Assaults her Boyfriend
Murder-Suicide Med For Depression 2011-06-03 England Man Kills Girlfriend & Himself
Murder Med For Depression 2011-06-01 New York Man Felt Like He Was Dreaming When He Killed His Ex-Girlfriend & Her Date
Suicide-By-Cop Attempt Med For Depression 2011-05-30 Connecticut Man Forces Police to Shoot at Him
Suicide Celexa 2011-05-30 England Suicidal Son of Marquess Kills Self Shortly After A/D was Added to his Mood Stabilizers
Murder Attempt Med For Depression 2011-05-29 Florida Retired Police Captain Convicted of Two Counts of Attempted Murder
Assault Med For Depression 2011-05-28 China Man Assaults Woman Bus Driver While She is Driving
Shooting Wellbutrin & Paxil Antidepressants Plus Ritalin 2011-05-28 Texas Man Shoots At Police Station Building & Windows: Runs Into Woods & Kills Self: Possible Withdrawal
Cruelty to Animals Med For Depression 2011-05-28 England Man Kills Cat & Other Pets In Vicious Manner: Jailed for 46 Weeks
Suicide Antidepressants 2011-05-27 Korea Famous Pop Singer Hangs Himself
Assault Med For Depression 2011-05-26 Colorado Chiropractor Beats His Ex-Wife & Her Friend: Had No Previous Criminal History: 5 Years in Prison
Murder Antidepressants 2011-05-26 England Wife, 68, Murders 75 Year Old Husband. Had Been Married 51 Years
Suicide Effexor 2011-05-26 England 22 Year Old Woman Hangs Herself
Murder Prozac 2011-05-25 Canada 15 Year Old Kills his Friend: Had Deteriorated on Prozac so Doctor Doubled His Dose
Violence/Death Med For Depression 2011-05-25 Texas Woman With Scissors Lunges at Police: Is Fatally Shot
Murder Med For Depression 2011-05-25 California Husband Arranges for Wife's Murder: Had Change of Personality on Depression Meds
Murder Antidepressants & Anti-Anxiety Meds 2011-05-25 U.S.A. Famous Band Star's Father Kills His Wife, The Mother of the Band Star
Murder-Suicide Med For Depression 2011-05-24 Pennsylvania Man Kills Girlfriend, her Two Young Children & Himself: 4 Dead
Bank Robbery Med For Depression 2011-05-24 Costa Rica Man With Impeccable Record Robs Bank With Toy Gun: Goes Free
Indecent Acts Med For Depression 2011-05-24 Australia Man Commits Indecent Acts: No Prior Record: Sentence Suspended
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-05-22 England Man Commits Suicide by Hanging Himself
Emotional Numbing & Addiction Lexapro 2011-05-21 California Famous Dancing With the Stars Actress Paulina Porizkova Emotionally Numbed by Lexapro
Murder Paxil* 2011-05-20 California *Wife Given Probation After Stabbing Husband Over 200 Times: Rage Caused by Meds
Road Rage Med For Depression 2011-05-19 Australia Truck Driver Given 8 Months in Prison for Road Rage
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-05-18 Illinois Woman Kills Herself: Police Are Searching for her Missing 6 Year Old Son
Violence Med For Depression 2011-05-18 Oregon Wife Calls 911 Because A/D was Having a Negative Effect on Her Husband
Bizarre Behavior Antidepressant 2011-05-17 U.S.A. Woman Experiences a Psychosis Which She Says was Triggered by an A/D That Was Like Jet Fuel
Murder-Suicide Attempt Wellbutrin Antidepressant 2011-05-16 Washington Man Shoots & Kills Wife: Attempts Suicide
Rage Med For Depression 2011-05-15 England Physician Exhibits Rage & Bizarre Behavior While On Antidepressants
Obesity Meds For Depression 2011-05-14 Global ++Research Shows Widespread Use of Antidepressants May Explain Why Obesity Rates Have Climbed
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-05-13 California Woman, 25 Years Old, Rhode Island School of Design Graduate Commits Suicide
Hit & Run Zoloft Antidepressant & Ativan 2011-05-13 Pennsylvania 74 Year Old Woman Kills 25 Year Old Pedestrian
Stand-Off With Police Med For Depression 2011-05-13 Wisconsin Suicidal Man Has Stand-Off With Police: Nobody is Injured
Murder Attempt Antidepressants 2011-05-12 Utah Mother Tries to Kill her Two Young Children: Slits Their Wrists
Violence Zoloft 2011-05-12 California Man Becomes Violent: Police Forced to Shoot Him: He is Killed
Murder Threats/Assault Prozac 2011-05-11 Massachusetts Man Assaults Member of Family & Threatens to Kill Them All: Had Weapons
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-05-11 England Bank Manager Commits Suicide
Suicide-By-Cop Zoloft & Remeron Antidepressants 2011-05-11 California Man Attempts Suicide: Police Try To Help: Man Lunges at Police With a Knife: Shot Dead by Police
Suicide-By-Cop Med For Depression 2011-05-11 Wisconsin Wife Callas Police: Husband Attempting Suicide: Man Shoots at Police: They Kill Him
Assault Med For Depression 2011-05-11 Ireland Man Assaults Judge in Court: Throws Heavy Chair at Him: Three Day Withdrawal
Murder-Suicide Chantix 2011-05-10 Pennsylvania Husband Kills Wife & Himself: Lawsuit
Ineffective Psychiatric Meds for PTSD 2011-05-09 Global ++PTSD Patients Just As Likely to Commit Suicide While on Meds As With No Treatment At All
Suicide Wellbutrin Withdrawal 2011-05-08 Maine 18 Year Old College Freshman Kills Self
Suicide Effexor 2011-05-07 England Woman Commits Suicide After Husband Dies
Suicide Zoloft 2011-05-06 Ireland Man's Behavior Changes After Taking Zoloft: Said A/D Was Driving Him Mad & Giving Him Nightmares
Suicide Prozac 2011-05-06 South Dakota 15 Year Old Kills Self: He Said Prozac Wasn't Working
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-05-05 England Man Kills Self: Unable to Sleep: A/D's Can Cause Insomnia
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-05-05 Connecticut 22 Year Old Commits Suicide: Parents Are Part of Suicide Prevention Walk
Suicide Antidepressants 2011-05-04 Florida NASA Engineer Leaps off Tower: Had the Delusion, While He was on A/D's, That He Was Going Blind
Suicide Lexapro Withdrawal 2011-05-04 Nevada Inmate Kills Self: Family Wants Answers
Robbery/Assault Med For Depression Withdrawal 2011-05-04 Australia Man With Knife Attacks Woman and Robs her House
Assault Prozac & Risperdal 2011-05-02 Canada 20 Year Old Attacks Woman in Mall Restroom
Cerebrovascular Stroke Antidepressant 2011-05-02 Global ++Increased Risk of Stroke for Users of Depression Medications: American Psychiatric Assn
Taking Two Antidepressants is Counterproductive Meds For Depression 2011-05-02 Global ++Taking Two A/D's Does Not Benefit Patients But Increases Side-Effects: Star*D Study
Murder Lexapro & Abilify 2011-04-30 California Mother Kills her 3 Year Old Daughter: Attempts to Kill her 7 Year Old Son
Ineffective Psychiatric Medications 2011-04-30 Global ++Little Evidence That Psychiatric Medications Can Help PTSD: Stanford University Study
Murder Med For Depression 2011-04-29 Minnesota Father Drowns his 7 Month Old Son
Anger Med For Depression 2011-04-29 U.S.A. Man Becomes Angry & Loses his Conscience: Compares it to David Carmichael's Case
Murder Attempt Zoloft 2011-04-29 Nevada Man Shoots at TV Crew: Obstructs Police Officers
Suicide Antidepressant 2011-04-28 Virginia 18 Year Old Kills Self: Covered by FDA Black Box Warning for Suicidality
Robbery Antidepressant 2011-04-28 California Famous Woman, Paris Hilton, Has Her House Robbed: Robber Was in Several Days Withdrawal
Arson Med For Depession Withdrawal 2011-04-27 North Carolina Woman Sets Her Apartment House on Fire: At Least 3 Years Prison Time
Assault/Kidnapping Med For Depression 2011-04-27 New York Man Assaults Wife: Then Kidnaps Her to Withdraw Money From Bank Account
Murder Antidepressants 2011-04-27 Canada Son Kills his Father
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-04-26 Minnesota 14 Year Old Girl Kills Self in Suicide Pact: 14 Year Olds Covered By Black Box Warning on Suicide
Suicide Med For Depression 2011-04-26 New Jersey Husband Kills Self: Wife Has Annual Ribbon Awareness Campaign
Knife Attack Med For Depression 2011-04-25 England Man Attacks Girlfriend & Then Slits Own Throat: Both Survive: Had Changed his A/D that Day
Causes False Symptoms of Heart Attack Zoloft & SSRI Withdrawal 2011-04-24 Global Man Has All the Symptoms of a Heart Attack While in Zoloft Withdrawal: Peoples Pharmacy
Murder-For-Hire Med For Depression 2011-04-24 Indiana Son With No Criminal Past & Good Family Man Hires a Hit Man to Kill his Father
Insomnia, Sadness, Decreased Concentration SSRIs & SNRIs 2011-04-23 Global ++Patients on A/D's Continue To Have Symptoms of Depression: Study at Southwestern Med Center
Shoplifting Med For Depression 2011-04-22 England Medication Change of A/D's Led Man to Shoplift |
the early 1970s, all of the dredged material from the shipping channel has been stored in lakefront containment dikes.
The Army Corps maintains the dredged sediment is now sufficiently clean to dispose of in the open lake.
Butler has vowed to seek a federal court injunction to block the Army Corps if the agency insists on open lake disposal.Bison's return to Montana stirs old passions MONTANA
Bison transplanted from Yellowstone National Park in a corral on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana, April 21, 2012. The effort to reintroduce the species to the Montana prairie is being contested by agriculture businesses who fear the animals could hurt their livelihoods. (Lynn Donaldson/The New York Time) less Bison transplanted from Yellowstone National Park in a corral on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana, April 21, 2012. The effort to reintroduce the species to the Montana prairie is being contested by... more Photo: Lynn Donaldson, New York Times Photo: Lynn Donaldson, New York Times Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Bison's return to Montana stirs old passions 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
Wolf Point, Mont. -- Sioux and Assiniboine tribe members wailed a welcome song as around 60 bison from Yellowstone National Park stormed onto a prairie pasture in March that had not felt a bison's hoof for almost 140 years.
That historic homecoming came just 11 days after 71 pureblood bison, descended from one of Montana's last wild herds, were released nearby onto a swath of untilled grassland owned by a charity with a vision of building a haven for prairie wildlife. Some hunters and conservationists are now calling for bison to be reintroduced to a million-acre wildlife refuge spanning this remote region.
"Populations of all native Montana wildlife have been allowed to rebound except bison; it's time to take care of them like they once took care of us," said Robert Magnan, 58, director of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation's Fish and Game Department, who will oversee the transplanted Yellowstone bison program.
But with several groups navigating a complex and contentious path to return bison to these plains, agribusiness is fighting back. Many farmers and ranchers fear that bison, particularly those from Yellowstone, might be mismanaged and damage private property, and worry that they would compete for grass with their own herds.
"Bison are a romantic notion, but they don't belong today," said Curt McCann, 46, a Chinook rancher who last month drove four hours to a public meeting in Jordan to speak against bison reintroduction.
When the explorer Meriwether Lewis followed the Missouri River through this region in 1805, he came across bison herds he described as "innumerable." Just eight decades later, a young Theodore Roosevelt noted that all that remained were "countless" bleached skulls covering the Montana badlands.
Scientists estimate that tens of millions of bison once roamed America, but by 1902 there were only 23 known survivors in the wild, all hiding from poachers in a remote Yellowstone valley.
For decades, attempts to transplant bison from the rebounding Yellowstone herd were thwarted, despite requests from tribes to steward some of the animals.
"I call them my brothers and sisters because they are a genetic link to the same ones my ancestors hunted," said Tote Gray Hawk, 54, a Sioux, who has brought the Fort Peck bison hay and water each day since their arrival.
Their meat, lower in cholesterol than beef, will feed elderly tribe members and their skulls will be used in traditional sun dance ceremonies, he said.
The last hunt for indigenous bison on the Fort Peck reservation happened in 1873. In the 1880s, hundreds of tribal members starved to death on the barren land. Around them homesteaders from Europe began wresting an agricultural living from this windswept expanse of rolling amber in northeast Montana. Most of the neighboring farmers and ranchers today are descendants of those pioneers, and they safeguard their traditions with generational grit.
"Bison is a big issue that could really impact our livelihood," said Brett Dailey, 52, who ranches near Jordan.
Today there are 3 million cattle in Montana, and agribusiness is the state's biggest industry, but not a single bison roams free.
A 2011 survey commissioned by the National Wildlife Federation showed that a majority of state residents support reintroducing huntable bison to the vast Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, similar to a Utah herd created in 1941 from the last few bison allowed out of Yellowstone.
"Within this sea of agriculture, there is room for small islands of conservation," said Sean Gerrity, president of the American Prairie Reserve, the charity that brought the group of genetically pure bison back to a pasture just north of the refuge.
The arrival of Yellowstone bison was welcome news around the troubled Fort Peck Reservation.
When the first calf was born late last month, a rust-colored baby bull, tribal flags still hung at half staff for a teenage boy who had committed suicide days earlier. Rates of poverty, unemployment, disease and addiction hover stubbornly above national averages here.
Census data show that around northeast Montana, a prairie expanse almost the size of Indiana, most county populations peaked in the early 1900s and have since dropped by almost half.
The region's fastest growing economic engine, oil production, is proving a mixed blessing. In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that toxic chemicals from nearby drilling contaminated drinking water supplies for Poplar, a reservation town of around 3,000. This year, a schoolteacher from Sidney, near the North Dakota border, was kidnapped during her morning jog and murdered. The suspects are two Colorado roughnecks.
"These bison represent healing," said Iris Greybull, 62, of Poplar.
The bison debate has dredged up old tensions between tribes and their neighbors. Before Greybull, a Sioux, spoke in favor of the animals last fall at a fractious meeting in Glasgow, dozens of farmers and ranchers walked out in protest.
She and other tribal members say they see an ugly double standard in the fact that there are more than 130 private bison ranches in the state, including one belonging to the mogul Ted Turner housing dozens of controversial Yellowstone bison, and yet only the Fort Peck herd has been visited by protesters.
But some say the bison on the ranches do not pose the threat that the wild ones do.
"Unless they have the German wall and a moat with a bunch of crocodiles and piranhas, they're not going to contain those woolly tanks," said state Sen. John Brenden of nearby Scobey, who has long done battle on the bison issue in the Legislature.
Around a century ago, some Yellowstone bison contracted disease from domestic livestock, and in recent decades thousands have been slaughtered in an effort to protect ranchers' herds.
At the direction of Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana, a few of these bison were quarantined for years and certified healthy.
Some may soon go to the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, about 170 miles west of Fort Peck, pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by opponents.
"I took a lot of arrows for this, but it was the right thing to do," Schweitzer said. "If you want to get into a fistfight in Montana, go into a bar and share your opinion about bison or wolves."CHICAGO, IL - APRIL 18: Kris Bryant #17 of the Chicago Cubs hits his first MLB hit during the fifth inning against the San Diego Padres at Wrigley Field on April 18, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images) Kris Bryant got his first MLB hit during the fifth inning against the San Diego Padres on Saturday. The Cubs won 7-6 in extra innings. (Mike McGinnis/Getty Images)
By Bruce Levine–
CHICAGO (CBS) — Nothing has shocked Kris Bryant more than the party atmosphere he was witness to after his first successful day with the Cubs. The Anthony Rizzo disco was turned on full blast Saturday after the team’s first win with Bryant aboard.
Rizzo started the new culture of celebrations — featuring blasting music, disco light shows and smoke bombing — last season after wins. By the time the media is allowed into the clubhouse, there are no traces of the electric party that lasts five to eight minutes after Cub victories at home.
Bryant, who has had a whirlwind three days since his call-up, was in complete shock by the Rizzo bash Saturday after an extra-inning win against the Padres.
“Coming into the clubhouse, I saw smoke,” Bryant explained Sunday. “The (house) lights were turned off, and flashing lights were everywhere. (I said to myself) ‘What’s going on here?’ It kind of caught me off guard, but it was super fun. Anthony said to me afterward, ‘That was fun, wasn’t it?’ Yeah, I said, ‘That was a whole lot of fun!’ I sure hope to be partying in the disco clubhouse a lot this year.”
Saturday a beautiful day all around for Bryant, who was on base five times with two hits and three walks. His first major league base hit came in the fifth inning off of Tyler Ross.
“That was a pretty special day for me,” Bryant said. “All around, the team coming back from that ninth inning (when the Padres scored four runs), showing resilient play. That was a pretty fun win to be a part of.”
After a rough first game when he struck out three times in his major league debut, Bryant saw 35 pitches in his second game while showing good base running and fielding skills.
“I think I got out of my zone the first day,” he said. “I was a little anxious. I told myself to settle down a bit. I got some pitches to hit. It was a pretty good day all around for me.”Joe Benning (Photo: COURTESY)
In national polls, Republicans are still the biggest opponents of marijuana legalization, but that picture is rapidly changing in Vermont and elsewhere.
Vermont Senate Minority Leader Joe Benning is one of the state’s strongest proponents of legalization. The Republican from Caledonia has written opinion letters to local newspapers arguing that legalization will ensure safer pot products and give the state an economic boost. He is a member of a Senate committee that has been hearing testimony and crafting legislation to legalize recreational pot. The committee is scheduled to file the bill in January when the Legislature reconvenes.
“The issue has gone beyond just the ideological question into how to do it mechanically, and that conversation has given us a pretty good handle on what we think should be happening here,” Benning said.
Benning is a longtime supporter of legalized pot.
“I’ve been pretty much under this impression since 1975,” Benning said. “If anything has changed, it’s that the community has taken the time to look at this from a Vermont perspective.”
Younger vs. older Republicans
The changing political landscape is happening among his younger Republican counterparts in the Legislature.
“I think it’s going to be a very mixed bag,” Benning said of Republican support of legal pot. “The younger folks will probably go along with the idea. The older folks probably not.”
At age 25, St. Albans Rep. Corey Parent is the Legislature’s youngest Republican.
Although Parent is opposed to legalization, his view of marijuana has relaxed over time.
“I am more cautious in terms of waiting to see how legalization goes in Colorado,” Parent said. “To me, it is not black and white. I don’t want to see young kids getting in trouble and having a record for rest of their lives.”
Medical marijuana was legalized in Vermont in 2004. Two years ago, the state Legislature removed criminal penalties for possessing less than an ounce of marijuana and imposed civil fines instead.
Growing up in St. Albans, Parent witnessed high school classmates succumb to an opiate epidemic in the community. He saw those same classmates smoking pot. That was one reason Parent at one time was opposed to relaxing marijuana law. He said his view has since shifted toward decriminalization without legalization.
Rep. Paul Dame, R-Essex Junction, began supporting pot legalization in 2010 or 2011 before he was elected to the House.
“One of the reasons I came around to think a little bit differently on it was hearing arguments from other Republicans who actually were in support of it, which surprised me,” Dame said. “I was like, ‘Wait a minute, why are you on this side of the issue?
“A lot of times, we talk about the efficacy of government programs, and if you look at issues surrounding prohibition of marijuana, I don’t know that we have made things much better. It’s time to step back and look at what state government is doing and whether our policies are moving us in the right direction or the wrong direction. I think this is one of the cases where we need to reevaluate what we are doing.”
Vermont Republicans illustrate a national upswing in conservative support of marijuana legalization.
About 39 percent of Republicans favor legalization — a jump of 15 points from five years ago, according to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center.
Among Republican Millennials born between 1981 and 1996, 69 percent support legalization, according to the poll.
Democrats with reservations
Sen. Benning and other legalized pot supporters are up against at least one formidable Democratic opponent in the Legislature — Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell.
“I think there will be an objection by the majority party,” Benning said.
Gov. Peter Shumlin has long spoken in support of legalization, but other key Democrats are facing re-election bids.
“Whether Shumlin decides to go out with this in his pocket, I don’t know, but he is not running for election, and elections do funny things to people,” Benning said.
Campbell, who is a Windsor County deputy state’s attorney, said he opposes legalization but would stop short of using his power to block legislation in the Senate.
“We are in the middle of battling an opiate epidemic, and I think this is a bad message to send,” Campbell said. “While we are trying to curb a dangerous drug, we are trying to make this other drug legal.”
House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, said he still has reservations about marijuana legalization until he gleans more information about the effect of legalization in other locations. Marijuana is legal in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia.
Sen. David Zuckerman, P/D-Chittenden, introduced legislation in January to legalize recreational pot, but the bill was sidelined before the session adjourned in May.
Sen. Richard Sears and Rep. Maxine Grad, chairs of the Senate and House Judiciary committees, have said there was insufficient time to adequately vet the controversial issue.
“I think it is important to understand whether legalization in other states has reduced the amount of marijuana being sold on the black market and whether those states have used this legalization as an opportunity to educate people about the effects of marijuana and whether it should or should not be used,” Smith said.
Smith said finding out that information and considering it will take time.
“I don’t see marijuana being sold legally in Vermont in 2016,” Smith said.
Past coverage
Vermont to study legalization of marijuana
Mixed feelings on marijuana legalization
Shumlin'misspoke' on teen marijuana argument
Editorial: Get facts right on marijuana use
This story was first posted online Aug. 3, 2015. Contact Paris Achen at 802-660-1874 and pachen@freepressmedia.com. Follow her at www.twitter.com/parisachen and https://www.facebook.com/ColTrends.
Public meetings on cannabis legalization
Vermont Cannabis Collaborative, Vermont Home Grown and members of the Vermont Senate Committee on Government Operations are hosting the meetings to hear feedback from the public on ways to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana. Two more meetings are planned this year:
• St. Johnsbury: 5-7 p.m. Aug. 20, Catamount Arts Center, 115 Eastern Ave.
• Manchester Center: 5-7 p.m. Sept. 1, Northshire Bookstore, 4869 Main St.
Read or Share this story: http://bfpne.ws/1N5ALDo"Project MKUltra" was the name given to an illegal program of human experimentation conducted by the US Central Intelligence Agency, which investigated mind control. The 1975 Church Committee hearings exposed the operation – and on July 20, 1977 a Freedom of Information Act request uncovered a cache of 20,000 documents relating to it.
The origins of MKUltra lie in 1945, and Operation Paperclip — the secret transfer of top Nazi scientists to the US. Armed with extensive documentation on unethical Nazi human experimentation, including research into mind control, a clutch of military programs related to mental manipulation and behavioral modification were launched — including Projects CHATTER, BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE.
Headed by former chemist Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, MKUltra began in April 1953 on the orders of then-CIA Director Allen Welsh Dulles.
Officially — albeit behind closed doors — the CIA claimed the program was pursued in response to perceived instances of mind control techniques employed by Chinese, North Korean and Soviet forces on Allied prisoners of war in the Korean War.
In truth, the agency wished to produce an optimal truth drug for use in interrogations, and explore possible uses for mind controlled subjects — including the control of foreign leaders, and assassination.
For the next 20 years, the CIA — in conjunction with the Special Operations Division of the US Army Chemical Corps — engaged in a panoply of illegal activities.
Most controversially, unwitting test subjects were subject to a number of techniques to manipulate their mental state and brain functions, including the administration of drugs such as LSD, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse, as well as a variety of torture techniques.
A 1955 document describing the substances used in the experiments gives some indication of the sheer scope of the project. This includes drugs that will; "promote illogical thinking and impulsiveness to the point where the recipient would be discredited in public"; cause victims to age faster; recreate the effects of alcohol; emulate the symptoms of recognized diseases; induce temporary/permanent brain damage and loss of memory; produce amnesia of particular events; provoke shock and confusion over extended periods of time; create physical disablement (such as paralysis); alter personality structure; cause mental confusion; promote weakness or distortion of eyesight and hearing.
However, LSD came to dominate the program. Typically administered without informed consent to mental patients — a violation of the Nuremberg Code — prisoners, drug addicts and prostitutes ("people who could not fight back" one CIA officer said) in order to study their reactions.
LSD was also administered to CIA employees, military personnel, doctors and other government agents.
In one case, the hallucinogenic drug was administered to a mental patient in Kentucky for 174 straight days.
© REUTERS / Imperial College London-The Beckley Foundation LSD Makes the Brain More 'Complete': Researchers Praise Landmark Study
In another, the CIA set up several brothels in San Francisco, California, dosed customers, and watched and filmed proceedings via one-way mirrors. Brothels were chosen as a surefire means of ensuring victims would not discuss their experience with others.
Most commonly however, test subjects were interrogated under bright lights while doctors took notes. It has been said being spiked with LSD became an "occupational hazard" for CIA agents during this time.
Several deaths reportedly resulted from these actions — most infamously, army scientist Dr. Frank Olson went into deep depression after being unwittingly dosed, later falling to his death from the thirteenth story window of New York City's Hotel Pennsylvania.
was actually a gov.scientist, Dr.Frank Olson who's drink along w/ 9 more was spiked with LSD at a conference w/out their knowledge, he exp-- pic.twitter.com/riKBQHlvdf — Arely 🌻 (@Arelyxm_) July 19, 2017
Experienced a BAD trip w/ side effects of paranoia & schizophrenia & ''committed' suicide while on watch by a CIA agent all of this happened — Arely 🌻 (@Arelyxm_) July 19, 2017
While officially ruled a suicide, a 1994 autopsy concluded the circumstances of his death and state prior to the plunge were "rankly and starkly" suggestive of homicide.
Despite such travesties, Dr. Gottlieb continued on with LSD experiments, convinced its volatile nature in fact made it ideal for use in covert operations. As its effects were temporary, he theorized it could be given to high-ranking officials to affect the course of important meetings, speeches and the like.
LSD was eventually jettisoned by MKUltra's research team for being too unpredictable — an alleged turning point was the secret dosing of an agent that sent the individual running across Washington, seeing monsters in every car he passed.
In any event, by 1962 the CIA and the army had developed a series of superhallucinogens, such as BZ — said to be 100 times more powerful than LSD.
The operation continued on until 1973, when CIA Director Richard Helms abruptly ordered all experiments halted, and all relevant files destroyed.
He was motivated by the Watergate scandal — fearing subsequent scrutiny of the US secret state's activities, he wished to ensure any subsequent investigation of such clandestine CIA operations would be impossible.
Helms subsequently admitted to the existence of the program during the 1975 Church Committee investigation — although due to the bonfire of relevant documentation, the Committee could only base their investigation on the sworn testimony of participants.
© AFP 2018 / LBJ LIBRARY Director of the CIA Richard Helms during meetings at the White House in Washington, DC.
Nonetheless, a 1977 a Freedom of Information Act request unearthed a cache of 20,000 documents relating to the project, which had been mistakenly filed in a financial records building. These documents were fully investigated in Senate Hearings later that year.
While the remaining documents largely recorded the program's catastrophic failure, Miles Copeland — former CIA agent and father of Police drummer Stewart Copeland — subsequently suggested the tranche was but a "smokescreen" that offered "the barest glimpse" of the scope of the project.
Moreover, he suspected the project wasn't genuinely terminated in 1973. It may well persist, in even more covert forms, to this very day.Dishonored 2 is the sequel to 2012’s Dishonored, and is scheduled to release for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November, 9. This stealth action-adventure game is developed by Arkane Studios and is published by Bethesda Softworks. The install size for Dishonored 2 was revealed to be 43.53 GB.
The series take place in a fictional Empire of the Isles and the game itself is set in a coastal city names Karnaca, which is based on southern European countries, such as, Greece, Italy, and Spain. Dishonored 2 picks up years later after the first game, and allows the player to play as either, Empress Emily Kaldwin, or her protector, Corvo Attano.
An interesting new feature added to the game is that the player can choose whether to play stealthily or not, and can finish the game without taking a life. Dishonored 2 gives the player the ability to alter the game’s story, allowing it to have multiple endings.
Similar to the first game, the player has access to supernatural powers, which are optional and the game can be played without them. If the player chooses to play without powers, the game is playable in their absence. Other than this, the upgrading system has been changed to a skill tree with multiple paths and various more possible upgrades.BEIRUT, Lebanon — President Obama’s determination to train Syrian rebels to serve as ground troops against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria leaves the United States dependent on a diverse group riven by infighting, with no shared leadership and with hard-line Islamists as its most effective fighters.
After more than three years of civil war, there are hundreds of militias fighting President Bashar al-Assad — and one another. Among them, even the more secular forces have turned to Islamists for support and weapons over the years, and the remaining moderate rebels often fight alongside extremists like the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.
“You are not going to find this neat, clean, secular rebel group that respects human rights and that is waiting and ready because they don’t exist,” said Aron Lund, a Syria analyst who edits the Syria in Crisis blog for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It is a very dirty war and you have to deal with what is on offer.”
Analysts who track the rebel movement say that the concept of the Free Syrian Army as a unified force with an effective command structure is a myth.“You’ll wear a helmet, right?”
My new bike commuting plans concerned my oncology nurse, and I knew she wouldn’t be the only one. I hadn’t yet summoned the courage to tell my wife, close friends, or the Boston surgeon who’d soon be operating on me. Absolutely, I promised her, I’d wear a helmet.
Frankly I was amused at how thrilling it felt to climb aboard a Hubway bike share bike a few days later at Boston’s North Station. It was early October. There would’ve been a time I’d have considered the 40-pound-plus Hubway clunky and slow. But that was before a doctor’s visit in late summer, the discovery of an advanced tumor residing in and outside my lower spine, and the waiver release I signed for a radical treatment plan involving three types of radiation and multiday surgery. The bike share bike—extra forgiving with balloon tires and a wide, soft seat, step-thru framed for grannies and grade-schoolers, and no more aesthetically appealing than an evening tray of hospital food—was my beautiful savior.
The ride-to-radiation plan, as I conceived it, would be a unique multimodal commute. I’d take the suburban train for the 20-or-so mile leg from my home in Beverly, then use the bike to shuttle between the station and Massachusetts General Hospital’s Francis H. Burr Proton Beam Therapy Center. It was short and sweet but it wasn’t necessarily without complication in my condition. I was learning that my spine was even more fragile than it felt. Doctors said the part of the tumor lodged in my L3 vertebra was pressing against spinal nerves. For months, especially after long rides, I’d been experiencing the symptoms—shooting pain and numbness in my legs—but it could get much worse. Honestly, they said, in reviewing scans they weren’t sure why it hadn’t already. If it did, they’d need to abort radiation for emergency surgery. My five weeks of daily radiation, they emphasized, were crucial to a successful outcome.
So riding the jarring, unprotected streets of Boston was by any measure a ridiculous risk. Mine would be the world’s dumbest commute (which explains why I had kept the idea largely to myself). And yet the feeling that overtook me in contemplating the ride was undeniable. Biking has long been central to my physical and spiritual well-being. From the time I was 3 and learned to ride by sitting on the rear fender to reach the pedals, the bike was both a companion and a crucible. My experiences through adulthood—as competitor, adventurer, and advocate—deepened the bond. I’d tested myself against the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb, the 24 Hours of Moab, and long off-road trails from the Andes to the Continental Divide. Lately I’d pushed in another direction, helping to launch a city bike committee and teaching an urban biking class to middle schoolers in which the final test was to ride through Boston.
Not many things felt right in the weeks after my cancer diagnosis. Riding a bike did.
The First Ride
That first day's trial ride revealed a few miscalculations. My route wasn’t a popular one. I’d expected the bonhomie of the brethren given all the commuters in the area, but evidently they’d already gotten to where they were going at my late afternoon treatment time. The route along Causeway Street, past the TD Garden, the flying Bobby Orr statue, and the Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. Federal Building was frenetically automotive, full of cars, trucks, taxis, and even tour buses. Leaving the safety of the bike share dock felt like kayaking into a busy shipping lane. I was on the exuberantly silver and green bike share bike that many nativist motorists continue to hold in grumpy contempt. A little unsteady and a lot vulnerable, I thought about wearing a high-viz bib next time with a hand-scrawled message on the back. “Got Spine Tumor,” it would say. “Pleeeease Share the Road.”
RELATED: 5 Reasons You Need to Try Bike Share Now
I avoided the hordes of antsy pedestrians bound for subway connections and slid past a lively egress from one of the city’s largest underground parking garages. The crux was a five-way intersection at the base of a hill and the transition preceding it that required cutting right to left across two inner lanes into the main flow of Causeway Street traffic. This is the kind of lethal road merge that makes Boston streets infamous and riders creative.
But I got through the intersection and up the steep Staniford Street hill without incident to securely dock my bike at Cambridge and Joy streets. I was as pleased with myself as any time in my five decades of cycling life. I’d traveled a kilometer. When I walked into the treatment waiting room I let my helmet dangle on the outside of my messenger bag like I wouldn’t mind someone noticing. I couldn’t wait for the ride home.
Webb Chappell
Back in August, after I’d gone to get an MRI for what I thought was a ruptured disc, the doctor printed out my scan and showed me the massive lobed form spread across my lower back—a bone cancer called chordoma. There were approximately 300 cases annually in the US. I was literally one in a million. The doc told me I’d freak out when I got home and that I should call him any time. “When you leave this office, you’re going to think of all the questions you should’ve asked,” he said correctly. Question No. 1 struck me before I left the parking lot: How do you tell your wife you’re one in a million? No. 2: Would I be able to ride again?
Things moved quickly. One of the leading chordoma teams in the country was in Boston at MGH, the doctor had told me, promising to call them and get me right in. Three days later I was meeting with the chief of orthopedic oncology and his chordoma team. They outlined a plan of daily radiation treatments for five weeks in the fall, followed by a short recuperation period, then surgery. In the interim they’d do a biopsy and scans to determine the chordoma type and whether it had metastasized.
It’s probably human nature to retreat when facing serious illness. Shortly after my Boston visit I’d stopped cycling and even cancelled an easy travel-writing assignment to catch first light on a Maine mountaintop. I thought I needed to reserve my strength for the upcoming treatments and nothing else. But the uplift I got the first time I rode to my treatment six weeks later made me realize something counterintuitive: I needed to be on my bike more, not less.
So the commute became part of a two-pronged attack. The second part was less about defiance and more about reestablishing normalcy. My doctors might not have been thrilled about me mixing it up in Boston traffic but they seemed to understand the therapeutic value of my riding habit and gave cautious blessing to cycling in the largely controlled environment of a gym, or a smooth, low-traffic road. “Just don’t crash,” they warned.
Through October and November—my two radiation months—I rode almost every day prior to going in for treatment, sometimes outdoors, but mostly in the gym. In the beginning I pedaled about 30 minutes for nine or so miles. As I progressed deeper into the proton radiation treatments and in the weeks afterward, I rode longer and harder. Even though the gains were modest they were still gains. At different points I rode with everyone in my family: my wife, Patty, and our college-aged children, Celia and Henry. My son’s friend, on an adjacent spin bike one day at the gym, looked at me happily thundering away and wondered whether we could find a way to roll a bike into the OR.
On December 8th, the day before I went into surgery, I had my best gym workout in two months—50 minutes, with totals of 16.2 miles and 573 calories burned. Earlier that same week I had ridden a favorite road circuit along the coast.
I couldn’t explain the pain-free, sometimes euphoric feeling I had in turning pedals over, and my doctors couldn’t either. The radiation treatments had stained my lower back a dull brown, its large, irregular shape mirroring the cauliflower-sized tumor. Riding intensely shouldn’t have been an option with pinched spinal nerves and crumpled vertebral bodies in the small of my back. Did it work simply because I refused for it not to? I knew my totals like a mantra before my surgery—602 miles spinning alone. They were a therapeutic bulwark but it wasn’t the totals that made the biggest difference for me—it was how I felt in the best moments. I felt like me. Strong.
RELATED: This Cyclist Kicked Cancer's Ass
The city bike commutes were physically more difficult, especially the post-treatment return trip. My spine felt brittle and I concentrated on being as light and smooth as possible as I moved, like someone crossing thin pond ice. The vibrations from yanking the heavy Hubway from its locking mount caused a sharp spasm of pain at the tumor site. The slight spinal twist of mounting a bike on an uphill grade with a forceful pedal stroke was beyond me. Most days I walked the bike to the nearest downhill for a helpful gravity assist.
If anyone had asked I would’ve had a hard time explaining what I was doing. Cancer-riddled, radiated, semicrippled…and yet each successful commute was a milestone, a new hardest ride. Maybe I was howling against cancer, maybe I simply adored doing a 6/10th of a mile I couldn’t think of anyone else caring to do. The best day was the next to last ride—the final mile as it were. I was walking the bike up the slight hill to Staniford Street for my easy coast down toward North Station when I heard my name called and turned to see Ibrahim, the stepfather of my son’s best friend. He’d heard I was sick but that’s not why he was hailing me down. He wanted me to take the phone from his hand and prove to his wife it was me. “She doesn’t believe me, Todd. She says you’re sick with cancer. She says, ‘You fool, Todd can’t be riding a bike!’”
Surgery Day
In the hours before surgery on December 9, my wife handed me an email with a poem my daughter had written for me:
Just hold tight
To the people who love you
To the legs and body that won’t fail you.
Hunched over on that bike up Mount Washington is harder
Bent over at your dad’s funeral is worse.
A road awaits you,
Just another road to take your bike out on
Pedal on, and just know
It’s only another road.
And you aren’t afraid of its course.
Of course I was afraid of its course. The rehab would take months and there was no guarantee what I’d be like on the other side. I’d have to hope they got the cancer and that my spine could be rebuilt without permanent nerve damage. I’d be losing my right fibula (a calf bone), which would be “harvested” to replace the diseased vertebrae, and much of my right psoas muscle, one of the muscles connecting the spine to the legs. With those last powerful pedal strokes in the days before, I was extra conscious of how that big muscle felt, pleased I’d been using the crap out of it in the intervening weeks, but angry too at what I was needing to give up. In some yoga traditions the psoas is referred to as the seat of the soul. In my head was what the doctors told me when I asked about my cycling future. “It won’t be the same,” they warned. “It’ll take time. First you need to learn how to walk again.”
The previous night, my wife and older brother, Tom, had come up with a proposal they thought might improve my odds. “As some of you know,” they wrote in an email to friends, “Todd will face two major surgeries this week for spinal cancer. The road and recovery ahead is challenging. Over the past many years, Todd has come to believe deeply in the power of the bicycle to be more than simply a form of recreation or travel. He has come to see the bicycle as a defining value of an individual, a family, a city, and a culture. In fact, over the course of his radiation treatment, his daily spinning sessions have grounded him, affirmed a daily ritual and belief, and provided a space in which he can both process the issues and clear his head. Many of you have asked how you can help and we have an idea. This week, and Thursday in particular, we would ask that everyone that has access to a bicycle—on the road, in the city, in the woods, or at the gym—find some time to ride. We can’t think of anything in this universe that would be more meaningful and supportive of Todd than this simple act and the powerful belief that riding a bicycle makes a difference.”
RELATED: 101 Things to Love About Cycling
Many people rode that day—my daughter and son with their friends at the University at Albany and Boston College, respectively; my wife, Patty, who in the midst of a terrifying day snuck into the hospital’s gym with her sister and a best friend, all of whom were dressed in office wear (and in her sister’s case in dress shoes); my grade school friend Kip, a Brookline pastor, rolled into the waiting room on his mountain bike soaking wet from one of the day’s downpours. My lifelong friend Jackie, a neophyte rider, could only get hold of a neighbor’s road bike with clipless pedals. At the first stop sign she forgot she was locked in and keeled right over.
The Beginning of Something Better
It has been two years. They got the cancer but a surgical complication caused a spinal cord injury.
During many weeks of using wheelchairs and walkers, I grappled with what had happened and why. Paraplegia was probably the last outcome I’d expected or was prepared to deal with. My legs defined me.
The beginning of something better happened |
to fundamentalist values, and not an outgrowth from them and fighting for secularism is fighting for the integrity and legitimacy of America.
His prayer, he noted, is based on civility, intelligence and common decency, and “these people [the prayer’s opponents] don’t like these things.”
This is shamefully backwards. What the school sought to do, impose their religious beliefs and practices on others, is what was uncivil and a violation of American standards of common decency as far as I’ve ever known them. Religious as many of the people in this country may be, getting pushy with your religious beliefs and bullying others into accepting them through whatever leverage you can manage is constantly denounced with scorn in America. It goes against the very spirit of even the dominant American religious sensibility, which frequently stresses that religious expressions must be unforced in order to be genuine.
And it is unintelligent. It is unintelligent to use government means to train students in mass conformity and deference to a system of ancient, outdated, false-on-their-face traditional beliefs, rather than to neutrally encourage freethinking and freedom of conscience. And the uncivil treatment Jessica Ahlquist faced from the Christians at her school and in her larger community was an utter disgrace—so much so that the judge ruling on her case complemented her “brave stand” and noted that it was made against “the hostile response she has received from her community.”
To the community, following all the fine words of the banner—about “growing mentally and morally”, and about being kind, helpful people who valued friendship—was less important than committing fervently to the words “Our Heavenly Father” and “Amen”. This is the insidious danger in holding beliefs religiously and of treating objects religiously. People’s minds can become obsessively attached to the markers of religious identity—from key phrases to artifacts—and value them so intrinsically and absolutely that they prioritize them over all other moral prescriptions. So rather than acknowledge that their banner was really only about secular values they shared with atheists and with members of minority religions, and opt to change it to something that was inclusive—which would be an unambiguous expression of the virtues of kindness and friendship even to those who did not share their religion, they opted instead to double down on their allegiance to their exclusivistic, alienating identity marker and put it above all the specific moral values it ostensibly existed to promote.
When push came to shove, for these people, enforcing deference to their religious phrases and artifacts, even in a public school, was more important than any development of moral character or any welcoming of people different from themselves. It became a matter of principle to them to fight for their exclusivist religious mode of expression over actual universality of friendship and civility—in a public school.
He also doesn’t believe that Ahlquist, whom he referred to as a “trained seal,” came up with the idea of filing a lawsuit on her own.”I’m sure she didn’t think of it herself,” he said.
And the once precocious 7th grader now belittles the intelligence of a young woman who had the guts to think for herself. For being the only one in her school willing to take a principled stand that bucked his mechanism for inculcating religious conformity, she is accused of unthinkingly being manipulated by others. The nasty hypocritical injustice and falseness of this charge (and, really all his characterizations of what happened) is mind-boggling.
But in case you are skeptical about how Jessica Ahlquist came to protest her school’s banner, here is an extensive interview wherein she speaks in her own words about each minute step by which this got started:
For thorough coverage of everything going down in Cranston the last few days, JT’s vigorous, remarkably thorough blogging has been indispensable. Here are his posts on the subject:
Victory for Jessica Ahlquist
Jessica Ahlquist Totally Was the Bad Guy
Faith Is Apparently A Poor Motivation To Be Honest
Cranston Commenters #1
Cranston Commenters #2
Cranston Commenters #3
Cranston High School Administrators – You Weren’t Heroes Then, You’re Not Heroes Now
Cranston Commenters #4
Cranston Commenters #5
Cranston Commenters #6
Cranston Commenters #7
Cranston Commenters #8
Law Enforcement Advice?
What the Ahlquist Situation Can Tell Us About Moderate Christianity
Your Thoughts?Story highlights DA: Robert Brennan was investigated before
He was not charged in that case due to statute of limitations, DA says
The archdiocese cooperated in the case, DA says
A Philadelphia priest who narrowly escaped prosecution during a recent clergy abuse scandal that rocked the city's archdiocese has been arrested on charges that include raping an altar boy.
In a grand jury presentation in 2005, the Philadelphia District Attorney's office revealed allegations against Father Robert Brennan, now 75, that included more than 20 alleged child sex abuse victims, according to Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams.
All of the cases were beyond the statute of limitations, and Brennan was never charged in that case, Williams said at a press conference Thursday.
That investigation led to the June 2012 child endangerment conviction of Monsignor William Lynn, the vicar of clergy for the diocese. The conviction marked the first time a U.S. church leader has been convicted of such a crime.
Williams said that Lynn would've faced additional charges in connection with this case but that he avoided prosecution by three months due to the statute of limitations.
In this new case, Brennan is charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and aggravated indecent assault in connection with alleged incidents that took place between 1998 and 2001 when the victim was 11 to 14 years old, according to Williams.
Robert Brennan, a Catholic priest, has been arrested on charges that include raping an altar boy.
The allegations include digital penetration and oral sex.
He was arrested on September 25 in Maryland, according to a statement released by Williams' office.
"A serial abuser is now behind bars thanks to the brave actions of this young man," Williams said, adding that the young man was prompted to report the alleged abuse in the wake of Lynn's conviction.
Marci Hamilton represents the victim, now 26 years old, and two other alleged victims whose cases could not be prosecuted because they were beyond the statute of limitations.
The archdiocese stripped Brennan of most of his duties in September 2005, though he remained a priest.
The diocese said in a statement that Brennan's laicization is in progress with the Holy See, but did not provide a date when that process began or when Brennan would be formally defrocked.
The diocese says it has "cooperated fully" with the current investigation.
Williams commended the diocese for promptly reporting these most recent allegations.
According to a statement released by Williams' office, the victim reported the abuse to the diocese in January 2013 and it was immediately brought to the attention of authorities.
"It takes tremendous courage for any sexual assault victim to come forward and report the horrors he or she endured," the district attorney said.Joining brands like Pepsi, Toyota and Nike, USA Today is the latest brand prominently featured in Back to the Future II to make a fictionalized product from the movie a reality. On Thursday, USA Today's real paper will be wrapped in a fake cover—the one depicted in the 1989 film.
The newspaper cover played an important role in the film: Doc Brown goes into the future and learns from the paper that Marty McFly's future son, Marty Jr., will be jailed on Oct. 22. When—spoiler alert—they go back to Oct. 21 and change the course of future events, the fictional Oct. 22 cover is shown again, this time saying Marty Jr. won't be going to jail.
"This movie had some great product placement, so we knew this was a great chance to have some fun with branded content," said Matt Urbanos, vp of brand and creative strategy at Gannett, adding, "This was a moment that was 30 years in the making, and there was no way we were going to let it pass by. We also felt this was the perfect opportunity to show brands how we can effectively partner with them across all our platforms."
An editorial from Bob Gale, co-writer and co-producer of the film, is also part of the USA Today deal.
"Only the top half of the cover was remade to be featured in the movie," said Urbanos. "The bottom half of the paper was never featured in the movie and was just old content that happened to be left over from an old version of USA Today. We worked with Universal and Bob Gale to update the bottom half and add content that was relevant and cohesive as our way to finish the story and punctuate this moment."
USA Today is promoting the Back to the Future wrap cover with a full social campaign on Wednesday and Thursday. The company is changing its logos in digital and print to match the logos from the movie. The inside of the wrap cover features an ad for Jaws 19, which was also featured in Back to the Future II.
Here's a look at the wrap cover:As the Civil Rights movement changed the face of America in the 1960s, DC Comics responded in the ’70s with its portrayal of its black characters.
The results, however, were misguided. And that’s being very kind.
A 1970 issue of Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane had the investigative reporter explore Metropolis’ Little Africa neighborhood by using a machine borrowed from the Man of Steel to temporarily transform her into a black woman. A year later, an issue of Superman explained the absence of black people on Krypton by saying they all lived on an island, self-segregated from the rest of planet’s population. That same idea was later retooled to explain why there was no human diversity in DC’s 30th century super team, the Legion of Superheroes, and was incorporated into the origin of Tyroc, the Legion’s first black member.
Then there was the Black Bomber, an almost-happened character that Reddit user mike_pants recently discovered and posted about in the Today I Learned community.
The Black Bomber, as conceived by DC editors in the late 1970s, was a white racist who unknowingly became a black superhero when he stressed out—a condition he acquired thanks to a military experiment with a camouflage chemical during the Vietnam War. In a 2000 column, Tony Isabella, the writer who was asked to script the Black Bomber’s adventures, described what it was like to point out to his bosses how bad their idea was:
“In each of the two completed Black Bomber scripts, the white bigot risks his own life to save another person whom he can’t see clearly (in one case, a baby in a stroller) and then reacts in racial slur disgust when he discovers that he risked his life to save a black person. He wasn’t aware that he had two identities, but each identity had a girlfriend and the ladies were aware of the change. To add final insult, the Bomber’s costume was little more than a glorified basketball uniform. “DC had wanted me to take over writing the book with the third issue. I convinced them to eat the two scripts and let me start over. To paraphrase my arguments… ” ‘Do you REALLY want DC’s first black super-hero to be a white bigot?’ “Okay, he wasn’t precisely their first black super-hero, but I made my point. The Black Bomber stories were deep-sixed and I went to work on my own creation.”
That creation turned into Black Lightning, DC’s first African-American superhero to star in his own series. It ran for 11 issues between 1977 and 1978, and Isabella wrote the first 10.
Surprisingly, the Black Bomber’s story didn’t end with disco and dreams of second presidential term for Jimmy Carter. The character concept was revived by the late Dwayne McDuffie in the pages of a 2008 issue of Justice League of America. The writer, who was African American, introduced the Brown Bomber, a member of an alternate Earth version of the JLA who could switch from white to black by saying certain magic words, á lá Captain Marvel (the DC version who now goes by Shazam and has a 2019 movie planned starring the Rock; not the Marvel version who now is a woman and has 2019 movie planned starring no one yet):
The Brown Bomber appearance is little more than a cameo, and it’s clear McDuffie intended the character to be a parody. In fact, McDuffie even gets in a shot at his employer’s unfortunate history with black representation, showing how good intentions don’t make racial tone deafness acceptable.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage appearing to show Liam Fox and Adam Werritty meeting Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa
Liam Fox is facing renewed political pressure after emails and video footage emerged appearing to contradict his explanation of his working relationship with a close friend.
Video revealed Adam Werritty, who has no official role, attended a meeting with the Sri Lankan president with the defence secretary.
And emails suggest a meeting with Dubai businessmen was not a chance encounter, as claimed.
David Cameron has demanded answers.
The defence secretary is facing a Ministry of Defence inquiry into his working relationship with Mr Werritty, and the preliminary findings are to be examined by the prime minister on Monday.
Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy called on Liam Fox to make a statement in Parliament.
He said: "There's questions about the ministerial code and whether it has been breached, about the professional relationship between Liam Fox and the former best man at his wedding, and a very murky business about links and access to information, that I think is very unsettling."
Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman said: "It's not just the questions of national security and access to highly sensitive information, it's also the issues of probity and procurement.
"There's now a further question about Dr Fox's integrity."
The MoD investigation will examine whether he broke the ministerial code over his working relationship with Mr Werritty, 34, a former flatmate and best man at Mr Fox's 2005 wedding, by giving him access to the MoD and allowing him to go on official foreign trips.
Analysis On Saturday morning we were told that Liam Fox had the prime minister's full support. But the tone from Downing Street is changing. David Cameron is clearly concerned that if he simply waits for the full results of the Ministry of Defence inquiry in two weeks' time, then the defence secretary - and the government - will suffer further damage. That's why the prime minister has ordered the government's most senior civil servant, Sir Gus O'Donnell, to look at the preliminary findings and report back. As Mr Cameron would say, he's now trying to "grip" this issue. But whether No 10 can close the controversy down is uncertain. Labour has not yet called for Mr Fox to resign. It does, though, want a clearer account of exactly what Mr Werritty's role has been. It may be that, at the very least, Liam Fox is forced to give a full statement about his self-styled "adviser" when he appears before MPs in the House of Commons on Monday.
Video images appear to show Mr Werritty at a meeting Mr Fox had with Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa in a London hotel last year.
The MoD said the meeting had been a private one and no special advisers had been in attendance.
The video footage adds to the pressure Mr Fox has been under over revelations that Mr Werritty made regular visits to see him at the Ministry of Defence.
Mr Werritty is also said to have brokered a meeting with businessmen in Dubai as Mr Fox was returning from a visit to British troops in Afghanistan in June.
Mr Fox has previously said in a parliamentary answer: "Mr Werritty is not an employee of the MoD and has, therefore, not travelled with me on any official visit."
At the meeting the defence secretary and the businessmen reportedly discussed technology that allows service personnel to make encrypted phone calls.
On Saturday, email correspondence published by the Guardian appeared to call into question Mr Fox's explanation it had been an impromptu meeting, rather suggesting Mr Werritty had been involved in planning the discussions for some time.
Mr Fox had said defence industry representatives had asked for the meeting in Dubai "when they happened to be sitting at a nearby table in a restaurant".
There's issues about whether Mr Werritty had access to privileged information Jim Murphy, Shadow defence secretary
The Guardian website said the emails were sent between Mr Werritty and Harvey Boulter, chief executive of private equity company Porton Group.
One from Mr Boulter, dated 16 June invited Mr Werritty and his "boss" to his home.
Mr Boulter told the Guardian: "The fact that a meeting was going to happen was pre-arranged in April.
"A meeting with the MoD doesn't happen by chance. I'm sure I wouldn't have just got to meet him (Mr Fox) unless I'd been pre-briefed."
Mr Werritty also used to carry business cards which said he was an adviser to Mr Fox, despite having no official capacity within the MoD or the Conservative Party.
Labour is demanding Mr Fox makes a full statement in the House of Commons.
Liam Fox has responded to the controversy by saying he has "absolutely no fear of complete transparency in these matters".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Liam Fox explained during a visit to Libya how the Dubai meeting arose
He told the Sunday Telegraph: "I think there are underlying issues behind these claims and the motivation is deeply suspect."
The ministerial code requires ministers to ensure there is no conflict between their public duties and private interests.
But Jim Murphy told the BBC: "We can't just continue with this drip, drip, drip of allegation and half answer. We need to get to the truth of this.
"There's issues about whether Mr Werritty had access to privileged information. He was a regular visitor to the MoD HQ in London.
"We're told that he didn't travel abroad with the secretary of state on official business, but it now appears that he was certainly was in those countries, those towns, those meetings at exactly the same time as the secretary of state."
"This individual is handing out business cards claiming to work for the secretary of state and yet he wasn't on the MoD payroll or the House of Commons payroll. There's a series of allegations here and we need full answers."
Speaking on the Andrew Marr show, Harriet Harman urged the prime minister to deal with the matter promptly and make a statement on Monday: "People expect the secretary of state to tell the truth, that's the absolute bottom line."
The MoD said that Mr Werritty "never has been part of Dr Fox's official travelling party when the secretary of state is abroad on official business".
A spokesman said: "Mr Werritty's meetings with the secretary of state at the MoD have concerned entirely private matters, not to discuss MoD business.
"At no time has he had access to any classified MoD documents or information."This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We turn now to “Pirates of the Caribbean.” That’s the name of a shocking new report on how the bank Santander’s revolving door with Puerto Rico’s Development Bank exacerbated a fiscal catastrophe for the Puerto Rican people. Released by Hedge Clippers, the report reveals how two top appointees to the federal overseeing board—the federal board, PROMESA, which is overseeing Puerto Rico’s financial restructuring, actually helped create the Puerto Rico debt crisis they are now in charge of fixing. The two appointees are former Santander Bank executives José Ramón González and Carlos M. García.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go to Washington, D.C., where we’re joined by Teresa Casertano, the global campaigns organizing coordinator with Communications Workers of America, or CWA. She’s also one of the managers of the Santander Bank organizing campaign.
Talk about this report, “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
TERESA CASERTANO: Hi. Good morning. “Pirates of the Caribbean,” the pirates in this story effectively are the Santander executives that Juan mentioned, José Ramón González and Carlos García. Santander, Banco Santander, is a global banking giant. It’s a Spanish bank. It’s headquartered in Madrid. And our report looks at the role of Santander in generating Puerto Rico’s public debt. And then, when it became unsustainable and Puerto Rico was not able to pay, the very same executives who were responsible for helping to generate that debt were then appointed to the PROMESA fiscal control board to determine how that debt would be restructured and what entities would be paid.
And so, our report looked at 90 debt deals, where Santander was either the principal underwriter or one of a team of underwriters, which resulted in $61.2 billion of public debt for Puerto Rico. And that is almost equivalent to Puerto Rico’s current debt load, which is $70 billion. And as an underwriter—an underwriter is essentially an arranger—Santander structured the bonds, purchased the bonds from Puerto Rico, and then sold them to investors. And in return for facilitating these transactions, they were compensated handsomely. They created $61.2 billion in debt and received issuance fees of about $1 billion.
In 2009, Carlos García, who was one of the architects of the debt deals by Santander Securities, he moved from Santander to become the head of the Government Development Bank of Puerto Rico. And so he moved from profiting off the creation of the debt deals to becoming the protector, the gatekeeper, the adviser to the Puerto Rican government, to the government entities that needed to structure new bond deals, and, effectively, became the approver and the selector of the underwriters who would facilitate these deals. And so, what some people have called him inside Hedge Clippers is the fox then guarding the hen house.
And as the president of the Government Development Bank, Carlos García brought in a team of current and former Santander executives who really had a grip on the Development Bank, on the Government Development Bank, from 2009 until 2012. And under his leadership, the Government Development Bank used a number of what some people call questionable, others call abusive or predatory, debt structures. And one example that we could use is a debt structure called the COFINA bond. And the COFINA bond was often used to refinance unpaid interest on previous bonds. And the COFINA bond was backed by sales tax. And so, effectively, these bonds were backed by the taxes, the sales tax on small transactions, by poor people and working people of Puerto Rico. And each time that those bonds were issued, Santander—
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Teresa, I just want to clarify: González and García had both worked with Santander at one time or another, they then went over to the government side to actually be involved in the issuing of these, and now both of them—of many of these bonds, and now both of them are in charge of figuring out how to get Puerto Rico out of the mess that they helped create? But the amazing thing is that one of them was appointed by the Democrats, and the other was appointed by the Republicans. So it doesn’t seem that—both the Republicans in Congress and the Obama administration have no problem with the people who created the crisis now trying to figure out how to solve it.
TERESA CASERTANO: That’s exactly right. José Ramón González was—and Carlos García, at different times, were the head of the Government Development Bank and also top executives—you know, at other times, top executives of Santander Securities responsible for issuing the bonds. And so, yes, that is exactly correct. When the debt became unsustainable in 2014—
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We only have about 15 seconds. Go ahead.
TERESA CASERTANO: —in 2014 and 2015, and the fiscal control board was appointed by the Obama administration, of the seven political appointees, those two executives were appointed to the fiscal control board to determine what entities will be paid under the debt restructuring.
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you very much for being with us, Teresa Casertano, the global campaigns organizing coordinator with CWA. This is Democracy Now! Happy birthday to Renée Feltz!Avdiivka, Ukraine - Within the ruins of his fourth floor apartment, Anatoliy Karabass slowly manoeuvres around the carpet of debris covering his once pristine floor. As he walks, a misstep yields a squeak. It's the sound of a children's toy left behind by one of his grandchildren.
Inside the apartment, it's so cold that every breath he takes condenses as it leaves his body. The vapour trails off into the distance with his words. What was once a warm and comfortable home is now unlivable after a direct hit from a 122mm shell blew a hole in the exterior wall. The windows and the balcony were also ripped apart, effectively leaving a six-metre hole across his apartment, with only a few patches of brick between.
From the middle of his apartment, Anatoliy can now look out on to the tree line that sits just 500 metres away. Somewhere in that direction is the heavy gun that fired the shell which destroyed everything for which he had worked. The sounds of the intense fighting in that direction are still audible throughout the day.
"That poor old man," says his 71-year-old wife, Elena Karabass, as she stares over at her husband, standing teary-eyed and distraught in his home. "He worked his whole life for his family, and now it's all gone."
READ MORE: Avdiivka civilians caught in crossfire as clashes rage
Escalation in fighting
Several kilometres outside the nearly besieged town of Avdiivka, in Eastern Ukraine, on the morning of February 3, as the violence escalated here, seven Ukrainian military tanks, and scores of what looked to be freshly burned patches in the snow could be seen. They indicated numerous Ukrainian firing positions. The fighting had become exponentially more intense.
Later that day, Alexander Hug, the Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, would say that this level of fighting in Ukraine had not been seen since 2014-2015. Official reports stated that weapons banned long ago had come back in full force, including the terrifyingly lethal BM-21 multiple launch rocket system known as "Grad" or "hail" for the way it falls from the sky.
Evidence of the destruction was everywhere in Avdiivka.
Earlier that week, the shelling had taken out the town's power, leaving residents without electricity, heat and water. Two makeshift humanitarian aid centres were set up in the town's centre to help residents cope with the freezing cold temperatures, which hovered around -10 to -20 degrees Celsius all week.
It was at one of those chaotic humanitarian aid centres where Anatoliy and Elena first seek help from a Ukrainian rescue worker named Vladislav Gusyin. A weeping and frantic Anatoliy begs Gusyin, "My apartment has been destroyed, what do I do? Where do I go?"
The rescue worker directs Anatoliy and Elena to the city administration building, a short walk away in the tiny town centre. As they begin to walk, Gusyin tells Al Jazeera that he has seen many people as upset as Anatoliy this week, and Gusyin is feeling the pain himself that day, after the loss of one of his own men the night before. The 25-year-old was killed when shrapnel from a shell ripped through the ambulance he was in.
"He was just a 25-year-old rescue worker," says Gusyin, referring to the colleague who had died. "He had a wife and a young child."
READ MORE: NATO calls on Russia to stop violence in Ukraine
Wartime bureaucracy
At the city administration, Anatoliy and Elena gather with scores of others who had had their homes affected by the shelling. As with all the others, they are asked to file a report, filling out their address, their belongings, and a brief assessment of the damage.
"Damage? It's gone. Everything!" shouts Anatoliy, as his wife takes over to fill out the paperwork. It will be the first of three reports they will file that morning, the mundanity of the paperwork keeps Elena calm and focused, but infuriates Anatoliy.
As they walk to fill out their next report at a police station a few minutes away, Elena explains that the couple had been sleeping in their daughter's apartment on the first floor when the shell hit. "Otherwise, we wouldn't be talking to you right now," she says.
Anatoliy recently had a heart attack, and so they decided to spend their nights in the first-floor apartment, rather than force Anatoliy to walk four flights of stairs. To accommodate her parents, their daughter had moved her own family into their dacha in a nearby village.
Her husband, walking briskly ahead, drops his pace and waits for his wife to catch up so he can share a thought. "Three years ago, they hit our neighbour! Three years ago. And now us. Can you believe it?" he says, completely exasperated at this point.
As he walks on, Elena tells us that on the first day of war in Avdiivka, June 27, 2014, their neighbour's apartment was hit and destroyed. With their own, that makes four destroyed apartments in their building. As lifelong residents of Avdiivka, they have watched their town wither away and neighbours die in the last three years, but they have stayed put.
At the police station, the elderly couple has to wait patiently as others file their reports. Among them, police officers in full military camouflage and kalashnikov rifles mill about. In this frontline city, a regular police force will not suffice, specialised and highly militarised units are required.
Soon, they are ushered into a meeting room, where they sit with a district policeman, who opens by asking, "Elena Karabass, tell me what was destroyed."
Elena looks back at the officer, thinks for a split second before throwing her hands up, "Everything!" she shouts.
In the dark room with low hung ceilings and badly scratched parquet floors, another officer sits by to witness the testimony. One dutifully takes notes from Elena and Anatoliy, who now sits with his head hung low. His mood switches from sombre to angry to annoyed every few minutes during the 20-minute long report.
READ MORE: Civilians killed as eastern Ukraine violence flares up
The signs and sounds of war
The couple leaves the station to embark on the walk home, but as they leave the station steps, their daughter comes running. With tears in her eyes, she hugs her father and mother. She has yet to see the extent of the damage, and only knows what her father has relayed over the phone this morning.
Walking up to their building, the signs and sounds of war are all around. Debris litters the ground in a nearby building, where a woman was killed by the impact of a shell overnight.
At their own building, a flock of emergency workers walk about, inspecting the damage caused by the explosion in Anatoliy and Elena's apartment. On the other side of the building sits another apartment which has been obliterated by a shell. From the street, passers-by can see right in through an enormous gaping hole.
Residents shout at journalists gathered around the building.
"Tell the truth! Tell them the Ukrainian army bombed us," they yell.
Another resident dismisses their yelling and says to ignore them: "They only believe what Russian TV tells them to believe. Why would the Ukrainian army shell itself?" The rift in Avdiivka between neighbours who support the Ukrainian military and those who support Russia-backed separatists is omnipresent.
As they enter their apartment, and their daughter sees the damage for the first time, she once again breaks into tears. Anatoliy turns to her and says, "Look, the only thing left untouched is the sewing machine!"
Shortly afterwards, a trio of militarised police officers makes their way into the home. They are here to confirm what Anatoliy and Elena reported earlier at the city administration and at the police station.
One of them, 35-year-old Vyacheslav, rummages through the debris on the floor. He pulls something off the floor and opens it in the palm of his hand.
"It's a 122mm. A gift from Russia," he says.
As they leave, it becomes eerily clear that this is it for Anatoliy and Elena. After they have filed their report, this chapter in their lives has closed. There will be no insurance payout to get them back on their feet, no relocation - nothing. And for Anatoliy, he just wants one thing before he leaves.
"Come on honey, let's take one more picture here," he jokes to Elena. "As a memory of this!"
Through her tears, Anatoliy's daughter falls into a little fit of laughter at her dad's joke.Omnibusters are keeping up the resistance and have some awesome ideas about what steps we can take now to prevent the “Safe Streets and Communities Act” from becoming the travesty of justice that it is.
The C-10 crime bill that puts prisons before communities, that imposes mandatory minimum sentences for minor crimes, and that denies rehabilitation passed yesterday in the House of Commons 157-127. The Bill, which was controversially rammed through Parliament, was passed 45 days from when it was tabled, excluding it from the due process of scrutiny to which such sweeping legislation would normally be subjected. C-10 was roundly and strongly criticized, not only by activists, but also by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Bar Association, the Ligue des droits et libertés, as well as the justice ministers of Ontario, Québec, and Newfoundland. The costs of the bill, forewarned by Correctional Services Canada, have yet to be made public. In August CSC warned that there were not even double occupancy prison cells to accommodate the explosion of inmates that C-10 will engender.
So, what can we do next?
In tandem with our allies at LeadNow.ca, It Could Get Worse will be keeping up the fight to prevent this law from damaging Canadians’ lives and crippling provinces’ budgets. We will be taking a 3-pronged approach:It comes after Germany’s Bundestag approved a motion describing the 1915 killings of Armenians as a "genocide" prompting a fierce reaction from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his countrymen.
The decision was made over the mass killings of Armenians 101-years-ago in which the country says up to 1.5 million of their people died at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War One.
Turkey has always rejected the claim, suggesting it was a fight on both sides during which 300,000 were killed.
The motion to call it genocide, put forward by Merkel, was passed on Thursday with support from all the parties in the German parliament.
It has left the Turks furious.
This morning’s headlines in the country featured vulgar editorials - with one state supporting paper labelling German Chancellor Merkel as Hitler.
In a show of defiance against Germany the newspaper used photo editing software too dress Merkel up in a Nazi uniform with a Fuhrer-style moustache and a swastika flag on the front page.
Anti-AKP and strictly Kemalist newspaper Sözcü carried the headline ‘Schämen Sie sich’ meaning ‘shame on you’ in German.
But the editorial went even further.Image copyright AFP Image caption Everest's slopes are becoming ever more crowded, according to officials
Nepal has decided to deploy a team of security officials at Everest base camp, in a bid to avert brawls between climbers, officials say.
Last April a fight erupted between European mountaineers and a group of Sherpas at 7,470m (24,508ft).
Although that dispute was eventually resolved, officials say Everest's slopes are becoming more crowded.
An office staffed by army and police will open in April at Everest base camp as the climbing season gets under way.
Nepali tourism ministry official Dipendra Poudel told BBC Nepali's Surendra Phuyal that the security team of nine would comprise three officers each from Nepal's army, police and armed police force.
He added that they would be assisted by officials from the tourism ministry.
Our correspondent says that last year's brawl between a group of European climbers and Sherpas raised concerns about the safety and security of climbers.
The conflict - which made headlines around the world - was allegedly over the fixing of ropes on the slope.
Officials say the new office will also be able to help climbers in distress, clean the mountain and enforce climbing rules, the Associated Press news agency reports.
More than 3,000 people have scaled Mount Everest since it was first conquered by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
Straddling Nepal and China, the world's highest mountain has an altitude of 8,848m (29,029ft).While Penn State has made most of the headlines this week after the NCAA removed the Nittany Lions’ postseason ban, this Saturday night’s matchup with Rutgers is a big deal for the boys from Jersey.
Not only is this Rutgers’ first-ever Big Ten conference game, players and coaches are billing the contest as a regional rivalry that gives the program a chance to establish itself as a legitimate contender in the conference in 2014 and in years to come.
The Scarlet Knights really don’t like the Nittany Lions, either. In fact, throughout the offseason and leading up to Saturday’s game, RU head coach Kyle Flood won’t even say “Penn State.”
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For real. He refers to PSU as “that team from Pennsylvania.”
"I think there's a lot of ways you can describe where that university is and what they are,'' Flood said recently. "Some I use, some I don't.”
Both teams are 2-0, and in his weekly press conference, Flood didn’t give much credence to the significance of this game beyond the chance to open conference play at 1-0. Flood’s players, though, look at the game through a different lens.
"It seems like fans skipped over our first two games that we had on our schedule and they've just been dying for this game," wide receiver Leonte Carroo said per NJ.com. "You have guys back in January, a lot of fans message you on Facebook saying, 'I hope you beat the crap out of Penn State. We hate Penn State.' I feel like this is going to change New Jersey and Rutgers football forever."
Much of the sentiment from Rutgers’ players apparently stems from a comment made at Big Ten Media Days by Penn State running back Bill Belton, a New Jersey native. Belton was asked why he chose Penn State instead of Rutgers and was quoted as saying, “I wanted to play big time college football |
hopes of seeing the Prize Patrol show up at the house.
But this warning deals with crooks who are pretending to be part of Publishers Clearing House or some other sweepstakes in order to get your cash or credit card information.
Christopher L. Irving, assistant vice president for consumer and legal affairs for Publishers Clearing House, said the company has worked with law enforcement and consumer protection officials in the U.S., Canada and Jamaica to combat the scams. A comprehensive database of scam-related incidents is downloaded to the Federal Trade Commission's Consumer Sentinel Database each month, which can help law enforcement officials target scammers, he said.
Irving noted that some lottery scams are originating out of Jamaica.
His one tip to avoid scams: Remember "no purchase, tax, payment, fee or money transfer is ever requested or required to collect a prize."
Recently, a senior in the Cleveland area thought she had won millions but ended up being scammed out of up to $45,000. Oddly enough, at one point she was asked to stuff thousands of dollars inside a book and send it to a Pompano Beach, Fla., address, according to a Cleveland TV report.
In September, police departments in various communities from Indiana to Florida reported some type of sweepstakes scam related to the fraudulent use of the Publishers Clearing House name.
One 92-year-old woman in Florida reportedly lost $399.99 when she sent a cashier's check after receiving a call saying she won a car. The man identified himself as being from Publishers Clearing House and said she needed to send some money before the car could be delivered. No car ever arrived, of course.
The Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula has warned that some con artists include what looks like a legitimate check in the letter to supposedly cover taxes on the winnings. But it's a twist on a fake check scam.
"This scam has nothing to do with Publishers Clearing House," the BBB said. "If you deposit the check, and transfer the 'tax' money, you will end up owing the bank."
It will take a few days but ultimately the bank will determine the check is a phony. And you'd be responsible for any money you wired or put on a prepaid card to cover "taxes."
Other win-the-big-money twists: You get a call saying you won a foreign lottery. Or maybe someone pitches you with a chance to join a "lottery club" to improve your chances of winning.
Five ways to avoid being scammed:
Never pay money upfront to claim a prize or cover so-called taxes. If you're being asked to load money on a prepaid card or wire money, it's a Publishers Clearing House impostor scam.
Remember, no one will send you an email or a note on Facebook to announce that you've won a million dollars or more.
Why would you win a prize in a contest that you've never entered?
Ask a relative or trusted friend to review any letters or emails if you think you've won a prize.
Never give personal information, such as a credit card number, in order to verify that you won a prize.
Contact Susan Tompor: 313-222-8876 or stompor@freepress.com. Follow Susan on Twitter @Tompor.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1FsmemgThere was reason for celebration on 12th August 2014 when SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty) announced an end to its fifteen-year campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), an international contract research organisation who have been the subject of a long campaign of violence and harassment. The campaign has seen around two dozen activists sentenced to over 100 years’ worth of jail time in the US and UK, with more sentences due to be handed down next month in the UK. This comes at a time when animal rights extremism remains at an all-time low in the UK.
However, within a month of the SHAC campaign ending, a new animal rights campaign has sprung up in Cambridge (UK), which bears many hallmarks of SHAC.
National Operation Anti-Vivisection (NOAV) claims to be:
“a completely grass-roots network of animal rights activists opposed to vivisection in the UK … We feel strongly that institutional animal abuse of all kinds will continue while the benefits to the companies abusing animals outweigh the detriments. Through campaigning, lawful protests, boycotts and all other lawful means we intend to create those detriments!”
The call to keep the campaign legal is laudable, but few animal rights extremist organisations openly declare illegal intentions. Indeed SHAC, with its 100 years of jail time, claimed that it “[did] not encourage or incite illegal activities.” NOAV go on to say that:
“The time for talking, thinking and plotting is over – it’s time for action! We are not a talking shop or a social club, we are a no nonsense anti-vivisection activist group! If you are ready to take action to stop animal testing, please check out our campaign pages!”
The campaign pages bring up two separate campaigns NOAV are running. The first, which offers cash incentives to students, for the details of fellow student animal researchers so that they “can be used for covert monitoring or naming and shaming student animal abusers.“
The poster (below, left) produced by NOAV shares much likeness of a similar campaign poster (below, right) created by American animal rights extremist group, Negotiation is Over, led by Camille Marino. If you look carefully below you will notice the use of language, and structure of the poster is remarkably similar. Both offer students “easy cash/money” for the names, pictures, addresses, contact details, and experiment details of students involved.
We have condemned the targeting of students before, and we do so again. Stalking and harassing students is not a legitimate way of running a campaign. It is these sorts of actions which can potentially force brilliant minds out of the life sciences out of fear, as may have happened after an NIO campaign targeting Florida Atlantic University student, Alena, in 2011. It must be made clear that Alena wasn’t targeted after being identified by a fellow student, rather she contacted NIO directly in the naive belief that she could reason with Marino (clearly not appreciating just how nasty Marino is). As far as we know no students ever took Marino and NIO up on their offer.
If any Cambridge students are targeted by NOAV it would be safe to assume that the reaction of Cambridge students will be the same as that of students in Oxford when they were declared “legitimate targets” by SPEAK/ALF. Did the Oxford students cower and tremble? No, they most certainly did not!
National Operation Anti-Vivisection’s second campaign targets a new animal research facility being built by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, in Cambridge. What makes this campaign concerning is a section of the website called “Secondary Targets”.
The webpage then provides names, addresses, pictures and contact details of individuals and organisations who are involved in building the new facility in Cambridge. This tactic is similar to SHAC’s campaign against HLS; as John Salon described these tactics in a Salon article:
“SHAC’s modus operandi is simple, elegant and shockingly effective: Publish the names, home addresses and telephone numbers of executives and employees of Huntingdon and any companies it does business with; identify these individuals as ‘targets’”.
It is at this point we may care to question why SHAC closed down its operations. SHAC’s wide reach and big impact in the preceding 15 years has made it a prime target for legal action by firms wishing to protect themselves. At least 18 companies, including Oxford University and AstraZeneca, have won legal injunctions to prevent or limit SHAC protests aimed at themselves, their employees, or their stakeholders. Any activists running under the SHAC name are therefore restricted in acting against these companies. Many may believe that by running under another banner they can avoid those legal injunctions imposed on SHAC.
Does National Operation Anti-Vivisection (NOAV) represent a violent threat at a time when extremism is almost unheard of? Time will tell. A rise in legal activism by animal rights groups is bringing fresh money into the movement. While most of this goes on above-the-level campaigns, it is often hard to prevent some of it spilling into more questionable hands. SHAC collected almost “£1 million in donations to SHAC’s collection buckets and bank accounts” back in the early 2000s.
Organizations and individuals must continue to be open in explaining why they conduct animal research. In this way the public and younger potential-activists will be dissuaded from supporting or joining these fringe animal rights groups, which threaten research and the benefits it can bring.
Addendum – February 2015:
More than 3 months now have gone by since NOAV’s campaign was noticed by Cambridge students and despite claiming to have received “around 100 emails” from students the “delightfully unhinged” NOAV have not reported any targeting of students, which means either that no students have taken NOAV up on their offer, or that NOAV has realized what a spectacularly bad idea it would be to threaten students.
It also seems that Cambridge City Council are as unimpressed with NOAV as Cambridge students are, as on 4 February 2015 they gave planning permission for AstraZeneca to start building their new headquarters on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
Tom HolderAlbuquerque bicyclists say thieves targeting riders Copyright by KRQE - All rights reserved Video
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Albuquerque bicyclists say they're being targeted by thieves.
"They just broke the glass right there, that nice decorative glass," said Rich Walters.
It took only a few minutes for crooks to break into Rich Walters' home.
"They took the time to undo everything and take it out," he said.
Walters is an avid bicyclists. He spends his free time riding along various Albuquerque trails.
"Freedom i guess. I don't know it's just something that you do," Walters said.
Thanks to thieves Walters won't get to ride anytime soon.
"They went to the office and took three bikes, took one bike off the trainer in the living room, so then I go to the garage to see that and they're missing out of the garage as well," he said.
Someone broke into Walters home around 10 a.m. Thursday. They took five of his high-end bicycles worth about $25,000 total.
He said this isn't the first time something like this has happened.
"I had a friend who had 10 of them stolen," he said. "I have another friend last summer they broke into his garage, stole them out of his garage and then they went to the other place he was staying at," he said.
Walters believes thieves are targeting bicyclists.
"These guys are watching everybody, following you home from the trail, following you on social media. We don't know," he said.
He and his buddies want to find out. He said they have called Albuquerque police.
"They just come in shaking their head going, 'Yep another one. Here it is again.'"
There are about 1.5 million bicycles stolen every year in the United States, according to the national bike registry.
Walters said he doesn't want another one taken from someone in Albuquerque.
"We are just sending stuff out telling everybody to beware, watch out for what's going on because they are definitely targeting bikers," he said.Bill Condon’s Beauty and the Beast is a major, major hit. The film has won over audiences by staying true to the classic Disney tale but also bringing something new to the world.
Helping to make the ‘live action’ film possible was, of course, an incredible amount of visual effects work, including the household characters. These were CG creations brought to life by Framestore, overseen by visual effects supervisor Kyle McCulloch. I had the pleasure of exploring how the characters were made with Framestore’s animation supervisor Dale Newton and CG supervisor Neil Weatherley. This lengthy discussion is aimed at giving a glimpse into just how much work went into the characters.
vfxblog: Where do you start with a major character animation project like this?
Dale Newton: Each of the characters had their own particular sort of challenges in a way. We started off with some designs. Sarah Greenwood, the production designer, she’d already gone through quite a process in terms of evolving some of the look of the characters, in particular with Cogsworth and Lumière. There was a very distinct Baroque or Rococo, ornate sort of impetus behind the way that they looked.
They would have to stand up as ornaments in the environment in a convincing way. And in a sense that left us with quite a challenge with some of those designs fairly established to try and work out how to put the characters in, in a way. A lot of the details such as the faces and the mechanics of how they were to work were left quite open. We had to climb in and try and respect the designs that Sarah had created to find ways of making these characters come to life both mechanically and dramatically.
vfxblog: Tell me about Cogsworth, the mantel clock.
Dale Newton: So obviously one of the things with all of the characters was just locomotion. So we began studying how they might walk. Cogsworth has got a very interesting anatomical layout. He’s got two sideways pointing rear feet and two forty-five degree angle forefeet, and he was somewhat of a strange mix between a quadruped and a biped. And so we had to play with how to get his legs, being very small, to get the maximum mileage out of him. Malleability was something we came up against all the time, so we’d come back to that in all of the conversations. But the rhythm of his walks, the rhythm of how he runs, I think these are things we had to study and come up with some interesting ways and convincing ways, ways that you feel like he’s just walking along. And ultimately what we ended up with was a fairly bipedal, if slightly offset, between the front and rear legs.
In terms of expressions we had to go to a phase of what you call prototype rigging in animation where we played with a variety of clockwork mechanisms and shapes within his face to work out what level to take his expressions to. Obviously being the fact that he’s made of brass, it is brass isn’t it Neil?
Neil Weatherley: Yeah.
Dale Newton: He’s got a brassy look anyway.
Neil Weatherley: Brass wood.
Dale Newton: Being that he’s metal it wasn’t gonna be convincing that obviously things bounce around too much, but we had to give him life. So, for instance his eyes, we played with the idea that they bend around slightly but they’ve got eyelid shutters slightly behind him. The same is for his mouth, I think his mouth is the most bending and deforming thing in his facial structure. We gave him a set of sliding teeth as well as a set of side sliding shutters which could be used to help him to smile. I think making Cogsworth smile with his sort of, in his design he’s got this very sort of downcast look with the corner of his mouth, and so wrangling a smile out of him was quite a challenge actually, but, you know, I think it’s a good part of his character because he’s actually just so dry. I think working with him, Ian McKellen as a voice to start off with just provided us with a wonderful place because he as such a dry delivery a lot of the time. He sometimes doesn’t even know when he’s being funny. That’s the character as he presents it in the film. So you could sort of play with those quirks and dryness.
His hands and his arms, he has these handles that you would use to move the clock around and they became his arms. We went through quite a long stage of experimenting with sort of trying to anthropomorphisize the structure, trying to make a readable elbow and a hand with a palm, but ultimately whenever we tried to push it in that way it became weird and ultimately we ended up sticking with a style of rigging and a style of animation that ultimately kept his form, his baroque bits all the way they’re designed, and left the challenges of trying to emote up to the animator. So we sometimes used his hands in different ways to express and create sort of a good staging for whatever he’s expressing in a particular shot.
In terms of squash and stretch we allowed ourselves to play with a larger amount of, to push the character shape a little bit more where there was faster action. And this was a general rule across all of the characters actually, whereas when the shot is a lot slower we found that the threshold for that sort of rubberiness just became too much. I think to create convincing CG shots of one of these guys, the look of metal that doesn’t behave like metal was very distracting, and ultimately it was something we had to play with on every single one of them.
vfxblog: Was it a similar case for Lumière? What different challenges did the candlestick have?
Dale Newton: One of the first challenges we had was a bit of a design job on his face, which we approached from a few different angles. The design that we started off with was quite not anthropomorphic. If you were to look at it very quickly you wouldn’t be able to recognize eyes or a nose or a mouth. It was quite abstract. Which, you know, that’s what a lot of baroque ornament looks like. So we had to work within this brief of trying to find a design for his face that felt recognizable and would work. Because he’s made totally of metal with a uniform kind of patina the trouble was that we were gonna lose his eyes or his mouth very, very quickly. And so we had to try and simplify, try to have clean enough lines that we could get a quick read. And so we settled on -it’s quite a stark and simplified look. I think even then he’s not the most expressive character. He does a lot of performance with his body, and I think a lot of his performance dramatically comes from his more physical performance.
Having a lot of dance numbers in the film there was a lot of discussion between Bill Condon and Anthony Van Laast, who’s the choreographer, about what sort of character he is as a dancer. And that fed into a little bit about what the character was as a person where he’s playing himself in a shot, there was always this thread of humanness which came into his facial design. We tried to study Ewan and his smile – he has this golden smile. You know, his eyes, there were little quirks of how his face seems to work when he smiles and he laughs. We did quite a lot of looking at that. There was an interview where he was talking about Beauty and the Beast one night, which we recorded, the Graham Norton one, and he talked about his experience doing the little shoot that they did for Beauty and the Beast very early on last year, which also fed into, ultimately he was more of a Maurice Chevalier kind of character.
So, in terms of some of the actual mechanical issues that he had for his hands. Obviously they came around because of their being candlesticks. They had a lot of interesting solutions in the first movie. To be quite honest, we watched it a few times but I don’t think we ever watched the first movie in any way to try to model what we were doing. I think Bill Condon and the Disney execs had already done that, you know, this film being very, very much based on that. But we found our own solutions for how he had to handle things, having to pick up a plate of caviar or the napkins. We had to come up with certain configurations of the candle where sometimes we think of the candle in the middle as being his palm or his hand and other times we think of it as being his thumb. And this varied from shot to shot and ultimately it was up to the animator to try and come up with a convincing solution for these things.
vfxblog: What about Mrs. Potts and Chip? Obviously they were very different, but how did you approach the animation there?
Dale Newton: [Our colleagues at Framestore had] explored the notion of Chip being a very high energy little boy, barely able to control his energy using his saucer like a little surfboard or a skateboard, and that’s what that test explored. And I just think that worked incredibly well. And we continued with that. I mean obviously wherever we had Chip in the shot we tried to do creative things with his surfboard. In a way, you know, you think about a tea pot which had these little legs on it which really do not deform, and we didn’t really allow the animators to squash and stretch things too much, and Chip is sort of the same. You really got to the very core elements and I think it really becomes an animation challenge to make that convincing. You’re really not left with a heck of a lot which actually is a very nice animation challenge, it’s a very nice place to be.
Neil Weatherley: Chip was nice and rigid.
Dale Newton: Yeah, and he had his face, he only had his face. But the fact that you had two things, that you could ricochet his one thing off of the other thing and spin it around, the guys did a very good job. I think parts of his face probably had some intrinsic challenges in it, being another case of one of those things where you design something that worked on a baroque level, but ultimately I think required some more work to be convincing to build.
For Mrs. Potts, I think Bill Condon particularly had this idea of her being a soft character. That suited her voice. And I think there was a lot of the Occam’s Razor, I don’t know if you know that expression, where you just gradually pull things away until you strip the thing bare so you’ve got the least lines. And it took a good many months.
Neil Weatherley: She was the last character to get finished.
Dale Newton: Yeah, to find her. And yes she obviously had her own animation challenges. I think I love the way that some of the guys approached her in the Be Our Guest sequence. I think in a way we were allowed more flexibility with her because obviously when you’re dancing, or when you move the characters with high impact you’re able to squash and stretch a little. Even though you don’t feel the squash and the stretch it’s still there and sort of helps manoeuvre into sort of be fluid and come to life.
vfxblog: Neil, could you tell me a bit about some of the material qualities of these characters and the lighting challenges?
Neil Weatherley: Well it’s a similar thing to the animation, especially Chips and Potts, they are a very solid porcelain material so you don’t have that malleability to kind of move them around, but you’ve also got this kind of translucency from the porcelain as well as the cracked surface, and then you’ve got this face moving over the top which – Bill didn’t want things moving over surfaces because it would look cartoony. So there’s that challenge of making all the bits of the characters look real but allowing them to move around a bit. And especially Lumière. The big problem with his facial features…
Dale Newton: Like where the patina ends.
Neil Weatherley: Yeah, how much dirt you put onto Lumière’s face is a big thing because you wanted him to look aged and look like he’d been a candlestick in a dusty castle for years, but you couldn’t hide his quite minimalist features too much. And there’s also his eyes and his mouth they are just stuck on to his paint body, but there was all this talk about should they be actually underneath his surface and moving around? But that gave a kind of a very soft worm-like feel.
Dale Newton: Creepy.
Neil Weatherley: Yeah, kind of a creepy feel. So it was hard to balance that feeling that these characters had been sitting in this castle for years without doing much to then suddenly they’ve gotta be this all-singing, all-dancing characters that look appealing. And let’s be honest they’ve gotta be marketed and made into toys…
Dale Newton: Appeal is a huge thing, actually. I mean, I think working out pleasing designs that felt they communicated and expressed was, you know, it’s not a word we use but it’s sort of the area we worked in.
Neil Weatherley: I actually ended up going to Vienna on holiday just while we were finishing off Lumière, and I took all this reference for the crockery and cutlery and bits of furniture from the royal palaces.
Dale Newton: Neil and his crockery holiday.
Neil Weatherley: I was just taking hundreds of photos of the most boring stuff [laughs]. But it was really useful because you see all the dirt that gets stuck in the corners. But then also you see dirt in the corners of something like Lumière, but then everything’s gotta move. So do you move the dirt with the features or do you leave the dirt under the features? That was quite a big challenge. Because, you know, you get this sort of black grime in, you’d get it under the eyes and things like that. But then obviously when the eyes had to move and animate do you reveal grime underneath? Which then gave them these black eyes which was slightly terrifying.
Dale Newton: So some things we did actually hide, and it was all about thresholds working out what read well. What read well in a wide as opposed to what read well in a close-up were two different things as well.
Neil Weatherley: Lumière was this sort of brass shiny candlestick, then Coggs obviously had his wood body and all the sort of intricate detail on his chest. Then they had Plumette which was ivory and her big tail, feather tail, and then Potts and Chip who were mostly porcelain. So each one was a completely different approach.
vfxblog: I am curious about things that were done on set when there was interaction with the characters and say Belle, or with other objects. What things were done during filming to enable these CG characters to be done?
Dale Newton: Previs was the order of the day and it allowed planning to be done per shot. We got footage back with eyeline markers, so obviously there were markers that were timed and rehearsed, and ultimately that’s how we established the eyelines. Which didn’t always work, you know. Obviously they don’t like to rehearse things too much. That counts as a good performance sometimes, so every now and then we do have to work with the eyeline we receive in a way if that’s the chosen performance and the chosen shot it.
Neil Weatherley: For Lumière they had a marionette or a puppet.
Dale Newton: When Belle held him there was a little thing where she held him while she crossed to her bedroom.
Neil Weatherley: When he first meets Belle and falls off the handle they had a little puppet on strings that they had to sort of throw around which gave us some cues.
Dale Newton: They were also experimenting with lighting and they had a little mannequin with flickering lights in its extremities, thinking it might sort of help to illuminate the scene.
Neil Weatherley: Because obviously Lumière at any scene is gonna cast his own lights, which makes a difference to shot especially when you’re in tight with him. So I think Bill maybe wanted to see how it was gonna affect it.
Neil Weatherley: I think obviously the Beast is a completely different story.
Dale Newton: Yeah, I mean, I think what they had to put him through with his, being on stilts and what have you, I mean that was kind of interesting. Had they not done his eyelines, because a lot of the shots we did were shared with Digital Domain, there was a sequence where the Beast is knocking on Belle’s door trying to push his inner id and be a reasonable man, and then sort of roars at the household objects, and obviously we did the household guys and DD did the Beast. And working up together whilst our respective aligned positions changed was interesting. But I think that went quite well actually.
vfxblog: Let’s talk about the Be My Guest sequence, and I want to ask about the stage lighting approach to it, which obviously echoes the animated feature. How challenging that was to choreograph but also deal with the changing lighting conditions?
Dale Newton: I think Disney really put all of its eggs into one basket on this one. I think they really got the best lighting designers, the best choreographers. When I came on board they’d gone through a process whereby they had managed to get hold of Ewan McGregor for 24 hours, and threw him the song, strapped him up in a light ball suit, and so he did all the dance moves, and they recorded that as the underpinning for the previs for the Be Our Guest. And in a sense that was kind of where Bill was coming from. He didn’t want Lumière to feel like a dancer, and so it was kind of casual. And I think that sort of still carried forwards into what we did. So they did the work with Ewan and that went into the previs with Third Floor, and that was basically where they started to shoot.
And that’s where we started. Anthony Van Laast, the choreographer, he wanted to come in and finesse the choreography, so he hired some of the talent that he knows around town. And we hired a space, I think it was at Pinewood, and he re-choreographed, so just getting some of the details right about how each of the particular moments worked. And so we took that away and did our first sort of block layout of some of the key moments. We brought Anthony back in, obviously with Bill Condon as well, because it’s just interesting to see how Bill and Anthony work. I mean Anthony is a complete professional, it’s just lovely to see how he’s just so gracious and he brings so much to the table. He just listens to what Bill is after and continually trying to adapt to find the thing that Bill wanted.
Anyway, quite interesting just going through various dancers because Bill didn’t necessarily respond to the more academically trained LA dancers, and we found because reference being such an important thing, especially with choreography, Anthony had this thing about Bob Fosse and his work. And just going back and re-watching things like Cabaret and My Sweet Charity, I think myself and the VFX supervisors, I don’t know if Neil did, but the animation team, we all fell in love with these movies again. There was just this shrouded sort of what we were all working or thinking about. And some of the particular flavor of movement that Bob Fosse came up with each had a sort of a special home in specific shots.
Neil Weatherley: Especially if there was certain dances that he thought worked on certain bits better than others, so there’d be specific names he’d be like oh you should use…
Dale Newton: Don’t use this one, she’s a ballet dancer, but use the rugby player.
Neil Weatherley: Ya, he never wanted dances to look like it was a professional…
Dale Newton: Well choreographed…
Neil Weatherley: Yeah.
Dale Newton: And I think anybody who knows their musicals will be able to look there and say, ‘Oh that’s from Singing in the Rain.’
Neil Weatherley: Which is an intentional thing.
Dale Newton: Totally intentional.
vfxblog: How did you then approach lighting the sequence?
Neil Weatherley: They had a lighting designer, Peggy Eisenhauer, who kind of sketched out the design for the whole sequence. But then it was mainly driven by the dance and the music and the choreography. And so we had good reference for a lot of it, but it was done a lot of it on the fly as the animation came in, and again each little section had its own lighting scheme and cues to what we should base it on. Which is quite unusual for us, we had to do a lot of animated lights and then we gave compositors a lot of freedom to sort of move things post render so we didn’t have to keep going back and re-render if lighting cues changed.
And each section had a look so by the end when the characters are diving into the pool it’s all very purple and pink, and then when Potts is in the kitchen it was all warm lighting. And then quite a lot of the times some of the shots had to go full CG because just the lighting that they shot in the day didn’t work. So a lot of the kitchen stuff, and Potts is coming down the table, those went from plates to just being full CG. So it was choreographed at the same time as the animation. I don’t think animation were involved in any lights at all, it was all the lighting team.
And then the characters themselves, how they affected the lighting. So the shot with Lumière walking on the table casting a shadow, and when he wraps the table off the rounding we could use his hand lights to sort of give that warmth against the burnt tablecloth. So it was all a very choreographed sequence, but we had reference in the set where they’d move things around. And sometimes we had to project lights onto the set as well. We had to re-light a couple of the shots to fit in. If a shot moved around a bit then obviously you’d have to change the timing of the lighting based on that. So it was an unusual challenge for lighting, more akin to the animation I think.
Dale Newton: It wasn’t entirely lighting, we got all the effects at the end with the explosions going off and all the confetti, and all those had to be timed to the music, and so it was really, when I first came on they showed me it and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and it seemed like insurmountable.
Neil Weatherley: It’s really nice to have been on such a classy number actually.
Dale Newton: And then Bill actually added the pause at the end of Be Our Guest there’s a black pause, a black screen, and he added it…
Neil Weatherley: Some people cheer.
Dale Newton: That sequence is going to get the cheer.
Neil Weatherley: Or just to breathe.
Dale Newton: Yeah. I saw one screening, which was a cast and crew, but sure enough everybody cheered which is great. Doesn’t happen often, especially in England.
vfxblog: One character we haven’t talked about yet is Plumette, how did you approach her?
Dale Newton: And just from a motion point of view she was very interesting to sort of think about how she moved. And actually we struggled quite a lot, I’ll be honest, with finding her and finding her particular way of locomoting around. Ultimately she was a feather duster, and I think the thing that she looks like, as if she’s feather dusting. You know, so although we tried to use her wing is in some kinda way they ultimately ended up being expressive, and she just wriggled her bottom around, you know? Doing a bit of a wriggle here, a bit of a wriggle there, and you know the key notes on sort of finishing being grace.
Neil Weatherley: She was hard to settle anywhere as well, because she obviously can’t stand or sit. So she always had to be kind of floating or leaning. It’s just the logic of how is she locomoting, you know? Because they didn’t want her tail to drive her movements so she couldn’t feel like it was flapping.
Dale Newton: Well it doesn’t, but I think as long as there was a sort of a slight grace and a slight, you know, gratuitous movement is what we call it.
vfxblog: What about Madame de Garderobe – it must have been a little tricky making her animatable?
Neil Weatherley: The big thing with her was she had to sing and talk…
Dale Newton: Convincingly.
Neil Weatherley: We had to kind of lip sync curtains moving.
Dale Newton: I think the design of her first of all was the first major impasse because of needing to communicate with eyes and a mouth, and I think Bill was very precise that she is a, you know, a dramatic set of curtains with a proscenium. And you know that’s what we had to play with, and I think we were playing a lot with anthropomorphasization which ultimately we veered away from, and it became a very conceptual thing with moving curtains, and it sort of worked.
Neil Weatherley: And a carefully placed drop shadow to give her a lot of mouth.
Dale Newton: A lot of comp work I think.
vfxblog: Any final thoughts on the work?
Dale Newton: I think one of the things that I always have lots of fun with is working with the animation team. I think there’s a lot of people that have so much enthusiasm for coming up with performances. We didn’t necessarily have, for a lot of the performances, we didn’t necessarily have great actor reference, which is something we always strive to do. You know, we always try and get the director to be thinking about trying to evolve the performance before things come to us as a way of sort of being really certain about the thing that we’re trying to achieve. But we had a really great team, and a lot of people sort of worked really well. We had one animator who just was Lumière, and so whenever we needed a shot, or thought, ‘what would Lumière do in this particular situation?’, well, we had to extract him from his shot and…
Neil Weatherley: …Get him in front of a camera.
Dale Newton: Stick him in front of a camera and perform!
vfxblog: How did things work between Framestore’s UK and Canadian studios on the show?
Dale Newtown: The show was split 60/40 between London and Montreal. Both offices were involved with character development, London taking the trickier and more involved development characters – Lumiere, Cogsworth, Plumette and Garderobe, whilst Montreal took the equally challenging and no less interesting Mrs Potts, Chip, Chapeau, Cuisinere, Cadenza and Frou frou. We tried to split the sequences up so as each site had more shots featuring their characters, but ultimately we each worked with each others characters. My colleague and fellow animation supervisor Spencer Cook in Montreal and I worked together to refine and push the character rigs in a way that worked for all sequences together.
Based on the seniority and experience of the relevant teams at the outset of production, we based the choreography based shots and those requiring a particular emphasis on dramatic performance in London with still a good smattering of these and more action based shots – particularly the Castle Attack sequences at the end of the film, in the Montreal office. Our Canadian cohorts did some beautiful work across all disciplines – and some lovely performances of Mrs Potts from animation being my favourites – and as a team are growing from strength to |
this year, regardless of its result has had, MinD_ContRoL as one of strong contenders for an MVP vote, an impressive thing considering how flashy and good all of his teammates were.
David 'MoonMeander' Tan - for winning his second Valve event title with OG back in June at the Manila Major, and for his winning plays at the ESL One Frankfurt on Beastmaster. Same with his Earthshaker plays from last year’s Frankfurt Major, a performance that is hard to wipe from our memories even now, over a year since the event. MoonMeander’s Beastmaster from this year is truly inspirational for those who aspire to a professional career.
David 'Moo' Hull - for establishing himself as one of the best Timbersaw players in the NA scene, and not just in any old tournament, but on the big stage of The International 6. Making a huge leap upwards from struggling with Team Archon at the beggining of the year, Moo has become one of the most popular players in Seattle this year and achieved an amazing second place finish at the most important tournament of the year.
Zhang 'Faith_bian' Ruida - for being probably the most flashy and for sure the most successful offlane player in the scene this year. Part of a team that is full of extraordinary players, Faith_bian has managed somehow to stand out at every tournament. His teamfight decisions and capacity to survive a fight that looks impossible to win from any possible angle makes him one of a kind in the offlane role and, without a doubt, he is already hall of fame material.
For this year we took a different approach for this category and we choose to nominate supports pairs as they played together, as opposed to splitting the vote poll into two separate categories (position 4 and 5) which had some of the community confused. So, without stressing once again on how crucial the support role is in Dota 2, here are our nominations for Duo Supports of the Year:
PPD and Zai - since Zai has returned to the professional scene, the support duo dynamic of Evil Geniuses has changed dramatically. The extremely selfless PPD partnered with the incredibly greedy Zai yielded great rewards for the Boys in Blue. Although they got to play together only for TI6 and SL i-League Starseries Season 2, the PPD and Zai collaboration saw EG place in the top three in Seattle this year.
LaNm and Garder - although Garder was brought to EHOME only in September this year, the duo has already made a great impression and changed EHOME’s play style quite a bit. As a rather aggressive support, Garder likes to make great use of Invisible heroes and he would often act as initiator for his team on heroes like Nyx Assassin or Earthshaker. That alone opens up a whole new game plan for LaNm and their duo has taken by surprise many teams, opening the door for quite a few upsets EHOME has achieved against bigger names this fall.
JerAx and KuroKy - playing together for almost a year, the supports of Team Liquid pushed the team to the top of the rankings. JerAx, as you already know, has left the ship in the meantime, but during his tenure at the European juggernaut team, he developed an unique synergy with his captain and support colleague. The JerAx and Kuro duo, with their well-timed rotations on the map, pushed TL into two Majors grand finals and won them the EPICENTER trophy.
Saksa and MiSeRy - both fearless and with huge playmaking potential, Saksa and MiSeRy are hard to break down into position four and five. They have found a great way of splitting the supporting duties in such a way that both will most of the time find the levels and farm to stay ahead of their opponents and they are both extremely aggressive, capable of initiating and controlling a team fight. Their amazing power of forcing the enemy into an extremely defensive play style propelled Digital Chaos into the TI 6 Grand Finals.
Fly and Cr1t - was one of the most successful and beautiful to watch support duo dynamics. Together they won the Shanghai and Manila Majors, the DreamLeague Season 5, the ESL One Frankfurt and emerged as runners up of the Summit 5 this year. More like PPD and Zai, the OG supports have been working on the same formula where one of them will play the ultimate sacrificial role while the other will take the spotlight with flashy plays, a formula that proved very successful for OG in 2016.
The Majors system and the Shuffle lockdown have changed the Dota 2 scene and 2016 is the first year to have completed a full circle of four shuffle periods. With the majority of the teams complying with the lockdown rule for most of the year, a few newcomers have found the opening to kick start their professional careers and some entered the big scene in style. The Newcomer of the Year award goes to the player who made the most impressive entrance.
Xu 'uuu9' Han - for making a very strong impression with his first international LAN appearance as carry of the renowned Newbee. Uuu9 debuted at MarsTV Dota 2 League 2016 Autumn with an outstanding performance against EG and OG, finishing without a single death on heroes like Sven and Lifestealer.
Anathan 'ana' Pham - made his debut mid-year at Invictus Gaming. However his true entrance on the big scene was made this fall when he was recruited by OG. His first elite event was the MarsTV Dota 2 League 2016 Autumn where he displayed great versatility, allowing OG to keep on switching N0tail from the carry to mid lane role.
Zheng 'MidOne' Yeik Nai - although he has contemplated a professional career for a few years now, MidOne was discovered by Fnatic this year after he became the first player to reach 8K MMR on the SEA servers. He joined the Malaysian power-house team at the beginning of the year and during his eight months at Fnatic, Midone has impressed everyone with his versatility and capacity of staying composed in very dire moments of a game. From a pub star to a top four finish at The International 6, MidOne has now switched continents as is playing the mid lane role at Team Secret.
Roman 'RAMZES666' Kushnarev - as the youngest carry player from the entire pro scene, Ramzes666 made his debut at the beginning of the year with Team Spirit. 16 years old at the time, Ramzes666 was the youngest attendee of the Shanghai Major and since then has improved tremendously, becoming the carry of one of the most respected CIS organizations, Virtus Pro. From a youngster with big dreams in March this year, Ramzes666 went to the Boston Major in December with his new team as main favorites.
Antonio 'canceL^^' Mihai - is one of the newest faces to arrive at the top level. Starting off with the Romanian project of bOne7, Kaipi, canceL^^ got noticed by compLexity Gaming’s captain, mellonz, and made his first big LAN debut a bit over a month ago at Northern Arena BEAT Invitational, where he left the audience speechless with his Invoker and Mirana.
The title is awarded to the team that achieved the most this past year. A few teams might qualify for this award but there can only be one Team of the Year!
OG
Unique holders of three Valve events titles, OG had an amazing 2016 year. They secured the Manila Major title and they defend the Eaglesong trophy at the Fall Major which this year was held in Boston. However, they had a big bump in the road when it mattered the most, at The International 6 where they finished only on the 9-12th position.
Wings Gaming
It goes without saying that Wings are the biggest story of 2016. Their rising trajectory started off with the Championship title of ESL One Manila in April. One month ahead of the International 6 they raised an alarm by winning The Summit 5 and amazed the world in Seattle when they became the team to win the biggest prize in eSports history, $9,139,002. Holders of a Guinness Book record on behalf of their achievements in 2016, Wings Gaming made history this year.
Evil Geniuses
The American pride EG, returning Champions of The International, didn’t have what can be described as one of the best years. Even so, they managed to secure a top three finish in Seattle for the third time consecutively and after experiencing some great transformations in the Fall Shuffle, they won with the revamped roster the first LAN event they attended, MarsTV Dota 2 League 2016 Autumn.
Digital Chaos
From a struggling team at the beginning of the year, Digital Chaos transformed over the summer into the greatest NA organization. Picking up Team Secret rejects MiSeRy and W33 and building up a mostly European squad to compete under the USA flag, Digital Chaos was the second big surprise in Seattle this year, reaching the grand finals in a great style.
Ad Finem
The Greek team is another inspiring story of success. A joy to watch, even when they were fighting in the lower tier tournaments (which is a recent history of them), Ad Finem are the pure definition of 'hard work'. With the last Valve event of the year, the Greeks took the scene by storm and nailed a memorable performance at The Boston Major where they finished as runners up.
The nominations went to those tournaments which left a lasting impression on us, either for their storylines, production quality or community impact.
EPICENTER - for being the tournament to set the bar for any other event organizers. From the scene setup to smooth running without any delays and a top notch trophy, EPICENTER was a much needed breath of fresh air in a scene overloaded with tournaments.
The Manila Major - for a very well-planned and executed first PGL Major. Setting the broadcast standards to a new level, the Manila Major introduced new analytical features and created a unique atmosphere courtesy of the incredible live crowd.
The Summit 6 - for its unique approach and relaxed atmosphere. From finding a memorable team presentation frame to being the first tournament that gave us the chance to know Wings Gaming a bit better, The Summit 6 stands out as one of the most relevant events in the months leading up to the Boston Major.
The Boston Major - for unfolding an unforgettable story for both Ad Finem, who made their break-out in Boston, and for OG who have secured their third Major title.
ESL One Frankfurt - for evolving from a regular LAN event into almost a Dota 2 festival. The ESL One Frankfurt 2016 was a pleasant experience for the online viewers as no major delays happened and for the live audience who got to experience a unique atmosphere on site. Packed with extra activities for its visitors and placed in the large Commerzbank-Arena, ESL One Frankfurt is the event where you want to return again and again.
For all the good that we’ve seen happening on the Dota 2 scene this year, we’ve also had some historical low points, namely drama stories. Unfortunately, from time to time, we forget for a moment that eSports should be about passion, fun and friendship, all co-existing in a professional environment, and this is when drama emerges.
Team Secret
Unfortunately there have been so many low points for Team Secret this year that we could have had them listed as a full five individual nominations. Twice this year they were called out by the former players for not honoring their payments. First N0tail and Fly complained about this issue and, later on, EnternaLEnVy went public via a long blog post with numerous conversations with both owners of the team and their manager. The decline of the team, although we weren’t fully aware of it at that time, started pre TI6 when they had to qualify for the event via open brackets. The community majority still had faith in the Secret captain, a player with a huge experience, a TI Champion himself, a smart and charismatic person with millions of fans. But, everything went south for Puppey and his team when Envy posted a short video with the mighty captain raging and smashing his headphones into his monitor, not to mention the dark colors in which Envy painted his captain after nearly nine months spent with the team. Again, more than enough material to split all these episodes into five solo nominations for Drama of the Year.
"James is an ass"
That’s the sentence that opened day three of Shanghai Major, after the event host, James '2GD' Harding was fired along with the entire production crew. Gabe Newell made the official announcement via reddit and his words became the strongest meme in the Dota 2 community. "James is an ass, and we won't be working with him again" is what Gabe Newell had to say.
The Shanghai Major
The Shanghai Major was without a doubt the most disastrous event we've had in a very long time. The problems started on the very first day and unfortunately never stopped, not even after the Major was over. For many, the Shanghai Major is a drama that outshone any team and their achievements. The entire social media chat was about the endless problems happening in Shanghai. From more than five hours of delays, to a fired host and production crew, to toxic air in the player booths on the stage, and lost gaming gear, the Shanghai Major closed with a bang when players started to tweet a day after the event, pictures with the vandalized practice rooms from which keyboards, mouses, and even rOtk’s car keys were missing.
Sylar vs Ruru
A few days after the Shanghai Major, Sylar broke a story on his weibo account about the LGD owner Ruru and how she forced him into multiple contract renewals in order to receive his money and the transfer fee. Titled 'Do you have a heart?'--Sylar’s post walked us through a long period of time, starting after the TI4 shuffle (2014) when he was first approached by LGD, stretching all the way after the Shanghai Major. In response, Ruru posted a series of screenshots and reiterated the contract signing timeline. The screenshots were of her negotiations with Sylar and Sylar's conversation with LGD's manager when he requested that a replacement should be found for him. The screenshots were deleted shortly after, but the story remained and was one of the biggest dramas in the Chinese scene from this year.
The Boston Major visa issues
The Boston Major was a great success for the organizers but not everything started out nicely. Held in the US, the Major wasn’t easy to access for all the teams, some were forced to play with one or two substitutes while the directly invited team, Execration had to be replaced only two days before the event. Execration announced only two days before the event that their visa application was put on hold because of a missing paper from Valve.
This category awards the individual commentator that makes you jump from the seat and whose hype over a teamfight or individual play has stuck with you for days, weeks or even months after.
Toby 'TobiWan' Dawson - for being one of the most recognizable voices from the commentating desk. It almost feels there wouldn’t be a true LAN event or an International without Tobi having us all going insane over Dota 2.
David 'LD' Gorman - for his unique mix of maturity and infectious joy when witnessing a good play. LD is a rare combination of a caster that can hype a game or make you feel as miserable as the players feel when they make foolish mistakes.
Owen 'ODPixel' Davies - for his endless power to hype a game and for his capacity to lose himself in a good way, when commentating a well-executed move or teamfight. His recent 'performance' from the Boston Major Grand Finals speaks alone about this talented young man who at times literally puts music in our ears.
David 'GoDz' Parker - for being as good as a shout out caster as he is when he assumes the analytical role at the commentating desk. His expertise on the SEA scene makes his commentary stand out from the rest of his colleagues.
Austin 'Capitalist' Walsh- for his indubitable growth as a play-by-play caster this year. From a young man with high ambitions, Capitalist became in 2016 a strong figure at the commentating desk. Always interested in improving himself, Cap stayed in touch with his fans after most of the events via his video blogs, has analyzed his own casting performances and became better and better with every tournament up to the point where he is now a must-have caster for any successful event.
The analysts are those who understand a team, a player and a game in general far beyond what we can see on the screen. Their game knowledge and presence on the tournament panels enlighten and teach us a bit of Dota 2 every time. The award goes to the individual who offered amazing insight and successfully made us understand and predict the teams and players performance at important events.
Chan 'WinteR' Litt Binn - for being one of the most accurate analysts. A pro player himself, WinteR made a name for himself as one of the great connoisseurs of the SEA scene but his overall understanding of the game made him a great asset at every tournament. He has a very sharp mind and his professional career as a player and team captain adds legitimacy to his analysis.
Ben 'Merlini' Wu - for being one of the audience favorites and his always on point commentaries. An avid learner and always up to date with the latest patch notes, Merlini is a very opinionated analyst and delivers a sharp view on any game he casts.
Kevin 'Purge' Godec- for his continuous and admirable work on improving and developing analytical commentary. One of the most popular figures in the Dota 2 community courtesy of his hundreds of hours of video guides, Purge is the father of the new analytical segments used at the Valve events, "the Purge corner" or "the Purge segment".
William 'Blitz' Lee - bouncing from the coach seat to the commentary desk at times, Blitz is sharing his knowledge and understanding of the players in a very relaxed manner. A great ability with which he mesmerizes the audience every time he makes time to appear at the commentary desk.
Andy 'Draskyl' Stiles - a senior panelist and commentator, Draskyl developed a casual tone that makes his analysis extremely easy to digest. Draskyl stands out as one of the most accommodating analytical voices for the new Dota 2 fans and at the same time provides top notch insight, without making you feel lost in technicalities.
Whether on stage or on the panel desk, the hosts are the ones who have the duty of seamlessly guide the audience through an event. They play more of a moderating role and besides being extremely informed they also need to be capable of entertaining the crowds, to start and conduct the conversation topics between the guests and ultimately to build the hype for everyone watching.
Alex'machine' Richardson - for making an amazing debut as a Dota 2 host. One of the most familiar faces from the CS:GO scene, Machine stepped onto Dota 2 territory for the first time as host of the Boston Major this December. Even for the avid consumers of Dota 2 events, in the end, Machine passed as one of "our own" due to his amazing ability to adapt to a whole new game. For his flawless performance in Boston, the Dota2 community welcomes him aboard with great warmth!
Paul 'ReDeYe' Chaloner - for being the true veteran of eSports that everyone loves and respects. ReDeYe’s presence at The International or ESL One or a Major brings, I would dare to say, a royal aura and ensures a great success for any tournament organizer.
Dakota 'KotLGuy' Cox - for his chameleonic power of transforming into either a chill host, moderating the most casual conversations you could ever listen between a few professionals, or a strong stage presence when he is getting to host an all suited up event.
Jorien 'Sheever' van der Heijden - for being one of the most valuable panel hosts and an energetic personality who earns the audience's attention in a blink of an eye. Able to survive any situation, Sheever has been this year the saving grace for many tournaments. Starting with the Shanghai Major when she suddenly got to be the tournament host alongside KotLGuy, Sheever has attached her image to DreamLeague and has been a great panelist at most of the Valve events from this year.
Andrew 'Zyori' Campbell - for his impeccable presence at the Northern Arena BEAT Invitational.
The interviewer of an event can easily be also called the live reporter who has his clear and sometimes impossible mission to bring us the stories from behind the scenes. Unfortunately for the eSports industry, this is still a fairly new job and far from an easy one. To make a player talk about himself, his dreams and his background is quite the challenge at times, but some of the Dota 2 personalities do have a special aura that helps them get the inside peek.
Jake 'SirActionSlacks' Kanner - for being the only person from the entire scene who leaves you with only two options: you either love him or hate him. There is no middle way with SirActionSkacks and his exuberant personality made him the interviewer whose content you have to watch this year, regardless of which side you are.
Kaci Aitchison - for evolving from an awkward presence to a well-documented interviewer and beloved entertainer of The International 6.
Dakota 'KotLGuy' Cox - for his great content from The Summit 5 and The Summit 6.
Jack 'KBBQ' Chen - for being the living bridge between the Chinese players and the rest of the world. Many of you might struggle putting a face next to his name, but truth to be told, KBBQ’s interviews from the Shanghai Major were the only extra content to come from the event, as well as his articles from the Nanyang Cruise Cup. With a journalistic degree in his pocket, KBBQ slowly but surely became an asset for any event. KBBQ signed recently a contract with Beyond the Summit, officially becoming part of their broadcast team.
Jorien 'Sheever' van der Heijden - for her well-conducted winner or loser interviews from The DreamLeague and the many hours of work put at every event she participated.
This is a bright new category that we are happy to introduce into our yearly GosuAwards. We find that for some weird reason, the Dota 2 workshop artists have never benefited of a true recognition besides the Valve’s International and some of the ESL sponsored events where they are invited to showcase their skills and interact with the Dota 2 fans. As art, in any of its forms is a source of endless deliberations, we tried with our first ever five nominations for the Dota 2 Workshop Artist of the Year to bring in front those who created some of the most popular item sets.
Stephanie 'Anuxinamoon' Everett - for being the most well-known item creator among Dota 2 community. Most of her work found a place in one of the many treasure chests, from The International to the Majors. Anuxi is also the creator of EternaLEnvy’s Phantom Assasin - Echoes Aria and Ember Spirit - Vanishing Flame items sets along with the Enchantress - Rustic Enrature for 1437 (Rose).
Chris 'Toasty' Archer - for his amazing artwork for heroes like Naga Siren, who now has a Chinese themed item set, the Eternal Princess, and for being one of the few artists to adventure on to creating a Bane item. The Self-Made Lucid Torment is the 2016 Fall Battle Pass reward for completing the Path of the Protector.
Konrad 'Konras' Krzeminski - for his outstanding items sets created over the years. Konras is responsible for some of the most popular creations, including the Dame de Carreau for Phantom Assassin, the Ember Crane set for Lina, the Eternal Nymph for Puck or the Rightful Heir for Riki.
Michael 'Hawf' Shilliday - for his relentless effort to create something completely new that would fit the Dota 2 universe. Although he doesn’t have too many items or sets accepted in the game, Hawf’s work is a continuous search for something truly unique.
Andrea'motenai' Orioli - for being one of the most interesting artists out there. Almost all of his uploaded creations into his Steam Workshop made it in the game and are speaking about a wicked world, a territory of twisted dreams and amazing tales. Among many other, Motenai is the creator of the Darkclaw Acolyte - Dazzle set for Vanskor, of the Treasure of the Deep –Naga Siren set for Evil Geniuses and Priestess of the Divine Flame - Lina set. We could spend a day talking about this artist’s artwork for Dota 2 but we are sure that his Workshop profile speaks volumes about his talent.
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Abandoned Vehicles: These are unused and undrivable automobiles (like RVs, trucks, cars) that are left on public streets for a long period of time.
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Thank you for helping keep San Jose safe and clean!In both Hong Kong and Singapore, one out of eight families has a foreign domestic helper assisting with domestic chores such as taking care of kids, cleaning and cooking among other domestic responsibilities. The services that the foreign domestic workers offer to families have been determined to be vital for the sustenance of the economies of these two countries as well as keeping families healthy and productive.
Juggling a career and a myriad of domestic responsibilities has never been an easy routine especially for families in some of the fast-growing Asian economies. The extra pairs of hands often come in handy in such scenarios considering that they enable parents and homeowners to attain success in their careers or education while at the same time being sure that their children and homes are in caring hands. Hundreds of thousands of parents and home owners in Hong Kong, Singapore or in the Middle East can attribute a substantial amount of the success they have to the services rendered by their domestic workers.
Having a full-time job and a home to run in a fast-paced environment requires one to think out of the box. Failure to take drastic measures can result in having to lose either of the two, and considering the importance of both; it is always easier to hire a house help. Hiring a foreign domestic helper in Hong Kong and Singapore is relatively easy while also factoring in the benefits that may come out of the venture. In addition, authorities in these countries have also eased the requirements for getting a house help. For instance, in Hong Kong, an employer has to offer the domestic helper a decent accommodation within their household and meet the minimum wage requirements as stipulated in the employment contracts. Similar requirements apply in Singapore, and therefore homeowners have every reason to rid themselves of the stress that come with the management of homes or kids while also pursuing their dreams. Sure, the conditions of domestic helpers are improving but the way to get more holidays or better income is still long for them!
Domestic workers also dedicate their efforts to enhance the well-being of their employers’ children and ensuring that the homes they manage are in perfect conditions. This offers parents and homeowners the time and luxury they need to toil in their careers of pursue education without any stress. As a result, both the employer and the worker benefit mutually. The role that domestic workers play in the growth of any society cannot therefore be disputed.
In Asia, families are increasingly becoming appreciative of the efforts that foreign helpers put in managing their homes and taking care of children. Consequently, cases of employers abusing their domestic helper have substantially declined in the recent past. As a matter of fact, employers are increasingly going beyond the specifications of the employment contracts to ensure that their domestic helpers are comfortable while undertaking their duties. In some cases, employers offer their house helps additional benefits other than those required of them in the employment contracts. They go to as much as offering service-based tips just to ensure that their employees lead comfortable lives during their engagements. In return, the house helps also go beyond their call of duty to ensure that they offer their services wholeheartedly for the mutual gain.
Individuals are also afforded the opportunity to make a decent living while working as domestic helpers in Hong Kong and Singapore and subsequently take care of their dependents back home. Employment rates, especially in the developing countries, have declined. Therefore, working as a domestic helper in either Singapore of Hong Kong can be a unique opportunity to better one’s life. The minimal wages have been standardized to ensure that they are reflective of the efforts that workers put in their work. In addition to benefiting as individuals, nations where the workers come from also benefit by having an inflow of cash. The workers can also use the money they earn to make investments back home as a backup economic plan that will cater for their needs when they return home.
Job seekers from neighbouring developing nations such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh often find it easier to bond with families in Hong Kong and Singapore compared to other nations that purport to offer more promising opportunities. Considering that they have to live together with their host families in the same environment, the rate at which they adapt to the new lifestyles and cultures matters a lot in terms of service delivery. Both Singapore and Hong Kong offer friendly environments for foreign workers to ensure that they blend in with a lot of ease. The governments also offer enough legal protection to the domestic workers in a bid to ascertain their safety and well-being at all times. In addition, employers are also taking it upon themselves to ensure that their employees are satisfied considering the weight of the burden that they take off their hands. As such, while the governments play a significant role in ensuring that the domestic workers live in safe environments, the employers and their families also have a great responsibility to ensure home workers deliver their best during their engagements by offering them the support they need.
Foreign domestic workers play an essential role in sustaining the economies of both the recipient nations and also the nations where they originate. Without distractions from responsibilities at home, people in both Singapore and Hong Kong have ample time to dedicate to their careers or studies. The host nations are increasingly achieving success in terms of ensuring that the working conditions of the foreign workers are favourable and that they are empowered to deliver the best quality of services. Employers are also increasingly taking it upon themselves to create the best environment in their homes to make sure that their foreign domestic helper does not suffer culture shock and that she feels appreciated at all times. As a result, job seekers from the neighbouring nations such as the Philippines, Indonesia, and Bangladesh find it more favourable to work as domestic helpers in Singapore or Hong Kong compared to others such as the Gulf States.Security analysts at Check Point have discovered a browser hijacking operation called "Fireball" that has already claimed 250 million victims globally. Fireball starts off as a browser hijack with the ability to manipulate page views and redirect users, but can also be used as a malware downloader, according to Check Point.
The name "Fireball" was given to the campaign by Check Point researchers.
"The name does not derive from the malware's characteristics or original name," Maya Horowitz, group manager for threat intelligence at Check Point, told eWEEK.
Fireball is not exploiting any new zero-day vulnerability; rather it is installed on unsuspecting Microsoft Windows operating system user systems as part of a software bundle. Bundling unwanted and unknown components as part of a software download is commonly referred to as potentially unwanted programs (PUPs). Among the common downloads that include Fireball are several freeware applications, including Deal Wifi, Mustang Browser, Soso Desktop and FVP Imageviewer. Horowitz noted that most Fireball samples are identified as PUPs by the Virus Total free online scanning service.
"Victims download and install the malware, thinking that it's a different freeware," she said. "As there is a huge install base, we assume there are additional attack vectors of which we are not aware."
Check Point found Fireball infections all over the world, with 25.3 million infections in India, another 24.1 million in Brazil and 13.1 million in Indonesia. In contrast, the number of U.S. infections stands at 5.5 million, according to Check Point.
Check Point's analysis found that Fireball makes use of sophisticated anti-detection techniques to avoid being blocked by security software and includes a flexible command and control structure at the back end. Although Check Point is calling Fireball malware, it is actually being run by a Chinese digital marketing agency called Rafotech as a tool to expand advertising reach.
"We haven't contacted them [Rafotech] to see the behavior of the malware as enough to declare it as such," Horowitz said. "To emphasize—the malware does not conduct pure malicious behavior currently, but merely hijacks the search page, but is able to download and run any additional code at any given time."
In Check Point's report on Fireball, the company noted that one possible scenario could be where the operators of Fireball decide to harvest sensitive information from all of the infected systems and sell the data to threat groups.
"Banking and credit card credentials, medical files, patents and business plans can all be widely exposed and abused by threat actors for various purposes," Check Point's report stated. "The potential loss is indescribable and repairing the damage caused by such massive data leakage (if even possible) could take years."
For users to protect themselves against browser highjacks like Fireball, Horowitz has some advice. She suggests that users be aware of any suspicious behavior of devices and web browsers. In particular, one of the key signs that a browser may have been highjacked is if the user's homepage has been changed without user interaction.After a month getting around the city without a car, Guelph city councillor Phil Allt says that regional transit needs to be improved so that more people want to take it.
Allt, the councillor for Ward 3, says that building more highways just encourages people to stay in their cars.
"We can't rely on the old ways of getting around. It's inefficient, it's environmentally unfriendly, it's stressful, it's alienating. There are better ways to do things," said Allt in an interview with Craig Norris on The Morning Edition Tuesday.
"I love driving and I admit to driving fast. It was difficult for me to get out of my car," said Allt. "I do not think that a four-lane highway between Guelph and Kitchener solves anything. All it does is make people like me go far more quickly and far more dangerously."
Allt is referring to the planned expansion of Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph, with work on the new roadway starting this year. Instead Allt would like to see an increased focused on light rail transit and improving local bus networks.
"I have not driven a car for a month and to drive down the highway and to feel really quite alienated from everybody else around you and the really the environment around you as well when you're on this highway between Kitchener and Guelph," said Allt. "It felt quite a bit different. I almost felt dirty driving instead of taking the bus."
He said public transit shouldn't just be for those who can't afford a car.
"Public transit is a class issue, and we need to turn it into a classy issue so that we get more people," he said. "More middle class people, more upper-middle class people, professionals using public transit because they want to."
"I found that I walked and I biked a lot more than I used the bus," said Allt. He called his car-free month a positive public policy-making move, one that he urges other councillors to try.
Although, he wasn't the only councillor trying it. Fellow Guelph city councillor Leanne Piper also commuted by bus for a month.
"I have to give her a lot of credit because she had a regular workday schedule in which to do that. And she found that there were some difficulties with her commute," said Allt, who is retired. "Leanne was really, really challenged in what she could do."
Allt says there is change coming to Guelph's transit system, to make existing routes into more of a grid pattern to allow for more logical and convenient transfer points.In a close vote, a city advisory board signed off on a 25-story version of a proposed office building along Flagler Drive.
The board of West Palm Beach’s Downtown Development Authority voted 3-2 Tuesday to endorse The Related Cos.’ plan for the First Church of Christ Scientist property at 132 Lakeview Ave. The non-binding recommendation will be delivered to the city commission, but the project also must be considered by the Downtown Action Board and the city planning board.
Property east of Olive Avenue is zoned for only five stories, although that height limit has been a matter of debate. The city last year considered allowing a 30-story limit for waterfront buildings.
In its proposal, Related wants permission for a 274,000-square-foot building designed by noted architect David Childs. Critics worry that the new tower would create traffic snarls and block neighbors’ views, but the majority of the DDA board called the latest version of the building a suitable compromise.
"I believe Related has proposed a series of good solutions to the traffic concerns, as well as taken every precaution necessary to preserve the views of the surrounding buildings, so I encourage the mayor and city commission to support this project," Upendo Shabazz, chairwoman of the DDA board, said in a statement.
However, development watchdogs remain concerned about the size |
where Labor fall a bit flat… Or so some would have us believe.
Australia so skilfully negotiated a path through the Global Financial Crisis that we were the envy of the Western World.
Yes having a surplus to work with was advantageous I’m sure, however during the mining boom that preceded the Labor government a chimpanzee with a copy of MYOB could have been Treasurer and achieved a surplus.
I guess that is why when giving out awards, the highly regarded Euromoney didn’t give a “Best Previous Government Award” to the Howard Government, instead giving a “Finance Minister Of The Year” award to Labors Wayne Swan, making him the “World’s Best Treasurer” that year.
However, we not only avoided the recession so many other Western Nations suffered, through Labor Party initiatives we managed record low unemployment, and even made changes to the tax-free threshold to take tens of thousands out of the tax system, many of these students, the same ones Abbott wants to take overtime and shift allowances away from.
Now we have a government with a budget deficit that is spiralling out of control and is far worse than it ever was under the former Labor government. The path towards a surplus this Coalition government fantasizes about is now so distant in the future that Dr Who couldn’t find it with a supercharged Tardis.
The point is we had a good government. Of course they were not perfect, no government ever is, and yes the Rudd/Gillard years were plagued with damaging infighting.
However what we have now is a government that is known for its backwards agenda on environmental issues, hideously unfair budget, and a frighteningly long list of broken promises.
In Tony Abbott we have an allegedly misogynistic leader who appoints himself as Minister for Women and then appoints one woman to his cabinet, only appointing a second after a former male Minister has so badly screwed up the health portfolio that a woman is needed to take the heat.
A government that has chosen to attack Medicare, something that the vast majority of Australians hold as sacred.
A government that treats pensioners and those with disabilities as a burden and seeks to cut their income despite promises to the contrary.
A government that wastes millions of taxpayer dollars on a Royal Commission set up in a bid to weaken the union movement just before the government goes after workers with attacks on penalty rates, wages and working conditions and entitlements, seeking to bring back the WorkChoices Abbott told us was “dead buried and cremated”.
A government that has seen its Assistant Treasurer forced to stand down over corruption allegations, while a string of its members including Ministers, the Attorney General and the Prime Minister himself are exposed for alleged travel expense rorts whilst they were in opposition.
A leader so out of touch with reality he chooses to award a Knighthood to a foreign Prince on the Australia Day weekend.
I wonder if Australia had its time again if we would treat Kevin Rudd and particularly Julia Gillard differently.
It’s like the song says, “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone”.
We are certainly feeling the pain now and I suspect and fear worse may be still to come. Who would have thought that the country could look back on those tumultuous Gillard and Rudd years and think of them as the good ol’ days?
Maybe next time we have a Labor government with a progressive agenda we won’t be so easily duped by an opposition with the media in it’s pocket.
There that’s my dummy spit done with, I feel better now.Over the last decade, CES has become as much about cars as it is about consumer electronics. But 2017 looks ready to blow up even harder with more automotive tech than ever before. The biggest trend will be self-driving cars, exhibited by both automakers and technology companies. Add to that concept cars intended to show what a self-driving car of the future might look like.
Along with the self-driving trend, we have a couple of production car reveals, for those automakers who want to get out there ahead of the following week's Detroit auto show. Other demonstrations will show off concept technology from BMW, equipment supplier Continental and many others that could find its way into production cars of the near future.
New electric cars
Enlarge Image Faraday Future
Upstart electric carmaker Faraday Future showed off a concept car at CES 2016, and leads up to the next CES with plenty of teases about its first production car. So far, Faraday has given us a few photos and videos of a camouflaged car conducting road tests and drag-racing against a Tesla, Ferrari and Bentley. The Faraday Future car looks like it might be a crossover, but we have no information on range or production timing.
Chrysler already revealed a plug-in hybrid version of its new Pacifica minivan, which boasts a fairly large 16 kilowatt-hour battery pack. A fully electric version of the Pacifica will reportedly be unveiled at CES. FCA, Chrysler's parent company, will hold a press conference on January 3 where the car would be revealed, although it might just be a concept.
Self-driving technology
Enlarge Image Antuan Goodwin/Roadshow
Hyundai gave Roadshow's Antuan Goodwin a preview ride in a self-driving version of its new Ioniq sedan, and will show off these research vehicles during CES. Of his driving experience, Goodwin wrote that the car was programmed to drive conservatively, making for a boring but safe experience. With this platform, Hyundai will show CES crowds that it is investing in the future.
Automotive technology supplier Delphi has also provided information about its self-driving demonstration for CES. The company has fitted an Audi SQ5 with sensors and self-driving capability, and will be showcasing its new partnership with Mobileye, a computer vision processing company. One highlight of Delphi's self-driving demonstration during CES will be how its car handles a tunnel, where its GPS signal fails.
Chipmakers will also be on hand to show off how their silicon can process the complex dance of sensor input and drive control output. Japanese chip company Renesas, which counts clients ranging from automotive to factories, will have a prototype self-driving car at the show. Likewise, NXP, which has focused on chips for the automotive industry, will be giving a self-driving car demonstration.
Concept cars
Enlarge Image Honda
Honda explores a high-tech edge with the NeuV concept car it will show during CES. NeuV takes a look at what a commuter car of the near future might look like. The boxy shape suggests function over form, with a comfortable, computer-infused interior designed to react to occupants. Honda suggests that the NeuV would address traffic congestion, possibly through vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems.
Swiss firm Rinspeed, known for coming out with outlandish concept cars that push the technological envelope, will have its latest creation Oasis at the show, presented with partner Harman International. Oasis considers the question of what passengers will do when cars become self-driving. The cabin not only has a TV, but also a garden.
Other concept cars from the likes of Toyota, BlackBerry and even glass maker Corning will show off their sponsoring companies' areas of expertise.
In-car electronics
Enlarge Image BMW
The electronics focus of CES always means a wealth of concept technologies for the car of the future. BMW takes a lead here by showing off what it calls HoloActive Touch, a means of controlling the car's stereo, navigation and other systems through a combination of gesture control and head-up display. BMW already offers both of these technologies in its production cars, so the combination may not be as far-fetched as it might look at first glance.
Automotive equipment maker Continental also has some high-tech cabin gimmicks to show, these in the realm of biometrics. Taking a hint from phones and smart locks, Continental will bring a dashboard-ready fingerprint authentication system to the show. The company suggests cars could require a keyfob and a fingerprint, so help further stymie car thieves. It also will show a facial recognition system, that could recognize drivers and load their personalized settings, such as seat and mirror positions, all automatically.
Press preview days for CES run on January 3 and 4, while the show itself opens from January 5 to 8. Check back here for all of CNET's CES coverage.KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry scrambled to produce a deal by the end of Saturday to end Afghanistan’s election crisis, meeting for the second day with the country’s two presidential candidates and incumbent President Hamid Karzai.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets Afghanistan's incumbent President Hamid Karzai (R) at the presidential palace in Kabul July 12, 2014. REUTERS/Jim Bourg
The deadlock over the June 14 election run-off between the leading contenders, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, has raised concerns in Washington about a smooth transition of power in Afghanistan just as U.S. troops are withdrawing.
Kerry and his aides met throughout the night, following talks on Friday with both Abdullah and Ghani, as well as with Karzai and U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan Jan Kubis.
He met again with Abdullah and Ghani at the U.S. compound on Saturday and will meet Karzai at the presidential palace later.
A news conference is scheduled for Saturday afternoon before Kerry flies to Vienna for talks between world powers and Iran on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Preliminary results from the runoff vote put Ghani, a former World Bank official, in the lead by almost one million votes. Abdullah rejected the result, claiming widespread fraud and calling the outcome a “coup” against the Afghan people.
The United States has urged the Independent Electoral Commision not to release the final vote tally until a thorough review of the votes. It also urged the camps of both Ghani and Abdullah not to declare victory.
As talks unfolded behind closed doors, the rival camps were tight-lipped on the progress.
“In this meeting they both exchanged ideas,” said Mahmoud Saikal, a key member of Abdullah’s camp, speaking about the Friday meeting. “John Kerry wanted more information about all electoral problems.”
Discussions between Kerry and the Afghan parties have so far focussed on the technical details of the election process and the scope of an audit of the votes that would be acceptable to both sides. It has also looked at ways in which Afghanistan could set up an inclusive and broad-based government.
U.S. officials declined to elaborate on the possibility of a unity government, an idea both candidates have rejected, according to a U.S. official.
“This is a divided nation along many lines and it’s very important at this stage in this society to ensure that we build as inclusive and as broad-based and as unified a national government as possible,” a senior administration official.
“It was a close election, regardless of what happens and what the audit comes back and finds.”
“We need to ensure that all communities and constituencies identify themselves in the government and feel represented in the government that ultimately takes over,” the official added.
In comments to reporters on Friday, Kerry said the transition to a self-reliant state hung in the balance unless the legitimacy of the election could be restored.
U.S. officials said several ideas were being discussed and that an overall proposal had not yet been presented by the Americans. Kerry cautioned both sides against abandoning efforts to reach a compromise, the U.S. official said.
Washington has warned of repercussions if either side declares victory and tries to grab power.
The United States is in the process of withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan after 12 years of fighting Taliban insurgents, but the country remains dependent on foreign aid. The U.S. is Afghanistan’s biggest foreign donor.If you haven’t already, take a look at the series The New York Times is running on corporate capture of DC’s think tank’s. I flag it not only because it’s an important, very deep-dive look at an important topic but also because it was a topic I focused a great deal of time on before I started and then just after I started TPM when I was still a full-time reporter. My interest was first piqued by what a close friend of mind called ‘deep lobbying.’
We talk a lot about corporate lobbyists. And their influence is certainly something that at least needs to be made transparent, as our current laws largely do. But having a former Senator stop by the office and chat you up about his latest client simply pales in comparison to ‘deep lobbying’. Having a report produced by a prestigious think tank which supports a policy premise behind your business priority is just infinitely more effective—and in many respects, cheaper—than what we normally call lobbying. And think tanks are usually 501c3 non-profits. So there’s little transparency about where their money comes from.
Brookings is the focus of the Times first piece. But Brookings was actually a late adopter of the practice. It started in other operations with a much more mercenary approach to fund-raising. And then the older and more prestigious organizations followed.
When I was reporting on this I was simply stunned and the kinds of things I found. For instance, the conservative think tank AEI had a China studies program which was pretty hawkish on China and very pro-Taiwan. Not terribly surprising given the ideological constellation in the country. But what I found was that the funding for the Asia Studies program came from a line item in the Tawainese Foreign Ministry’s budget. Really. Believe me, this involved a series of highly awkward middle of the night (time difference) phone calls to various foreign ministry officials. And this was only the start of it.
Again, I’m not saying that formal lobbying isn’t an issue. But a lot of money that goes for this kind of lobbying ends up being dumb money. The think tanks are where a lot of most sophisticated work happens.
Now, it’s not all black and white. Some corporations have interests in underwriting legitimate research that also aligns with their goals. And there are protectionist think tanks and trade liberalization think tanks. So to some extent, the money just goes to the policy rather than changes. But still, the essence of the practice speaks for itself. It’s probably also worth noting that there are comparable processes at play at major research universities, though much less mercenary in focus.
What is probably worth thinking about, beyond seeing the dirty laundry aired, is what’s happened to the disinterested money? Foundations that are generally interested in funding research more or less for its own sake or the ways that the government itself used to underwrite think tank type work, often with in-house government think tanks of various sorts. It’s not to defend anyone. But money and having scholars who do it costs money. Where does it come from? Where else can it come from? And if corporations are the only ones ready to do the underwriting that speaks to a deeper problem that goes beyond the culture of influence.WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says his group’s intel on Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE pales in comparison to the billionaire’s own rhetoric.
Assange, whose organization has released embarrassing Democratic National Committee emails believed to have been hacked by Russian entities, said the group doesn't have anything on Trump that is more controversial than the GOP presidential nominee's own public comments.
“We do have some information about the Republican campaign,” he said Friday, according to The Washington Post.
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“I mean, it’s from a point of view of an investigative journalist organization like WikiLeaks, the problem with the Trump campaign is it’s actually hard for us to publish much more controversial material than what comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth every second day," Assange said.
"I mean, that’s a very strange reality for most of the media to be in."
Assange has made WikiLeaks a factor in the 2016 race by threatening information leaks involving both Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE.
Assange said Wednesday, for example, his organization expects to release surprising knowledge about Clinton before the general presidential election.
“I think it’s significant,” he said of WikiLeaks’s trove on Fox News. “You know, it depends on how it catches fire in the public and in the media.
“I don’t want to give the game away, but it’s a variety of documents from different types of institutions that are associated with the election campaign, some quite unexpected angles, some quite interesting, some even entertaining.”
Assange also said earlier this month WikiLeaks is eager for information it can publicly release about Trump.
“If anyone has any information that is from inside the Trump campaign, which is authentic, it’s not like some claimed witness statement but actually internal documentation, we’d be very happy to receive and publish it,” he said in an Aug. 17 interview aired on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”
WikiLeaks released a trove of nearly 20,000 DNC emails in late July, with some showing top officials suggesting ways to influence the Democratic presidential primary.Labour have published their full manifesto, and it is substantiatively the same as the draft that leaked last week. There are, however, a few changes worth noting, as well as the tightening up of language. (Some loose phrases have been pruned for ambiguity, but I’m not going to go over those).
The biggest change in cost terms is the commitment to end tuition fees, which Labour puts at £11.2bn, the single most expensive measure in the manifesto. The biggest changes are in the attached costing document, which puts a figure on Labour's spending commitments and identifies £50bn worth of tax rises to pay for them. Labour have also added further utility - water - to the list to be renationalised along with energy, the Royal Mail, the railways and buses. However, under John McDonnell's fiscal rule, these are infrastructure, not day-to-day spending, so they don't need to be funded out of existing tax rises.
The most significant change in terms of policy is the commitment to ending the free movement of people within the European Union, though Labour is still in “have cake and eat it mode”, in committing to retaining the full benefits of single market membership and ending the free movement of people. (You can have one, but not both.) That means that Labour will go into the election with their most restrictive policy on immigration since 1970 in fact, albeit one coupled with the most accepting tone towards migration since 1959, when Hugh Gaitskell went into the election opposing the government’s restrictions on Commonwealth immigration.
In a coup for Nia Griffith, the shadow defence secretary, the word “Nato” is now explicitly mentioned in the manifesto. The final text on Trident and defence has been considerably toughened; it is now more pro-Trident than that of Labour’s 2010 manifesto and about equal to its 2015 one.
In a surprising non-change, the commitment to an immediate ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia, remains unaltered, despite some opposition from trades unions with members in the defence industries.Émile François Loubet ( French: [emil lubɛ]; 30 December 1838 – 20 December 1929) was the 45th Prime Minister of France and later President of France.
Trained in law, he became mayor of Montélimar, where he was noted as a forceful orator. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1876 and the Senate in 1885. He was appointed as a Republican minister under Carnot and Ribot. He was briefly Prime Minister of France in 1892. As President (1899–1906), he saw the successful Paris Exhibition of 1900, and the forging of the Entente Cordiale with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, resolving their sharp differences over the Boer War and the Dreyfus Affair.
Early life [ edit ]
Loubet was born on 30 December 1838, the son of a peasant proprietor and mayor of Marsanne (Drôme). Admitted to the Parisian bar in 1862, he took his doctorate in law the next year. He was still a student when he witnessed the sweeping triumph of the Republican party in Paris at the general election in 1863, during the Second French Empire. He settled down to the exercise of his profession in Montélimar, where in 1869 he married Marie-Louise Picard. He also inherited a small estate at Grignan.
Physical description [ edit ]
American politician William Jennings Bryan described Loubet as "below the medium height, even for Frenchmen. His shoulders are broad and his frame indicative of great physical strength. His hair is snow white, as are also his beard and mustache. He wears his beard square cut at the chin.... His voice is soft, and he speaks with great vivacity, emphasizing his words by expressive gestures."[1]
Political career [ edit ]
At the crisis of 1870, which brought about the Empire's end, he became mayor of Montélimar, and thenceforward was a steady supporter of Léon Gambetta. Elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1876 by Montélimar, he was one of the notable 363 parliamentarians who in the 16 May 1877 crisis passed a vote of no confidence in the ministry of Albert, the duke of Broglie.
In the general election of October he was re-elected, local enthusiasm for him being increased by the fact that the government had driven him from the mayoralty. In the Chamber he occupied himself especially with education, fighting the clerical system established by the Loi Falloux, and working for the establishment of free, obligatory and secular primary instruction. In 1880 he became president of the departmental council in Drôme. His support of the second Jules Ferry ministry and his zeal for the colonial expansion of France gave him considerable weight in the moderate Republican party.
He had entered the Senate in 1885, and he became minister of public works in the Tirard ministry (December 1887 to March 1888). In 1892 President Sadi Carnot, who was his personal friend, asked him to form a cabinet. Loubet held the portfolio of the interior with the premiership, and had to deal with the anarchist crimes of that year and with the great strike of Carmaux, in which he acted as arbitrator, giving a decision regarded in many quarters as too favourable to the strikers. He was defeated in November on the question of the Panama scandals, but he retained the ministry of the interior in the next cabinet under Alexandre Ribot, though he resigned on its reconstruction in January.
President of the French Republic (1899–1906) [ edit ]
Painting of Loubet
His reputation as an orator of great force and lucidity of exposition and as a safe and honest statesman procured for him in 1896 the presidency of the Senate, and in February 1899 he was chosen president of the republic in succession to Félix Faure by 483 votes as against 279 recorded by Jules Méline, his only serious competitor.
He was marked out for fierce opposition and bitter insult, as the representative of that section of the Republican party which sought the revision of the Dreyfus affair. On the day of President Faure's funeral Paul Déroulède met the troops under General Roget on their return to barracks, and demanded that the general should march on the Elysée. Roget sensibly took his troops back to barracks. At the Auteuil steeplechase in June, the president was struck on the head with a cane by an anti-Dreyfusard. In that month President Loubet summoned Waldeck-Rousseau to form a cabinet, and at the same time entreated Republicans of all shades of opinion to rally to the defence of the state. By the efforts of Loubet and Waldeck-Rousseau the Dreyfus affair was settled, when Loubet, acting on the advice of General Galliffet, minister of war, remitted the ten years' imprisonment to which Dreyfus was condemned at Rennes.
Loubet's presidency saw an acute stage of the clerical question, which was attacked by Waldeck-Rousseau and in still more drastic fashion by the Combes ministry. The French ambassador was recalled from the Vatican in April 1905, and in July the separation of church and state was voted in the Chamber of Deputies. Feeling had run high between France and Britain over the mutual criticisms passed on the conduct of the South African War and the Dreyfus affair respectively. These differences were composed, by the Anglo-French entente, and in 1904 a convention between the two countries secured the recognition of French claims in Morocco in exchange for non-interference with the British occupation of Egypt. President Loubet belonged to the peasant-proprietor class, and had none of the aristocratic proclivities of President Faure. He inaugurated the Paris Exhibition of 1900, received the Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in September 1901 and paid a visit to Russia in 1902.
On 4 July 1902 President Loubet was elected an honorary member of the Rhode Island Society of the Cincinnati.
Loubet also exchanged visits with King Edward VII, with the king of Portugal, the king of Italy and the king of Spain. During the king of Spain's visit in 1905, an attempt was made on his life, a bomb being thrown under his carriage as he and with his guest left the Opéra Garnier.[2] When his presidency came to an end in January 1906, he became the first President of the Third Republic to have served a full term and without resigning a second one. He retired into private life and died on December 20, 1929 at the age of 90.
Honours [ edit ]
Loubet’s Ministry, 27 February – 6 December 1892 [ edit ]
Changes
8 March 1892 – Godefroy Cavaignac succeeds Roche as Minister for the Colonies. Roche remains Minister of Commerce and Industry.
References [ edit ]
^ Bryan, The Old World and Its Ways (1907: St. Louis, Thompson Publishing), page 510 ^ New York Times article does in fact give their later destination as the "Palais d'Orsay", however, that building had burned down in 1871. Bomb for Loubet and King Alfonso ; New York Times; 1 June 1905; p. 1; Note: Regarding an error in reporting: Thearticle does in fact give their later destination as the "Palais d'Orsay", however, that building had burned down in 1871. ^ Nieuws Van Den Dag (Het) 07-10-1900 ^ "Court Circular". The Times (36811). London. 4 July 1902. p. 3. ^ "Latest intelligence - France". The Times (36801). London. 23 June 1902. p. 5.
Notes [ edit ]Reuters Ford's business is going to look a lot different one day.
The auto giant has big plans to transform itself from a company that just sells cars to a company that touches all aspects of mobility.
Under the leadership of CEO Mark Fields, Ford has made big bets in autonomous tech, electric cars, and transportation services to move the company into this new era.
We recently had the chance to speak with Fields about the company's push into electric cars and how it plans to grow its transportation services. Here's his view on how his company and the larger auto industry will change.
Electric cars will dominate the market in just 15 years
Fields is serious about growing the company's electric products and is making big investments to prove it.
In 2015, Ford announced plans to spend some $4.5 billion by 2020 to offer 13 new electric-vehicle nameplates. Last week the company revealed seven of those vehicles it planned to launch, including an F-150 hybrid, a Mustang hybrid, and a fully electric SUV with a range of 300 miles per charge.
"Our view is that the industry offerings, 15 years from now, is that there is going to be more electrified offerings than there are internal combustion engines," Fields said. "So we want to build a reputation around that, we want to build our brand resonance around that. We want to be a leader in this area."
But just because Ford is making big investments in electrifying its lineup doesn't mean it is abandoning gas-powered vehicles.
"Fifteen years out, there's still going to be a lot of vehicles on the road that are internal combustion engines, and we are going to be there," Fields said. "We are going to be there for the best ones, giving customers what they want, but at the same time we also want to be there for electrification."
Ford's self-driving cars will be for everyone
Ford, along with just about every other major automaker, is making a push in autonomous tech.
But Ford has a more ambitious timeline than some of its competitors, with its first self-driving car for commercial use scheduled to be ready by 2021 with level-four autonomy, or the ability to operate without human intervention in a predefined area. For this reason, its design will not include a brake pedal, an accelerator, or a steering wheel. The vehicle will also be a hybrid and will roll out in some form of a ride-sharing or hailing service, Fields said.
Ford plans to launch the vehicle as part of a ride-sharing fleet instead of selling the car outright to consumers because the company wants to bring the technology to the masses while also creating new business opportunities, especially in urban areas.
Business Insider
"Our approach on autonomous vehicles is, we've had a history going back to our founder Henry Ford of democratizing technology," Fields said. "Not just making it for people who can afford luxury vehicles. And our approach is how do we take this technology and democratize it so that it becomes available for many, many people."
Ford has not yet revealed where its driverless cars for commercial use will roll out first, nor has the company said whether it plans to launch its own network for such a service. Fields said, however, that the company was open to partnering and that a ride-sharing or taxi-hailing service would make the most sense in urban areas. "If you think about the markets, obviously in dense urban areas, autonomous vehicles will be prevalent, but maybe in suburban or rural areas it won't be," Fields said. "And guess what, that is where we have a lot of trucks, our vans, things of that nature, it's a really important business, and we want to continue to grow it and make sure it's vibrant."
Ford's business model is transforming
The rise of electric and autonomous cars has spurred Ford to rethink the way it does business.
"Our business model over many years has been about how many of the vehicles did we sell," Fields said. "Now, we are looking at the ecosystem around that and essentially it's looking at services and revenue, it's about looking beyond just the sale of the vehicle."
Ford
For example, when it comes to its electrification strategy, the company is thinking about not just selling the vehicle but also about how people will power the vehicle, Fields said. So last year the company partnered with BMW, Daimler, and Volkswagen to build out a network of about 400 fast charging sites across Europe.
"First off, we want to see how we make it easier for customers to have an electrified vehicle, but also at the same time, what are the new revenue opportunities for us?" Fields said. "And we will continue to look for those new types of things."
But it's not just mobility services like ride-hailing or charging stations that Ford is looking at. Autonomous cars open up new opportunities to sell an experience, as well, Fields said.
"For a lot of years our business model was all around being fun to drive, but now we've added a new element, being fun to ride," Fields said. "And that means different things to different people. So as we are kind of reimagining the experience in the vehicle."
He said this could mean there would someday be tailored experiences inside the company's vehicles, like a car customized for someone who wants to do business during his or her commute or a vehicle that centers on an entertainment experience.
"We are really thinking through first from a customer instinct," Fields said. "What services can we provide them that makes their lives better, but also provide revenue growth opportunity for us."
Ford will always sell cars
Despite the company's push into driverless cars and new mobility services, Ford has no plans to abandon selling cars, Fields said.
"I think we will always be in the business of always selling cars and trucks, but at the same time we really want to grow the services side of our business," Fields said. "We are going to continue developing cars and trucks, not only to provide vehicles for those services, but you know there's going to be people that will want to buy, drive, and own their vehicles the way they have for many years."
While the company will continue to build and sell cars, it is also looking holistically at mobility, Fields said.
In March the company established Ford Smart Mobility LLC, a subsidiary focused on creating, growing, and investing in new transportation services. Since the launch, Smart Mobility has already made numerous investments in new ventures, including the purchase of Chariot, a San-Francisco-based shuttle service. The company also partnered with Motivate, a bike-sharing company, to launch a bike-sharing program in San Francisco this year.
Ford
The company could someday even consider a subscription service in which a person subscribes to Ford cars and has access on demand, Fields said.
"We are going to experiment with a lot of different things, because again there will be a lot of different people who will just want access versus ownership, and as a company I think it's really important that we understand that and figure out a way to experiment and figure out a way to provide those kinds of services," he said.CLOSE Titans running back DeMarco Murray says he and Derrick Henry need success to make coaches want to run the ball. Jason Wolf/ The Tennessean
Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry (22) runs against Oakland Raiders strong safety T.J. Carrie (38) in the first half at Nissan Stadium Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017 in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo: Andrew Nelles / Tennessean.com)
Terry Robiskie pored over the statistics Sunday night, after the Titans lost their second consecutive game, 16-10, to the Dolphins in Miami.
One number leapt off the page. It applied to Derrick Henry.
But as the Titans’ offensive coordinator, responsibility resides with Robiskie.
“You sit down and look at your sheet and you say, ‘Wow. He had four touches,’” Robiskie said after practice Thursday. “You’ve just got to find a way to put the ball in his hands. I don’t know where those touches are going to come from, but they’re going to come from somewhere, we hope. We’re going to find a way to put the ball in his hands a couple more times.”
More: Titans vs. Colts: DeMarco Murray, Derrick Henry workload among 3 keys to victory
More: Titans: Adoree' Jackson's mom, a breast cancer survivor, to be honored before game vs. Colts
The Titans are 10-1 when Henry receives at least seven carries, including 2-0 this season. They are 1-8 in games when he does not, including 0-3 this season.
The Titans (2-3) host the Colts (2-3) on "Monday Night Football," a critical game as both teams strive to keep pace in the AFC South.
Henry has played second fiddle to veteran DeMarco Murray ever since the Titans used a 2016 second-round draft pick to pluck the bruising running back out of Alabama, where he won the Heisman Trophy and helped lead the Crimson Tide to a national championship.
When Murray’s hamstring injury flared in Week 2, Henry rumbled for a career-high 92 yards on 14 carries in a blowout victory against the Jaguars on Sept. 18, the Titans’ first win of the season.
The backs virtually split the workload the following week in a victory against the Seahawks on Sept. 24. Henry had 54 yards on 13 carries, one fewer than Murray, who ran for 115 yards on 14 touches, including a 75-yard score.
More: Titans' Rishard Matthews backtracks from tweet he'd quit NFL rather than stand for anthem
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But from there, Henry’s opportunities and impact have largely vanished.
Henry managed just seven yards on six carries in a blowout loss against the Texans on Oct. 1, and just nine yards on four carries last weekend against the Dolphins, his fewest touches in a game this season.
“We talked about it after that (we) probably need to do a better job of getting Derrick some more balls,” Titans coach Mike Mularkey said Monday.
CLOSE Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota has missed one game with a hamstring injury but thinks he may play against the Colts on Monday night.
Robiskie has said Henry gets stronger the more he touches the ball and wears down opponents.
But Murray remains the superior player in pass protection.
Murray is averaging 54.6 yards per game, the worst of any season in his career aside from his disastrous 2015 season in Philadelphia. But that’s a product of his usage rate.
Buy Photo Tennessee Titans running back DeMarco Murray (29) runs through drills during a joint training camp practice against the Carolina Panthers on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2017, at Saint Thomas Sports Park in Nashville. (Photo: George Walker IV / The Tennessean)
The Titans are giving Murray an average of 11.2 carries per game, by far the lowest of his career, and nearly two full carries fewer than the Eagles provided before trading him to Tennessee for a swap of fourth-round picks.
Murray is still effective. His 4.9 yards per carry rates better than his 4.7 average with the Cowboys in 2014, when a massive workload helped him become the NFL's offensive player of the year.
"I think for this offense it’s important across the board, just for us to get going, Derrick and myself," Murray said. "We’ve just got to find ways to run the ball, and us as running backs, we’ve got to find ways to make it hard for them not to call run plays."
Opponents are stacking the box on defense, but the Titans might be well-served by feeding both |
approach to ensuring that, if they use labour supply companies, those companies are adhering to the law and corporate codes of conduct. It’s time for this to stop.”This article is about the strip. For the book, see Calvin and Hobbes (book).
Calvin and Hobbes was a daily comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Watterson, following the humorous antics of Calvin, an imaginative six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his energetic and sardonic — albeit stuffed — tiger. Syndicated from November 18, 1985 until December 31, 1995, at its height Calvin and Hobbes was carried by over 2,400 newspapers worldwide and is one of the most popular comics. To date, more than 30 million copies of 18 Calvin and Hobbes books have been printed. However, Watterson has mentioned that Calvin and Hobbes never appeared in his own newspaper, making his job somewhat abstract. Unlike political strips such as Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury, the series doesn't mention specific political figures, but it does examine broad issues like environmentalism and the flaws of opinion polls as well as ironicy in human nature.
Calvin and Hobbes Comics
Setting & Cast
The strip is vaguely set in the contemporary Midwestern United States, in the outskirts of suburbia. In one strip, it was revealed that a map of Montana was in the house, but it is unknown if the strip takes place anywhere nearby or not. In another strip, Hobbes recalls that their house is near the letter "E" in the word "STATES" on a map of the U.S.
Calvin and Hobbes themselves appear in most of the strips, though several have focused instead upon Calvin's family. The broad themes of the strip deal with Calvin's flights of fantasy, his friendship with Hobbes, his misadventures, his views on a diverse range of political and cultural issues and his relationships and interactions with his parents, classmates, educators, and other members of society. The dual nature of Hobbes is also a recurring motif; Calvin sees Hobbes as alive, while other characters see him as a stuffed animal.
Merchandising
Because of Watterson's strong anti-licensing sentiments and his reluctance to return to the spotlight, almost no legitimate Calvin and Hobbes licensed material exists outside of the book collections, but collectors do collect items that were officially approved for marketing purposes. Three notable exceptions to the licensing embargo were the publication of two 16-month wall calendars, the textbook Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes, and one t-shirt for an exhibit at the MoMa. However, the strip's immense popularity has led to the appearance of various "bootleg" items, including T-shirts, keychains, bumper stickers, and window decals, often including obscene language or references wholly uncharacteristic of the whimsical spirit of Watterson's work.First Japanese reactors prepare for restart
22 May 2015
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Japan's nuclear regulator has approved Kyushu Electric Power Company's 'construction plan' for unit 2 of its Sendai nuclear power plant. The company hopes to restart unit 1 of the plant in July, with unit 2 following within months.
The Sendai plant (Image: Kyushu)
Kyushu submitted a joint application to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) in July 2013 for the necessary permissions to restart both units 1 and 2 of the Sendai plant in Japan's Kagoshima prefecture. These approvals include: permission to make changes to the reactor installations; approval of its construction plan to strengthen the plant; and, final safety inspections to ensure the units meet new safety requirements.
The NRA gave Kyushu approval in September 2014 to make changes to the reactor installations at both units. That approval - which meant the NRA considered the two reactors, and the plant as a whole, to be safe for operation - represented by far the major part of the licensing process. Approval of the company's construction plan for unit 1 was given on 18 March 2015.
The NRA has today approved the construction plan for unit 2. Kyushu had submitted an amendment to that plan on 28 April.
With the latest approval, Sendai 1 and 2 have now both been granted two of the three regulatory approvals needed for restart. The remaining approval is for inspections to check operational safety programs.
Kyushu has already obtained approval from the prefectural government and that of Satsuma-Sendai City for the restart of Sendai 1 and 2.
'Pre-use' inspections got under way at unit 1 on 30 March. Kyushu plans to load fuel into the reactor during the first half of June. Following final safety inspections it anticipates restarting the unit in mid-July, with the reactor reaching full power by the end of that month. It expects the unit to "return to normal operation" by mid-August.
The two 890 MWe pressurized water reactors at Sendai were taken offline for periodic inspections in May and September 2011, respectively. The restart of the units has been prioritised, in part due to local support in Kagoshima prefecture.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News
Related topicsD.C. United’s young star has entered the international scene.After his first training sessions with the Honduran National Team in Florida this week, AndyNajar has arrived in New Jersey and is ready to face Colombia at Red BullArena. Just hours away from his international debut, the 2010 MLS Rookie of theYear discussed his first experiences with Honduras and hisexpectations for Saturday’s contest (8:00 PM ET, no TV).
How was the team’s welcoming?
They were great; everybody is really nice here. I amgrateful to them for giving me such a warm welcome, and I am happy because I am gettingto know the whole group.
Have your teammates pulled a prank on you for being a rookie?
Not yet, but they have already told me that they are goingto cut my hair. So I am prepared and ready to run when the time comes.
Is there someone in particular that you are getting alongwith?
I am getting along with everyone, really. I am slowlygetting more comfortable with my teammates and also with the coaching staff.
How were your first training sessions?
They were great. I was very happy on the training fieldbecause I have finally fulfilled my dream of practicing with the National Team.
What has Suárez[Head Coach] askedof you?
Nothing in particular. We did a few collective and tacticaldrills. We also did one-on-one exercises. I felt very comfortable during thetraining sessions.
Where do you see yourself on the field?
I will play in the same place I have been playing lately. Ihave already told [the coaches] where I feel more comfortable. If they decideto place me on the right wing I think I will respond well.
How do you compare the international level with that of MLS?
I think [the international level] is based more ontechnique. This is great because it will help me develop my soccer skills. Thisexperience will also help me keep learning a little bit more about soccer everyday.
Have you been impressed by someone in particular duringpractice?
Everybody has a great level of play. We are all on the samepage here, and everybody works as hard as the rest.
How are you preparing mentally for Saturday, and what areyour thoughts on potentially playing your first international match against a quality teamsuch as Colombia?
I simply need to be focused. As everyone knows, Colombia dida great job in the Copa America, and they showed a very different level fromwhat they had shown in the past. They are a stronger team now, so we will haveto give it our best on Saturday. I hope I get the chance of playing someminutes.
How is your family living this moment? What have they saidto you?
They are very happy. There aren’t words to describe thismoment, since my dream has come true. Every time I talk to them they let meknow how happy they are for me.
Will they be watching you at the Red Bull Arena?
Yes, they will be present on Saturday to watch me play, incase I get the opportunity to step in.
What have your D.C. United teammates said to you about yourfirst call-up?
Everybody congratulated me for the call-up. They have allshown their support, and they are happy that I will finally play at aninternational level.
How do you picture Saturday’s game? What will go throughyour head when you go out on the field wearing the Honduran uniform?
I think I will be filled with joy. I don’t think I will havewords to describe that great moment. As everybody knows, this will be my firstgame, my debut - I will be extremely happy. I will also be a littlenervous, but I know it will pass quickly. I will be very cheered up.From early work with Paths of Glory to Lolita, to his coffee-black comedy Doctor Strangelove, the droog dystopia A Clockwork Orange, and later with The Shining and the unblinking stare into the Vietnam War with Full Metal Jacket, and in 1999, his final film, Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick is one of the most well-known names in cinema of all time.
He is remembered for his Hobbesian outlook on the human condition, a sober and cold quality to telling his stories, and his masterful, singular technique. He was an early adopter of the Steadicam and personally invented the handheld eyepiece for choosing which lenses he wanted to use.
Apart from urban legends about being involved from everything from faking the moon landing to having been assassinated for revealing too many of the Illuminati’s secrets with Eyes Wide Shut, there are many, many stories about his directing style and how he treated his actors during shoots—having Shelly Duvall, while shooting The Shining, close a door dozens of times before she did it, according to Kubrick, “just right,” settling arguments with his actors with chess matches, and earning Eyes Wide Shut the Guinness Book of World Record title of longest shoot at four hundred days.
Today, Stanley Kubrick’s influence remains strongly felt in modern cinema. He is still inspiring many current filmmakers. Here are ten of the best Kubrickian films.
10. Birth (2004)
Featuring one of Nicole Kidman’s greatest, underrated performances, Birth is a delicately unsettling and quiet film that owes as much to Kubrick as it does, perhaps, to Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby.
When Anna (Kidman), a young widow, is approached by a ten-year-old boy claiming to be her reincarnated late husband, what follows is an unsettling, mesmerizing journey for Anne. Her new fiancé (Danny Houston) rejects the idea outright, like any sensible person, but Anne wants to believe.
She misses her husband tremendously, and as the boy (who is also named Sean) begins to reveal certain things he “remembers,” Anne begins to let go of her initial doubts. Is Sean actually Sean? Or is he just a clever kid seeking attention?
Directed by Jonathan Glazer with incredible restraint, Birth showcases stellar performances—especially from an early performance from Cameron Bright as Sean—as well as some great, very Kubrickian use of Steadicam and a heavy dose of quiet coldness. Many scenes center around lush New York City apartments will recall Eyes Wide Shut, which also starred Nicole Kidman with then-husband Tom Cruise.
9. Melancholia (2011)
In a handful of days the titular planetoid is set to collide with Earth, destroying all life in the process. Starring Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg as sisters Justine and Claire, Justine is due to get married but her mounting depression drives a wedge between her fiancé, causes her to lose her job, and results in only her sister Claire, alone, as the only one who refuses to give up on her.
They are complete opposites in their outlook—one refuses to look away from the approaching doom and the other believes desperately and naively that there must be some way to avoid it. With a breathtaking ending that analyzes people’s willingness for pacification as well as acceptance in the face of destruction, Melancholia—it should come as no surprise—isn’t exactly a feel-good time.
Lars von Trier has been quoted as saying he was dealing with depression at the time of writing Melancholia, which for anyone who has seen it likely picked up on that straightaway. He borrows a great deal from Kubrick here, with some deft camerawork and choices of classical music. Melancholia is a heavy, harrowing experience anyone who appreciates Kubrick’s cold stare into the eye of the abyss should not pass up.
8. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
With long takes, single-point perspectives, and symmetrical framing, the way Wes Anderson and Stanley Kubrick compose their shots is incredibly analogous. Colorful and fun, The Grand Budapest Hotel seems to be the culmination of Wes Anderson’s skills and many years of practice aligning perfectly for one film, executed with absolute brilliance.
The story itself is a light-hearted yarn about a hotel concierge lothario and his good-hearted lobby boy trying to recover a painting, “Boy with Apple,” from a corrupt wealthy family—complete with the sort of high-jinks and one-liners that any fan of Anderson comes to expect from his inimitable humor.
The film itself is a feast for the eyes, with some techniques that, since the advent of CGI, are rarely seen on screen anymore—miniatures, rear-projection, and puppets.
Though the stories they tell couldn’t be more dissimilar; one could argue Wes Anderson is what Kubrick could’ve been if he’d had a happier childhood—spent more time building forts outside than poring over doorstop-sized books about Napoleon. Highly recommended.
7. Eraserhead (1977)
Cited as Kubrick’s favorite film, David Lynch’s career-making 1977 masterpiece in surrealism shares some DNA with The Shining, especially in the later half when things in the Overlook Hotel begin to go off the rails.
There is a tightly wound aspect to Henry that’s not too dissimilar from that of Jack Torrance; though Henry is being cut off from the world by his deformed baby, Jack’s mounting cabin fever (and the evil spirits of the hotel) is tearing him away from his family.
Both films are about isolation and family and how the two, combined, can sometimes lead to growing out of touch with reality. Just in Henry’s case, he doesn’t freeze to death in a hedge maze. But, there is always the reassurance that in heaven, everything is fine.
6. Enemy (2013)
The 2013 mind-bender from director Denis Villeneuve has Jake Gyllenhaal as Adam, a feckless college professor, who notices his exact double in the background of a movie and swiftly becomes obsessed with tracking down his lookalike. When Adam manages to meet his fledgling actor, he discovers the two men couldn’t be more dissimilar despite their startlingly carbon-copy outward similarities.
The two become twisted up in one another’s lives, assuming one another’s parts like little kid twin brothers might, but instead of simply confusing their teacher, it leads to disastrous results. And a puzzling ending that divided critics and audiences alike—not too dissimilarly to how upon release, many of Kubrick’s films were treated.
It’s easy to think that something considered a masterpiece now was always considered such, but while Enemy will unlikely go down in the annals of film quite like anything of Kubrick’s, when it was first released most of his films were met with mixed receptions.
With an eerie opening scene featuring high-heeled women in a dark room stepping on spiders for a clandestine audience’s pleasure, it’s twisty plot, and a serious head-scratcher of an ending, Enemy requires multiple viewings to fully appreciate—or, if you’re lacking time, search for an in-depth breakdown on YouTube.
It’s a maze well worth your time, albeit one that needs to have every corner thoroughly scoured before any hard truth can hope to be found.Deal includes stakes in Sky and Hollywood studio and is expected to lead to split in family empire building dynasty
Rupert Murdoch is set to announce a $60bn (£45bn) deal to sell assets in 21st Century Fox, including a 39% stake in Sky and a Hollywood studio, to rival Disney.
The deal, which will reportedly be announced before the New York stock exchange opens on Thursday, or around midday UK time, marks a turning point in an empire building career that started in the 1950s and is expected to lead to a split in the Murdoch family dynasty.
Rupert’s son James Murdoch, the Fox chief executive, will leave the company, either to join Disney in a senior role or set up his own venture, according to the Financial Times
The deal includes the 20th Century Fox film studio, home to franchises including Avatar and Ice Age, Fox’s TV production business, which produces shows including The Simpsons and Modern Family, and cable stations FX and National Geographic. Internationally, Disney would pick up Fox’s 39% stake in Sky, the Star network in India and the Fox International Channels business, which airs shows such as The Walking Dead.
“It is a fundamental parting of ways between James and his father,” says Claire Enders, founder of Enders Analysis. “It is an extraordinary change of dynamic.”
Fox’s bid to buy the 61% of Sky it does not already own, which has been mired in a protracted regulatory process, will now be inherited by Disney. One senior analyst said the deal is set to change the balance of power and control of news media in the UK due its ramifications for Britain’s biggest pay-TV network.
“It means another company other than Fox will own Sky in due course,” says Enders. “The level of power the Murdochs would have had owning 100% of Sky, including Sky News, and the newspapers and the issues that has raised will be washed away.”
As well as breaking up his own media empire which he has built over five decades, 86-year-old Rupert Murdoch is attempting to make his family one of the major shareholders of an enlarged Disney, which would become the world’s most powerful entertainment company. According to reports, the Murdoch family trust is expected to take a 5% stake in Disney.
Rupert Murdoch has made the strategic move to secure his family’s legacy, after missing out on sealing an $80bn deal to takeover Time Warner to build the scale needed as film attendance falls and new rivals emerge including Apple, Amazon, Google and Netflix.
The deal will be scrutinised by the US and UK regulatory authorities. A Disney-Fox combination would see it control almost 40% of the $11bn US box office, the biggest movie market in the world.
Following the Disney deal, Fox will retain ownership of Fox News, its biggest profit driver, Fox Sports channel and sports rights, Fox Business and its broadcast TV network of 28 local television stations in the US.
Rupert and his elder son, Lachlan, would also continue to run News Corp, the separately listed company that owns the Sun, Times, Sunday Times, Wall Street Journal and book publisher Harper Collins. Analysts are speculating whether in the long-term the remnants of 21st Century Fox will be folded into News Corp.It's hard to imagine now, but not so long ago, men were scouring mainstream movies for glimpses of naked flesh. In Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004), Goldstein and Rosenberg, the Jewish neighbors, sit around, smoking pot, waiting attentively for a glimpse of Katie Holmes's breasts (the scene in question, from The Gift, is not sexy at all, though that doesn't stop them from trying to get their fix). In Knocked Up (2007), it was still early enough in history that characters could reasonably spend their time finding and listing the various nude scenes of famous actresses. That was only seven years ago, but it may as well have been a hundred. The era of the titillating mainstream sex scene has abruptly ended. Now on-screen sex is either grim or boring.
Don't Look Now
It was a glorious era, no doubt, that narrow window between the beginning of the sexual revolution and the pornification of culture. Anyone who was an adolescent in the 1990s will remember Henry & June or The Unbearable Lightness of Being, beacons of worldliness and fleshiness. Before then, of course, there was the magnificent sex scene in Don't Look Now, which apparently shocked people. And of course Last Tango in Paris, for millions the beginning of the possibility of straight anal. In hindsight, all of these movies seem ludicrously tame. Sex, Lies, and Videotape may as well have been made by Victorians. Seeing these movies now, the question is, "What was all the fuss about?"
Who can be shocked by anything sexual after the advent of high-speed Internet access, when roughly this happened to men:
The fact that any man with access to the Internet can see as much nudity as he cares to has consequences for visual culture as a whole, which filmmakers have not yet comprehended. By now it is nearly impossible to shock men with mere images of sex. The sight of Katie Holmes's breast isn't going to cut it. This alone makes the sex scene all the more difficult to execute, even as it makes it so much more tempting to try. The world is far more liberal and less hung-up. But the grand pornification has also been, in part, a grand benumbing. Which makes it ever more tantalizing as a subject for social commentary.
Last Tango in Paris
Two recent films have tried to reinterpret the sex scene for a porn age. The first is last year's French lesbian love story Blue Is the Warmest Color, which contains a nearly ten-minute sex scene between the two co-stars. The second is Lars von Trier's new Nymphomaniac, whose first part is about to be released in theaters and is already available on demand. Nymphomaniac has tried to fuse film and porn in a literal sense. Von Trier has digitally combined the faces of actors pretending to screw with the bodies of porn stars actually screwing. (He always was an innovator.)
Both of these movies are playing catch-up with porn, and both lose in the process. The sex scenes in Blue Is the Warmest Color, as several lesbian critics pointed out, have very little to do with the way real lesbians have sex. Neither of the actresses is a lesbian, and the director is a man. In other words, the sex is "lesbian porn." As such, everybody had already seen it when the movie came out. Watching its infamous sex scene, I had an amazing thought: How is it possible that I am bored? And yet there was no question that it was dull, oppressive even.
Nymphomaniac is much worse. It's what a second-year graduate student enrolled in a program of French philosophy thinks sex is like. Von Trier's movie follows the picaresque sexual adventures of a character played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, as she indulges a series of bland, pointless, totally unbelievable desires that involve chanting in Latin and blowing strangers in public compartments in moving trains, and then relates these adventures to a fly fishing-obsessed old man who offers her pseudo-philosophical approval. It's dreadful. There are "fetishes," which I assume Von Trier imagines to be shocking, though they're nothing compared to what you can find on any free porn site. There are strange sexual "power games," which he images to be transgressive but wouldn't shock any fifteen-year-old boy.
Both Nymphomaniac and Blue Is the Warmest Color play with the conventions of porn as a genre, but they haven't fathomed its most important distinction from film, which is the way it's consumed. A movie is a passive communal experience. We gather together in a dark room and allow somebody's vision to wash over us. Porn is consumed privately, and actively. Porn induces an almost unreal level of specificity among its viewers. The PornMD live search caused a stir when it was released a few weeks ago, mainly because of all the horrible things men were looking up. But once you get past the horror, the weird thing is how narrow the desires revealed are. This list is from literally one minute on PornMD: "Sex nick egyptian directly," "devil angel," "east london," "urethral," "south indian aunty," "retarded & horny," "clothed-sex," "funny self suck," "self anal." (This last one, I assume, is just wishful thinking. Nobody can do that, can they? Can they?)
When we watch a sex scene in a mainstream movie now, what we're watching is somebody else's porn, porn we can't turn off. It is the height of filmic self-indulgence. It is boring and far from erotic. Porn requires a rewriting of the rules of the sex scene, which has clearly not happened yet. Perhaps it will some day. But the new erotic won't be found in porn-focused movies like Blue or Nymphomaniac. It will be found as far from porn as possible. It might even be clothed.Tomorrow is Leap Day. Let’s find out random crap about it.
I am preternaturally drawn to Leap Day. Can’t really explain why. Maybe it’s my love of things that are just ever so slightly “off” — like pre-drilled screw holes from IKEA or error baseball cards or karaoke renditions of Alicia Keys.
This is actually the first time 11 Points has been around for a Leap Day — I launched the site in June 2008, so we missed it. And I wasn’t going to delay gratification and hold off until 2016 to write a list about February 29th. That’s like tantric-level Leap Day patience.
So here are 11 random facts and bits of nonsense about Leap Day, aka February 29th, aka tomorrow, aka Ja Rule’s birthday. Leap Day’s not always there when you call, but it’s always on time. So let’s start livin’ it up.
1 | You’ve got a 1-in-1461 chance of being born on a leap day
Well, not you specifically. You were born on a different day. The royal you. (Also, about four million people worldwide have a February 29th birthday. Which makes me wonder…)
2 | When do people with leap day birthdays celebrate it on non-leap years?
The general response is, “February 28th, March 1st, whatever they want.” And that’s the general response because we live in the everyone-gets-a-trophy age of social hive-mindedness where everything everyone says is always right and important. Not on my watch. I want real answers. And who better to give us answers than the government, right?
Turns out February 29th birthdays are handled differently everywhere. In most U.S. states and places like the U.K. and Hong Kong, people with 2/29 birthdays don’t hit legal milestones (drinking age, smoking age, rental car age, topless strip club with alcohol age, bottomless strip club without alcohol age) until March 1st. In places including China, Taiwan and New Zealand, February 28th is the legal birthday. So check with your local elected officials (or, I guess in some of the above cases, communists) to find out.
3 | The formula for calculating which years do and don’t have Leap Days is more complicated than you might realize
So one out of every four years is a Leap Year. That’s true. Mostly. Now we get into the caveats that resemble Mr. Burns describing his baseball signals.
There’s a Leap Day added every four years unless the year is perfectly divisible by 100, in which case there’s no Leap Day. Unless the year is also perfectly divisible by 400, in which case the previous rule is nullified and there is a Leap Day. So 2000 had a February 29th because it was perfectly divisible by 400, while 2100 won’t have one because it’s only perfectly divisible by 100. Of course, that could all be thrown off if I tap my belt not once, not twice, but thrice.
4 | Most of us won’t ever see a Leap Day skipped in our lifetimes
The last time a Leap Day was skipped was in February of 1900. The next time will be in February of 2100. So unless modern medicine is keeping us all alive and miserable well into our early 100s, most of the people reading this list will always get a Leap Day every four years.
On that note, I checked it out, and there are actually only 30 people alive right now who experienced the skipped Leap Day in 1900. And the odds are none of them remembers — they would’ve been between a few weeks and three years old at the time. Meaning they were working in coal mines, not focused on zany calendar anomalies.
5 | Because of the Leap Day, you may have to work on New Year’s Eve this year
Leap Years are the only years where January 1st and December 31st are on different days of the week — every other year they’re on the same day.
That means December 31st will be on a Monday, not a Sunday. Which means you may have to go in to work that day, then leave so you can go out for a night that will be even more disappointing than the average New Year’s.
6 | February 29th is the one day where women are traditionally expected to propose to men
And not just in Amy Adams movies. This actually is an Old Country (who knows which Old Country) tradition. And if the man turns you down, he’s supposed to give you cash or clothing. Seems like a fair tradeoff for an eternity of humiliation, shattered self-esteem, and futile attempts to find someone who wants to buy a second-hand, unlucky engagement ring sized for a giant man-sized finger.
7 | Leap Day doesn’t hold up in court
People have tried all sorts of Leap Day tricks in court… and, apparently, they lose pretty much every time. Prisoners who have one-year sentences have to serve the extra day if their year crosses Leap Day. A woman tried claiming she was entitled to her husband’s Social Security benefits because even though it looked like they got divorced just days before their 10th anniversary, counting their Leap Days as extra would push them over 10 years. A guy who had a certain number of days to file papers claimed February 29th shouldn’t count as a day against him. In all cases, these moves failed.
8 | Sweden once celebrated February 30th, too
In 1700, Sweden was planning to switch its calendar to the modern Gregorian calendar from the older Julian calendar… and they’d do it by eliminating Leap Days for 40 years. But then they got into the Great Northern War and forgot the plan. Eventually their times were so screwed up that they needed to add a February 30th to get back to normal. I can only imagine how much that cut into their Smarch.
9 | There’s a former world leader who was born on a Leap Day and died on a Leap Day
There’s only one famous person who was born on a Leap Day and died on a Leap Day. And I use the term “famous” as loosely as a VH1 reality show. Sir James Milne Wilson, the eighth premier of Tasmania, was born on February 29th, 1812 and died on February 29th, 1880 — his “17th” birthday. If it weren’t for that, you’d probably only know him for work on growing free trade amongst the Australian colonies.
10 | The Hindu and Hebrew calendars add a full Leap Month
They both use lunar-solar mixes, which makes everything crazy — so to keep holidays consistent with their traditional seasons, they have to sprinkle in Leap Months every three-ish years. That’s a massive correction, versus Leap Day which is a minor one. In iPhone terms, the Hebrew and Hindu leaps are like when you type in “nfjfnfnagt” and it autocorrects to “McKinney”… the Gregorian leaps are like when you type in “Yo” and it autocorrects to “To”.
11 | The Leap Day traditions presented in 30 Rock this year could become realities
30 Rock has pretty much fallen off a cliff but its recent Leap Day episode was perfect. So feel free to poke someone in the eye if they’re not wearing blue and yellow on February 29th… dress up at Leap Day William… and trade candy for children’s tears.
This could become a real Leap Day tradition. I mean, Festivus has pretty much become a real thing because of Seinfeld. Every year I listen to the Pennsylvania Polka and say “It’s cold out there today / it’s cold out there every day” on February 2nd because of Groundhog Day. And I gather dozens of my friends and make sure we’re all brutally unfunny on both New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day. Movies and TV shows about holidays can really shape those holidays.
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Check out 11 Things to Do This Leap Day on one of my new partner sites, Modern Primate!
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You may also like…
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11 Legendary Christmas Songs Written by JewsTemple Run, Instagram, Flipboard, Vine, Angry Birds...sometimes it seems like all the great apps start on iOS before making their way to Android. But not all apps start their life inside of Apple’s walled garden—some have launched on Android first and have yet to make their way to iOS. While iPhone users are often first to experience the latest games, Android users get apps that fully automate their phones and predict what they want to type next.
Here are five apps that Android users can brag about to their iPhone-toting friends.
Tasker ($3)
Tasker (Click to view full image)
Tasker helps make your smartphone actually feel smart. The app lets you create profiles that automatically execute certain tasks when specific criteria are met. For instance, you can have your phone automatically launch the music app when you plug in headphones, or have your phone silence itself when you get to the office. There’s really no limit to the types of profiles you can create, and there are entire websites dedicated to Tasker profiles if you’re not up to the task of creating one yourself.
The app does have a bit of a learning curve, though, so I’d recommend going through the tutorial or looking one up online to get down the basics. There’s a lot of trial and error involved when building your first Tasker profile, but there’s an unmatched feeling of joy when all your hard work finally pays off.
Sure the idea of automating your phone sounds nerdy, but it’s unequivocally cool to have your phone automatically respond to text messages while you sleep.
Astro File Manager (Free)
Astro File Manager (click to view full image)
If you’ve ever created a file on your iPhone or iPad, you know what a huge pain it can be to move it off of the device. You have to either plug it into iTunes to retrieve it or hope that you have an app installed that works with the app you used to create the file in the first place. It’s way more convoluted than it should be.
While I’m not saying Android is any better when it comes to creating documents, it certainly is better at managing them. Astro File Manager gives you access to all of the data stored on your phone. The app lets you move folders and files around your phone’s internal memory and SD card, and you can also connect to your Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive accounts to move your files between your phone and the Internet (aka the cloud).
The app even has a memory manager so you can see which apps are taking up the most space on your phone so you can address them accordingly. You can also use Astro File Manager to back up your apps (and their data) to your MicroSD card—handy in case you need to reset your device or switch to a new one.
AirDroid (Free)
AirDroid (click to view full image)
With AirDroid, you don’t even need to touch your phone in order to use it. The app lets you access your phone remotely by going to web.airdroid.com and scanning the QR code on the page. The free version of the service lets you do things like reply to text messages, organize your photos, and play music, while the paid version lets you remotely access your camera and helps you locate a missing or stolen device.
AirDroid web view.
If you’re not one to carry a Micro-USB cable everywhere you go, AirDroid also lets you transfer content to and from your phone without ever having to plug it into your computer. (Just make sure you’re on Wi-Fi if you’re planning on moving over gigabytes of data.)
So why exactly would you want to access your phone on your computer? Aside from all the benefits I listed above, the number one reason to do it would be because you left your phone out of arm’s reach and are too lazy to get up to answer a text message. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
SwiftKey ($4)
SwiftKey (click to view full image)
Say farewell to typos. SwiftKey is a third party keyboard app that adapts to the way you write by learning which words and phrases you use most often, allowing for a better typing experience because your phone isn’t constantly autocorrecting “Yo” into “to”. After a while, you get to the point where you can mash your thumbs randomly on screen and have SwiftKey predict exactly what you wanted to say, punctuation and all. Neat.
For those of us out there that find typing passé, SwiftKey has a feature called Flow that lets you glide your fingers over keys to form words and sentences (kind of like Swype). SwiftKey also supports multiple languages simultaneously, so you don’t have to go into the settings every time you want to switch the keyboard language from English to French, and the app comes with several themes to change how the keyboard appears on screen.
Nova Launcher ($4)
A home screen customized with Nova Launcher.
Shouldn’t your phone look the way you want it to? With Nova Launcher, you can customize your Android home screen to give it a unique look that’ll be the envy of everyone on your block. The app makes it easy to change your app icons, app drawer, and home-screen animations to something more in line with your artistic vision, and there are plenty of premade themes available on the Play Store (if you’re feeling lazy).
There are also websites and forums where people post their Android home-screen designs and tell you how you can achieve the same look—handy if you’re looking for some inspiration. On my home screen that you can see here, I hid the dock and the notification bar to give my phone a super minimalistic aesthetic. Try doing that on an iPhone.
A new hope?
While it’s unlikely that Apple would ever let something like Nova Launcher or Astro |
, before anyone knew the names Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, even before the New York Post splashed two completely innocent brown "Bag Men" on the front cover. As it was, not even two hours after the bombing, WorldNutDaily goon Erik Rush had been glibly lashing out at the Saudis on Twitter, then firing back at someone who asked if he was already blaming Muslims for the Marathon Bombing, “Yes, they’re evil. Let’s kill them all.” (“Sarcasm, idiot,” was how he later backed out.)
"We could all feel it coming," said Hussain, the daughter of Pakistani immigrants and first person in her extended family born in the United States. Growing up in Windham, N.H., among a local community of more than 100 others who shared her faith, she was was only 10 on September 11, 2001. New England was the only home she’d ever known. So it was both confusing and upsetting when people started calling her “terrorist” at school, or when kids would make jokes about her "Uncle Saddam." Or when, on a field trip, a student from another class told her to go back to own country. “That was the most confusing taunt," she said. "This is my country.”
A summa cum laude graduate of Emerson College, Hussain is the regional director of Muslim Inter-Scholastic Tournament, a national non-profit that hosts annual faith-based challenges for high-school students of the Islamic faith. (That's her in the photo above, in pink, at a MIST event at MIT earlier this month; she doesn't usually wear a headscarf.) On the evening of the bombing, Hussain and her co-regional director released a joint statement to the 300-plus Massachusetts high-school students affiliated with MIST, proactively anticipating "comments of hatred" in the attack's aftermath and urging the young Muslims not to let bullying affect them emotionally.
That same night, Hussain was commiserating with a half-Indian, half-German coworker—someone who isn't Arab or Muslim, but had still been beat up after 9/11 for his looks and his exotic name—when they came up with the idea of making an 'It Gets Better'-style video for people like them. "We just thought, 'Something needs to be done.'" Immediately, Hussain sent an email to her 600 Hubspot colleagues, pitching their support with the video, and within 24 hours, she raised over $1,500 from their network, hired a production guy, and found three people who'd faced anti-Muslim discrimination and were willing to be filmed.
One of those subjects is the Northeastern student, who, despite the stereotype of her headscarf, identifies as a die-hard Patriots fan. "That's what we're trying to get across," confirmed Hussain. "Regardless of what our background is, we all are Bostonians—no more, no less than any other Bostonian. We all feel the pain that Boston feels, we all feel the love that Boston feels, we all feel the pride that Boston feels and our religious or ethnic background doesn’t keep us from feeling that joy, pride, or sadness.”
And then, of course, the worst case scenario turned out to be true: the Tsarnaevs claimed to be Muslims. “We were incredibly disappointed," said Hussain. “But it's embedded in our faith and our teachings that killing is not permitted, so I personally do not consider these individuals to be actual followers of the Muslim faith, but rather some radical ideology that exists outside of Islam.”
Not everyone is enlightened enough to see such a distinction. On Friday, amid the public celebration on the Boston Common, many of Hussain’s friends and acquaintances decided that it would be safest to stay indoors. “It's just sad that when an entire city is mourning, part of that population is not able to participate,” she said. On Facebook, Hussain watched Muslim teens contemplate staying home from school on Monday, fearing harassment. Even Hussain has altered her routine since the bombing, taking a taxi home every night and asking the driver to drop her off directly in front of her apartment, rather than walking home alone.
"I don't feel comfortable walking through my own city," she admitted. "I've lived on the same four blocks of Boston, right off Boylston Street, for the last four years. And now, all the sudden, I'm afraid to walk them alone."
To contact the author of this post, write to camille@gawker.com.Harrison Barnes Named to 2012-13 NBA All-Rookie First Team
Seventh Overall Pick in 2012 NBA Draft Averaged 9.2 Points, 4.1 Rebounds And 1.2 Assists In 81 Games This Season
Golden State Warriors forward Harrison Barnes has been named to the 2012-13 NBA All-Rookie First Team, the NBA announced today.
Barnes, 20, averaged 9.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 25.8 minutes over 81 games during his rookie NBA season in 2012-13. Among rookie leaders, he ranked fifth in scoring, 10th in rebounding, 10th in field goal percentage (.439) and seventh in three-point percentage (.359). The 6'8" forward started all 81 games in which he appeared, trailing only NBA Rookie of the Year Damian Lillard (82) in number of games started by a rookie this season.
In the 2013 NBA Playoffs, Barnes is currently averaging 15.9 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 39.1 minutes in 10 games. Over the first four games of the team's current Conference Semifinals series against San Antonio, the Ames, IA, native is averaging 17.5 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 44.5 minutes per contest, including a career-high (playoff or regular season) 26 points and 10 rebounds in the Warriors 97-87 overtime victory over the Spurs in Game 4 on Sunday, May 12. The seventh overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, Barnes is just the second player in the last nine seasons to earn First Team All-Rookie honors and advance to the Conference Semifinals in the same season, joining San Antonio's Kawhi Leonard, who did so in 2011-12.
This marks the third time in the last four seasons that the Warriors have had a First Team All-Rookie selection, as Barnes follows in the footsteps of Stephen Curry (2009-10) and Klay Thompson (2011-12). Including starting center Andrew Bogut (2005-06), four of Golden State's current starting five were named First Team All-Rookie.
Joining Barnes on the NBA All-Rookie First Team are Portland's Lillard, Washington's Bradley Beal, New Orleans' Anthony Davis and Cleveland's Dion Waiters.
Warriors rookies Festus Ezeli and Draymond Green both received one Second Team vote each.
The voting panel consisted of the NBA's 30 head coaches, who were asked to select five players for the first team and five players for the second team, regardless of position. Coaches were not permitted to vote for players on their own team. Two points were awarded for first team votes and one for second team votes.
Below are the results of the balloting for the 2012-13 NBA All-Rookie teams. The balloting was tabulated by the independent accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP.
2012-13 NBA All-Rookie First Team Player Team First (2 pt) Second (1 pt) Total Damian Lillard Portland 29 - 58 Bradley Beal Washington 28 1 57 Anthony Davis New Orleans 28 1 57 Dion Waiters Cleveland 21 8 50 Harrison Barnes Golden State 18 11 47
2012-13
NBA All-Rookie Second Team Player Team First
(2 pt) Second
(1 pt) Total Andre Drummond Detroit 10 15 35 Jonas Valanciunas Toronto 6 19 31 Michael Kidd-Gilchrist Charlotte 3 23 29 Kyle Singler Detroit 1 15 17 Tyler Zeller Cleveland 3 9 15
Other players receiving votes, with point totals (first place votes
in parentheses): Maurice Harkless, Orlando, 14 (1); Alexey Shved,
Minnesota, 14 (1); Chris Copeland, New York, 9 (1); Brian Roberts, New Orleans,
5; Andrew Nicholson, Orlando, 4; Jae Crowder, Dallas, 1; Festus Ezeli, Golden
State, 1; Draymond Green, Golden State, 1; John Jenkins, Atlanta, 1; Terrence
Jones, Houston, 1; Pablo Prigioni, New York, 1; Terrence Ross, Toronto, 1;
Jeff Taylor, Charlotte, 1.New evidence from an ancient lunar rock suggests that the moon once harbored a long-lived dynamo — a molten, convecting core of liquid metal that generated a strong magnetic field 3.7 billion years ago. The findings, published today in Science, point to a dynamo that lasted much longer than scientists previously thought, and suggest that an alternative energy source may have powered the dynamo.
“The moon has this protracted history that’s surprising,” says co-author Benjamin Weiss, an associate professor of planetary science at MIT. “This provides evidence of a fundamentally new way of making a magnetic field in a planet a new power source.”
The new paper is the latest piece in a puzzle that planetary scientists have been working out for decades. In 1969, the Apollo 11 mission brought the first lunar rocks back to Earth — souvenirs from Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s historic moonwalk. Since then, scientists have probed the rocky remnants for clues to the moon’s history. They soon discovered that many rocks were magnetized, which suggested that the moon was more than a cold, undifferentiated pile of space rubble. Instead, it may have harbored a convecting metallic core that produced a large magnetic field, recorded in the moon’s rocks.
Exactly what powered the dynamo remains a mystery. One possibility is that the lunar dynamo was self-sustaining, like Earth’s: As the planet has cooled, its liquid core has moved in response, sustaining the dynamo and the magnetic field it produces. In the absence of a long-lived heat supply, most planetary bodies will cool within hundreds of millions of years of formation.
A dynamo still exists within Earth because heat, produced by the radioactive decay of elements within the planet, maintains the core’s convection. Models have shown that if a lunar dynamo were powered solely by cooling of the moon’s interior, it would have been able to sustain itself only for a few hundred million years after the moon formed — dissipating by 4.2 billion years ago, at the very latest.
Heavy metal rock
However, Weiss and his colleagues found some surprising evidence in a bit of lunar basalt dubbed 10020. The Apollo 11 astronauts collected the rock at the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility; scientists believe it was likely ejected from deep within the moon 100 million years ago, after a meteor impact. The group confirmed previous work dating the rock at 3.7 billion years old, and found that it was magnetized — a finding that clashes with current dynamo models.
Weiss collaborated with researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and the Berkeley Geochronology Center, who determined the rock’s age using radiometric dating. After a rock forms, a radioactive potassium isotope decays to a stable argon isotope at a known rate. The group measured the ratio of potassium to argon in a small piece of the rock, using this information to ascertain that the rock cooled from magma 3.7 billion years ago.
Weiss and graduate student Erin Shea then measured the rock’s magnetization, and found that the rock was magnetized. However, this didn’t necessarily mean that the rock, and the moon, had a dynamo-generated magnetic field 3.7 billion years ago: Subsequent impacts may have heated the rock and reset its magnetization.
To discard this possibility, the team examined whether the rock experienced any significant heating since its ejection onto the moon’s surface. Again, they looked to isotopes of potassium and argon, finding that the only heating the rock had experienced since it was ejected onto the lunar surface came from simple exposure to the sun’s rays.
“It’s basically been in cold storage for 3.7 billion years, essentially undisturbed,” Weiss says. “It retains a beautiful magnetization record.”
Stirring things up
Weiss says the rock’s evidence supports a new mechanism of dynamo generation that was proposed last year by scientists at University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC). This hypothesis posits that the moon’s dynamo may have been powered by Earth’s gravitational pull. Billions of years ago, the moon was much closer to Earth than it is today; terrestrial gravity may have had a stirring effect within the moon’s core, keeping the liquid metal moving even after the lunar body had cooled.
Francis Nimmo, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at UCSC and one of the researchers who originally put forth the new dynamo theory, says Weiss’ evidence provides scientists with a new picture of the moon’s evolution.
“We generally assume that cooling is the main mechanism for driving a dynamo anywhere,” says Nimmo, who was not involved in the current study. “This lunar data is telling us that other mechanisms may also play a role, not just at the moon, but elsewhere, too.”Mike Leach (Cougfan.com/Haugh)
PULLMAN -- Mike Leach has no experience with the kind of schedule his Washington State Cougars are about to face: opening with five straight home games before playing five of the next seven on the road. But he’s happy about starting at home Saturday against Montana State.
Leach says the Bobcats return a lot of players from the team that went 4-7 last season, but won its final two.
Regarding his own team, Leach says these Cougs haven’t accomplished anything, but that they have a chance to on Saturday. He praised the depth of his running corps, and expressed satisfaction with the receivers as a group, while noting that no one receiver has emerged from the pack.
Finally, Leach sent good wishes to the flood-ravaged city of Houston, where he has several friendships. “Houston is one of the most resilient cities I’ve ever been in,” he said.
RELATED: Dick Rockne reflects in greatest WSU season in 67 yearsWhen Johanna Burai searched for a hand on Google Images last autumn, the search engine returned results featuring only white hands. You might have had a similar experience, too, if you’ve ever searched for simple terms like “woman” or “man,” or for images with qualifiers like, “cute baby.” The phenomenon is part of the internet’s normalization of whiteness, whereby non-white images require specific search terms, Burai says.
“It’s insane,” she told The FADER. “This is a crystal clear example of how the norm of whiteness manifests itself—the white body is neutral. The search result is just one example of how being white is a norm in society. A lot of people choose to turn a blind eye to the privileges you get simply by being white, as well as to the systematic racism experienced by people of color in their everyday lives,” says Johanna.
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In her last semester of school at Stockholm’s Beckmans College of Design, her final project is World White Web, a digital endeavor that is both raising awareness and actively campaigning against what she calls “the whiteness of the Internet.” On the site, she has published six images of different non-white hands, with the general hope that the more interaction they receive—visitors can directly download or share each image on highly ranked social sites—the more likely they’ll climb up Google’s search results and add diversity to the present norm. “The more people who share these images, the greater the possibility for change,” she says.In 1997, J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was published. The rest, as you probably know, is wizarding history.
Now, fans of Rowling's beloved book series are leaving notes in books in libraries and book stores for future readers to find, using the hashtag #PotterItForward. People have begun sharing pictures of the #PotterItForward notes on Twitter and Tumblr.
Take a closer look.
The campaign, Mashable also reports, was started by fans on Muggle Net, a popular Potter fan-site.
Here's another example of a #PotterItForward note.
"Enjoy the magic," this Twitter user wrote in her note.
These notes might be written by muggles, but their messages are nothing short of magical.
"I met my best friends because of Harry Potter," this person wrote in their #PotterItForward note.
We can only wonder what J.K. Rowling thinks about the #PotterItForward initiative, though if her past Twitter performance is any indication, we should be hearing from the author anytime now.Tomorrow night Saturday Night Live returns for its 41st season. But there’s a whole lot of drama brewing around an arguably comedic television show—and frankly, Lorne Michaels’ questionable choices are making a lot of viewers downright sick to their stomachs.
I’m talking, of course, about a little lady called Miley Cyrus, who’s set to host the season’s opener—much to the chagrin of the show’s Instagram followers. For the show’s Instagram account—once a safe space to scroll through pictures of Aidy Bryant goofin’ off—has become a ground zero for hilariously enraged viewers who, unlike you, remember when SNL used to be good.
A strange reaction, the casual observer might think, to a television show that features approximately 20 famous people, ranging from who? to meh each season. But there’s nothing America likes more than arguing on the internet, and this week the internet’s wearing her nipple pastys out in public.
JerryM doesn’t even watch SNL anymore. He gave up on Weekend Update when “Party in the USA” was released.
jjbarney91 wanted nothing more than to stay at home tomorrow night, put on his Nike slides, and slip into an hour and a half of laughs.
That’s nothing compared to deedee_gee, who actually just barfed when she found out the news. She saw a photo of Miley Cyrus standing next to Taran Killam and just ralphed all over her outfit.
celticscorp is passing on this first episode and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this won’t affect the ratings.
Photo from Getty[SECURITY NOTICE] libidn with bad UTF8 input
From : Daniel Stenberg < : Daniel Stenberg < daniel_at_haxx.se
Hi all libcurl users.
Here's a little problem many of us need to be aware of!
PROBLEM
A recent security review of libcurl showed that a remote attacker can
abuse libcurl's support for international domain names to disclose
memory of a libcurl application or cause other unintended behaviors by
passing in a malformed unicode string in the URL parameter.
Despite that this issue has been known several months already, there is
no fix implemented in libidn yet. We have also decided that libcurl is
not responsible for scanning for invalid unicode, making every libcurl
application that is not validating the input encoding of the domain
names possibly vulnerable to this issue.
This problem affects libcurl built to use libidn for IDN support.
A summary of this issue with examples of vulnerable code in PHP and C
is available at [1].
FIX
While there have been patches floating around for this problem, none
seem to have been adopted by the libidn project nor is being
implemented by distributions shipping libidn.
RECOMMENDATION
Rebuild libcurl with libidn support disabled.
Starting now, libcurl will build with libidn disabled by default until
this situation has been changed to satisfaction.
OTHER APPLICATIONS
Other applications using libidn are or may be vulnerable to this
problem too.
CREDITS
Reported by: Gustavo Grieco and Feist Josselin
REFERENCES
[1] = https://blog.thijsalkema.de/me/blog//blog/2015/04/17/validate-the-encoding-before-passing-strings-to-libcurl-or-glibc/Other YC startups keep asking us for advice on reaching bloggers, so I figured I'd write down what we do. This isn't the definitive answer by any means, but it's worked reasonably well for us. What follows is basically our step-by-step method:
0) Use Google alerts and twitter search to find the bloggers already talking about you. The ROI from increasing the engagement of a user who already cares is 10x greater than convincing a new person to care.
Find bloggers and tweeters already talking about the problem you're trying to solve. For example, I know a doctor in Brooklyn who has his alerts set up to let him know whenever any twitter user within 15 blocks of his office has a cold. He then tells them he hopes they feel better, but if not they should come down to his office and he'll take a look at them for free. This is the only lead gen he needs. (Best tools for this: HootSuite and InboxQ.)
1) Figure out which bloggers you want to reach. To do this you first need to decide what you want out of this— beta testers, page rank, page views, sales leads, etc.
If you are solving an esoteric problem then there are only so many page views you're going to get from the blogosphere, so looking for mainstream adopters isn't always the right answer. In fact I'd generally recommend against it until you know that your engine of virality is yielding good results.
2) Meet users in your target group. There simply aren't enough influential bloggers than you can get away with sending out emails that don't convert. And the best way to figure out if you're in the right ballpark is to take a bunch of your target bloggers out for dinner and ask them for feedback on your proposed email, website copy, website design, features, whether they'd use the product, whether they'd blog about it, etc.
3) Find the relevant bloggers you want to target. The tools meant for PR agencies and larger companies include Vocus, Cision, eCairn, and PR Matchpoint. These products vary wildly in both cost and quality, and the efficacy of any given one depends largely on your particular needs. In many cases these tools are not only overpriced, but actually work less well than just doing things by hand. That said finding the right bloggers is extremely time intensive, and it's always a good idea to trade money for time where possible.
The tools meant for end users include Klout, Twitaholic, Technorati, PostRank, PeerIndex, Alltop, SocMetrics, FoodBuzz, BlogDash, and Loadedweb. Of these SocMetrics seems like the best bet for most purposes, albeit I haven't yet had time to fully explore all of them thoroughly. Each of the major blogging platforms also has a list of the best bloggers on that platform, e.g. WordPress, Typepad, Tumblr, Blogger, etc.
Expect that it's going to take you 15-20 minutes per blogger to build a well-targeted contact list. This includes the three bloggers that aren't a good fit for every one you find that is, and also the time it takes to get their email address, read their pitch guidelines if they have them, figure out their posting frequency, monthly page views, RSS subscribers, page rank, etc.
It may also be helpful to think about the types of events that your target bloggers would likely attend. For example, if you're trying to get mommy bloggers to write about your fitness product then try looking through the attendees list for events like BlogHer, FitnessBloggersConference, HealthyLivingSummit, etc. (Or else recreate the attendees list by searching for everyone who blogged or tweeted about the event.) Right now Lanyrd has a pretty good list of blogging-related events. Don't forget Meetup.
4) Once you have a decent list of bloggers, try to quickly figure out what motivates each of them to blog. E.g. MIke Arrington likes breaking new stories, Seth Godin likes prodding people toward doing great work, Scoble likes to be involved with everything that's going on, etc.
For a lot of them you probably won't be able to get this specific, so just try to mentally place them into one or two of the following categories: physical, mental, spiritual, recreational, family, career, social, and financial. Every goal falls into one of these eight buckets, and taking thirty seconds to scan over their recent posts and come up with a decent approximation can greatly increase your yield.
I'll explain more about this below, but for now here's a funny clip of one mom blogger explaining what she hopes to get out of Swagapalooza. Most people know that you need to sell on benefits and not features, but often forget that you can't sell on benefits without understanding the person's needs and desires.
5) Be authentic. What you say should be a reflection of who you are. If writing is like talking on paper, then a good email is like looking someone in the eyes on paper. People naturally want to help others, but they also tend to be apathetic and jaded, so engage with them at a human level. (See also: http://bit.ly/3D3LWN)
A personal observation: the best way to make mommy bloggers feel special and appreciated is to treat them like tech bloggers, and the best way to make tech bloggers feel special and appreciated is to treat them like mommy bloggers. (Kind of like how the reason the movie Field of Dreams was so successful is that it's basically a chick flick for guys.)
6) Have something of value the bloggers can offer their readers. Some examples:
Offer to do an interview or a video interview.
Have a manifesto. The goal of a manifesto is to first sell the readers on the underlying ideology behind your product, and then to show them how your product fits into this new worldview in a way that can help them. Examples of startups that played heavily on this are Facebook, Google, and Wikipedia.
Write an eBook -- This is a more detailed how-to guide that's targeted at the people already interested in your service. There are a lot of people who are super competent and willing to work, but they don't like thinking creatively. So give them a bunch of pre-packaged ideas about how to use your site better. Startups like Heroku and AirBnB would benefit from this. For an example, see http://bit.ly/hFohV
While you should aim to give the bloggers as much social capital as possible, avoid giving them too much of actual monetary value. If you start giving them things that cost lots of actual money then you stop being the underdog that they are rooting for and trying to help out, and they quickly start becoming entitled and apathetic. Obviously you don't want to be the little guy forever, but it's going to work against you if you start mouthing off and trying to throw your weight around *until* you're ready to absolutely crush it.
7) Convince them that you're not going to make them look like an asshole if they blog about you. The way you make them look like an asshole is if they go to bat for you, and then you don't ship. So you need to make it look like you're going to ship BIG TIME, and your success is inevitable. The way you do this is by having a track record of shipping great things, and having lots of social proof. The latter is why having a few famous advisors is critical, especially when you're just starting out. Otherwise it's easy to get caught in a trap where you can't ship without certain resources, but you don't have access to those resources because you don't have a track record of shipping. Good blog posts eventually become social proof in and of themselves, and have the magical effect of not only generating leads, but also of bringing all sorts of people out of the woodwork to help you with whatever you need.
The best way to lower this requisite social proof quota is to meet with the bloggers in person. Just spending half an hour grabbing coffee will make any blogger vastly more likely to write about you than if you had only connected via email or phone.
8) The more blog posts you have about you, the more each blog post is worth. This is because blog readers need to hear about your company several times before they buy the product. So the first ten blog posts you get are worth almost nothing, but having 100 blog posts about you could easily be worth a million dollars. It's what technical founders would call one of the n(n-1)/2 deals.
The same is also true for using blog posts as social proof for investors and potential hires. Any half-assed startup can get ten blog posts written about them, but if someone sees 100 blog posts about you they instantly assume you must actually have something of value.
9) Below I'm going to post a copy of the generic version of our invitation email to Swagapalooza. After the email I'm going to analyze the salient features of what makes this work:
[fname],
I'm Alex Krupp, director of Swagapalooza (www.swagapalooza.com), the first invitation-only event for only the most-followed bloggers and twitter users from across the country. 85 of the most-followed bloggers and tweeters from Chicago are coming to learn about new and interesting products. I'd love to have you attend the event, which takes place the evening of June 20th.
If you're able to come please fill out this form below so that I have you in the system:
https://swagapalooza.wufoo.com/forms/swagapalooza-rsvp/
If you have any questions feel free to call; I hope to see you there!
--
Alex Krupp
Director
Swagapalooza
Cell: (607) 351 2671
Web: www.swagapalooza.com
Twitter: @swagapalooza
=====================================
About 40% of the bloggers we send this email to end up RSVPing, and of those about 60% end up showing up. (Normally for events getting even 2% of your email list to show up would be considered quite good.)
So while this email is by no means perfect, it's still been good enough to get people to drive 3 hours from Boston to New York, fly back from vacation in Singapore a day early, fly up from North Carolina, etc.
What makes this email work?
- Five sentences or less. No first email to someone should be longer than five sentences for any reason, ever.
- Appeals to both social exclusivity and novelty seeking behavior.
- Looks like a personal email and was sent from my personal GMail account on a Sunday afternoon, i.e. sent in a way that's consistent with how personal emails are sent. And really that's because they are; I do my best to answer all incoming questions within five or ten minutes, as per http://bit.ly/azdIrn.
- Has my cell phone number. This is the most important part because it shows that this email isn't spam and that you value the other person and their time. (Counterintuitively, adding your phone number to emails is the best way to ensure that people read the FAQ before wasting your time with dumb questions.)
- Email signature = looks like a legit company that's actually going to deliver on their promises and not just some kid in their basement. This is also why some people advocate that every startup should always say they're hiring even if they're not, and it's why sites with 800 numbers convert better even when almost no one calls them.
- Linked URL in parenthesis makes you look like a trustworthy PR manager, not like one of those unsavory IT folks.
- For many bloggers we customized the first sentence or second sentence of this email to match what we perceived as being their motivations for blogging, as described above. E.g. if we were writing Paul Graham we would probably change it to something like,
"I'm Alex Krupp, director of Swagapalooza (www.swagapalooza.com), the first invitation-only event for only the most-followed bloggers and twitter users from across the country. Many highly followed bloggers from NYC are coming to learn about new and interesting products, and I think you would find the event to be intellectually interesting."
10) Obviously big events don't make sense for every startup, but at the very least try hosting a dinner with five or six local bloggers to get feedback on your website and the emails you're going to send out. It doesn't make sense to start burning your leads until you know that your conversion rate is going to be sufficiently high, and the only way to really know how if your emails are good enough and your site is ready is to sit down with a group of bloggers and let them bounce ideas off each other.
11) Make sure you have a professionally typeset one-pager (media sheet) ready to go as a PDF. The bloggers won't need this, but once you start getting blog coverage you'll start getting leads, partnership offers, media enquiries, etc. so you will want something you can send out at a moment's notice. Also make sure you have professionally shot high-resolution photos of the product and team. These will be the first thing that every trade journal, newsletter, and magazine asks for, and many won't even talk to you without them.
I'd also recommend having a Squidoo page about the product / company. In addition to being good SEO, they allow you to speak in a different voice to a different group of people without seeming inauthentic. They also resonate well with a wide variety of people because they are designed to incorporate mixed media. Some people are best sold by paragraphs of text, others by bullet points, photographs, YouTube videos, audio interviews, etc. We've discovered that they're not good as the first thing to send someone, but they work great for closing the sale after you've already emailed the person and talked with them on the phone. (Basically they are good for showcasing social proof, which makes it easier for someone to pull the trigger and write you a check.) Check out what we did with ours here: http://www.squidoo.com/swagapalooza.
12) Once you start getting coverage, go back and review step zero.
13) Hopefully this email lays out a viable framework for getting some blog coverage without having to resort to making a 14-year-old kid your CEO or acting like Dennis Rodman.
Basically just create a well-targeted list, treat them with respect, and be conscious of the social idioms you're drawing from so you're not just accidentally subcommunicating stuff at random. Then run your stuff by a few bloggers first in person and you should be good to go!Apr 27, 2016; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Diego Padres right fielder Matt Kemp (27) in the on-deck circle during the seventh inning against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Kenny Karst-USA TODAY Sports
San Diego Padres: Padres Can Win it all Before Chargers
San Diego Padres: Padres Can Win it all Before Chargers by Jonathan Goehring
San Diego Padres: Could Carlos Asuaje be Dealt? by Jonathan Goehring
Matt Kemp’s second half numbers, Yoenis Céspedes’ free agency, and Wil Myers’ decline are factors proving that the San Diego Padres’ trade of Kemp was badly timed.
Back in winter 2014, Padres AJ Preller made a flurry of trades that won him the “Rock Star GM” accolade.
In one of them, he acquired Matt Kemp from the Los Angeles Dodgers, in exchange for Yasmani Grandal and others.
Clearly, the centerpiece of the trade was Kemp.
Then, when the 2015 season started, the “plan” did not work and the ball club lost 88 games.
Last year, when the season was half way through and the team was not performing, the Padres decided to trade their veteran players to open spaces for their youth.
Among them Matt Kemp, who was traded to the Braves, along with cash, for Hector Olivera, who immediately was cut.
That is, San Diego didn’t get a player in return and are eating part of the Kemp salary.
The trade was not a bad idea. The problem is that SD got nothing in return for a very good power hitter.
Want your voice heard? Join the Friars On Base team! Write for us!
So why it was bad timing trading Kemp in July?
It is known that Kemp is a stud in the second half, the past three seasons he has averaged.293, 17 HRs & 52 RBIs. His overall numbers last year were.268, 35 HRs & 108 RBIs, similar compared to this years prime power hitting free agent Yoenis Cespedes (.280, 31 HRs & 86 RBIs). Wil Myers‘ numbers suffered in august (.216, 3 HRs & 9 RBIs), the first month without Kemp hitting after him.
In retrospect, Preller should have waited until the offseason to trade Kemp (even after Cespedes signing), to an AL team to serve as a DH-OF. His value would have been much higher, as several teams are looking for power hitters.
Whichever team lost the Cespedes sweepstakes would have seen Kemp as an alternative. After all, who wouldn’t like to have a 35 HR & 108 RBI hitter in the middle of their lineup?0 UPS driver adopts pit bull on her route after owner dies
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. - Katie Newhouser is a local UPS driver in Rancho Cucamonga, California, who had a special bond with a pit bull on her route named Leo.
“He would hear my truck come into the condo complex and start barking and scratching at the door to come down to the truck,” Newhouser told PupJournal. “He would love to come into the truck and go into the back to look around.”
>> Need something to lift your spirits? Read more uplifting news
In October 2016, Newhouser learned through Facebook that Leo’s owner, Tina, had died. Her son was unable to take the dog in because he is in the Marines, so Newhouser offered to foster the dog. She already had three other dogs, though, and didn’t intend on keeping Leo.
However, her personal bond with Leo proved too strong to adopt him out to someone else, so Newhouser ended up keeping him.
>> See the Facebook post here
This is Leo.... he would always start barking as |
1942, the Romanian armies engaged in heavy fighting in the Crimea while to the north the German Army attempted to capture Stalingrad. As Hitler funneled more and more German units into Stalingrad, a need arose to protect the German flanks. The task fell to the German allies, the Romanians, Italians, and Hungarians.
Brushed Aside at Stalingrad
By October 1942, the Romanian Third Army moved from the Crimea to the north of Stalingrad to protect the German left flank while the Romanian Fourth Army held the southern flank. The Italian Eighth Army held the line to the north of the Romanian Third Army. On the Italian left the Hungarian Army was dug in. Because of the long-standing antagonism over Transylvania, the Germans used the Italians as a buffer between the Hungarians and the Romanians to keep them from fighting each other.
The Romanian Third Army consisted of 10 divisions totaling 171,256 men. It held a line anchored on the southern bank of the Don River with the exception of bridgeheads the Soviets had established at Kletskaya and Serafimovich. Each division was assigned to defend a line approximately 20 kilometers long, about twice the recommended distance. The Third Army contained the only Romanian divisions trained by the Germans and consequently was a significantly better fighting force than the Fourth Army, which defended the open steppes south of Stalingrad.
By mid-November 1942, the Fourth Army could boast only 75,380 troops assigned to hold a line over 200 kilometers long. Poorly trained and even more poorly equipped, the men of the Fourth Army lived in holes in the ground covered by canvas as the temperatures dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius. These living conditions combined with inadequate clothing and supplies of ammunition led to very low morale. Reserves for both the Third and Fourth Armies were limited.
In October and November 1942, Soviet General Georgi Zhukov began assembling more than a million troops for the Soviet counteroffensive code-named Operation Uranus. Zhukov’s plan called for an attack on the German flanks held by the Romanians. The offensive was to slice through the Romanian Third and Fourth Armies and break through to the rear and encircle the German Sixth Army inside Stalingrad. The pincer movement was to meet at the strategic bridge at Kalach, thereby cutting off the Axis line of retreat.
On November 19, the Soviet offensive began with attacks all across the Third Army’s front. After initially tough resistance from the Romanians, the Soviet armor broke through and began the trek to Kalach. On the next day, the Soviets attacked the Romanian Fourth Army, quickly sweeping it aside. On November 23, the Soviet forces met at Kalach, sealing the fate of a quarter million Axis troops. While the Germans blamed the Romanians for this disaster, the real blame belonged to the Germans. The Germans had taken their ally for granted, ignoring Romanian goals and limitations as well as Romanian warnings and pleas for help.
Romania’s Limited War Aims
The first and most glaring strategic mistake the Germans made was their failure to recognize the limited war aims of the Romanians. Romania was not a natural ally of Germany and had in fact fought the Germans in World War I. During the 1920s and 1930s, Romania maintained a close relationship with France and Great Britain. The relationship went beyond just military and political influence. In 1938, foreign investment accounted for roughly 25 to 30 percent of the Romanian economy, and British and French investment accounted for about 70 percent of that total. British and French interests also controlled five of Romania’s major banks. The defeat of Great Britain and France combined with territorial seizures by the Soviet Union forced the reluctant Romanians into the Nazi fold. But the Romanians did not share Nazi Germany’s dreams of conquest.
Antonescu’s decision to cross the Dnestr River and continue the war into the Soviet Union was not popular with the Romanian people. The president of the Romanian National Agrarian Party, Iliu Maniu, expressed this sentiment when he said, “We do not have one Romanian soldier to sacrifice for foreign purposes. We have to spare our army for our Romanian goals.”
Most Romanians thought that their army should follow the example of Finland and fight only to recover territory seized earlier by the Soviets. One captured Romanian officer told his Soviet interrogators that his troops despised Antonescu for “having sold their motherland to Germany.” Between a political rock and a military hard place and with little support on the home front, Antonescu reluctantly continued the war alongside his German allies and pushed farther into Russia.
Instead of being sensitive to Marshal Antonescu’s precarious position, the Nazis engaged in intrigue. Antonescu was considered one of the most loyal of the minor Axis leaders, but this meant little to the Nazis. Heinreich Himmler’s SS openly supported Romania’s indigenous fascist movement, the Iron Guard. The SS even supplied the Iron Guard with submachine guns and in January 1941 tacitly supported the Iron Guard’s coup against Antonescu.
After Antonescu suppressed the coup, the Germans allowed the Iron Guard’s leader, Horia Sima, and 300 followers to take refuge in Germany. Himmler kept Sima and this core of the Iron Guard in Germany as an implied threat to Antonescu’s power for the remainder of the war.
Severe Decisiencies of the Romanian Military
The Germans made another strategic mistake when they failed to properly assess the capabilities of the Romanian military and the individual Romanian soldier. Because of its geopolitical situation and the influence of the French, Romania developed a defensive philosophy for its military. The Romanian military was not designed for sustained offensive operations along the German model.
Throughout the 1930s, the leadership of the Romanian military designed its forces and theories around a national defense strategy. This strategy led to the general staff creating a circular defensive line intended to defend against Romania’s primary enemies, Hungary and the Soviet Union. Prior to the war, one of Romania’s leading military theoreticians, General Alexa Anastasiu, wrote that the “policy of our country is not aimed at a conquering war.”
With the defeat of Britain and France in 1940, Romanian leaders realized that they had to modernize their air force and armored units. However, time and Romania’s lack of financial and industrial resources limited the extent of modernization.
The Romanian military had other limitations as well. The German soldier of World War II was on average, well educated, highly trained, well equipped, and well led. The Romanian soldier by comparison was poorly educated, poorly equipped, and sometimes poorly led. Part of the problem was that approximately half of the educable Romanian population was illiterate. Romania was an agrarian nation, and approximately 75 percent of Romanian conscripts were peasants. As a result, many Romanian soldiers suffered from extreme fear of armored attacks as they had spent little time around mechanized vehicles.
Leadership was also a liability in the Romanian Army. Unlike the Wehrmacht, the Romanians did not have a strong noncommissioned officer corps. While members of the German officer corps generally had a close relationship with their men, the opposite was true with the Romanians. German officers often noted that their Romanian counterparts seemed to care little about the well-being of their troops, but instead treated them like vassals. One German soldier noted that the Romanian field kitchens prepared three different meals: one for the officers, one for the NCOs, and one for the enlisted.
The German Army trained a few of the Romanian divisions, and these units usually performed at a much higher level than the Romanian divisions that were not German trained. The Romanian soldier was not without admirable qualities. Perhaps because of his peasant background, the Romanian soldier was an excellent marcher, often covering distances that seemed remarkable to his German counterpart. But because of his cultural and educational background, the Romanian soldier had limited capabilities.
Romania’s Failed Rearmament Program
Perhaps the greatest limitation of the Romanian Army was a lack of modern equipment, a limitation of which the Germans were acutely aware. During the fighting around Stalingrad, German Maj. Gen. F.W. von Mellenthin inspected some Romanian Third Army units that had been placed under his command. He observed: “The Romanian artillery had no modern gun to compare with the German and, unfortunately, the Russian artillery. Their signals equipment was insufficient to achieve the rapid and flexible fire concentrations indispensable in defensive warfare. Their antitank equipment was deplorably inadequate, and their tanks were obsolete models bought from France. Again my thoughts turned back to North Africa and our Italian formations there. Poorly trained troops of that kind, with old-fashioned weapons, are bound to fail in a crisis.”
In his memoirs, Field Marshal Erich von Manstein made similar comments about the Romanians, “… the Romanians, who were still the best of our allies, fought exactly as our experiences in the Crimea implied they would.” Although the Romanians fought bravely against the Russians, bravery alone was no match for Soviet T-34 medium and KV-1 heavy tanks.
The Romanians had begun a rearmament program in 1935 in an attempt to upgrade their World War I-era equipment. The biggest challenge facing the Romanians in this effort was the absence of a Romanian armaments industry. This situation forced Romania to acquire most of its weaponry abroad, which led to standardization issues. Despite the rearmament efforts, when Operation Uranus fell upon the Romanian Third and Fourth Armies some Romanian soldiers were fighting with the same weapons their fathers had used in World War I.
In virtually every aspect, the Romanian Army lacked the proper preparedness for modern warfare on the Eastern Front. The Romanian soldier did not want to fight deep inside Russia. Lacking proper training, leadership, organization, but most of all modern equipment, the Romanian Army had little chance to survive.
Issues With Command and Control
The most serious operational problem for the Axis at Stalingrad was an untenable command-and-control situation. Army Group B was the main Axis force fighting in and around Stalingrad. It consisted of eight separate armies, specifically the Romanian Third and Fourth Armies, the Italian Eighth Army, the Hungarian Second Army, and the German Second, Sixth, Fourth Panzer, and Sixteenth Motorized Armies.
Manstein addressed this problem in his memoirs. “No army group headquarters can cope with more than five armies at the outside,” he said, “and when most of these are allied ones, the task invariably becomes too much for it.”
The Germans recognized the problem in the autumn of 1942 and proposed to remedy the situation by creating a new army group by dividing Army Group B. The new army was to be called Army Group Don and placed under the command of Romania’s Marshal Antonescu. However, Hitler insisted on the capture of Stalingrad before creating the new army. Thus, when the Soviet avalanche fell on the Romanians on November 19-20, Army Group B had the difficult task of controlling eight armies that spoke four different languages. To make matters worse, in October 1942 Hitler issued a bizarre order that armies were not to liaison with their neighbors in the line.
An inadequate supply system was another huge problem for Army Group B. The supply line to Stalingrad relied on a single railroad crossing over the Dneiper River. This single line supplied Army Group A fighting in the Caucasus and most of Army Group B. Only six pairs of trains per day could traverse this rail system. The supply of the Romanian armies was a low priority, as most material carried over this rail line went to the Germans fighting inside Stalingrad. The Germans also failed to deliver food, fuel, ammunition, and supplies to build defensive positions in the quantities promised, placing the Romanians in an untenable position.
The T-34: An Invincible Adversary Against the Romanians
The Germans also failed to ensure that an adequate reserve force backed up the Romanian Third and Fourth Armies. The Third Army was supported by the XLVIII Panzer Corps. This reserve force consisted of the German 22nd Armored Division and the Romanian 1st Armored Division. When the Soviet offensive fell on the Romanian Third Army, the 22nd Panzer Division had 104 tanks. As the division moved toward the front to halt the Soviet advance, tanks began to catch fire and stop running. The Germans quickly found the problem. In an attempt to keep their tanks warm, the Germans had placed straw in and around them. Russian field mice, also trying to stay warm, invaded the tanks and chewed on the electrical wiring. The Russian mice reduced the 22nd Panzer Division to 42 operable tanks and antitank guns.
The Romanian 1st Armored Division consisted mainly of 84 Czech-built R-2 tanks and 19 German Panzerkampfwagen IIIs and IVs. The R-2s were completely obsolete by November 1942. In October of that year, the Romanian 1st Armored Division conducted an exercise in which R-2s test-fired their 37.2mm guns into captured Russian T-34 tanks with no effect. The guns were totally incapable of penetrating the armor of the T-34s. When the massive Soviet attack came, the reserve XLVIII Panzer Corps had little chance of reversing the tide.
Prior German knowledge of the superiority of the Soviet T-34 makes the German inaction even more difficult to understand. In 1941, on the second day of Operation Barbarossa, the Germans began running into the Soviet T-34 in combat. The T-34’s thick armor and sloped design made it impervious to the German 37mm antitank guns. The Soviet KV-1 heavy tank carried even thicker armor than the T-34 and was even more difficult to destroy.
By November 1942, the Germans had 17 months of experience fighting T-34s and KV-1s. The Germans were well aware of their capabilities and which antitank weapons could and could not destroy these Soviet tanks. The Germans did take some small steps to rectify the Romanian antitank problem. Realizing that the Romanian guns could not stop the T-34 or KV-1, the Germans gave the Romanians some heavier 75mm antitank weapons. But the number of 75mm guns provided by the Germans amounted to only six weapons per Romanian division. Since each division of the Third Army had to cover a 20-kilometer front, this equated to one 75mm antitank gun for every three kilometers of defensive line.
A Failure in German Intelligence
Two of the Germans’ greatest errors were made when they ignored the warnings and requests of their Romanian allies. The Romanian Third Army sat dug-in on the south bank of the Don River, with the exception of Soviet bridgeheads at Serafimovich and Kletskaya. At Serafimovich, the bridgehead was six miles deep, which allowed the Soviets to bring in reinforcements outside of artillery range. The Soviets had launched an offensive across the Don in August 1942, and although the offensive had been halted by the Axis, the bridgehead was not completely reduced.
These bridgeheads, approximately 100 miles from Stalingrad, created a dangerous situation for the Romanians. Because the Romanians lacked sufficient antitank weapons and had no armor in the front lines, the Don River served as a tank obstacle in case of a Soviet armored attack. In October 1942, the commander of the Romanian Third Army pleaded with Army Group B for help in reducing the two bridgeheads. The Romanian commander argued that his troops could maintain their positions only if they held the entire southern bank of the Don River. While his German allies expressed sympathy to his position, they responded that nothing could be done until Stalingrad fell, an event they believed was imminent.
In what amounts to one of history’s biggest intelligence failures, the German intelligence service on the Eastern Front, Fremde Heere Ost, ignored overwhelming evidence of an impending attack. Some of the evidence came in the form of information from Russian deserters who told their interrogators of the buildup of Soviet divisions both north and south of Stalingrad. German intelligence officers forwarded reports with this information as well as reports of visual sightings and radio intercepts. Luftwaffe Col. Gen. Freiherr von Richthofen repeatedly warned his superiors of aerial reconnaissance sightings of the Soviet buildup opposite the Romanian Third Army, but to no avail.
Richthofen even noted in his diary on November 12, one week before the attack: “The Russians are resolutely carrying on with their preparations for an offensive against the Romanians.… Their reserves have now been concentrated. When, I wonder, will the attack come?… Guns are beginning to make their appearance in artillery emplacements. I can only hope that the Russians won’t tear too many big holes in the line!”
Probing Attacks Against the Romanians
Throughout October 1942, the Russians made repeated probing attacks out of their Don River bridgeheads. These attacks were obvious attempts to test the Romanian defenses and expand the bridgeheads. On November 2, German aerial reconnaissance photographed several new bridges over the Don River into the Serafimovich bridgehead. The Germans even identified a division of the Soviet Fifth Tank Army, previously thought to be farther north in the Orel sector, in positions opposite the Romanian Third Army.
To the south of Stalingrad, the Romanians were also reporting a buildup of Soviet forces in a bridgehead over the Volga River known as the Beketovka Bell. Despite this information, German intelligence was convinced that any Soviet attack would fall on Army Group Center to the north.
On November 12, one week before the start of the Soviet offensive, Fremde Heere Ost surmised that if the Soviets tried anything of an offensive nature it would be a limited operation against the Romanian Third Army. Two days earlier, the Romanians estimated that their Third Army was facing four armored divisions, two or three motorized divisions, seven to eight infantry divisions, and 40 artillery battalions. The Romanians correctly assessed their troubling predicament and warned their German allies, but with their focus completely on the capture of Stalingrad, the Germans ignored the warnings.
The last and most ominous warnings came on the evening of November 18 when the Romanians reported hearing hundreds of Soviet tanks starting their engines. Visual sightings of Soviet troops in the Serafimovich and Kletskaya bridgeheads drawn up in formation behind armor and thousands of artillery pieces on the move were also reported, but by this point it was too late for the doomed Romanians.
After November 19, remnants of the Third Army, known as the Lascar Group because they were led by the Sixth Division commander, Mihai Lascar, formed a defensive hedgehog and repelled repeated Soviet attacks. The Romanians requested permission to break out of the encirclement while they still had the strength to do so. Hitler continuously rejected these requests until several days later, when he relented. At this point, however, a full-scale breakout was no longer possible. Only a handful of the men of the Lascar Group eventually made it back to Axis lines.
Afterward, the Romanians did not hesitate to express their displeasure to their German allies. On November 25 at a German-Romanian meeting in Rostov, the Romanian Army chief of staff, General Ilie Steflea, expressed his anger to the Germans, stating, “All the warnings, which for weeks I have been giving to the German military authorities—to Supreme Command, to General v. Weichs and General Hoth and the head of the German Military Mission—have passed unheeded. My warnings that the Romanian forces had been allotted too broad a front have all been in vain, and in fact, the enemy has succeeded in breaching the line only at those points where battalions have been called upon to hold a five- or six-kilometer front … I repeated my warnings to Fourth Panzer Army … I warned General Hoth on all these points in good time when he visited the Romanian forces.… German Army headquarters failed to meet Romanian requirements, and that is why two Romanian armies have been destroyed.”
In short, the Germans failed to listen to the urgent warnings of the Romanians, and as a result both the Germans and Romanians paid a terrible price. Manstein’s “best of allies” were now angry and bitter about the catastrophic losses they had suffered.
“We Attacked the Enemy’s Weakest Point”
In dealing with their Romanian allies, the Germans made numerous unnecessary mistakes. To protect their vital flanks outside Stalingrad, the Germans positioned the Romanians even though they were incapable of withstanding a Soviet armored offensive. The Romanian Third and Fourth Armies were assigned defensive positions that they did not have the manpower or armament to defend. They were put in these positions after continuous campaigning in the Crimea, which left some units at less than 50 percent strength.
The Romanian request to reduce the Soviet bridgeheads over the Don and the Volga were denied. Despite signs that an attack on their flanks was imminent, the Germans ignored the repeated warnings of the Romanians and their own troops. Even without the warnings, a study of the map would have revealed that the Romanian armies were in danger. A Sixth Army operations officer, Captain Winrich Behr, received a prediction from the officer he replaced in October 1942. Behr was shown a situation map, and the officer traced the expected lines of a Soviet attack, then pointed to Kalach and said, “They will meet around here.” If a company-grade operations officer could read a map and foresee the coming catastrophe, certainly generals and field marshals could do the same.
After the war, Manstein was interviewed by his Allied captors and questioned about the German victory over France in 1940. Manstein responded, as if surprised at the inquiry, “We just did the obvious thing, we attacked the enemy’s weakest point. The hopeless French reconnaissance won us the Battle of France.” In one of the great ironies of military history, the Soviets followed this simple strategy and did to the Germans what the Germans had done to the French two years earlier. Why the Germans did not recognize their predicament and take appropriate action is inexplicable.
Romania Changes Sides
The destruction of two Romanian armies at Stalingrad increased the unpopularity of the war in Romania and exacerbated the already strained relations between the Romanian and German militaries. By August 1944, the Soviet Army had advanced to the eastern borders of Romania. Antonescu begged Hitler to allow the German and Romanian armies to abandon their positions in Bessarabia and pull back to a more defensible line incorporating the Danube River and the Carpathian Mountains, but Hitler refused.
When the Soviets launched an offensive in August 1944, the Romanian and German armies were quickly driven back. The reaction in Romania was swift. Two days into the Soviet offensive, Romanian government and military officials deposed Antonescu, seized control of the government, sued for peace with the Soviet Union, and then declared war on Germany.
The battle for Romania cost the Germans 250,000 men. With the Romanians now fighting at their side, the Soviets advanced quickly across Romania and into Yugoslavia and Hungary, sealing the defeat of Germany in the Balkans. Although the Romanians did not switch sides until 1944, the seeds of the defection were sown in 1942 with the mishandling of the German-Romanian alliance on the banks of the Don River.In Part 5c of this series on revelation we will closely examine the revelation given to Joseph Smith known as the Word of Wisdom. If you have not read Part 1 of this series, I highly recommend that you do so before reading this post (you can read it here). And if you haven’t read Part 5a, or 5b click here for 5a and click here for 5b. We recommend you read it before you continue. The point of the posts in the revelation series is to show how culture, bias, and worldview affect the way revelation or inspiration is interpreted.
The Word of Wisdom and its eventual enforcement evolved slowly. The following is a timeline to highlight some key events of the evolution from inception to present:
February 1, 1833 – The Temperance Society succeeded in eliminating a distillery in Kirtland.
February 27, 1833 – The Word of Wisdom was revealed to Joseph Smith.
1834 – The church council in Kirtland adopted a resolution: “No official member in this Church is worthy to hold an office, after having the Word of Wisdom properly taught him, and he, the official member, neglecting to comply with it or obey it…” (BYU Studies, Arrington, An Economic Interpretation of the WoW, p. 40).
1836 – The church congregation voted for total abstinence from intoxicants after which water instead of wine was used in the Lord’s Supper. (BYU Studies, Arrington, An Economic Interpretation of the WoW, p. 40). In my opinion, I think this was more of a vote to be frugal – to sacrifice excesses like wine and tobacco in order to make more funds available for building the kingdom. I am of this opinion because as you will see, no one obeyed the Word of Wisdom (at least not for many, many years). Click here to see part 5a of this series for more detail of how the Word of Wisdom was used to cut out excess.
1837 – “At a general meeting conducted by church authorities in far West Missouri in 1837 the membership agreed that we will not fellowship any ordained member who will not or does not observe the word of wisdom according to its literal reading. Several months later at the annual conference of the church Joseph Smith spoke on the Word of Wisdom and stated that it should be observed.” (BYU Studies, Arrington, An Economic Interpretation of the WoW, p. 40).
But even with these votes and rules, no one really kept the Word of Wisdom. Even Joseph Smith wasn’t a strict observer as he drank tea, beer, and wine. (Diary of Joseph Smith, March 11, 1843, Milennial Star, vol 23, no 45 p 720, History of the Church vol. 2, 369). Joseph wrote in his published journal, “We then partook of some refreshments, and our hearts were made glad with the fruit of the vine. This is according to the pattern set by our Savior Himself, and we feel disposed to patronize all the institutions of heaven” (History of the Church, V380; history of Joseph Smith, Millennial Star). Wine was also used during temple worship (The Mysteries of Godliness, David John Buerger, pg 28, 29). There are many, many similar instances, but due to length I won’t document them here.
1838 – David Whitmer was tried in the church courts. The first of five charges dealt with not obeying the Word of Wisdom. (History of the Church Volume III, pg 18).
1842 – While John Taylor sang the hymn “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief” to Joseph before he was killed in Carthridge Jail, everyone was down and out. Wine was requested.
“Sometime after dinner we sent for some wine. It has been reported by some that this was taken as a sacrament. It was no such thing; our spirits were generally dull and heavy, and it was sent for to revive us. I think it was Captain Jones who went after it, but they would not suffer him to return. I believe we all drank of the wine, and gave some to one or two of the prison guards.” (John Taylor). (HC V.7:101).
1861 – Brigham Young urged the brethren to be more discreet about chewing tobacco. (Sermon of March 10 1861 journal of discourses VIII 361-362).
1864 – In southern Utah, the church began wine production. Brigham Young said, “I anticipate the day when we can have the privilege of using at our sacraments pure [wine] produced within our borders I do not know that it would injure us to drink wine of our own make although we would be better without it than to drink it to excess.”
The intent was to use the wine for the sacrament and also to sell it for profit. Brigham Young said, “first by lightly pressing make a white wine then give a heavier pressing and make a colored wine then barrel up this wine and if my counsel is taken this wine will not be drunk here but will be exported and thus increase the fund.” However, the majority of the wine was consumed within the Mormon community instead of being sold. The winery was discontinued some time prior to 1900.
1867 – The Word of Wisdom emphasis seemed to pick up. In this year, the Women’s Relief Society and the School of the Prophets were organized and the Word of Wisdom was taught to be observed. This set the tone going forward. (Journal history of the church September 19 1868, MS church historians library, Salt Lake City).
1880 – The Word of Wisdom picked up even more steam. At general and local conferences, liquor and tobacco habits were addressed in an effort to help the rising generation avoid these habits.
1900 – Lorenzo Snow, then prophet of the church, emphasized not eating meat. (The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement”, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought).
1901 – John Henry Smith and Brigham Young, Jr., of the Twelve, both thought that the Church ought not restrict beer, or at least not Danish beer. Other apostles, like Anthon H. Lund and Matthias F. Cowley, also enjoyed Danish beer and currant wine. (The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement”, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought).
1902 – Lorenzo Snow, who protected alcohol being served at places like Saltair, died. Joseph F. Smith became prophet and emphasized abstinence from tea, coffee, alcohol, and tobacco, but not meat. (The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement”, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought).
Joseph F. Smith encouraged stake presidents to be liberal with the older generation regarding tobacco use and tea drinking. Only the drunks were excluded from the temple.
The Presidency agreed not to fellowship anyone that frequented saloons. (The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement”, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought).
1905 – The Twelve used stake conferences to promote adherence to the Word of Wisdom.
July 5, 1906 – The First Presidency and the Twelve changed out wine for water in the temple sacrament. (The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement”, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought).
1906 – A strong prohibition movement began in Utah’s neighboring states.
December 1907 – Reverend Dr. George W. Young of Lousville Kentucky, Assistant General Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League of America, visited Utah.
1908 – Heber J. Grant became a trustee for Utah and an officer of the Utah organization of the Anti-Saloon League.
1909 – Reverend Dr. Louis S. Fuller, Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League for Utah and Idaho, met many times with the First Presidency and the Twelve. Pressure built to support prohibition.
1911-1916 – These years were labeled the post-civil war apogee of alcohol consumption. A fierce battle to adopt prohibition began.
1915 – President Joseph F. Smith said that “young or middle-aged men who have had experience in the Church should not be ordained to the Priesthood nor recommended to the privileges of the House of the Lord unless they will abstain from the use of tobacco and intoxicating drinks” (The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement”, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought).
1917 – Newly-elected Democratic Governor Simon Bamberger and the democratically-controlled legislature enacted statewide Prohibition in 1917. (The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement”, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought).
1917 – Church magazines urged members to support anti-tobacco groups and their efforts to eradicate the use of tobacco. (The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement”, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought).
1917 – Frederick J. Pack of the University of Utah published an article in the Improvement Era dealing with Coca-Cola. The article discussed whether or not LDS members should drink Coca-Cola because it contained many of the “drugs” that were contained in coffee and tea. According to Frederick, the answer was no. (The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement”, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought page 7).
1919– Prohibition became law. All alcohol was banned in the United States of America.
1921 – Heber J. Grant pronounced abstinence from alcohol an absolute requirement for temple attendance. Was this a direct response to Prohibition? Our Articles of Faith would support this theory: “We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.” (Article of Faith #12).
1922 – During Conference, Heber J. Grant stated, “I am not going to give any command, but I will ask it as a personal, individual favor to me, to let coca-cola alone. There are plenty of other things you can get at the soda fountains without drinking that which is injurious. The Lord does not want you to use any drug that creates an appetite for itself.”
1923 – The Improvement Era (a church publication) linked tobacco users with “evil person such as profaners, criminals, vagrants and prostitutes.” (The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement”, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought page 6).
Side Note: Mormon Myth – I have heard it said and taught the reason we do not drink tea is because it contains tannic acid. Tea does not contain tannic acid, but tannins which are also found in apple juice, grape juice and berry juices.
1924 – The Coca-Cola Company called President Grant to persuade him to stop the attacks on Coca-Cola. At first President Grant refused, stating that he had advised members to not drink Coca-Cola. A second meeting left the door open about drinking the cola.
1928 – For full fellowship in the Church, the Word of Wisdom must be obeyed. The General Handbook of Instructions, a manual to guide bishops and stake presidents on policies of the church, stated: “It is important that all those who may desire to enter the temple for endowments or other ordinances should be encouraged by the bishopric to observe the principle of tithing as well as all other Gospel principles.”
The next edition of the Handbook (published in 1933) stated that members desiring temple recommends “should observe the law of tithing. The applicant should also observe all other principles of the Gospel, should keep the Word of Wisdom, not use profanity, should not join nor be a member of any secret oath bound organization and should sustain without reservation the general and local authorities of the church.” (The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement”, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought page 5).
1930 – Heber J. Grant stated that tobacco use would prevent young men from being called on missions. (The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement”, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought page 6).
1933 – Utah repealed prohibition. “B.H. Roberts favored the repeal, and Anthony W. Ivins, first counselor in the First Presidency, questioned its usefulness. He pointed out that enforcement had cost more than one-half billion dollars by1931, with which, he thought, the country could have constructed 100,000 miles of paved road, or endowed 500 colleges with one million dollars each.” (The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement”, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought page 7).
1965 – President David O. McKay wrote a letter to a concerned home teacher about coffee, but in doing so seemed to identify, correctly or incorrectly, why coffee should not be drunk:
“You indicate that you are the home teacher of a sister residing in your ward who has a Word of Wisdom problem in that she drinks coffee. You state that you are trying to help this sister overcome this problem by the use of Sanka or Postum. As your letter is understood, you are desirous of knowing the attitude of the Church regarding the drinking of Sanka Coffee. I am directed to tell you that the drinking of a beverage made from the coffee bean, from which all caffeine and deleterious drugs have been removed, is not regarded as a violation of the Word of Wisdom.”
In General Conference, Sterling Sill stated one of the strongest and clearest stances I have found regarding caffeine:
“And one of the most damaging sins and one that gives greatest strength to our death instinct is the violation of that great revelation given 132 years ago called the Word of Wisdom. Some violators of this law tend to excuse themselves because it appears to be such a small thing. It seems like just a little disobedience, a little caffeine, a little nicotine, a little friendly indulgence in alcohol. Yet these are the springboards to disease, broken homes, immorality, disloyalty to God, physical death, and the death of many of our eternal interests.” (Sterling Sill, Conference Report, April 1965, p.88). Perhaps this is when the Mormon caffeine aversion began?
April 7, 1996 – On 60 Minutes Gordon B. Hinkley is asked about the Word of Wisdom.
Mike Wallace: No alcohol, no tobacco, no coffee, no tea, not even caffeinated soft drinks…
Gordon B. Hinckley: Right.
August 29, 2012 – An NBC special on Mormonism prompted the Church newsroom to release a statement regarding caffeine. If you didn’t see the special, a devout Mormon woman was asked whether or not she drank caffeine. She replied that she in fact did not; but then she mentioned one time when she did drink a Coke. She remembered that one time vividly because it was a big deal for her. When her husband was asked the same question (separately), he casually reported that he drank Diet Dr. Pepper once in a while. Nowhere in the Word of Wisdom does it say anything about caffeine, but yet in this primetime show, from these Mormon members, we got a mixed message on a non-issue. I believe this whole debacle is what prompted the Church newsroom to issue their statement:
“Despite what was reported, the Church does not prohibit the use of caffeine. The Church’s health guidelines, known in our scriptures as the Word of Wisdom (Doctrine and Covenants 89), prohibits alcoholic drinks, smoking or chewing of tobacco and hot drinks taught by Church leaders to refer specifically to tea and coffee. The restriction does not go beyond this.”
Hooray! We don’t have to sneak our Mountain Dew around since the Church officially does not prohibit the use of caffeine!
WAIT! HOLD UP! The very next day after the statement was issued, the newsroom came out with an adjusted statement:
Caffeine Table: (Caffeine in mg) Brewed Coffee: 108mg /8 fl oz Coffee (Decaf, Brewed) 6mg/ 8 fl oz Coffee (Drip) 145mg / 8 fl oz Coffee (Espresso 77mg / 1.5 fl oz Coffee (Instant) 57mg / 8 fl oz L |
in you can upload your photo. You will have two options. If you are sure this is the photo you want to appear on your UVic ONECard, you can click "Submit." If you don't want this photo to appear on your UVic ONECard after uploading, click "Cancel" and upload another photo. If you submit an inappropriate photo, you'll be notified by the onecard staff. 4. Wait for a confirmation email When your photo has successfully been submitted it will be reviewed by the ONECard staff. The office will email you at your UVic NetLink email address within 3 business days to let you know whether your photo has been approved or rejected. If it has been rejected, you will be asked to resubmit a new photo following the instructions in the e-mail. 5. Pick-up your ID card Bring one piece of Government issued photo identification to pick-up your card at the University Centre when you arrive on campus. You must bring government-issued photo ID in order to receive your card (e.g. passport or a driver's license). THe card will not be released to you without this documentation, we do not mail cards and only you can pick-up your card.
Got a question? Check out our FAQsStory highlights Preliminary measures put the quake's strength at 8.0, later downgraded to 7.9
An initial tsunami warning was canceled
The 150 residents of Adak moved to a shelter on higher ground
Adak is on an island off the Alaskan mainland
An initial tsunami advisory has been canceled for coastal Alaska. One had been issued after a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck Monday about 15 miles from Little Sitkin Island, Alaska.
The quake had a depth of 71 miles, according to seismologists.
The town of Adak evacuated its 150 residents to a shelter about 600 feet above sea level after the initial tsunami warning, City Manager Layton Lockett told CNN.
There were no initial reports of quake damage in Adak or on Shemya Island, said Ian Dickson, website manager for the Alaska Earthquake Information Center.
Dickson said there were 17 measurable aftershocks in the two hours after the quake.
First estimates put the quake at magnitude 8.0. The strength was subsequently set by the U.S. Geological Survey at 7.9 magnitude.Greetings Rocksmith fans!
It’s time to check out this week’s clue, so let’s dive in, shall we?
Very quickly it was discovered that it’s a screen from the 1980 Atari game Carnival, altough it was soon called in to question whether or not it was a gif. For some it saved as a jpg, and for others a gif. Dan would later confirm it’s a gif.
And that leads us to this image:
And very quickly people had an idea of what it meant:
Yep, and Jason confirmed it.
Yes, that’s right! Just in time for Halloween we’re finally getting a nice dose of industrial music courtesy of three songs from horror legend Rob Zombie, as well as one from his former band White Zombie! As for what’s coming, here’s the three Rob and three White Zombie songs we most want to see in the pack:
Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie – Living Dead Girl
Confirmed by Jason.
Rob Zombie – Feel So Numb
Rob Zombie is no stranger to games, but for some reason, we’ve never seen anything from his fantastic The Sinister Urge record. Hopefully this pack changes that, and there’s no pick more obvious than the main single from it!
Rob Zombie – Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)
There’s some really nice tones going on in here coupled with some fun guitar parts. Would be an absolute blast to play. Also, it was the best Edge theme, so bonus points for that!
White Zombie
White Zombie – Electric Head, Pt. 2: The Ecstasy
One of the few notable Zombie tracks to never appear in any rhythm game, Electric Head Pt. 2 has probably my favourite riff in the combined Rob AND White Zombie catalogue! The way it just kicks in gets me every single time. I really hope this song makes it in.
White Zombie – More Human Than Human
Appearing at #68 on VH1’s list of the 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs of All-Time, this song is a certified banger. While it may not offer the most complex guitar part, the awesomely chunky bass is definitely something I want to play in Rocksmith Remastered soon!
White Zombie – Super-Charger Heaven
Just an awesome fast paced chugger of a song that makes you just want to speed along in a souped-up hot rod. There’s such a great driving energy to this song, and it’d make a great Rocksmith track.
So tell us, are you excited to head in to The Haunted World of a Rob/White Zombie pack, or do you feel that Rocksmith is reaching for The Devil’s Rejects? Let us know in the comments!
UPDATE:
Dig through the ditches and burn through the witches with our new Zombie song pack. Available Tuesday in #Rocksmith! pic.twitter.com/mRqHV5VtbR — Rocksmith (@Rocksmithgame) October 23, 2016Colors and Typography. What You Need to Know
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Put simply; a good website design is the one that can make visitors feel comfortable whenever they visit the site.
Furthermore, such a design will help in creating a bond with your audience that will assist your organisation to thrive in the long-run, beyond short-term gains.
Fortunately, plenty of techniques are produced year after year to guide designers create visuals that have a very profound impact on the psychology of the viewers.
These types of techniques mainly focus on understanding about the design elements – and how their use – influence the user experience while browsing a website.
The most important design features that help in making the right impression on your audience are colors and typography.
Implementing color schemes and elements of typography in the right way can dramatically affect how a visitor feels about your site.
In fact, the combination of both colors and typography rules helps add a whimsical touch to the website design that not only quickly attracts viewers’ attention but also stimulate visitors to make quick decisions – that you want them to take.
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In a nutshell, colors and typography are two of the most important key elements that play a crucial role in determining the success and failure of a website.
As a matter of fact, typography and colors used in a site are what makes the first impression.
This clearly suggests that to ensure website success, you need to make the best use of colors and typography.
Through this post, I’ll help you understand a few guidelines you must take into account, so as to make use of the right color and typographic choices for your website.
Guidelines For Using Colors Effectively
According to internationally renowned person-centered design expert and environmental physiologist, Sally Augustin:
The design of the spaces that we’re in and the objects that surround us matter a lot. They profoundly influence our lives. Colors, shapes, textures, scents, sounds, ceiling heights, and other features of our world have powerful psychological effects on us as human beings.
Based on an interview with Augustin conducted in Forbes, it was concluded that color affects our emotions and impact our mood.
However, remember that the psychological impact of color can vary from one person to the other. As per the “Emotional Reactions to Color” write-up by Kathy Lamancusa:
Blue is the top choice for 35% of Americans, followed by green (16%), purple (10%) and red (9%).
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Besides, as you may have observed, today’s online viewers have limited attention spans.
In order to grab their attention, you need to use elements that can help you stand apart from the crowd from other sites competing for their attention.
You can achieve such an objective by making use of the right colors.
For example, the Quicksprout website red color bar placed at the top of the page generates 11 percent of new leads:
The above theories clearly suggest the significant role that colors play in design.
Before getting started with the process of using color in your website design, it is vital for you to have enough knowledge about certain topics, including tints, hues, saturation, shades, types of colour schemes (like triad, monochromatic, compound, etc.), and tones, to name a few.
Here are some basic generalities that you should consider as a designer if you want to make use of the right color schemes in your design:
Use a Neutral Color Palette
There are so many color combinations, among which you need to choose one for the text base and another one for the website background.
But, experts suggest that you should begin working with the easiest color combination first, using a neutral color for the background and a dark color for the text.
You can use dark colored text on a white background or vice versa.
This is, in fact, one of the most popular and widely used color combination that you’ll find on most of the web designs.
For example, the search engine giant Google makes use of dark color text on a plain white background:
Using such a kind of color combination ensures excellent readability.
Needless to say, the easier the text is to read, the more users will enjoy reading your content which in turn will increase the engagement rate.
Use One Color For The Purpose of Highlighting
It’s easy to become overwhelmed with a plethora of choices available in the colour palette, especially when it comes to highlighting the most prominent parts of a website design, such as menus, headlines, links, buttons, etc.
However, increasing the number of color combinations will only complicate the design, making it difficult for you to handle all those colors.
So, to manage the design in a smooth manner, it is better to use only one single color on the top of your dark color used for the text base.
You can use any color for the highlighting purpose like blue, red or whatever you like.
The biggest advantage of using a highlighting color is that it will help you stand from the crowd.
And most importantly, it helps in bringing the attention of viewers to the most relevant section of your site and attract new leads.
For example, the H&R website uses ‘green’ color to highlight the search box, headings and many other critical areas of the site:
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Select Variations For Your Highlight Color
The next step to choosing the desired highlight color is to choose different variations of things like buttons, gradients, excerpts, borders and other key areas of your site.
But, keep in mind to choose variations of the highlight color you’ve chosen, to avoid any confusion.
Adding variations to your highlight color will help in specifying about the different statuses while making changes to any website field, and most importantly, the variations can be used to present auxiliary information in data charts or any other source.
Different variations of the highlight color are ideal to be used for adding hover effects to button, as shown in the image below:
Guidelines For Using Effective Typography
Apart from colors, another design element that creates emotional responses.
You can even consider typography as a tool that adds emotion to the printed material, making it readable and visually appealing.
It helps embed your brand’s message to your readers’ mind, and thus makes it easier for them to understand the information presented on your website.
Essentially, typography is an art that helps in arranging the text in a manner that makes it legible, easy to read and to appeal to the viewers’ eyes.
A good typographic design is one that makes the right use of the typefaces, line length, point size, tracking, color, kerning, leading and other design elements.
An ideal typographic design pattern is one that not only makes the text visually appealing but also easier for the viewers to read.
Creating an effective typography in a content heavy website plays a crucial role in helping viewers understand long lines of text – without stressing their eyes.
Below are some basic guidelines that can help you create an impactful typography.
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Get your hands on the Basics
To master the art of typography, first and foremost, you must thoroughly learn the basic principles of typography that are readily implemented by the web designers.
In addition to this, you must familiarise yourself with things, like general standards, commonly used jargon, and measurements – that are followed by other designers while working with typography.
Moreover, you can even find plenty of resources online in the form of online tutorials or blogs to gain knowledge about creating effective typography.
For instance, the I Love Typography blog helps provide information about how you can create good type and typography.
Deal Cautiously with Kerning!
You might have heard of the proverb, “even little things count.” The same is true in the case of setting a type.
There are two smaller adjustments that you need to make the type to make it more visually pleasing, such as Kerning.
Many beginners often get confused and think kerning and tracking as the same typographical terms.
But that is a wrong notion.
Kerning is, basically, the process of adjusting the space in between individual characters or two letters of the same font.
Tracking is quite similar to kerning, but it is about applying uniform space to a block of text instead of individual characters or letters.
Most of the designers often tend to overlook the kerning issues, since they find them subtle.
But, keep in mind that these problems can become complicated when you need to deal with web fonts.
In order to resolve kerning issues, make sure that the space between the letter is visually consistent.
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Avoid Using Too Many Typefaces and Styles
While there are truckloads of fonts to choose from, however, it is advised that you must restrict the implementation of too many different typefaces and styles.
You might come across some new font and style, it certainly might look pretty impressive, but before using it in your design just think…
“Does the selected font type fits well with your website, or it is overcomplicating the design?”
Many experts consider that any piece of design mustn’t contain (nor it requires) more than two fonts: one for your headings and the other font for the body copy.
Using many different typefaces and styles make the design look cluttered and messy, and makes reading the text difficult for the readers.
Furthermore, keeping a check on the font sizes is also considered as a good practice.
That’s because font-size is critical for setting readable text. While the most commonly used and popular font sizes for the headings range from 18 to 29 pixels, the effective font size for the body copy is between 12 and 14 pixels.
Make Proper Use of White Space
The “white space”, which is also referred to as the “negative space” epitomises the space between the elements of a web page.
The majority of designers overlooks adding white space in their designs. But, leveraging it can help keep the content in harmony, making the design look clutter-free and pleasing to the eye.
Basically, whenever someone looks at the design with well-composed space, the viewer can efficiently evaluate the design, making it easier for them to find the information and process it in discrete chunks.
However, you need to make sure that the whitespace is defined at the right place and in the right amount. For example, look at the image below for understanding how you can use negative space in a better way:
As you can see in this picture, the photo fits well with the composition; there is enough room between the portrait and the type placed on the right side.
Furthermore, the logo is placed at the bottom on the right, which gives each element of the design plenty of room.
The type quickly captures the attention compared to imagery, which is important to bring users’ attention towards your message.
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Putting It All Together!
The right use of colors and typographic choices in your website design can help in creating a positive first impression on your target audience.
While using right color combinations helps entice your visitors, typography makes it easy for the viewers to read the content.
Not focusing on any one of these aspects will only help you win half the battle.
Simply put, to make your website successful, you must pay due to importance to using the right colors and typographic components (such as font sizes and typefaces).
Though this post might not cover all of the key considerations about adding color and typographic elements in your design, it will help you learn about the most important aspects to create a winning website design.
Author Bio: Lucie Kruger is an application developer working with Mobiers Ltd, which is the leading mobile application development company. She provides concrete information on latest information on mobile technologies like iOS or Android development processes.
If you wish to discuss how we can develop your brand or provide graphic design for your product or business, email us at: [email protected]
Inkbot Design is a Creative Branding Agency that is passionate about effective Graphic Design, Brand Identity, Logos and Web Design.
T: @inkbotdesign F: /inkbotdesignJeff Reitz, a Disneyland Resort annual passholder, began his daily sojourns to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park on Jan. 1, 2012, according to Disneyland Resort officials. Two thousand visits later, he explains what he likes most about the park. (Published Friday, June 23, 2017)
After Visiting for 2,000 Days in a Row, Here's What Jeff Reitz Loves About Disneyland
A Huntington Beach resident marked his 2,000th consecutive visit Thursday to the parks of the Disneyland Resort.
Jeff Reitz, a Disneyland Resort annual passholder, began his daily sojourns to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park on Jan. 1, 2012, according to Disneyland Resort officials. Back then, the resort was putting the finishing touches on Cars Land, which opened that summer.
Reitz, a 44-year-old Air Force veteran, was unemployed when he started his streak and was looking to keep up his spirits.
"It was something to do to keep things fun," he said.
Man Visits Disneyland 2,000 Times In a Row
A Huntington Beach man has set a record for most consecutive visits to Disneyland. Jeff Reitz, 44, has visited the park 2,000 times in a row. Reitz started visiting the park every day when he was unemployed and wanted to keep his spirits up. Employed at the VA now, Reitz continues to visit every day after work because it helps him to decompress after a long day. His favorite ride is the Matterhorn Bobsleds, which he first rode with his mom when he was 2 years old. (Published Friday, June 23, 2017)
He had initially intended to end his daily visits after a year, but decided to keep the streak going.
"I'm still having fun with it," Reitz said. "That's the only reason I'm still doing this. It wasn't about going for records or anything like that. That was a bonus. It's about coming and enjoying the magic of the park."
Now that Reitz has a regular day job again at the VA Long Beach Healthcare System, he typically spends evenings at the park.
"He said it helps him decompress at the end of the day," Disneyland spokesman John McClintock said.
McClintock isn't aware of any other attendance streak that would compare.
"I do think that it's an unbreakable record," he said.
Reitz has experienced the newest attraction, "Guardians of the Galaxy-Mission: BREAKOUT!" in Disney California Adventure more than a dozen times and says he's looking forward to seeing the nighttime spectacular "Fantasmic!" when it returns in an enhanced version on July 17 at Disneyland.
But the Matterhorn Bobsleds, which he first rode as a 2-year-old with his mom, is his favorite attraction.
"I'll go on that, rain or shine," he said.
Copyright City News Service / NBC Southern CaliforniaFIANNA Fail activist Brian Mohan wants the Court of Appeal to find he is entitled to challenge the constitutionality of a law linking State funding of political parties to the meeting of gender quota targets when selecting candidates for general elections.
FIANNA Fail activist Brian Mohan wants the Court of Appeal to find he is entitled to challenge the constitutionality of a law linking State funding of political parties to the meeting of gender quota targets when selecting candidates for general elections.
Mr Mohan, as a member of FF and potential election candidate, is permanently affected by the law, Michael McDowell SC, for Mr Mohan, argued.
The State has no right to influence freely associating persons and political parties in relation to what kind of person they choose as a candidate, he said.
Maurice Collins SC, for the State, rejected arguments the High Court misapplied the law on legal standing in deciding Mr Mohan had no standing to challenge the constitutionality of the law.
Mr Mohan had produced no evidence to support his claim a September 2015 direction from FF headquarters to a Dublin Central general election selection convention that the sole candidate selected must be female was due to the law and not FF’s own policy to have more women candidates, counsel argued.
The direction was issued in a context where, by summer 2015, there were ten women among 47 FF candidates chosen in 31 constituencies. Mary Fitzpatrick was selected for Dublin Central.
In February 2016, the High Court ruled Mr Mohan did not have legal standing to bring his case and, as a result, did not determine whether or not the 2012 law was constitutional.
The three judge Court of Appeal heard Mr Mohan’s appeal against the High Court decision on Tuesday and reserved judgment.
The case concerns provisions of the Electoral (Political Funding) Act 2012 which halve State funding to parties who fail to ensure at least 30 per cent of their general election candidates are women and 30 per cent are men. That percentage is intended to rise to 40 per cent after seven years.
Women comprise 22pc of the current Dail, up from 16.3 pc before the last general election.
Mr Mohan claimed it would be impossible for Fianna Fail to function if its State funding of some €1.16m was halved.
The Court of Appeal must first decide if the legal standing finding was correct. If it finds otherwise, Mr Mohan wants the appeal court to determine the constitutionality of the legislation but the State argues that should go back to the High Court for a first instance decision.
On Tuesday, Mr McDowell argued Mr Mohan’s party is effectively being “coerced“ by a financial imperative to support gender quotas and that also made it difficult for Mr Mohan to argue internally with the party against such quotas.
It was “demanding too much” for the High Court to say Mr Mohan should have produced evidence from Fianna Fail itself to say it was adversely affected by the legislation.
Ordinary members of Fianna Fail had rejected the idea of gender quotas at two Ard Fheiseanna but the parliamentary party would probably be reluctant to publicly “tog out” in favour of Mr Mohan on the issue of quotas.
The 2012 law directly affected Mr Mohan at the convention and continues to do so, counsel said. Because of it, gender quotas were a matter of law, not a matter of choice for parties.
Mr Collins said Mr Mohan clearly had no legal standing to challenge the 2012 law and the High Court’s analysis of that issue was “unimpeachable”.
Fianna Fail and other parties are clearly qualified to challenge the legislation, including for reasons such as the impact of any withdrawal of funding, and had not done so, he said. There was no evidence to show a causal connection between what FF had done at the Dublin central selection convention and the 2012 law.
Online EditorsTranslator: J. Garon
1
If you can talk about it,
it ain't Tao.
If it's got a name,
it's just another thing.
Tao doesn't have a name.
Names are for ordinary stuff.
Stop wanting stuff. It keeps you from seeing what's real.
When you want stuff, all you see are things.
2
If something's beautiful, something's got to be ugly.
If something's good, something's got to be bad.
You can't have something without nothing.
If no task is difficult, then no task is easy.
Things are up high because other things are down low.
So, the Master gets shit done with moving a muscle
and signifies without saying a word.
When shit happens, he doesn't blink.
When things fall apart, he stays cool.
He doesn't own much, but he's got a lot.
He does his work without expecting any favors.
When the job's finished, he moves on to the next job.
That's why his work is so damn good.
3
If you cut people too much slack,
they're going to come up short.
If you give things too much value,
they're going to get ripped off.
The Master leads
by clearing the crap out of people's heads
and beefing up their hearts.
He lowers their sights
and makes them suck in their guts.
He shows them how to forget what they know and what they wanted.
If you think you've got the answers, he'll mess with your head.
Stop doing stuff all the time,
and watch things happen.
4
You want to know how much Tao there is?
There's more Tao than you'll ever need.
No matter how much you use,
there's more out there.
You can't see Tao, but it's there.
Damned if I know where it came from.
It's just always been around.
5
Tao's neutral:
it doesn't give a shit about good or evil.
The Master's neutral:
he treats everyone the same.
Tao is like a bellows.
Sure, it's empty, but it'll get your fire lit.
If you keep using Tao, it works better.
If you keep talking about it, it won't make any sense.
Keep cool.
6
Everybody has Tao in them.
They just have to use it.
7
Tao never ends and it never stops.
It never ends because it never began.
It never stops because it doesn't want anything,
so it's always ready for anybody to use.
The Master hangs back.
That's why he's ahead of the game.
He doesn't hang on to things.
That's how he manages to keep them.
He doesn't worry about stuff he can't control.
That's why he's got satisfaction.
8
Doing the right thing is like water;
it helps everything without even trying.
You don't care where you are when you're doing the right thing;
and that's how Tao works.
Keep your feet on the ground. Keep your head low.
Stop thinking so much about complicated shit.
If you have to fight, fight fair. Don't fight dirty.
Do what you really want to do.
Be there when people need you.
When you're okay with yourself,
and stop giving a damn what everyone thinks about you,
people will respect you.
9
If you drink too much, you get drunk.
If you tinker with the engine too much, the truck won't start.
If you want too much, you become a tightass.
If you care too much about other people think, they'll walk all over you.
Do what you have to do, then walk away.
Anything else will drive you nuts.
10
Can you hold on to your ego
and stick to Tao?
Can you relax
and keep your mind and body ready for action?
Can you check yourself
and see past what's in front of your eyes?
Can you be a leader
and not get on everybody's case?
Can you deal with what's happening
and let things happen?
Can you forget what you know
and understand what's real?
Starting a job and seeing it through,
Having things without holding on to them,
Doing the job without expecting anything,
Delegating authority without giving orders.
That's the way you do it.
11
A wheel has spokes,
but it rotates around the empty center.
A pot is made from ceramics or steel,
but you keep things in the empty space.
A house is made from wood or brick,
but you live in the emptiness between the walls.
We work with something,
but we use nothing.
12
Sight obscures.
Noise deafens.
Desire messes with your heart.
Thoughts mess with your mind.
The Master watches the world
but keeps focused on what's real.
13
Winning can be just as bad as losing.
Confidence can mess you up just as much as fear.
What does "winning can be just as bad as losing" mean?
If you're down, you might be able to get up.
But if you're up, you can get knocked down real fast.
Don't worry about the score,
just do what you have to do.
What does "confidence can mess you up just as much as fear" mean?
Fear can keep you from getting the job done,
but it can also keep you from getting in over your head.
Confidence can help you get the job done,
but it can also get you in over your head.
Walk tall, but don't get cocky.
Know your limits.
Deal with the things you can, and let the rest go.
Like the saying goes, "Your arms are too short to box with God."
14
You can't see Tao, no matter how hard you look.
You can't hear Tao, no matter how hard you listen.
You can't hold on to Tao, no matter how hard you grab.
But it's there.
It's in you,
and it's all around you.
Remember that.
15
The ancient Masters were pretty damn impressive.
They were deep. Real deep.
Words can't even begin to describe how deep they were.
You can only talk about what they were like.
They were careful, like a man walking on thin ice.
They were cautious, like a soldier behind enemy lines.
They were demure, like a guest at a party.
They were quick, like ice when it melts.
They were rough and ready, like a block of uncarved wood.
Their minds were open, like an expansive valley.
Their hearts were clear, like spring water.
Can you wait until your mind is open and your heart is clear
before you try to understand?
Can you stay still until events have unfolded
before you do the right thing?
When you act without expectation,
you can accomplish great things.
16
Clear your head.
Stay calm.
Watch as everything goes down around you.
Everything goes back to where it came from.
Everything came from nothing.
If you don't understand that,
you're going to screw up somewhere down the line.
If you figure it out,
you'll always know what to do.
If you get right with Tao,
you won't be afraid to die,
because you know you will.
17
When the Master takes charge,
hardly anybody else notices.
The next best leader is one whose orders are obeyed out of love.
After that, there's the leader whose orders are obeyed out of fear.
The worst leader is the one who is hated; he won't be obeyed for long.
Trust and respect people.
That's how to earn their trust and respect.
The Master doesn't give orders;
he works with everybody else.
When the job's done,
they are amazed at what they were able to accomplish.
18
When people ignore Tao,
they start talking about "righteousness" and "sanctity".
When they forget what's true,
they start talking about "self-evident truths".
When they do not respect each other,
they start talking about "political correctness" and "family values".
When the nation is unstable,
they start talking about "patriotism".
19
Get rid of sanctity.
People will understand the truth, and be happier.
Get rid of morality.
People will respect each other, and do what's right.
Get rid of value and profit.
People will not steal if they do not desire.
If that's not possible, go to Plan B.
Be simple. Be real.
Do your work as best you can. Don't think about what you get for it.
Stay focused. Get rid of crap.
20Last week at LCS, I had the opportunity to interview several LCS pros after their matches. Next up: Meteos from Cloud 9. Though C9 started out with a questionable record this season, they've smashed their way all the way back to the #2 spot in the league and look as ready as ever to challenge the NA title. I asked him about the team's rebound after their difficult start to the season, the struggles they've been working through, the details behind their match with TSM, and a lot about the way Meteos sees the new jungle and the new patch.
That was a pretty crazy game. Can you start by taking me through how you were able to deal with TSM's comeback, and what was going through your head?
Well, that game started pretty well for us. I think we got the better hand in the draft by a pretty big margin – we got Maokai and Lissandra which makes it really easy to pick Vi there, because we have so many point-click-and-GO champions there already, and I don't really need to be tanky, so I can build damage. That's a style we're really comfortable playing. Hai can be on a shotcalling champion that initiates, and it's easy for us to just follow up. It's just our style; we got all the champions we're comfortable on. This happens to us a lot: when we're secured into a place for something and the game doesn't matter, it's so much harder to care about it. TSM probably didn't prep very hard for the game because obviously, to them, it didn't matter. Not to say they wanted us to win or anything, because after the game they were talking about what they should've done better and stuff – they didn't give the game away by any means – but I do understand what it's like to not have it matter as much. For us, it matters a lot, trying to get that second seed from CLG, so I think it just meant more for us. We prepped harder than them, got a better draft, and I think we were able to take it from there.
When you first played TSM at the beginning of the season, it was a pretty rough game for you guys. How's it feel to really turn things around and take the win?
It feels good. It's been a full season of changes and us adapting to them. I think we're in a much better spot now than we were at the beginning of the season. At the beginning of the season, I remember I was playing Elise, because we didn't think she was bad back then, but she turned out to not be very good. I think we got our picks a lot better, our strategy a lot better, so things are looking up.
Would you attribute the slump you were in towards the beginning of the season to not being fully prepared for the changes in the patch, then?
It was a lot of things. It was a combination of a little complacency, since we'd just won IEM San Jose before the split. There were a lot of changes, and we weren't all on the same page for what we wanted to do. There was a lot of non-cohesiveness with our play. Everyone thinks we should be doing a different thing and no one's making confident calls because you don't want to override what someone else was trying to do, but then no calls were being made so no one knows what to do. You're hesitating a lot. That was basically us for a lot of this split. But we will have games where we're really on point, and sometimes we fall back into bad habits, but I do think that even if there's spikes up and down it does seem to be an upward progression.
When you don't have that cohesiveness, with everyone on a different page, how do you go about getting everyone on that page?
I think the best way to do it comes down to your practice. We switched from Lemon doing all the picks and bans, because it was leading to some arguments. If he picked some stuff that we didn't want to play it would tilt everyone, and games would be really bad, so we had Charlie do it. That way, if we had a problem with our picks and bans we get mad at the coach and not someone in the game with us. So then we all talk to Charlie about what we wanna play. He takes everyone's input into account, so if you want to play a certain champion he'll find a place for you to play it. That's not to say you pick it into every game if it doesn't fit into the comp. That way, it was a happy medium between getting good team comps and letting everyone play what they want to play. When we go into the game, we'll just remember how we've done things: "Hai, make a call – a very decisive call, and even if it's the worst shit ever, we'll follow you up." We just need to get back in that habit. He'll make a lot of bad calls, we'll follow him up, we'll make him feel bad about it, and then we all get our confidence back as a team and it goes a lot better.
Has Hai's physical condition been a problem for you guys going forward?
I don't really know what his condition is. I think it hurts the amount of solo queue he can play, so maybe he's having some mechanical or champion pool issues that if he could practice more, it'd help. But it's hard to say. I haven't really noticed him doing worse than before. He's going to physical therapy and whatnot. I don't think it'll be a big issue. Hopefully it won't get worse though.
Would you say you guys are “back” to your top form, or do you still have a ways to go?
I think we always have stuff to improve on, even when we're in our "top form," there's no reason to not try to keep improving. I think we're better than we were earlier in this split and that's good enough for me. We're just gonna keep trying to get better.
This is the first split where C9 isn't finishing the season in first. Would you say that's mostly because of the slump, or would you say that NA as a whole is much better?
It's definitely a combination. Even in the past when we were dominant, we still didn't play perfectly – it's just now our mistakes get capitalized on a lot more. We'll just have some slipups in games. We've thrown a lot of games this split – a lot of our losses were games where we actually had leads early |
resumption of that relationship.”
A native of Decatur, Coffee settled in Birmingham after graduating from Alabama in 1950 and began publishing Birmingham Doin's and Tuscaloosa Doin's, which highlighted publicized local concerts, nightclubs and restaurants. He expanded his publications to Huntsville, Montgomery and Decatur as well as Savannah, Ga., and Brunswick, Ga., but later scaled back to Birmingham. He also published the pocket-sized Dick Coffee's Football Guide, and the one-man operation eventually grew to two when his son, Dick Coffee III, joined the enterprise.
"One of his great friends from Decatur... said one time that the thing that he loved about Dick Coffee was that after a game was over, you really couldn't tell who won," Dick III said. "He was always the same. That's a great lesson for a lot of us now these days, with all the bitterness and hatred about football."
Tentative arrangements are for a visitation from 9:30 to 11 a.m. CDT Tuesday at Canterbury United Methodist Church in Birmingham. The service will begin at 11 a.m.
“He had a full life,” Melton said. “He’s going to be missed. I can’t say enough good things about him.
“I never knew anybody who didn’t like Dick Coffee.”
Gaddy agreed.
“He always had a smile and a laugh,” Gaddy said. “He was just fun to be around.”Sami Zayn answers media questions on Friday at WWE's Performance Center in Orlando. Photo by Jan Murphy
Sami Zayn / El Generico Photo Gallery
ORLANDO - Montreal native Sami Zayn is once again back inside a World Wrestling Entertainment ring, some seven-plus months after what should have been a dream debut quickly became a nightmare.
Last May, in his hometown, surrounded by friends and family, Zayn made his WWE Monday Night Raw debut. Rami Sebei, a 31-year-old redhead of Syrian descent, spent more than a decade in the business, wrestling around the world under a mask as El Generico. After dominating in the WWE's NXT development system, Zayn arrived to a monstrous ovation from the Montreal faithful to face the company's biggest name, John Cena.
Talk about a dream debut.
Things went sour quickly, however, as Zayn suffered a serious shoulder injury just seconds into the match. Zayn was able to fight through the pain to finish the match.
"You just get through it if you can," Zayn said during international media day at the WWE's Performance Centre in Orlando as part of Royal Rumble weekend, adding that ringside doctors have the final say. "For me mentally, it wasn't an option (to not finish). We were one minute in, with all this time to go on live television, millions of people watching, 15,000 people in the arena watching, my friends, my family seeing me in the biggest moment of my life -- it wasn't an option to stop. But it could have been if the injury was bad enough or if I somehow just didn't get through it, the doctors would have stopped it."
The injury, it turned out, was bad enough to cost him the better part of a year, at a time when he and fellow Quebec native Kevin Owens were right at the top of the company's developmental system. Zayn was told he'd be out four to six months.
"I thought (my recovery) would actually go quicker because when I initially saw the surgeon, they said four to six months. Right away, I thought that means four. I was progressing very quickly very early, so I thought, 'I'm going to crush this rehab.' Then it kind of slowed down," he said, adding that even today he feels some post-surgery discomfort in the shoulder.
"I still wouldn't call it 100%," he said. "I still feel some cracking and popping and whatever else. Mentally, I know it's still the bad shoulder."
Getting back to 100%, physically and mentally, will take time, Zayn acknowledged.
A ringside physician checks out Sami Zayn during his WWE debut with John Cena in Montreal in May 2015. Photo by Minas Panagiotakis, www.photography514.com
"There are certain things I'm not doing," he admitted. "I don't think anybody will really notice it, it's just little things for me, like if there's certain moves that put me in a position that I feel vulnerable in, I just won't do them at this stage. Again, I just came back and I still don't 100% feel like myself. As soon as I feel comfortable doing moves or being in those positions, I'll be back at it. For now, in the short term, yeah, I'm definitely a little more cognitive of what I'm doing. You can't help it when you get hurt. It's actually an important lesson to learn honestly as a performer."
While Zayn acknowledges that the night he debuted on Raw in Montreal was undoubtedly the biggest night of his career, it was also surreal.
"It was a pretty strange night," he said. "Even now when I try to think back on that night, it's a bit of a whirlwind because there were so many highs and lows. I still don't know how to process that evening."
Zayn remembers feeling like that dream debut might be too good to be true.
"I was very skeptical, to be honest, because things change in this company so often," he said. "Having wrestled independently for so long before I got here, I'm very much of the mindset, I'll believe it when I'm there. I only started believing it once I was there. Even at that, I was still kind of struggling to process it all. It was exciting but it was also a lot of uncertainty, because I didn't know what it meant. I was trying to get clues to what this meant. Is this a one-off? Is this just because we're in Montreal? Is this just something special to do for that crowd or does this mean I'm staying up? Or if the match is good enough, can I force their hand to keep me up? We'll never know any of that, because I got hurt that night."
Never one to dwell on the past, Zayn intends to pick up where he left with NXT, right in the mix for the NXT championship.
"We'll see how it all plays out on a long enough timeline. Maybe it was the best thing that could have happened to me, maybe it was the worst thing. Only time will tell. Right now, I feel pretty good about things."
UP PERISCOPE: Jan Murphy also posted part of this interview on Periscope.
RELATED LINKSThis piece was excerpted from Silverglate's acceptance speech upon his being awarded the Manhattan Institute’s Alexander Hamilton Award on May 9, 2016.
I have dedicated much of my career to a contest I consider immensely important to the future health of America: the effort to destroy the liberal arts-and-sciences university by replacing the quest for human knowledge with the indoctrination of students into truth as it is postulated by self-righteous post-modern fanatics.
[FIRE is] in trench warfare for the time being, until we can figure out how to administer a knock-out blow to the illiberal forces that have overtaken the academy.
This dangerous trend accelerated in the mid-1980s. On college campuses, definitions of “harassment” were adopted that were so vague and broad as to drastically escalate the number of disciplinary proceedings.
Speech codes popped up that sought to prevent students from insulting or “harassing” one another, but that in fact strangled the academic enterprise. Kangaroo courts were established to adjudicate violations.
Remember that we’re talking about liberal arts colleges, not prisons nor re-education camps!
The bottom line was that I saw that these major institutions had taken a turn toward practices that furnished a nutrient-laden petri dish for an experiment in authoritarianism.
University of Pennsylvania Professor Alan Charles Kors and I established The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education in 1999, a year after we published our book, “The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America’s Campuses.”
That book followed Professor Kors’ representation, with some legal advice from me, of an undergraduate who had been hauled in front of a Penn disciplinary tribunal. The infamous “water buffalo” case involved a student who admonished a loud group of undergraduate women to “shut up, you water buffalo!” as he tried to write an English paper.
The women, who were black, considered this remark “racial harassment,” and student life administrators agreed. It turned out, actually, that in the offending student’s first language, Hebrew, the common term “behema” best translates to “water-buffalo” and refers in slang to a rowdy or thoughtless person.
Penn’s administrators, unaware of the student’s cultural background, assumed that the water buffalo was native to Africa (it’s not) and from this they extrapolated their hate speech theory. In the face of derisive worldwide publicity, triggered by The Wall Street Journal’s editorial titled, “Buffaloed at Penn,” the campus bureaucrats backed down, but it turned out to be merely a tactical retreat.
FIRE is in its 17th year with no end in sight.
Sanity’s well-publicized victory in the water buffalo case triggered a flood of students seeking assistance from Professor Kors and me. These beleaguered individuals were suffering not only from unfair disciplinary proceedings, but also were being cheated of a genuine liberal-arts education.
The liberal arts are not readily compatible with censorship and mindless persecution. From the day students arrive as freshmen they are immediately subjected to tendentious sensitivity training engineered by burgeoning student life bureaucrats who intrude into their most intimate lives and thoughts.
I recognized that they were at the mercy of a new regime, something of a cross between Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and Kafka’s “The Trial.”
Kors and I couldn’t handle the volume, and so FIRE was born out of sheer necessity. I at the time had assumed that surely the ludicrousness of the campus prosecutions would result in the phenomenon burning itself out within less than 10 years.
It was, I told myself, a momentary social panic. FIRE would be a temporary project. The burning of witches in Salem, after all, ended rather abruptly when the Massachusetts high court decided that enough was enough and put an end to the trials in 1693. The scourge had lasted only one year.
Well, FIRE is in its 17th year with no end in sight. We are in trench warfare for the time being, until we can figure out how to administer a knock-out blow to the illiberal forces that have overtaken the academy.
The bacteria in the authoritarian petri dish, then, are thriving. And so must our efforts to develop the legal, cultural and intellectual antibiotics necessary to stop them.
This piece originally appeared in New York PostSo after 3 days they got him.Name: S.I. (they won't release the name to the public)Age: 22Origin: TurkeyResidence: a Care Home in Güttingen, SwitzerlandHe is well know in Weinfelden (which is close to where the incident occured) for repeatedly threatening random persons and appearently he's not evem holding back to threaten women with a knife.S.I. says he attacked the handicapped T.M because he was "Verbaly" abused by him.Now, here comes the funny stuff. According to 20min.ch* he's not just pretty stupid, he's also mentally handicapped. (Which explains his bad taste of music).(Occured on sunday the 2nd February 2014)The victim is know as T.M. a 39yr old man who was on his way to visit his grandma at the retirement home.They report he's still in shock and can't really process what happend to him.Too bad the retarded crook will never see a prison from inside, because our gouvernment is driven by MutliCulti Nazis who love criminals and hate ordinary people.The Father of the victim is demanding the bully to apologies himself(it will never happen though, he's too proud of himself to apologies).University of Michigan seniors have been expressing their dissatisfaction with the recent commencement announcement as there are no plans for a featured speaker. Many also believe the University is focusing too much on the bicentennial celebration instead of the graduating class of 2017.
The commencement speech will feature a multimedia project displaying current University faculty reading the words from previous speeches throughout the University’s history. Music, Theatre & Dance Prof. Malcolm Tulip, who is producing the exhibition, said the presentation will celebrate both the bicentennial and the current graduates.
“For years now, we have become used to seeing great speeches and events on video,” Tulip said in a University press release. “In the early days of the university this documentation did not exist or was lost. This project assembles a series of excerpts from significant speeches from the university’s past. In seven minutes, graduating students and their families will gain a sense of their place in the university and nation’s history.”
In the press release, Interim Provost Paul Courant said the bicentennial will not overshadow the students and their graduation.
“Graduation, as always, is principally about the academic achievements of the students who are graduating,” Courant said. “We are pleased and proud to honor them and their achievements.”
Despite Courant’s statement, seniors were frustrated with the speech presentation.
LSA Student Government President Julia Gips, an LSA senior, wrote she was disappointed when the plan was originally mentioned back in October. She said LSA SG sent out a survey last semester to gauge student opinions on the announcement, and found some apprehension regarding the plans.
"After polling 500 students (both seniors and younger), we found that 61% were upset that commencement wouldn't follow the traditional pattern of having a speaker," Gips wrote. "I sent this information to President Schlissel in November... Unfortunately no changes were made to the original plan... Ultimately, our big day is shaping up to be underwhelming."
LSA senior Nick Suárez echoed Gips and wrote in an email interview the current plan is very lackluster and doesn’t show a dedication from the University to its graduates.
“It was definitely a huge slap in the face to all the grads,” Suárez wrote. “The commencement speaker is really the only aspect of the whole event that many people even care about, so this is just another way the university shows its students how little it cares about us as individuals.”
Instead of a speaker, @umich is giving its bicentennial class a *clip show* of past commencement speeches. Ouch. https://t.co/nG44163HAO pic.twitter.com/tIR0p3MKHS — Michael Proppe (@mikeproppe) March 27, 2017
Education senior Maggie Cowles wrote going from past commencement speakers such as former President Barack Obama and Michael Bloomberg to a recap of other speeches seems like a self-indulgent move from the University.
“I feel like we've spent four years building up to this, to our graduation, and hearing about all of these amazing speakers in the past,” Cowles wrote. “I'm from Ann Arbor, so I remember the year Obama came. I remember being so excited about who my graduation speaker would be, and anticipating it … It just really feels like the university is trying so hard to promote itself that it’s not at all concerned about what students actually want to see in commencement.”
Suárez wrote the tuition bill students have paid over their four years at the University merits a new speech for graduation.
“Considering the amount of money paid and debt accrued by so many of us, to reach our culminating moment and not have something to look forward to with this event is disheartening honestly,” Suárez wrote.
Cowles added the University is prioritizing the bicentennial over its students, emphasizing she would be able to watch old footage of commencement speeches at home but her own graduation should be something new.
“Nobody wants to sit in the big house and watch a video clip of graduation addresses aimed at different years — we want our own speaker with … our own ceremony,” Cowles wrote. “It's taking away a huge part of graduation that, honestly, is the only part of the whole-school graduation I was looking forward to.”KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (CN) – A nuclear engineer was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison and a $20,000 fine for trying to help China produce nuclear material under the radar of the U.S. government.
Szuhsiung Ho aka Allen Ho, 67, pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to participate in the development of nuclear material outside the United States in violation of the Atomic Energy Act.
Ho is a dual citizen of China and Delaware, and worked as a nuclear engineer employed by the China General Nuclear Power Company, or CGNPC, the largest nuclear power company in China and one that specializes in making nuclear reactors.
He was also president of the Wilmington, Delaware-based Energy Technology International, or ETI for short.
Prosecutors say that from 1997 through 2016, CGNPC and ETI worked to produce and develop nuclear material in China, “with the intent to secure an advantage to China and without specific authorization to do so from the U.S. Secretary of Energy, as required by law.”
Ho, CGNPC and ETI reportedly sought and received technical assistance from U.S.-based experts in the civil nuclear industry for a nuclear reactor program, advanced fuel assembly program and in-core detector system.
Ho and the Chinese-based company facilitated experts’ travel to China and payments in exchange for their help, prosecutors said.
According to court records, at least one of the experts Ho recruited worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority, which is headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee.
On Thursday, Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan in Knoxville sentenced Ho to 24 months in prison, a year of probation and a $20,000 fine.
Dana Boente, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a statement that Ho “is being held accountable for enlisting U.S.-based nuclear experts to provide assistance in developing and producing special nuclear material in China for a Chinese state-owned nuclear power company.”
FBI Knoxville Special Agent in Charge Renae McDermott added, “Theft of our nuclear technology by foreign adversaries is of paramount concern to the FBI. Along with our local, state and, federal partners, we will aggressively investigate those who seek to steal our technology for the benefit of foreign governments.”
Like this: Like Loading...The rise of populism has rattled the global political establishment. Brexit came as a shock, as did the victory of Donald Trump. Much head-scratching has resulted as leaders seek to work out why large chunks of their electorates are so cross.
What the 21st century can learn from the 1929 crash | Larry Elliott Read more
The answer seems pretty simple. Populism is the result of economic failure. The 10 years since the financial crisis have shown that the system of economic governance which has held sway for the past four decades is broken. Some call this approach neoliberalism. Perhaps a better description would be unpopulism.
Unpopulism meant tilting the balance of power in the workplace in favour of management and treating people like wage slaves. Unpopulism was rigged to ensure that the fruits of growth went to the few not to the many. Unpopulism decreed that those responsible for the global financial crisis got away with it while those who were innocent bore the brunt of austerity.
Anybody seeking to understand why Trump won the US presidential election should take a look at what has been happening to the division of the economic spoils. The share of national income that went to the bottom 90% of the population held steady at around 66% from 1950 to 1980. It then began a steep decline, falling to just over 50% when the financial crisis broke in 2007.
Similarly, it is no longer the case that everybody benefits when the US economy is doing well. During the business cycle upswing between 1961 and 1969, the bottom 90% of Americans took 67% of the income gains. During the Reagan expansion two decades later they took 20%. During the Greenspan housing bubble of 2001 to 2007, they got just two cents in every extra dollar of national income generated while the richest 10% took the rest.
Those responsible for global financial crisis got away with it while those who were innocent bore the brunt of austerity
The US economist Thomas Palley* says that up until the late 1970s countries operated a virtuous circle growth model in which wages were the engine of demand growth.
“Productivity growth drove wage growth which fueled demand growth. That promoted full employment, which provided the incentive to invest, which drove further productivity growth,” he says.
Unpopulism was touted as the antidote to the supposedly failed policies of the postwar era. It promised higher growth rates, higher investment rates, higher productivity rates and a trickle down of income from rich to poor. It has delivered none of these things.
James Montier and Philip Pilkington, of the global investment firm GMO, say that the system which arose in the 1970s was characterised by four significant economic policies: the abandonment of full employment and its replacement with inflation targeting; an increase in the globalisation of the flows of people, capital and trade; a focus on shareholder maximisation rather than reinvestment and growth; and the pursuit of flexible labour markets and the disruption of trade unions and workers’ organisations.
To take just the last of these four pillars, the idea was that trade unions and minimum wages were impediments to an efficient labour market. Collective bargaining and statutory pay floors would result in workers being paid more than the market rate, with the result that unemployment would inevitably rise.
Unpopulism decreed that the real value of the US minimum wage should be eroded. But unemployment is higher than it was when the minimum wage was worth more. Nor is there any correlation between trade union membership and unemployment. If anything, international comparisons suggest that those countries with higher trade union density have lower jobless rates. The countries that have higher minimum wages do not have higher unemployment rates.
Brexit has allowed the banks to get off Britain's naughty step Read more
“Labour market flexibility may sound appealing, but it is based on a theory that runs completely counter to all the evidence we have,” Montier and Pilkington note. “The alternative theory suggests that labour market flexibility is by no means desirable as it results in an economy with a bias to stagnate that can only maintain high rates of employment and economic growth through debt-fuelled bubbles that inevitably blow up, leading to the economy tipping back into stagnation.”
This quest for ever-greater labour market flexibility has had some unexpected consequences. The bill in the UK for tax credits spiralled quickly once firms realised they could pay poverty wages and let the state pick up the bill. Access to a global pool of low-cost labour meant there was less of an incentive to invest in productivity-enhancing equipment.
The abysmally low levels of productivity growth since the crisis have encouraged the belief that this is a recent phenomenon, but as Andy Haldane, the Bank of England’s chief economist, noted last week, the trend started in most advanced countries in the 1970s.
“Certainly, the productivity puzzle is not something which has emerged since the global financial crisis, though it seems to have amplified pre-existing trends,” Haldane said.
Bolshie trade unions certainly can’t be blamed for Britain’s lost productivity decade. The orthodox view in the 1970s was that attempts to make the UK more efficient were being thwarted by shop stewards who modeled themselves on Fred Kite, the character played by Peter Sellers in I’m All Right Jack. Haldane puts the blame elsewhere: on poor management, which has left the UK with a big gap between frontier firms and a long tail of laggards. “Firms which export have systematically higher levels of productivity than domestically oriented firms, on average by around a third. The same is true, even more dramatically, for foreign-owned firms. Their average productivity is twice that of domestically oriented firms.”
Populism is seen as irrational and reprehensible. It is neither. It seems entirely rational for the bottom 90% of the US population to question why they are getting only 2% of income gains. It hardly seems strange that workers in Britain should complain at the weakest decade for real wage growth since the Napoleonic wars.
Wolfgang Streeck: ‘Look at London – it’s a second Rome. This is what an empire looks like’ Read more
It has also become clear that ultra-low interest rates and quantitative easing are merely sticking-plaster solutions. Populism stems from a sense that the economic system is not working, which it clearly isn’t. In any other walk of life, a failed experiment results in change. Drugs that are supposed to provide miracle cures but are proved not to work are quickly abandoned. Businesses that insist on continuing to produce goods that consumers don’t like go bust. That’s how progress happens.
The good news is that the casting around for new ideas has begun. Trump has advocated protectionism. Theresa May is consulting on an industrial strategy. Montier and Pilkington suggest a commitment to full employment, job guarantees, reindustrialisation and a stronger role for trade unions. The bad news is that time is running short. More and more people are noticing that the emperor has no clothes.
Even if the polls are right this time and Marine Le Pen fails to win the French presidency, a full-scale political revolt is only another deep recession away. And that’s easy enough to envisage.
*Who Runs the Economy?; Palgrave Macmillan; edited by Robert Skidelsky and Nan CraigDemocratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE’s use of a former Miss Universe winner to attack 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 resembles her handling of the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, according to Newt Gingrich.
“This is the new Benghazi lie,” the former House Speaker said Thursday on “The Sean Hannity Show,” as first reported by BuzzFeed.
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“What Hillary tried to set up and what they apparently spent months preparing is an ambush as false as Benghazi,” Gingrich said of Clinton’s defense of Alicia Machado.
“It was as false as her claim she was under fire in in Bosnia. It was as false as the lies she told on her emails. The elite media, which is Clinton, I mean, they totally identify with her, they took it hook, line and sinker.”
Clinton brought up Machado, a 39-year-old former beauty queen from Venezuela, to attack Trump during the first presidential debate.
“He called this woman ‘Miss Piggy,’ then he called her ‘Miss Housekeeping,’ because she was Latina,” she said last Monday at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.
“Donald, she has a name. Her name is Alicia Machado, and she has become a U.S. citizen, and you can bet she’s going to vote this November.”
Machado says Trump insulted her attractiveness and weight while she was Miss Universe in 1996. Trump owned the pageant at the time.
Gingrich on Thursday said the media was eager for a story like Machado’s they could use for discrediting Trump.
“They clearly had set it up to be triggered at the debate,” he said. "At the last minute, Hillary suddenly realizes she hasn’t gotten it in yet.
“So you have this total detour to make sure she has gotten the story planted so all that all the news media that are lined up — all of it’s embargoed, all of it’s sitting there waiting,” Gingrich added.
“[They’re] quivering, just waiting for Hillary to give them the signal. We all got sucked in at the very last second.”
An ad released by the Clinton campaign shortly after the debate included footage of a press event where Trump invited reporters to watch Machado exercise. In one of the clips, Trump talks about Machado gaining 60 or 70 pounds and says she is “somebody who likes to eat.”
Trump on Friday said Clinton was “duped” into promoting Machado despite her “terrible” past.
Trump also urged voters to “check out” an alleged “sex tape” of Machado.Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Ankara will not apologise to Russia for shooting down a Su-24 bomber jet.
"I think if there is a party that needs to apologize, it is not us," Erdogan told CNN in an interview.
"Those who violated our airspace are the ones who need to apologize. Our pilots and our armed forces, they simply fulfilled their duties, which consisted of responding to <…> violations of the rules of engagement. I think this is the essence.
The Russian Su-24 Fencer bomber was shot down by two Turkish F-16s Tuesday morning while conducting operations over Syria.
© AP Photo / Burhan Ozbilici Turkey Will Continue to Treat Airspace Violators Like Russia's Su-24 - Erdogan
One of the pilots from the downed Su-24 was rescued by the Syrian Army Tuesday morning. The other pilot was killed by fire from the ground after ejecting from the plane. A Russian naval infantry soldier also lost his life after an Mi-8 chopper was downed during a rescue operation.
The Turkish president said that Ankara acted in line with its sovereign right to respond to threats, claiming that the Russian jet had violated Turkish airspace.
However, flight data released by Russian Ministry of Defense shows that the Su-24s never entered Turkey, and were attacked while performing legitimate maneuvers over Syria.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin described the Turkish attack as a "stab in the back" carried out by "accomplices of terrorists."Birmingham, AL - As the political atmosphere becomes increasingly divided, Americans are showing an unprecedented level of skepticism in their political leaders and a distinct lack of trust in the media's coverage of important issues. Recent polls conclude that most citizens would gladly punch Barack Obama in the face if given the opportunity, while Congress' decisions has been met with vocalized disdain usually reserved for reviews of a Michael Bay film.
The rampant lack of trust, coupled with the omnipresent ignorance of our remedial society, has lead many people to clamor for an alternative political source. While many prognosticators assumed this role would be quickly filled by an attractive white male with a knack for boisterous political analysis, the vacancy has been surprisingly filled by TruPatriot36, the screename of an anonymous man who has captivated the minds of people who clamor for someone to tell them how they should think.
"This TruPatriot fella' just knows so much about America" said a former Obama supporter that altered his allegiance after the President failed to magically solve the decade of problems he inherited. "He doesn't hesitate to tell you that he's read the Constitution and understands it more then my local politician, so why wouldn't I believe him? I mean, I wasn't initially convinced that this man understood my situation, but he really proved me wrong when he offered the perfect answer in our discussion about taxes. He said he was a small business owner and coincidentally every aspect of our conversation applied to his actual life. Who cares if I have a masters degree from Northwestern in Political Science!?! This man claims to own a small business he didn't bother describing and doesn't show up on Google, its not like he isn't a credible source, you can't just say you own something when you really don't."
A barrage of encouraging comments soon flooded the anonymous mans account after word of mouth produced rampant blind support. Advocates of the anonymous screename had no problem insinuating that they've been supporting TruPatriot since "way before you even heard about him," and wasted little time encouraging friends, family and complete strangers to pledge their allegiance to the ramblings of someone who may, or may not be one of those guys on "To Catch a Predator."
While the public doesn't know anything about the man behind the screename, outside of his sex, a substantial amount of praise has been centered around the versatility of his opinions. Numerous sources have cited that a significant amount of TruPatriot's appeal stems from the fact that he encounters politically advantageous situations almost daily.
"It's amazing how inspiring this man's life is. To think that one person could have dealt with so much, is really quite extraordinary and it definitely won me over. For instance, I always supported affirmative action, but once I heard TruPatriot's story about not being able to afford Christmas gifts for his children because a less qualified black man, who was probably high or something, stole his promotion, it changed my opinion completely" said Bill Kyle. "These are trouble times, you can't just take somebody's word for it, you have to listen to the people who have first hand experience. If President Obama had gone through the same adversity he probably wouldn't have chosen a life dedicated to radical terrorism.
The movement behind the anonymous prophet continues to gain momentum, specifically with Americans who are fed up partisan punditry. As opposed to most political commentators, TruPatriot has been decidedly bi-partisan, almost as if his responses intentionally pander to whatever his current audience wants to hear. While certain politicians have found the anonymous mans opinions to be "ridiculously preposterous nonsense welcomed by groups of people desperately seeking anybody willing to reaffirm their blatant ignorance" and others likened his wave of support to "electing George W. Bush to 13 consecutive terms," the anonymous mans support did not waver.
Although sources have neglected to provide an explanation as to how a man with so many intricate and diverse experiences can find the time to write such thorough and detailed political analysis that conveniently illustrates his exact stance on extremely controversial topics, every single day, public reception has remained overwhelmingly upbeat. As the search for the man posting as TruPatriot continues, Americans are positive that his true identity won't be a tremendous letdown as they realize they've been adhering to the recommendations of an unemployed man who only leaves his parents basement to purchase the newest World of Warcraft expansion pack.Tasker is a mighty powerful app in its own right, but I'll confess, one of its best features is the plugins that help it do even more than it could on its own. (The best feature is — and always will be — the wonderful support community that gathers around this app.) Plugins come in many sizes and shapes, but a few stand head and shoulders above the rest.
We've covered some of these before, and others will be making their first appearance. Without further ado, let's get automating!
AutoVoice
This is the king of Tasker plugins, at least to me and my Moto X. AutoVoice can intercept Google Now commands and use them to carry out Tasker tasks. For a phone with Touchless Controls, this means that even without going to the trouble of activating AutoVoice's own continuous listening, my phone is always ready to receive commands. I've highlighted this use for shinier, newer phones before, but AutoVoice is also love by the users of older, less endowed phones. This is what we'll focus on today.
I was using AutoVoice back on my old Captivate Glide to emulate some of the Google Now goodness that ICS phone would never get. I used it to turn on and off my personal driving mode, I used it for voice dialing my family, and it was awesome. Now, on phones without 'Ok Google' functionality, users rely on the AutoVoice Recognize shortcut. There are many ways of triggering this, with a traditional shortcut on the home screen, or a gesture control in launchers like Nova. On my old Samsung, I hid Recognize in the capacitive Search button as the long-press action. And once Recognize popped up to listen, I would give my cue.
After getting my cue, it would match it to the profile and task I desired and execute. More in-depth instructions for AutoVoice are in both Tasker advanced use and Tasker tips and tricks. There is a free light version, but when you upgrade, you can either buy the pro version outright for $1.63 or you can subscribe to AutoApps and get all of Joao Dias's Auto plugins (including AutoNotification, which I'll be recapping a little later) for $1.20 a month and support him as he endeavours to keep making awesome plugins for users like us. Remember, support your devs!
Free - AutoVoice
$1.20/month - AutoApps
Secure Settings
A had some users gripe about my not mentioning Secure Settings before, and so I'll rectify that now. Secure Settings is the Tasker plugin many users swear by, especially rooted users, but make no mistake, this plugin is still highly useful for users who aren't into system modification. Secure Settings, as you might have guessed, gives users more control over settings, security, and several other advanced functions in Tasker. Using this plugin, I've seen users create their own anti-theft systems, complete with taking pictures of anyone who puts in a bad password and an alarm if someone tries to walk off with it.
Secure Settings is also a plugin that can help Tasker do a few things that it just can't do on its own, such as rebooting a phone or turning on/off GPS. It can also disable the PIN/password, so it's used in many a Tasker-based lock-bypass system, such as unlocking when connected to home Wi-Fi. The actions here are divided into three sections: regular actions, root actions, and Device Administrator actions, and while some of the actions are accessible for free, and the pro-upgrade IAP is only $1.50.
Free, $1.50 IAP - Secure Settings
Tasker App Factory
Now, Tasker App Factory is a different type of plugin. It doesn't help Tasker accomplish more in its tasks or profiles, it simply turns tasks into standalone Tasker apps, which can be given to any other phone, even phones without Tasker. Tasker App Factory lets me make a quick task that I can then put on my mother's Moto X, or my friend's S3. Before AutoVoice got the Google Now integration — without root, anyways — this was the other method I used to get tasks triggered by voice. I exported them as separate apps, and then used the 'open XXXX' command. That's free and dirty method of that, by the way.
Free - Tasker App Factory
Bluetooth Auto Connect
This simple plugin may be one of the most valuable to me, simply because it is one of the only ways to switch between bluetooth connections via automation. I have one-action tasks using Bluetooth Auto Connect's plugin to disconnect from my bedroom bluetooth in order to hook up to the Bose speaker in the bathroom, and I have another button once I get out |
2 edits 17 recommendations neofate Premium Member Bandwidth is 100% a fixed cost - Fact - There is no defending caps. Large ISP's.. ie: Comcast, AT&T, Charter,.. even down to the smaller ones with say 10,000 customers have a FIXED monthly cost for bandwidth. Period, end of story.
There are two main costs -- Transport and Raw Bandwidth. Transport = Cost of bandwidth from backbone (Internet POPs to a market) - Thus the further the ISP is from a major POP the higher the Transport cost is. Though when speaking of these major ISP's,.. this isn't much of a factor and even if it were it's still Fixed! Once you buy transport to market it doesn't matter how much bandwidth you push through that pipe. Thus the cost does NOT increase due to customer usage.
Raw = (aka: Internet Port) = ISP's direct Connection to the Internet (Routers). This is the physical access. The cost of Raw Bandwidth is cheaper the MORE you purchase. ISP's total cost for Raw/Port works like this:
The PEAK days of a month usage = total FIXED cost per month. They take the highest utilization day(s) and that is the cost and that is what every second of every day have 'available' to it. It's not a variable cost that changes hour to hour, day to day, etc. Therefore, ISP pays the same amount every day whether their subscriber base is using the data or not (most of the times not obviously). So if Joe Blow or a thousand Joe Blows use more data the cost doesn't change as long as the utilization that is taken from the busiest day of the month isn't exceeded. (Think of the Joe Blow analogy as 1,000 or 10,000 people using twice their bandwidth out of millions.. ) Customers couldn't change the cost of data if they wanted to,.. unless of course you got a million people to slam / max their connection on one ISP on purpose for an extended period. We're dealing with large numbers, very large and the dynamics of these numbers allow for a lot of people to use a lot more data at any given time and still not shift the cost.
Look at it like this.. If Joe Blow used twice the bandwidth the ISP isn't paying anymore -- but if Joe Blow uses NONE of his bandwidth they don't pay any LESS. It's fixed.
So how does the actual COST, Money $$ breakdown, roughly for an ISP?
A smaller ISP, again, let's say 10,000 customers -- might pay $3 - $5 Per Customer / Per Month -- The smaller the ISP, the higher this cost, the larger the ISP the lower this cost.
A large ISP -- Charter,.. Comcast,.. AT&T (Which owns some backbone so costs are even lower than a Charter for example) -- Would pay *Less Than* < $1 per customer.
So these Caps are, factually, nothing but indefensible scams, money grabs, whatever you want to label the deceitful practice.
When an ISP Charges $XX for Sally Smith going over her 250GB or 500GB etc cap,.. it's 100% profit. It's not 95% profit and 5% goes to paying the 'extra' charge accrued from Mrs. Smith using ABC more GB's that month to the Transport/Raw (and Peering) providers -- as again,.. it's fixed!
The only time the actual costs go up are as the average bandwidth/aggregate bandwidth usage of an entire subscriber base finally exceeds the peak value. However, the Transport, Raw, and even Peering costs are constantly going down and even out with the CAGR's of the entire country's avg Bandwidth usage per month. In short, ISP's aren't constantly having to beef up their Backbone bill (to put it in layman's terms) by big bucks (Unless they acquire new customers, mentioned below ). It stays relatively the same even as usage increases.
Honestly, the primary/most common time such a cost actually goes up significantly is when an ISP acquires a new swath of Customers, which then add new bandwidth pulls that didn't exist before, because the customers didn't exist! -- However, as you might guess, due to the profit margins in broadband/Data (Internet Service) the ISP's come out with a higher "net" revenue.
Which if the above was not true, then it would be a losing business,.. acquiring new customers wouldn't be wanted, etc etc.
I thought it would be nice to put this (easily researchable information) out in a simple form -- as I'm sick of these claims.
davidc502
join:2002-03-06
Mount Juliet, TN 12 recommendations davidc502 Member Netflix would need to Netflix would need to charge at least 50 bucks a month for access to the Netflix library, and then charge per video watched to even begin to look like what ISP's charge for network access. shmerl
join:2013-10-21 1 edit 10 recommendations shmerl Member The cookie argument is actually against caps Cost of cookies depends on amount indeed. Cost of data does not. Last mile ISPs don't spend more depending on how many bytes users funneled through their network. Therefore using limited resource analogy serves exactly the opposite purpose, and highlights how capping ISPs are just driven by pure greed and want to fleece their users without actual expenses based need. Skippy25
join:2000-09-13
Hazelwood, MO 10 recommendations Skippy25 Member Missing the point Though I certainly agree with the assertion that their users most likely have no good other alternative, the single biggest BS of their argument is that what they are comparing it to are limited resources unlike the bits they are passing on. In addition, each and everyone of those things have a cost to produce them that is substantially more and measurable compared to bits which are fractions of a penny. shanghaista
join:2014-08-03
Canton, MA 8 recommendations shanghaista Member Ms. Dortch Is Out of Her Mind Real quotes (not to mention a typo in an official petition to the FCC):
- "If you want to watch HD or UHD videos and use more screens, you have to pay more. The higher the resolution and the greater the number of screens, the more it costs. In effect, Netflix "caps" the amount of bandwidth a user can consume at each of its service levels and charges for usage in excess of that limit."
- Exactly, this is like paying for 3mbps versus 50mbps. Netflix doesn't say "you've watched 50 episodes, you cannot watch anymore unless you pay us a 'threshold' fee"
"The push to outlaw caps and metered pricing will, therefor [sic], leave ISPs with only two options for responding to ever-growing demands on their networks: absorbing those costs and thereby reducing the ability to generate or attract the capital needed to expand and improve services or pushing some or all of those costs onto all broadband customers in the form of across-the-board price increases, which will reduce their disposable income available for other purposes (including buying larger packages of Oreos cookies and higher-priced levels of Netflix's streaming service) and require light users to subsidize heavy users."
- Money grab explained at its clearest with no "congestion" explanation. Thank you, Marlene. Oh and BTW, thanks for thinking of the little people and being concerned with how many Oreos we are able to buy with our disposable income.
IowaCowboy
Iowa native
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA ARRIS SB6183
Netgear R8000
6 recommendations IowaCowboy Premium Member FCC inspection I'm sure if the FCC or local DPUs had the authority to inspect the last mile broadband networks and audit them I'm sure that caps would be a thing of the past. They couldn't prove their claims of network congestion.
We need real regulation where they need to file rate cases like the old telephone companies did.
Gilitar
join:2012-02-01
Mobile, AL ·AT&T U-Verse
4 recommendations Gilitar Member "Uncompetitive markets" Those two words are what stirred up Mediacom. That is exactly where Mediacom leverages their shitty network. They are guilty of taking advantage of uncompetitive markets like the one I live in. I've got news for them though.... AT&T is finally deploying the hell out of GigaPower around here.
DustySilicon
join:2002-10-06
Oak Grove, MO 4 recommendations DustySilicon Member Confused Is Mediacom making the Oreos, selling the Oreos, transporting the Oreos, etc... or are they skimming off the top of the Oreos? jazneo
join:2014-08-25
Hazel Green, WI 4 recommendations jazneo Member There non brand Oreos out there We the costumer should have the right to choice other provider will give data with no data caps and we the people can go to store buy the non brand Oreo as well
if they want base on oreos cookie they better let use choice other ISP provider and let them put up there fiber lines
TIGERON
join:2008-03-11
Boston, MA Motorola MG7550
3 recommendations TIGERON Member People already fed up are sending a message to Canada's ISP regulatory body The only way the FCC will listen to the growing discontent of data caps is if enough people, millions of angry internet subscribers band together to oppose them and overwhelm the regulatory body to do something.
Last I checked, both AT&T and Comcast posted $billions in profits.
"The problem that the biggest ISPs have is that they are tremendous pressure from Wall Street to continue to grow earnings. In a world where they are losing cable customers and margin, losing phone customers and where the growth of new data customers is finally slowing down I think were going to have to get used to seeing increases in data rates along with tricks like data caps to get more revenue out of data."-moderator CCG Consulting of POTs & PANs
The question that boggles my mind is why arent Amazon, Google, HBO, Showtime, HULU, Sony, Apple, Microsoft and other streaming services platforms joining Netflix in opposition? Why are they silent? Where are their voices? Why aren't those companies saying something about this? This affects their bottom line too.
Solid Force
join:2008-05-27
Livermore, CA 3 recommendations Solid Force Member Nonsensical Analogies Don't ya love it when companies make analogies with no bearing on their industry. They keep trying to argue that bandwidth is a finite resource when they could easily, with good network management, give every customer enough bandwidth to avoid congestion. All this shows is an ISP that rather milks customers than invest in network resources. EagleEye37
join:2016-07-21
Saint Charles, MO 3 recommendations EagleEye37 Member Speed limit and usage caps The way I see it, the fact that they limit your internet speed (20mb/s, 60mb/s,...) tells me there's no need for usage caps.It's that time of year again: the time for you, the PopCrush readers, to determine the very best that 2016 had to offer — from music, to movies, to television, and everything in between.
Where would our faves be without their fans?
Everyone knows that a pop star isn't really thriving unless they've got tons of fan accounts dedicated to supporting their beloved idol. From radio request campaigns to encouraging messages to generating hype around poll voting (hey, just like this!), fanbases supply tons of fervor behind the superstars we love.
Plenty of fanbases showed the extent of their loyalty this year, from Beyonce's ever-buzzing BeyHive to Adam Lambert's passionate Glamberts to Selena Gomez's endlessly supportive Selenators. But which fanbase ultimately ruled the year as the most loyal of 'em all?
Place your vote below. We'll reveal the winning fanbase right here on December 22. (Don't see your fanbase represented here? Let us know — we'll add immediately.)
Remember to also tweet us with who you voted for using the hashtag #FanChoiceAwards!
25 Best Pop Albums of 2016:Omar Cummings’ scintillating play this season – 14 goals, three assists for the Colorado Rapids – has drawn interest from suitors abroad. But it seems that the Jamaican isn’t going anywhere.
“For us as a club, our stance is that Omar is not for sale,” Rapids technical director Paul Bravo told MLSsoccer.com by phone on Thursday. “We’re going to do everything that we can to try and keep him in Denver for the rest of his career.”
Speculation that the striker might be leaving the club increased this week when José Luis Sánchez Solá, manager of Mexican club Estudiantes Tecos, said on Monday that he would like Cummings to fill the open international player slot on his roster.
“We understand that there are rumors out there that are floating around,” Bravo said. “We’ve not seen anything concrete, and we’ll move forward with trying to take care of Omar.”
The 28-year-old striker led the Rapids in goals this season, and added two assists in the playoffs to help Colorado to their first-ever MLS Cup title. Cummings had been linked to Mexican club Necaxa earlier in the season after an outburst that saw him score seven goals in five games for the club.
“From a contractual standpoint, I think he’s got two years left on his contract, so we’ve got nothing to worry about there,” Bravo said. “Our plan is to keep Omar.”
Ready to Launch: MLS Matchday 2010, The official MLS iPhone app. It's FREE! Download it here!Monday, July 2, 2012, marks the beginning of my Kennedy Assassination Tour Summer 2012 for my book, Death by Holga: 11.22.63. Initially, I was calling this jaunt around the country my Southwest by Southwest Tour, because of the airline I am using. But they are not paying me for any endorsement, so that title has been nixed.
Starting on Monday and ending Friday, I will be making eleven stops to photograph the people, places and things associated with the Kennedy assassination.
Here is my itinerary:
Monday, July 2 Fly to Columbus, OH National Museum of the USAF in Dayton, OH
Kennedy’s Air Force One – SAM 26000 Fly to Chicago, IL
Tuesday, July 3 Historic Auto Attractions in Roscoe, IL
Lee Harvey Oswald’s original gravestone Chicago, IL
Jack Ruby’s grave – Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald in the basement of the Dallas Police Headquarters as Oswald was being transferred to the county jail.
Karyn Cookie Kupcinet’s grave – Kupcinet is rumored to have been killed for her silence in the Kennedy assassination.
Klein’s Sporting Goods – Klein’s is the business that sold the rifle to Lee Harvey Oswald via mail order. Fly to Detroit, MI
Wednesday, July 4 President Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum in Grand Rapids, MI
Warren Commission Member then U.S. Rep. Gerald Ford The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, MI
Kennedy’s Limo Fly to Greenville/Spartanburg, NC
Thursday, July 5 Waynesville, NC
Kennedy Limo Driver William Greer’s grave Athens, GA
Kennedy’s Secretary of State Dean Rusk’s grave Commerce, GA
Warren Commission Member U.S. Senator Richard Russell’s grave Fly to Tampa, FL
Friday, July 6 Tampa, FL
Kennedy’s Secret Service Agent Roy Kellerman’s grave Fly to Dallas
I have a very tight schedule. I will be traveling most of the time with a very limited amount of time for sleeping and showering. It will be just me, a camera bag and a small carry-on bag. I expect to walk off the plane to the rental car bus, which will take me to my waiting car. I have Gold Plus Rewards status with the car rental agency I will be using, so there will be no waiting in lines for my ride.
Important Stops
Other than President Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald, whose graves I have already photographed, these are the most important stops for my book. Because the list of people, places and things associated with the Kennedy assassination is nearly endless, I have chosen to focus on the most important and iconic photographs for my book. My goal is to photograph everyone in Kennedy’s limo and some of the people at the Texas School Book Depository, Dealey Plaza and on Air Force One.
Names in italics are those that I still need to find and photograph.
The completion of the Kennedy Assassination Tour Summer 2012 will mean that I have enough photographs to start assembling my book, Death by Holga: 11.22.63.
Bonuses
There are a few perks along the way. While in Chicago, I will be stopping by the Hemingway birthplace home in Oak Park, IL. Hemingway is my favorite author and I would love for my next book to be Death by Holga: Hemingway.
Also in the Chicago area, while I am photographing the graves of Jack Ruby and Karyn Kupcinet, I have the opportunity to get the graves of film critic Gene Siskel, The Brady Bunch actor Robert Reed, Where the Sidewalk Ends poet Shel Silverstein and mob boss Al Capone. I don’t know if I have time for all of these, but I will sure try.
Find a Grave
I am using Find a Grave (findagrave.com) for most of my grave hunting. Find a Grave is a great resource for locating graves of famous and not-so famous people. If Find a Grave does not have a particular grave listed, a request can be made to have a local Find a Grave volunteer, like myself, find and photograph it.
I have created a virtual cemetery of all the people I will try to find on my Kennedy Assassination Tour Summer 2012. Click here to view my virtual cemetery.
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
I will be updating my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages during this trip. I will have lots of down time in airports to make regular updates. Please follow along and send me a message or two. My tour is a one man adventure and I could use the company. Cheers.Hundreds of AAP workers on Thursday blocked a road outside the Election Commission headquarters in New Delhi protesting against alleged tampering of Electronic Voting Machines and demanding use of VVPAT-equipped EVMs for future elections. Delhi Minister and AAP leader Gopal Rai, who is among the protesters, said “manipulation” of EVMs was “killing democracy”. “We demand that the questions that have been raised regarding EVMs are resolved. Questions were raised in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab etc, so we want to appeal to the ECI that they give us their machine and we will show them by hacking it. Secondly, we want that the Supreme Court’s 2013 order of conducting elections by VVPAT should be implemented, and third, voting machine and the slips should be tallied,” Rai was quoted as saying by ANI.
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Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) EVMs dispense paper slips enabling voters to verify that their vote has gone to the candidate of their choice.
AAP also plans to approach the EC requesting that votes registered in EVMs and paper trails of 25 per cent randomly chosen booths be tallied, reported PTI.
Earlier this week, AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj had demonstrated alleged hacking of an EVM in Delhi Assembly, claiming that a “secret code” could be used to do so. Bhardwaj had used a prototype EVM for the purpose.
“EVM manipulation is a real possibility and should be looked into immediately,” R K Gupta, an AAP worker from Dwarka told PTI. “This is how BJP won polls in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Even the division along caste lines could not have helped them with such a huge victory,” alleged Pragati, another AAP worker, who had travelled from Mundka to EC headquarters in central Delhi.
The poll panel had, however, refuted AAP’s claims, saying such demonstrations “cannot be exploited to influence our intelligent citizens and electorate to assail or vilify the EVMs used by the Commission””.
“It is common sense that gadgets other than ECI EVMs can be programmed to perform in a pre-determined way but it simply cannot be implied that ECI EVMs will behave in the same manner because the ECI EVMs are technically secured and function under an elaborate administrative and security protocol,” EC said in a statement. In April, Opposition parties led by the Congress urged EC to revert to the ballot system of voting considering how the accuracy of EVMs was now being questioned.
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The poll panel has called for an all-party meet on May 12 to discuss the EVM issue. Seven national and 48 state parties have been invited by to the meeting as part pf efforts to allay fears over alleged hacking of EVMs. The EC is also likely to throw an “open challenge” to prove allegations of EVM tampering.The Polish firm Zylia has created a prototype for a ball-shaped device very likely to revolutionise the music world. Called AudioImmersion, it simultaneously records live sounds from various sources on separate tracks with a single piece of equipment.
Make Things Disappear
Nowadays if you want to make a decent live recording of a medium-sized band you need several microphones, stands, a mixer and a sound registering device. And don’t forget about meters of cables that tend to get tangled up. All of these things take up space, often have to be transported despite sometimes being quite heavy and setting them up is time-consuming. These innocent objects (with whom musicians often develop a love-hate relationship) might soon become obsolete because of a ball-shaped piece of equipment created by the Polish research and development company Zylia. AudioImmersion is a prototype microphone device that packs all the crucial functions of the aforementioned kit into one compact object. Simply put, it is a magic ball that could potentially replace several pieces of heretofore essential equipment.
Separate Tracks
A single microphone device capable of high-quality recording from many sources isn’t a new idea. Symphonic orchestras, for example, need this type of recording. However, the existing devices able to perform this feat have a significant limitation that differentiates them from AudioImmersion – they don’t offer multitrack recording. This kind of sound recording enables you to make separate recordings of each instrument (or voice) taking part in a group recording session at once. Later one can put together the separate recordings to produce a coherent musical whole. This process is called mixing. Multitrack recording, which is commonplace in popular music and often involves the use of a larger or smaller kit of the type described earlier, allows for extensive editing of the captured material. On the other hand, recording many sound sources with a single microphone device immediately produces a basically inseparable whole, which is less editable than multitrack material. That is of course, if the device in question isn’t AudioImmersion.
Studio-Quality
To illustrate how AudioImmersion works, let us picture a room with a drummer and guitarist simultaneously playing. The device has been placed between them and is recording. When they stop, thanks to Zylia’s prototype, they can listen to what they’ve played together. Or to the drums on their own. Or to the guitar alone. How is this possible? The device uploads the audio data to a cloud, where it can be processed to obtain the separate tracks. The service for this processing comes with AudioImmersion and that’s why the magic ball is described by its creators a live audio recording system. Zylia assures that its prototype, which contains not one but a whole array of microphones, makes studio-quality recordings.
New York, New York
AudioImmersion was designed by a group of young scientists led by Dr. Tomasz Żernicki, one of the founders of Zylia. He’s an engineer by education, but he enjoys playing music from time to time. Żernicki is fascinated with sound and engineering and often tries to bring those two passions into his creative pursuits. According to him, the 3D audio technology developed by Zylia which is used in AudioImmersion may find applications outside of music, for instance in virtual reality systems or television. Unfortunately the company doesn’t know yet when its ball-shaped prototype device will be introduced to the market. However, as these words are being written, AudioImmersion is officially debuting at the 139th Audio Engineering Society Convention in New York City, which started on the 29th of October. And if it makes it there, it’ll probably make it everywhere else.
Author: Marek Kępa, October 2015Contributed articles The State of Phishing Attacks
Credit: Stuart Briers
Phishing is a kind of social-engineering attack in which criminals use spoofed email messages to trick people into sharing sensitive information or installing malware on their computers. Victims perceive these messages as being associated with a trusted brand, while in reality they are only the work of con artists. Rather than directly target the systems people use, phishing attacks target the people using the systems. Phishing cleverly circumvents the vast majority of an organization's or individual's security measures. It doesn't matter how many firewalls, encryption software, certificates, or two-factor authentication mechanisms an organization has if the person behind the keyboard falls for a phish.
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Key Insights
On the surface, phishing attacks may seem to be a variant of spam. However, such attacks can lead to damaging losses in terms of identity theft,14,25 sensitive intellectual property and customer information, and national-security secrets.
Phishing attacks are also increasingly pervasive and sophisticated. Phishing has spread beyond email to include VOIP, SMS, instant messaging, social networking sites, and even massively multiplayer games.4,6,35 Criminals have also shifted from sending mass-email messages, hoping to trick anyone, to more selective "spear-phishing" attacks that use relevant contextual information to trick specific victims.
Academic research and commercial work in phishing is a dynamic area combining social psychology, economics, distributed systems, machine learning, human-computer interaction, and public policy. In 2006, Jakobsson and Myers20 published an overview of how phishing works and what countermeasures were available at the time. This article serves as an introduction, as well as overview, of the current state of phishing. It starts with how phishing attacks work, why people fall for them, the debate over the actual damage they cause, and finally a survey of countermeasures against phishing.
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Anatomy of an Attack
Phishing attacks involve three major phases: The first is potential victims receiving a phish; the second is the victim taking the suggested action in the message, usually to go to a fake Web site but can also include installing malware or replying with sensitive information; and the third is the criminal monetizing stolen information.
Fake phishing email. Most phishing email messages use social techniques rather than technical tricks to fool end users. Conveying urgency is a well-known method used by criminals to misdirect people's attention;34 an example is pretending to be a system administrator warning people about a new attack, urging them to install the attached patch. Another is notifying people there have been multiple failed logins for their account and they must verify their account now or risk dire consequences.
Appealing to people's sense of greed is an ancient technique now adapted to the digital world. One phish the author of this article almost fell for about five years ago was filling out a survey for a bank in return for a small amount of money. The survey seemed innocuous until it asked for a bank-account number for depositing funds. So-called Nigerian 419 scams, offering "free" money in exchange for helping the sender move large amounts of money, also fall into this category. However, such obvious get-rich-quick scams are morphing to appeal to other emotions. Phishers today might pose as a relief agency asking for help with a recent natural disaster or as a random person appealing to prurient interests, as in, say, "see Britney Spears naked."
More sophisticated spear-phishing attacks use specific knowledge of individuals and their organizations; for example, an attack on military personnel might contain an invitation to a general's retirement party, asking recipients to click on a link to confirm they will attend. People who wouldn't normally fall for phish might in this case, due to the context. Jagatic et al.19 experimented in 2007 with how to exploit social-network information, showing that people were 4.5 times more likely to fall for phish sent from an existing contact over standard phishing attacks. Criminals indeed heavily target online social-networking sites partly for this reason.
Spear-phishing is also being used against high-level targets, in a type of attack called "whaling"; for example, in 2008, several CEOs in the U.S. were sent a fake subpoena along with an attachment that would install malware when viewed.26 A Communications blog entry16 outlined several successful spear-phishing attacks in late 2010 and early 2011, with victims including the Australian Prime Minister's office, the Canadian government, the Epsilon mailing list service, HBGary Federal, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and RSA SecurID.
Setting up fake Web sites. Most phishing attacks try to convince people to go to a fake site where personal information is collected. To host a fake site, scammers use free Web space and a compromised machine or register a new domain.27
When registering new domains, criminals look for names similar to the site they want to impersonate; for example, impersonating eBay, scammers might register ebay-login.com. Criminals also commonly use homograph attacks that exploit the visual similarity of characters; for example, bankofthevvest.com8 uses two v's to look like a w. Internationalized domain names facilitate this kind of attack, since characters in different language sets may appear identical.
However, in practice, criminals have opted for even simpler approaches. One is to put the domain name in plain sight, as in, say, paypal.com.phishsite.com. Surprisingly, many attacks make no attempt to disguise the destination site, relying on people's lack of understanding of URLs. Unfortunately, even these simple tactics still fool many people.
It doesn't matter how many firewalls, encryption software, certificates, or two-factor authentication mechanisms an organization has if the person behind the keyboard falls for a phish.
When phishing attacks were just starting, scammers would create Web pages by hand, so they tended to be of poor quality, often including misspellings and hotlinks to images on the original site. The majority of phishing sites today are created with toolkits that might let a phisher specify what legitimate page to copy and where to direct stolen data, then generate all needed content. In 2008, Cova et al.7 identified more than 500 working kits. One surprising finding was that over one-third of these toolkits would send phished information to a location different from the one specified by the phisher, targeting inexperienced criminals who would do the work (and bear the legal risk) of breaking into sites.
When phishing attacks began, law enforcement, industry, and academic researchers were not organized in preventing and responding to attacks. However, as countermeasures (such as blacklisting and takedowns) were deployed (discussed later in the section on invisible attacks), criminals began introducing new techniques, thus starting an arms race that continues today. The most innovative approach so far is called "fast flux," using a large pool of proxies and domain names to hide the true location of a phish. Fast flux makes it more difficult to blacklist sites since many URLs must be checked manually. Finding and taking down offending sites is also difficult since more work is needed to find the actual server. While an average phishing site lasts an average of 62 hours before being taken down, sites using fast flux tend to last an average of 196 hours.27
Monetizing stolen information. The final phase of phishing is the monetization of stolen information. In some cases, the path is direct (such as when stealing banking credentials). In other cases, the path is convoluted (such as when stealing credentials for online games and social networking sites). Criminals have shown ingenuity here; for online games, they might transfer all of a victim's virtual gold to an accomplice, then sell it to other players for real money. These attacks are common enough that Blizzard Entertainment, creator of the popular online game World of Warcraft, sells special authenticators and offers in-game gifts for using them.5
Phishing on social networks is also somewhat indirect in terms of monetization. One attack involves notifying the victim's friends that the person is in trouble and needs money fast. Another involves using compromised accounts to spread malware; for example, the Koobface worm sends messages to a victim's friends urging them to go to a site that contains malware. Another is to steal victims' passwords and break into their email and bank accounts, working all too well since many people reuse passwords and existing password-reset mechanisms send responses directly to an individual's email address.
Marketplaces have also developed for acquiring and trading legitimate credentials. In the early days of phishing, phishers might use stolen credentials directly; today, many sell such credentials through underground networks to other criminals. These purchasers in turn might recruit unsuspecting people as "mules" to launder money and goods, reduce the risk the criminals face, and circumvent existing countermeasures; for example, some so-called "work at home" jobs involve receiving money transfers into the mule's bank account, with the funds actually coming from a hacked bank account. The mule then wires the money to a different account in another country, keeping a small commission. Such activities are illegal, and many perpetrators have been indicted around the world.22
This evolution in how stolen credentials are monetized is due to specialization and perceived risk. A person good at creating phishing sites might not necessarily be good at stealing money from the accounts, especially given increasing vigilance by banks and law enforcement. Thus, rather than risk being traced, a phisher could opt to sell stolen information to others who are less risk averse.
Many researchers have examined how criminals trade stolen information on open Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels. Herley and Florencio15 found that criminals often sell credentials for pennies on the dollar, explaining the situation as a classic case of a marketplace for lemons. Given the anonymity of IRC, sellers find it easy to swindle purchasers by offering fake credentials or selling the same ones multiple times. Likewise, it is also easy for law enforcement and banks to offer honeypot credentials; as such, it is difficult for buyers to assess the quality of stolen data before buying. This asymmetric information about sellers and their goods leads buyers to dramatically lower what they are willing to pay.
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Why We Fall for Attacks
An unfortunate response by the technically savvy is to dismiss end users as stupid and gullible, but it overlooks the fact that phishers deliberately exploit the poor usability of many interfaces that provide few cues for assessing the legitimacy of email messages and Web sites. Moreover, a deeper understanding of end-user motivations, beliefs, and mental models is essential for the security community to build effective countermeasures.
Dhamija et al.8 conducted one of the earliest studies (2006) investigating why people fall for phishing scams, asking participants to identify various Web sites as legitimate or fake. They found that good phishing sites fooled 90% of their participants and that most browser cues were opaque. Many participants incorrectly judged sites based on their content and how professional they appeared, not realizing that Web pages are easily copied. Dhamija et al. also found that even experienced participants in the study had trouble with picture-in-picture attacks showing screenshots of a Web browser at a given site (see Figure 1). Picture-in-picture attacks point to an even greater challengethat many people cannot differentiate between the browser "chrome," or buttons and URL area, that can mostly be trusted, and the browser content area, where attackers can show whatever they want.
Also in 2006, Downs et al.9 conducted a complementary study examining phishing email messages. As in Dhamija et al.,8 Downs et al. found their participants used basic, often incorrect heuristics in deciding how to respond to email messages; for example, some participants reasoned that since the business already had their information, it would be safe to give it again.
Sheng et al.30 conducted a follow-up study involving a large-scale survey examining demographics and phishing susceptibility. Surprisingly, they found women were more vulnerable to phishing than men, primarily due to women having less exposure to technical knowledge. They also found that younger participants (ages 18 to 25) performed worse than all other age groups, possibly due to fewer years of experience online, less exposure to training materials, and less aversion to risk.
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How Bad?
The Anti-Phishing Working Group (http://www.antiphishing.org) is an international consortium of law enforcement, industry, and academic researchers devoted to combating Internet scams and online fraud. For phishing attacks against consumers, the peak was in the third quarter of 2010 when APWG identified more than 115,000 unique phishing email messages worldwide, along with more than 150,000 unique phishing sites world-wide.3 Subsequent APWG reports have shown a slow downward trend.
However, estimates of damage caused by phishing varies widely, ranging from $61 million per year14 to $3 billion per year25 of direct losses to victims in the U.S. The main problem is a lack of data from banks and other institutions that suffer losses; as such, these estimates are heavily dependent on the methods used and assumptions made by the organizations compiling and reporting the statistics.
While there is not yet full agreement among security analysts regarding how to calculate direct damages, there is increasing agreement that the indirect costs of phishing are substantial. One bank the author has spoken to said it cost it about $1 million per attack in terms of call-center costs, recovery costs, and actual money (relatively small) that could not be recovered. A more difficult metric to measure is the damage to personal and corporate reputations. In presentations on the economics of computer security, Cormac Herley of Microsoft Research captured the problem succinctly, asking: "What is the first thing you think of when you hear the words 'Nigerian businessman'"?
Estimates of direct costs to the public also fail to capture the damage from specialized spear-phishing attacks. A number of successful high-profile attacks were reported in 2011, victimizing agencies in the Australian and Canadian governments, the Epsilon mailing list service, Gmail, Lockheed-Martin, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and RSA.16
In 2009, the Operation Aurora attacks used spear-phishing and malware to target a number of organizations, most notably Adobe, Google, Symantec, and Yahoo!. In many cases, the attackers stole source code and other intellectual property. However, there are no good estimates as to the damage |
not asked a question at oral argument for five years), the two new female justices are different.
In her first hour of oral argument at the Court in 2009, Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked 36 questions, and studies by Timothy Johnson at the University of Minnesota suggest that while each justice over the past decade has asked an average of about fourteen questions per argument, in her first term Sotomayor asked an average of sixteen. At one argument last year, when Sotomayor cut off Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a question of her own, Roberts broke in to tell the baffled oral advocate, I’m sorry. Could you answer Justice Ginsburg’s question first? In another case, Roberts stopped Sotomayor as she interrupted Justice Anthony Kennedy and told her to let him finish his question.By Evan Claassen
Hunting prairie chickens in my area is a treat that I look forward to all year. That is because in Eastern Nebraska there are only 400 tags for three birds each, yes three birds, all season! So while many of our upland hunting brethren head west to the Sandhills for chickens and sharptails or for chickens in the Southwest part of the state, a small percentage of us head to the lesser know Greater Prairie Chicken hangouts in Johnson, Pawnee, Gage and a few other counties along the border Kansas in Southeast Nebraska.
Hunting chickens in the early season can be a blast, with groups of chickens holding in all sorts of weedy cover along the lightly rolling hills and farmland of our area. The best place to start in the morning is along the tops of the ridges where they have begun to spread out and feed on small berries, seeds and insects.
Let your dogs cover ground and test every high spot for birds. Chickens usually like the higher ground, for the same reason a sniper likes a crow's nest, it's a good vantage point from which to monitor your surroundings for predators. If your dog is acting birdy and sniffing about in an odd pattern, there are birds near with multiple birds moving ahead leaving a zig-zag scent pattern, if the birds flush now they will more than likely be at or near the edge of shotgun range, so make your shots count.
If the dog holds point and isn't creeping then the birds will probably hold, but you need to hurry up and get up by your dog and ready for the flush. The flushes can be explosive with anywhere from three or four birds to thirty-five taking to the air. Sometimes they will flush in waves, but not as often as a covey of bobwhite will. Usually most all birds take to the wing at the same time. But unlike bobwhites they may fly over a mile before landing, usually putting them off your hunting grounds and often leaving you with no idea how far they flew. Pressured chickens will become more and more flighty as the season progresses. Soon forming bigger and bigger flocks and flushing at the smallest noises or sign of movement.
The ideal setup for an early season hunt is a light 12 or 20 gauge choked I.C. or I.C./MOD in a double gun. The best loads are from an 1oz. to 1 1/8oz. of #6 or #7.5 shot, moving to high brass 1 1/4oz. to 1 3/8oz. of #5 or #6 shot through a I.M. or MOD/FULL in a double gun. The setup may vary with conditions and personal preferences, but the info here is just a suggested guideline.
Now matter where you hunt make sure you and your dog are in shape and have plenty of fluids for the day. Enjoy grouse season this year, I know I will!19 Things That It Took Me 50 Years To Learn By Dave Barry... 1. Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night. 2. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be meetings. 3. There is a very fine line between hobby and mental illness. 4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them. 5. And when God, who created the entire universe with all of its glories, decides to deliver a message to humanity, He WILL NOT use, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle. 6. You should not confuse your career with your life. 7. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously. 8. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy. 9. Nobody cares if you cant dance well. Just get up and dance. 10. Never lick a steak knife. 11. Take out the fortune before you eat the cookie. 12. The most powerful force in the universe is gossip. 13. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time. 14. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think shes pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment. 15. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age 11. 16. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers. 17. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them. 18. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. 19. Your friends love you anyway. Return To Silly Things...While Democrats have endorsed an ethics probe of the sexual harassment accusations against Conyers, none so far have pushed for Conyers to step down as the top Democrat on the panel.
Conyers is the longest-serving House member and a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, posing the biggest test yet for Democrats who say they want to hold sexual harassers accountable.
ADVERTISEMENT Conyers gave no indication that he will step aside, even temporarily, following a BuzzFeed News report that he settled a wrongful dismissal complaint two years ago with a former staffer who alleged she was fired because she wouldn’t succumb to his sexual advances.
Former staff members alleged that Conyers repeatedly made sexual advances to female staff, touched them inappropriately, used congressional resources to fly in women with whom he was suspected of having affairs and complained that a female staffer was “too old” and therefore he wanted to dismiss her.
“The Committee on Ethics should take up this matter immediately with a goal of promptly assessing the validity of the news account. This reported behavior cannot be tolerated in the House of Representatives or anywhere else,” Lofgren said in a statement.
Nadler called the allegations “extremely serious and deeply troubling” and said they “must be investigated promptly by the Ethics Committee.”
“As members of Congress, we each have a responsibility to uphold the integrity of the House of Representatives and to ensure a climate of dignity and respect, with zero tolerance for harassment, discrimination, bullying or abuse. As I have said before, any credible allegation of sexual harassment must be investigated by the Ethics Committee,” Pelosi said.
ADVERTISEMENT The House Ethics Committee later announced that it would investigate the allegations against Conyers.
Conyers denied any wrongdoing and said that a settlement was reached with an “express denial of liability” to avoid “the rigors of protracted litigation” for all parties involved.
“To the extent the House determines to look further at these issues, I will fully cooperate with an investigation,” Conyers said in a statement.
BuzzFeed News reported that the former staffer was paid more than $27,000 in the settlement in exchange for a confidentiality agreement.
Settlements handled through the process run by the Office of Compliance, which handles harassment and discrimination complaints from Capitol Hill staff, are typically paid out from a special fund operated by the Treasury.
But the settlement payments, in this case, were instead paid out from Conyers’s office over the course of three months. His office would “rehire” the former staffer as a “temporary employee,” even though she did not do any actual work, in order to make the payments.
Their bill would also require lawmakers accused of harassment to pay back the taxpayers. In addition, the Office of Compliance would have to publish the names of offices involved in settlements on its website.
The Office of Compliance released data last week indicating that more than $17 million has been paid to victims since the late 1990s. That figure includes all settlements for a wide range of discrimination and harassment cases, such as racial or religious discrimination.
Speier warned that the amount of taxpayer money to settle harassment cases may be even higher if lawmakers are using their office budgets to make settlements that are officially distributed as severance payments.
“If this is true, the amount of taxpayer money used to settle these cases is even higher than the number that’s been provided by the Office of Compliance,” Speier said.
Despite endorsements of an ethics probe, the committee’s investigation is likely to be time-consuming. In the meantime, Conyers would still be the top Democrat on one of the most influential committees in Congress.
Democrats had already been considering replacing Conyers if they win back the House next year given how the 88-year-old lawmaker is “slower and less robust” than he once was, according to a Politico report in June.
Conyers chaired the Judiciary Committee from 2007 to 2011 and has served as the ranking Democrat ever since.
The House Judiciary Committee would oversee impeachment proceedings, as well as other investigations into the Trump administration that Democrats might pursue.
Democrats do have a caucus rule requiring members to step down from leadership posts if they are indicted, such as former Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.) in 2015, but not if they are under a House Ethics Committee investigation.
Yet there is still one recent example of a committee leader stepping aside in some fashion amid an ethics probe.
But the issue of pushing out an older lawmaker is particularly sensitive with Conyers, given his status within the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), which is highly influential among House Democrats.
“The CBC has been made aware of some very serious and disturbing allegations against our colleague John Conyers, as well as his statement emphatically denying these allegations. We encourage and expect Mr. Conyers to cooperate fully with any and all investigations into this matter,” Richmond said.
So far, only one lawmaker has raised the possibility of Conyers resigning.
Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga, another member of the Michigan delegation, said that Conyers should resign if the allegations against him are true.
“This outrageous conduct is completely unacceptable and needs to be investigated. If these claims are true, he should resign,” Huizenga said in a statement provided to The Hill.Library Labyrinths Help Students Find Their Way to Calm
Finals are a stressful time everywhere on a college campus, from dorm rooms to dining halls. But it’s rare to find a building where more of that tension collects than the campus library, consistently a staging ground for late night study sessions and last minute edits to term papers. This year, a pair of university libraries in Oklahoma and Massachusetts have installed high tech versions of a labyrinth—one of the world’s oldest meditation techniques—with an eye to helping students take a moment to relax and recharge during their studies.
Finals are a stressful time everywhere on a college campus, from dorm rooms to dining halls. But it’s rare to find a building where more of that tension collects than the campus library, consistently a staging ground for late night study sessions and last minute edits to term papers. This year, a pair of university libraries in Oklahoma and Massachusetts have installed high tech versions of a labyrinth—one of the world’s oldest meditation techniques—with an eye to helping students take a moment to relax and recharge during their studies. Dating back as far as the Bronze Age and found in the records of many cultures around the world, labyrinths are similar to normal mazes, with one important difference—while a maze branches off into multiple paths, a labyrinth offers only one long, winding path toward its center and out again. While a maze asks its travelers to puzzle over it, the point of a labyrinth is not to solve a problem, but to contemplate a solution already laid out before you, one step at a time. Labyrinths are often laid directly into floors of buildings or courtyards, part of the stonework itself. Institutions looking for a less permanent installation, though, now have a new option—SparqLabyrinth. The tool is the brainchild of University of Oklahoma grad Matt Cook; the first prototype device was installed at his alma mater’s Bizzell Library, where he works as a library assistant. A philosophy major, Cook was looking for ways to put his grad work on mindfulness to practical use in the library, where he saw plenty of stressed out students in front of computers, but no clear way to help them relax. Cook came up with the SparqLabyrinth, which uses an iPad running specialized software to let users select from six different styles of labyrinth from distinct cultures and historical periods. Once a user has made the selection that most appeals to them, the design is displayed on the floor by means of a ceiling-mounted projector. User surveys showed that students were happy to have the new relaxation tool on hand. “We’ve had quite a lot of survey data from that first installation,” Cook told. “People reported feeling more relaxed, less agitated, and the personal remarks were very encouraging.” More recently, the SparqLabyrinth prototype was installed at the University of Massachusetts over the school’s spring break. Housed in a small room on the ninth floor, the installation was suggested by Donna Zucker, an associate professor of nursing at the school who has previously conducted research on the effects of mindfulness exercises in labyrinths in prisons. After familiarizing himself with Zucker’s work, which suggests that regular mindfulness practice and meditation in a labyrinth can lead to higher levels of life satisfaction and even lowered blood pressure, Cook reached out to Zucker. She’s now using the SparqLabyrinth to prepare for a new study that could help to quantify the effects of labyrinth meditation for students. “We’ve been letting students get comfortable with it,” Zucker said. “Over the summer, we’ll start collecting data.” While the first SparqLabyrinth helps Donna Zucker gather data at UMass, Matt Cook will be hard at work on a second prototype, which he expects to debut in the fall. UO has put some grant money behind the project and secured the intellectual property rights behind it, and Cook hopes that one day, SparqLabyrinth will be for more than just libraries. “The idea is that everybody who is in a stressful work environment or campus setting will be able to benefit from the SparqLabyrinth one day,” Cook toldOusted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has to campaign from Belgium via video conference
Ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has to campaign from Belgium via video conference
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Brussels (AFP)
With one candidate speaking via video conference from Belgium and another sending dispatches from prison, Catalan separatists are engaged in a highly abnormal campaign ahead of pivotal elections on Thursday.
Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras, the president and vice-president of Catalonia who were deposed by Madrid, have had to resort to alternative ways of campaigning for polls on December 21, when they will be pitted against each other to lead the region.
How that will work if one of them wins, however, remains a mystery.
Puigdemont fled to Belgium after the Catalan parliament declared independence on October 27 and is wanted by Spain on charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds for his role in the secession drive.
Junqueras -- who remained in the country -- was jailed pending an investigation into the same charges.
Following the independence declaration, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy imposed direct rule on the semi-autonomous region, sacked the regional government, dismissed the Catalan parliament and called snap elections.
- Courts and tweets -
Puigdemont says he decided to go to Belgium to demonstrate that Spain is subjecting separatists to a "political trial".
Calling himself the "legitimate president" of Catalonia, he heads up the Together for Catalonia list that includes members of his conservative PDeCAT party and independent candidates.
The list has slowly been gaining support, according to opinion polls, closing the gap with Junqueras's left-wing Esquerra Republicana (ERC) party, which is largely favourite to win.
"We vote Esquerra Republicana, but our president is Puigdemont," explained Eli Baro, one of 45,000 people who flocked to Brussels on December 7 to show their support.
"Puigdemont, our president" is the slogan of his campaign, with his appearance at meetings possible via video conference and his opinions expressed on social media.
- Letters and phone calls -
ERC, on the other hand, hasn't had it so easy, with Junqueras behind bars since November 2.
"Our ability to influence citizens has dwindled. We can't go to debates, nor grant interviews, nor attend television shows," Raul Murcia, Junqueras's right-hand man, tells AFP.
The ERC candidate's only way of taking part in the campaign is to write articles from his cell, which he sends to his advisors.
But "it's staggeringly complicated to campaign," says Murcia.
From his prison in Estremera near Madrid, Junqueras can only make 10 phone calls a week lasting five minutes each, he adds.
"Of those, eight are for his wife."
Murcia says that when he speaks to Junqueras, he takes quick notes of what he says and passes the "instructions" on to ERC's number two, Marta Rovira, who is bearing the brunt of the campaign.
Initially, ERC was the clear favourite to win the elections, according to opinion polls.
But now the party is neck-and-neck with Ciudadanos, an anti-independence party whose leader in Catalonia, Ines Arrimadas, could benefit from divisions in the independence camp.
While they ran as a coalition in 2015, Puigdemont's PDeCAT and ERC are now on separate tickets, competing for the same chunk of votes.
- Yellow, colour of unity -
While they try and put on a united front, both sides have nevertheless criticised each other.
Where they coincide is in their outcry over the jailing of Junqueras, Catalonia's former interior minister Joaquim Forn and two pro-independence civic leaders.
Both groups have adopted the colour yellow to mark their anger, some wearing yellow ribbons, others yellow coats.
However some rifts have emerged.
Carles Mundo, an ERC member of the sacked government who was in jail until last week when a judge released him on bail, said Puigdemont could not be president again and it was a mere "dream" that he could come back and retake his position.
"To say that there can be another president is to accept that Rajoy can change our president," retorted Jordi Turull, who was also freed with Mundo but is part of the Together for Catalonia list.
Puigdemont recently left the door open to coming back for the customary parliamentary debate before a candidate is officially voted into office.
But he pointed to how paradoxical it would be to "leave the parliament in handcuffs" after the debate and possibly taken to the same prison as his former vice-president and now rival.
© 2017 AFPFormer Sen. Jinggoy Estrada arrives at the Sandiganbayan to attend his plunder and graft trial on July 17, 2017. ABS-CBN News
MANILA (UPDATE) - Former Sen. Jinggoy Estrada is expected to be released Saturday after posting bail for plunder and graft charges in connection with his alleged involvement in the multibillion-peso "pork barrel" scam.
Dating Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, nakapagpyansa na ng 1.33 million pesos sa kasong plunder at graft sa Sandiganbayan @DZMMTeleRadyo pic.twitter.com/w9IsjakCqZ — Zhander Cayabyab (@zhandercayabyab) September 16, 2017
"We are thankful and glad to the court that the bail was granted," said Estrada's lawyer Alexis Suarez.
Suarez went to the Sandiganbayan past 9 a.m. and posted bail worth P1.33 million.
"They will secure a release order and then dadalhin sa Camp Crame, and then they will bring him here. Kailangan niya mag-finger printing. It's a process," Suarez told reporters at the Sandiganbayan.
TINGNAN: Release Order para kay dating Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, inilabas na ng Sandiganbayan | via @zhandercayabyab pic.twitter.com/YlxwAF2sMT — ABS-CBN News (@ABSCBNNews) September 16, 2017
TINGNAN: Resibo ng P1.33 milyon na piyansa ni dating Sen. Jinggoy Estrada sa Sandiganbayan | via @zhandercayabyab pic.twitter.com/VxUg6MIVni — ABS-CBN News (@ABSCBNNews) September 16, 2017
Estrada will continue to attend hearings at the anti-graft court while out on bail, the lawyer said.
"The trial will continue. Actually, there will be a trial scheduled on Monday, and then the graft also will also continue. He will be attending those trials," she said.
The Sandiganbayan had on Friday granted Estrada's motion for bail, set at P1 million for plunder and P330,000 for 11 counts of graft, at P30,000 each.
He is expected to be released within the day, ending three years of incarceration.
Estrada had been detained at the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame since 2014 on allegations that he pocketed P183 million in kickbacks from fake projects, purportedly with help from businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, the alleged scam mastermind.
Earlier, the senator's wife Precy said Estrada will first go to their Quezon City home after his release. He and his family are then expected to go to his father Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada's house for lunch.
A thanksgiving mass is also scheduled at 3 p.m. on Saturday at the Pinaglabanan Shrine in San Juan, the family's bailiwick, she said.
"He was saying last night that during the last day of Senate he didn't have the opportunity to thank his constituents so maybe that's the first thing that he will do. He will go around the country and it will be an opportunity for him to thank his supporters," she said.
Estrada is among three former senators tagged in the scam, along with Senators Bong Revilla and Juan Ponce Enrile.
Enrile was released on bail in 2015, while Revilla remains detained while on trial.Glen Mazzara, who led AMC's "The Walking Dead" to ratings highs after the exit of Frank Darabont, is leaving the show.
The announcement came with the unsurprising news of a fourth-season pickup for the series. It continues AMC's rocky record with its showrunners, but the network said the decision was mutual.
While AMC has clashed with showrunners before over money, a person familiar with the situation told TheWrap that this time the issue is "100 percent not about money or contracts."
Rather, it is about a difference of opinion over where the show should go in the fourth season and beyond. It involves AMC, Mazzara and the show's writers and producers, who include Robert Kirkman, creator of the comics that provide the basis of the series.
Also read: 'The Walking Dead': 4 Things Networks Can Learn From the Cable Show That's Beating Them
Kirkman might be the fans' choice to take over as showrunner, given that most of its characters were born on his pages. But he also has a busy career writing comics and novels.
In a statement, Kirkman said he believes Mazzara and AMC came to the decision "in the best interest of the future of the show."
In an interview with TheWrap in October, Mazzara said he would love to remain with the show until the end, "if AMC and the fans would have me."
"I would love to be the guy shutting the lights off," he said at the time.
It didn't work out that way, even though Mazzara has made "The Walking Dead" this season's top-rated drama — even beating network shows. It also has a legimimate shot at ending the season as TV's top scripted show overall.
Also read: 'Walking Dead' Boss Glen Mazzara Q&A: Sleeping Soundly, Keeping Others Wide Awake
"Both parties acknowledge that there is a difference of opinion about where the show should go moving forward, and conclude that it is best to part ways," AMC said in a statement.
AMC also said the decision is "amicable" and that Mazzara will remain showrunner for the remainder of the third season, which resumes airing in February. The episodes have already been filmed, and Mazzara will oversee postproduction.
He is also looking for his next project.
"My time as showrunner on 'The Walking Dead' has been an amazing experience, but after I finish season 3, it’s time to move on," said Mazzara. "I have told the stories I wanted to tell and connected with our fans on a level that I never imagined. It doesn’t get much better than that. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey."
Mazzara took over the show after Darabont parted ways with it after its first season. Darabont was just one of several showrunners to have issues with AMC.
Jason Horwitch left "Rubicon" during its lone season. The third season of "Hell on Wheels" was briefly put on hold last month when showrunner John Shiban left. "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner nearly walked from the show during a contract dispute last year. And "Breaking Bad" briefly looked into leaving AMC before creator Vince Gilligan's contract was renewed.
Kirkman's full statement included his thanks to Mazzara and the show's fans.
"I am in full support of both AMC and Glen Mazzara in the decision they have come to and believe the parties came to this decision in the best interest of the future of the show," Kirkman said. "I thank Glen for his hard work and appreciate his many contributions to 'The Walking Dead' and look forward to working with him as we complete post production on Season 3. I am also excited to begin work on another spectacular season of this show that I know means so much to so many people. This show has always been the result of a wide range of extremely talented men and women working tirelessly to produce their best work collectively. I believe the future is bright for 'The Walking Dead.' Thank you to the fans for your continued support."
Executive producer Gale Anne Hurd also expressed her thanks.
"I am appreciative and grateful to Glen for his hard work on ‘The Walking Dead,’" she wrote. "I am supportive of AMC and Glen's decision and know that the series is in great hands with one of the most talented and dedicated casts and crews in the business. I look forward to the show's continued success.”Updated as of 4:45 p.m.
TUALATIN - Damian Lillard has been diagnosed with a sprained right middle and ring finger according to the Trail Blazers. Despite the injury, the Blazers point guard is cleared to play in the team's next game on Sunday against the Knicks in New York.
Late in the fourth quarter of the Blazers' win over the Indiana Pacers on Thursday, Lillard injured two fingers on his right hand while trying to corral a rebound.
Initial x-rays after the game were negative, but on Friday Lillard went back to the doctor for further tests according to Blazers coach Terry Stotts. Lillard attended the team's video session at the practice facility on Friday morning before going to get his hand examined.
When pressured for further details Stotts repeated: "His hand is being examined."
The team later updated Lillard's status as noted above.
Lillard injured his fingers while diving for a rebound with Indiana's CJ Watson. He immediately grimaced while holding the hand and sitting on the court briefly. Watson was called for a foul and Lillard returned to court to split a pair of free throws after a Blazers timeout.
Lillard remained on the court for the final 23 seconds of the game.
He told The Oregonian after the game that he heard a "pop, pop" when he fell and said his hand hurt pretty bad in the locker room immediately afterwards.
-- Mike Richman | @mikegrichThe funniest Borowitzian parody political blog post of the day is "The Libertarian Case for Mitt Romney" by Stephen "VodkaPundit" Green. It is 1,500 words long and, really, its only flaw as a political argument is that it never actually bothers to make any sort of case for Mitt Romney.
The post is about how libertarians should vote for Mitt Romney because Obama is Stalin, basically. Or at least he is Woodrow Wilson. Excerpts:
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Fact is, Obama is fundamentally opposed to liberty, and he’s fundamentally opposed to the limitations placed on the federal government, and especially to the limitations placed on the executive branch. I believe this makes Barack Obama a uniquely dangerous figure in American political history.
And:
It took a century to take us this far along the Progressive path to a Technocratic State of high-tech feudalism, but we’re almost at the end of the line. Another four years is probably all that’s needed to get there.
Wait, this is the best part:
China currency manipulation, the Afghanistan surge, the civil war in Syria, the Drone War over the Middle East, gay marriage, the Life of Julia, the War on Women, Republicans want your father to take away your free birth control then impregnate you and force you to carry the child to term even if it kills you — these are largely distractions.
CIVIL WAR IN SYRIA / WAR ON WOMEN, JULIA / ROCK N ROLLER COLA WARS I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE
So if you are a hysterical crazy conspiratorial libertarian who honestly believes that Barack Obama is in the process of engineering a "Cloward-Piven crash" in order to destroy the American Idea, then voting for Mitt Romney makes perfect sense, because it is a matter of the survival of the Republic. Conversely, if you are a libertarian because you hate paying taxes and knowing that some people receive welfare then Mitt Romney is your guy, but you are the reason no liberals take libertarians seriously. (You and Ron Paul.) If you're what libertarians always insist libertarians are, though, there is really no case for voting for Mitt Romney, and you should just stick with Gary Johnson, or not voting.
Take a look at Nick Gillespie's "3 Ways Romney, Ryan, and the Republicans Can Woo Libertarian Voters" for some very compelling evidence that Romney, Ryan and the Republicans have absolutely no interest in doing anything to attract proper libertarians beyond "declaring a rhetorical commitment to the vague concept of'smaller government.'"
Because there is no way Romney is going to 1) "start talking about cutting the actual year-over-year totals that taxpayers shell out for big-ticket items such as Social Security, Medicare, and defense"; or 2) " tell the Pentagon what he told countless businesses while working at Bain Capital: Do more with less"; or 3) "make clear that his limited government philosophy means the feds shouldn’t be intervening in the private lives of individuals unless it’s absolutely central to the survival of the nation."
Romney is not going to eliminate Medicare or cut defense one cent and on "social" issues he's running to the right of Bush in 2000.
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Of course, it doesn't matter whom libertarians vote for. There are hardly any actual libertarians, and most of the sort of voters occasionally labeled libertarians (such as the ones supposedly breaking for Romney in record numbers) are actually just sorta moderate Republicans.President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump depart St. John’s Church on Sunday in Washington. Chris Kleponis/Pool/Getty Images
President Donald Trump suggested all options are on the table in retaliation for North Korea’s nuclear test on Sunday. As he was leaving church services, a reporter asked Trump whether he would consider launching an attack on North Korea. “We’ll see,” Trump told the gathered reporters. The president spoke shortly after he was scheduled to meet with his national security team to discuss how the United States would respond to the nuclear test. Last month, Trump said that if the threats from North Korea continue, they will be met with “fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
WATCH: Reporter: “Mr. President, will you attack North Korea?”
President Trump: “We’ll see.”
https://t.co/wkUxeMt8Ex — NBC News (@NBCNews) September 3, 2017
On Twitter, Trump previewed that his administration is also considering a new round of tough economic sanctions that could further isolate North Korea. Among other options, the United States is evaluating “stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea,” Trump wrote.
The United States is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2017
The president issued the warning shortly after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin previewed that new economic sanctions were being worked on. “I am going to draft a sanctions package to send to the president for his strong consideration that anybody that wants to do trade or business with them would be prevented from doing trade or business with us,” Mnuchin said on Fox News Sunday. “People need to cut off North Korea economically. This is unacceptable behavior.”
After NoKo Nuke test, Sec Mnuchin says "I am going to draft a sanctions package to send to the President for his strong consideration" #FNS pic.twitter.com/mdWisipj6L — Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) September 3, 2017
Although Mnuchin refused to comment on whether the nuclear test puts the United States closer to a potential war with North Korea, he did say there’s plenty more that Washington can do to further isolate the already isolated nation. “Much more than we’ve done already,” he said.
Although Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was calling his counterparts in Asia on Sunday following North Korea’s nuclear test, Trump had already made clear he was frustrated by both China and South Korea. “North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success,” he said. “South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!”
..North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2017
South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2017
South Korea responded by saying that it was working with Russia and China to put forward “maximum sanctions and pressure” on North Korea. It also took the opportunity to remind Washington that military action was not an acceptable solution to the current standoff. “We have experienced an internecine war and can never tolerate another catastrophic war on this land,” President Moon Jae-in said in a statement. “We will not give up our goal of working together with allies to seek a peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
China also criticized the nuclear test but has been expressing frustration in recent weeks that the West seems to be promoting the idea that it is up to Beijing to bring Pyongyang in line. “The United States has to play its own role and should not be blindly putting pressure on China to try and squeeze North Korea,” Ruan Zongze, a former Chinese diplomat, tells Reuters.Image caption Rebels recently opened the park to tourists
Two rangers and a soldier have been killed by rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo's famous Virunga National Park, officials say.
Five rebels were also killed in the attack in the park, which is one of the world's last refuges for mountain gorillas.
Some of eastern DR Congo's numerous armed groups are based in the park, where they often poach animals.
More than 130 park rangers have been killed in the park since 1996.
According to Reuters news agency, the M23 rebel group which has bases in the park, recently allowed tourist visits to resume.
This year's rebellion by the M23 has caused some 500,000 people to flee their homes.
Park director Emmanuel de Merode said the rangers, who were travelling with an armed escort were ambushed by members of the Mai Mai militia.
"They came under attack from a quite substantial Mai Mai unit... It was very heavy fire received," he told Reuters.
In July, armed groups fighting in the area agreed to let a search for mountain gorillas to proceed.
Virunga is home to 480 of the world's 790 remaining mountain gorillas. It is one of the most bio-diverse places on Earth and is on the UN list of World Heritage sites in danger.
The mountain gorillas have been threatened with extinction because of expanding human settlements, the long-running conflict in the region, and possible oil exploration in the park.Bus tunnel for Adelaide CBD would cut commute times, SA Government promises
Updated
More detail has been given on a plan to build a $160 million bus tunnel between Hackney Road and the Adelaide CBD.
Promised by Labor ahead of last year's South Australian election, the 500-metre tunnel is proposed between Hackney and Rundle roads, with the South Australian Government promising it would cut up to seven minutes off travel times for commuters.
A previous plan to extend O-Bahn bus services was scrapped when the Federal Government withdrew funding in 2011.
Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan said about 450 jobs would be created during the tunnel's construction.
He said the O-Bahn already was used by more than 31,000 commuters on weekdays.
Premier Jay Weatherill said a planned closure of the existing Rundle Road and realigning it further south would improve the east parklands, an area heavily used for events including the current Fringe festival.
"By closing Rundle Road we are able to return more than 3,000 square metres of land to Rundle Park," he said.
Mr Mullighan said about 150 car |
times. Now you try to go get a job somewhere else. No other Manna system is going to hire you. There had always been an implicit threat in the American economy -- "if you do not have a job, you cannot make any money and you will therefore become homeless." Manna simply took that threat and turned the screws. If you did not do what Manna told you to, it would fire you. Then you would not be able to get a job anywhere else. It gave Manna huge leverage. For example, Manna could call in reinforcements as it needed them. You would get a call from Manna and it would say, "Your Burger-G restaurant is experiencing unexpected customer volume. Can you help?" The word "help" meant, "Can you be here in less than 10 minutes?" You could say yes or no. The problem was that if you said "no" too many times, you got fired. And when you got fired, it meant you were blacklisted in the system. Once you figured that out, you were pretty much forced to say "yes". That meant that the printed schedules started to become pretty much irrelevant. Manna would call you when it wanted to call you. Then it started calling you to other restaurants. If things got slow in the restaurant, Manna would send you home, then call you back in later if things got busy again. You really could not say "no" very often, meaning that Manna could interrupt your life at any time. Version 4.0 of Manna was also the first version to enforce average task times, and that was even worse. Manna would ask you to clean the restrooms. But now Manna had industry-average times for restroom cleaning stored in the software, as well as "target times". If it took you too long to mop the floor or clean the sinks, Manna would say to you, "lagging". When you said, "OK" to mark task completion for Manna, Manna would say, "Your time was 4 minutes 10 seconds. Industry average time is 3 minutes 30 seconds. Please focus on each task." Anyone who lagged consistently was fired. At the supercenter, Brian said that Manna was now tracking how fast employees walked from point A to point B in the store, and if you did not walk fast enough Manna would warn you about it. It was just like working on an assembly line, where they could speed up the line to make people work faster. But now the assembly line was everywhere, and if you didn't keep up you knew that you would be blacklisted nationwide. The most surprising part of the Manna system, however, was the effect it had on wages. As Manna spread to so many businesses, your choice was to work for Manna or to be unemployed. When you started to work for Manna, it paid you minimum wage. There was no reason for it to pay you any more -- your choice was minimum wage or zero. There was no way to ask Manna for a raise. You could quit, but when you quit you would be applying to another business that used Manna. It was going to give you minimum wage too. This was the societal power of Manna, and the basic equation was pretty simple. You could take the job for minimum wage, or you could be unemployed making zero. At any moment Manna could replace you with another warm body, and that meant that you did what you were told for minimum wage or you got fired. Manna, and the corporations that used it, knew that that was the equation. There were plenty of unemployed people who would take your spot as soon as you left. The effect of Manna was to stratify out all the minimum wage workers in America. At the bottom you had the people who were unemployable. They had screwed up and been blacklisted by Manna. They were back living with their parents or sleeping on the sofa with a friend. You could get yourself un-blacklisted, but if you got blacklisted more than a couple times, you were dead. Then there were all the unemployed people. Between Manna improving efficiency and forcing out the managers, plus overseas outsourcing taking out white collar jobs, plus machines like the automated checkout lines and burger flippers coming on line and so on, there were plenty of people who were unemployed. Unemployed people went around all day applying to jobs. But in a sense, that was pointless. All of the interconnected Manna systems knew every single person in the job pool. Manna also knew the performance of every single person who had ever worked in the system. You were in an incredibly bad spot if you were unemployed. Then there were all the people being managed by Manna. They all made minimum wage. If you were wearing a headset at work you were making minimum wage and everyone knew it. And everyone knew that if you did not do what Manna told you to do, as fast as Manna told you to do it, you would be unemployed and making nothing. And then there was everyone else -- the doctors, lawyers, accountants, office workers, executives, politicians. The executives and politicians made a ton of money and they were never going to be wearing headsets. Joe Garcia at Burger-G was making $100 million per year and flaunting it like a rock star. And Manna was starting to move in on some of the white collar work force. The basic idea was to break every job down into a series of steps that Manna could manage. No one had ever realized it before, but just about every job had parts that could be subdivided out. HMOs and hospitals, for example, were starting to put headsets on the doctors and surgeons. It helped lower malpractice problems by making sure that the surgeon followed every step in a surgical procedure. The hospitals could also hyper-specialize the surgeons. For example, one surgeon might do nothing but open the chest for heart surgery. Another would do the arterial grafts. Another would come in to inspect the work and close the patient back up. What this then meant, over time, was that the HMO could train technicians to do the opening and closing procedures at much lower cost. Eventually, every part of the subdivided surgery could be performed by a super-specialized technician. Manna kept every procedure on an exact track that virtually eliminated errors. Manna would schedule 5 or 10 routine surgeries at a time. Technicians would do everything, with one actual surgeon overseeing things and handling any emergencies. They all wore headsets, and Manna controlled every minute of their working lives. That same hyper-specialization approach could apply to lots of white collar jobs. Lawyers, for example. You could take any routine legal problem and subdivide it -- uncontested divorces, real estate transactions, most standard contracts, and so on. It was surprising where you started to see headsets popping up, and whenever you saw them you knew that the people were locked in, that they were working every minute of every day and that wages were falling. Prefer the Kindle? "Manna" is now available on the Kindle - Click here! Join the discussion on Reddit A decade later I was getting out of school. I had a BA in education and a master's degree in educational administration. My plan was to teach in high school for two or three years so that I had experience "in the trenches", and then move into an administrative or government position. I was ready to start teaching and I was looking forward to it. Education was one area that, so far, had been largely untouched by Manna, so in that sense I was lucky. I was also lucky that there were jobs available, and I did not have a lot of problems finding an open position. That was a miracle. My graduation year was an important year for me -- I had been working at Burger-G all through school to make spending money, and now I would have my first real job free from Manna. But it turned out to be a pivotal year for America as a whole. It was a funny coincidence. My graduation year was the year that computer vision came of age. Intro | On Kindle | Go to Chapter 3 >>>
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© Copyright 2017 by Marshall Brain. All rights reserved.While reading up a couple of weeks ago on the Oberlin College KKK fiasco, I became fascinated by the various Web pages at colleges such as Oberlin, Smith, Scripps, and similar advanced, lesbian-heavy institutions for the documenting of “microaggressions.” Since the Ku Klux Klaxon can’t be sounded every week (at least not yet), in the meantime young people are encouraged to fondle and document for posterity the subtlest of slights they feel they’ve suffered.
As I pored over the microaggressions endured by victims/students at expensive liberal-arts colleges, it struck me that this ongoing dumbing down of America is a joint project of both sexes, with men and women each contributing their own special something.
In the wake of the Obama campaign relaunching the Battle of the Sexes a year ago, it’s worth noting that the peculiar contemporary version of ressentiment that assisted the president’s reelection can’t be blamed on either sex alone. The current mode, of which microaggressions websites are only the outer edge, combines female conformism and self-absorption with male abstraction, aggression, and gang loyalty.
First, though, what are microaggressions?
The Smith College site explains:
A microaggression is a brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignity, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicates a hostile, derogatory, or negative slight or insult….
“Screaming about microaggressions is a privilege only for the officially unprivileged.”
So far, that definition sounds pretty much like the stuff of human life. At many a family reunion, I only learned on the ride home that, say, Aunt Sue’s effusive thanks to Cousin Linda for her present was actually a devastating putdown that my lumbering male brain was simply too rough-hewn to register.
In fact, “microaggressions” could be an apt description of the matter of much of British literature and theater, such as the works of Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Evelyn Waugh, and John Cleese. The Brits may be the all-time world champs at blandly hurling microaggressions from their stiff upper limits.
For example, in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, the rich country girl Cecily righteously announces, “When I see a spade, I call it a spade.” The rich city girl Gwendolen impassively replies, “I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our social spheres have been widely different.”
Not all of literature is confined to microaggressions, however. In The Iliad, for instance, Achilles expresses his lack of rapport with Hector by dragging the Trojan prince’s dead body behind his chariot.
This knack that the English had developed 3,000 years after the wrath of Achilles for keeping their hostility toward each other swathed in formal manners may help explain their success at conquering other countries. The ability to keep one’s internal aggressions micro aided the British in such external macroaggressions as the subjugation of India. It’s likely not a coincidence that the Victorian English-speaking cultures that invented most of today’s major sports (which limit male violence with objective rules of fair play) also came to dominate the world linguistically and militarily.
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.He said the commission was “going to take a look at any new information that anybody has,” adding that “to make a statement now that it was not arson is a little premature.”
The governor was in office when Mr. Willingham was executed on Feb. 17, 2004. He denied the condemned man a reprieve even after a detailed report by an arson expert said the evidence that Mr. Willingham had set the fire was flimsy and inconclusive.
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Last month, Mr. Perry expressed confidence that Mr. Willingham was guilty and played down reports casting doubt on the original investigation, calling the authors “supposed experts,” while making a quotes gesture with his fingers.
Mr. Perry, facing the primary challenge from Ms. Hutchison, has been working to shore up his support among conservatives, who usually decide the Republican primary here.
Mr. Willingham, an unemployed auto mechanic with a history of petty crime, was convicted of setting his house in Corsicana on fire in 1991. His three small daughters died in the blaze, and he maintained right up to his death that he had tried to save them. The police doubted his story partly because his bare feet had not been burned.
Local arson investigators testified at his trial that, judging by the charring and fracture patterns of broken glass left by the blaze, someone had poured a flammable liquid under the children’s beds, along the hallway and out the front door. The jury took less than an hour to convict Mr. Willingham.
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In 2004, however, Gerald L. Hurst, an Austin scientist and fire investigator working in Mr. Willingham’s behalf, reviewed the evidence and determined the investigators had relied on several outdated and discredited methods to reach their conclusions. Most of the evidence could be explained by an accidental fire, Dr. Hurst said.
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That conclusion was confirmed six weeks ago by an independent arson expert hired by the Forensic Science Commission, which was created in 2005 to investigate mistakes in crime laboratories after scandals rocked the one in Houston. The expert, Craig L. Beyler, of Baltimore, said in his August report that “the investigators had a poor understanding of fire science” and that the evidence they cited did not support a finding of arson.
Mr. Beyler was to testify before the commission in Dallas on Friday. But the newly appointed chairman, John M. Bradley, the district attorney in Williamson County, canceled the hearing, saying he did not know enough about the inquiry. “I felt I had been asked to take a final exam without having an opportunity to study for it,” he said.
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Mr. Bradley said he did not know if he would continue the inquiry into the Willingham conviction that his predecessor had started. He said he wanted to consult with the lawmakers who created the commission about its mission.
The former chairman, Sam Bassett, an Austin lawyer whom Mr. Perry had twice appointed to the commission — and could have reappointed — said the governor had not told him why he was replaced. Mr. Bassett said he had hoped to produce a definitive report on the case by next spring.
“I hope they continue and complete the Willingham investigation,” he said. “It’s important for the future of criminal justice in Texas to make sure good science is being used in the courtroom.”President Trump early Friday wished country music artist Lee Greenwood a happy birthday, but used the wrong Twitter handle to send his wishes.
"Happy birthday to the great @leegreenwood83. You and your beautiful song have made such a difference. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" Trump wrote.
Happy birthday to the great @leegreenwood83. You and your beautiful song have made such a difference. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2017
The tweet was deleted around an hour and a half later.
The user "Lee Greenwood 83" appears to be a lawyer in New York, according to his Twitter bio. He responded, saying: "I get this a fair amount, but certainly not at this level."
I get this a fair amount, but certainly not at this level. — Lee Greenwood (@leegreenwood83) October 27, 2017
You may need to teach me about how to manage my mentions! — Lee Greenwood (@leegreenwood83) October 27, 2017
The Greenwood tagged by Trump has tweeted his criticisms of the president in the past, and even marched in protest of Trump's travel ban earlier this year.
Greenwood the musician is a Republican, and was nominated by former President George W. Bush to the National Council of the Arts and served from 2008 to 2014.
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He is known for his patriotic hit "God Bless the USA," which he played at Trump's inauguration. He celebrates his 74th birthday Friday.Young immigrants to the U.S. who were given a shaky bit of security by the Obama administration now face having it ripped out from under them. They face an unsavoury choice between deportation to countries some last saw as toddlers, and going underground in the country they know as home.
Could Canada be a third option? It may be for older Dreamers, a Toronto-based immigration lawyer says.
The Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program protects from deportation people who had been brought to the U.S. illegally as children. About 800,000 successful applicants, who had to meet certain educational standards and have clean criminal records got work permits and some degree of security.
They range in age from 16 to 35. The vast majority, over 70 per cent, are Mexican.
READ MORE: Donald Trump scraps ‘Dreamers’ program that protects nearly 800,000 from deportation
Many have benefited from the program, being able to pursue higher education or get government-issued ID for the first time,
However, there has been uneasiness since the program began that participants, who have to identify themselves as illegal immigrants, might be vulnerable to deportation in the future. As undocumented immigrants, they had limited job prospects; as DACA participants they have better lives, but are much easier for the U.S. government to find.
That dark scenario seems to be moving closer to reality. On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced an end to the program, saying that “we cannot admit everyone who wants to come” to the United States.
WATCH: U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that the DACA program is being rescinded, calling it an “unconstitutional exercise” on the part of the previous Obama administration.
Canada could be a workable Plan B for older Dreamers, says Toronto-based immigration lawyer Guidy Mamann.
“Let’s suppose the kid is 22 years old, he’s maybe in the middle of his college or something like that. If he applied to immigrate to Canada using the normal channels, he probably wouldn’t qualify.”
“He would have to have a degree, he would have to have some work experience, he would have to apply under the express entry program that we have. At 22 or so, he wouldn’t have a chance. If he was 26, 27, and he’d finished school, working for a year or two, he’s a full-blown adult, he has a chance there.”
Fluent English would also work in an applicant’s favour; points for age start to fall after 30.
Just over a third of the Dreamers are 25 or older and have at least a bachelor’s degree, a recent survey showed.
READ MORE: Canada could see a flood of ‘Dreamers’ if U.S. cuts DACA
Immigration rules under NAFTA might seem to open another door to the Dreamers who are Mexican. Mexican citizens can work in Canada, if they have an occupation on a list of about 60, and have a job offer in Canada.
But that likely isn’t useful to the Dreamers, Mamann says.
“If you have a Mexican citizen in the United States, a 25-year-old kid who graduated and has a degree in computer systems analysis or something, he qualifies for entry to Canada under NAFTA. However, the chance of that kid actually entering Canada is very small.”
READ MORE: Who are the thousands of ‘Dreamers’ facing deportation from the U.S.?
“Because these kids are in the United States illegally, and they haven’t been to their country for many years, an officer at the border is going to say ‘Normally you would qualify to come in because you have a degree and a job offer. But I’m concerned that once you come in you’re going to just stay in, and you’re not going to go back to the only country you have, Mexico, because you haven’t lived there since you were two years old.'”
In any case, Canada never had an equivalent program in the first place, Mamann points out.
“We don’t have anything like as generous as DACA, that’s for sure. If you were to come from Mexico, you came to Canada and you were here for five or 10 years, and you brought your young children with you, when you get deported so do your children.”
“There’s no program that we have that allows deferred action for children who are brought to Canada. None at all.”
WATCH: Some 200 people gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Friday to rally against the possible roll back of an Obama-era program that protects immigrants who entered the United States illegally as children.Author’s Note: A few hours late of my one week deadline. *Gusun*
Anyways, sorry, but I kind of cheated on this post as well. What I am posting right now is chapter 16 of the light novel, not the web novel. The light novel separated the first part of chapter 16 of the web novel and made it its own chapter. So volume one of the light novel actually covers the first 25 chapters of the web novel. I have some of the second half of the chapter done so I should be able to post it fairly soon. Sorry that I was distracted a bit more than usual. I also procrastinated on this a bit more than usual.
Anyway, enjoy the chapter. And to those that celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving.
The Second Hero’s Return
In the Luxeria castle courtyard, a gauntlet wearing young lady was swinging her fist with violent movements that did not match her lovely appearance. As if chasing after her movements, the two waving tufts of red hair, similarly to those movements, violently fluttered about in the air.
(TL note: There was a typo in the web novel saying that the hair was black. I confirmed it with the light novel and it should be red hair so this time will go according to the light novel.)
「…Haa…！」
Together with her yell, her fist that she thrust out made a light explosive sound in the empty space.
「Yaah!」
Continuing on, spinning her whole body and adding the maximum centrifugal force to it, her spinning kick cut the air.
「Taryaah!」
From the palm of the hand that just drew a 〆 shape, a blue light leaked out, and simultaneous with it projecting out, the light exploded.
「Haa………haa…」
The young lady that had separated her red hair into two tufts sprawled out on the ground while letting the clothes that she was wearing become transparent from being soaked with sweat.
Every time she inhaled, the hot air that entered her lungs made her body hot and made it feel like even more sweat was coming out.
「You’re being pretty rough, aren’t you, Akane.」
In the sight of the girl who was looking at the sky, a young lady that was about the same age as her and wearing a kimono and hakama that looked like miko clothing had appeared.
The young lady, whose black hair extended down to her waist and whose bangs were uniformly cut, handed a wet towel to the young lady that was sprawled out.
「……Hn.」
The young lady called Akane wiped her face and base of her head with the wet towel she was handed, and finally felt refreshed.
「Is it about Kaito?」
「S, shut up!」
「Haha, it’s fine to hide it. I’m doing the same after all.」
「Eh……Sakuya…Could it be, you…」
「Though I don’t mean it like Akane’s “fallen in love”.」
「Shut up!」
As Akane snapped at her with her eyes, the young lady called Sakuya giggled, and then immediately dimmed her expression.
「As I thought, it was probably because of that time………That’s when Kaito began to become strange.」
「…………」
Akane didn’t deny Sakuya’s words.
「He was shown a person’s death in such a cruel form……That’s the reason why he can’t become the way he was before.
It’s already the fifth day since Kaito secluded himself in the “labyrinth”, but,
right now, the reason that Kaito is training himself with that is in order to defeat the demon from that time.」
That’s right. Ever since the matter of Agniera’s raid, Amagi Kaito was training himself as if he were punishing himself.
Saying “As I am now, I can’t defeat the demons”, he solicited the Imperial Court Sorcerer Head and entered the “Labyrinth of Time”, where the flow of time was different.
That place, starting with the Ancient Dragon, was a magic cavern that was infested with various ancient types.
And then, it would seem that you could take the teachings of a special magic from the strongest dragon type, Elder Dragon, that was enshrined in the innermost area of the labyrinth.
「Kaito is suffering, at a time like that, you can’t be Kaito’s strength. ………That’s why you’re doing unreasonable training like you were doing just now, right? No, rather than training, rampaging…would it be correct to call it that?」
「……」
Sakuya’s words, it was exactly that.
Kaito changed ever since that time.
The smile that suited his age that he had shown up until now showed gloom, and if he held a sword, his eyes would carry hatred.
Akane sensed that the kind Kaito was disappearing and was becoming filled with only hatred for the demons.
For the current him that was lamenting that if only he were stronger at that time, even the girls’ voices couldn’t reach him. That was what she felt.
Feeling that was vexing and sorrowful, she rushed through wild, childish, self-injuring actions that couldn’t be called training.
「If it’s alright with you, but……I would also like to rampage. ……Could you assist me with it?」
Sakuya had, as if producing it out of nowhere, drew a katana out of its scabbard.
The katana’s summary was introduced at the Magic Sword Workshop. It was something forged by that old blacksmith master.
(TL note: I had a hard time figuring out how this sentence was supposed to be. I think it is stating that the summary of the quality of the katana is the same as the short spears, excellent, since it was the same old blacksmith master, Gold, who did it.)
「! …That’s fine with me. I’ve wanted to seriously go against Sakuya at least once after all!」
Seeing that katana, Akane, from the shape of 大, raised her legs and skillfully stood up with a kick, then struck her own fists against each other.
The gloomy atmosphere that was just there up until then disappeared.
It wasn’t just her. She wasn’t the only one to be bewildered by that change and feel impatient.
「Let’s go!」
「Bring it!」
The young lady that held a katana and the young lady that took a stance with her fists ran towards each other.
「「O body of mine, rage, “Divine Arms.”」」
When the young ladies shouted, their bodies were wrapped in a faint light.
Body Strengthening Magic “Divine Arms.”
It’s a complex technique that raises the body’s abilities starting with its arm and leg strength and simultaneously develops a protective film-like barrier.
The two whose bodies’ abilities were strengthened clashed at a speed that was like the wind and a silver flash ran.
The sword attack and fist attack whose speed could not be perceived by a normal person collided with each other and repelled each other.
「Fufu, Akira aside, the Akane that had no martial arts or anything whatsoever has done well to become this strong!」
The young lady that swung the katana at godspeed Sakuya saw through the fist that would have caught her if her reaction had been even a slightly bit duller, turned away using the base of the katana, and, while dodging with her movements, spoke her strong emotions that had been growing lately.
「Hey, don’t talk to me!」
On the other hand, putting her bodies abilities aside, against Sakuya, who was an opponent with higher skill, Akane had absolutely no room to chat with her and swung her fists.
「As I thought, it’s for Kaito’s sake, is it?」
「Wha!?」
「Unpreparedness is one’s greatest enemy.」
Knowing about how Akane was bearing a loving heart for Kaito, Sakuya invited Akane’s unease with lip service, and splendidly thrust at Akane’s unguarded moment from falling for it.
「You little!」
「Hou…!」
However, avoiding the thrust at her upper body by bending back, Akane stayed bent back and fired a Somersault Kick and repelled the katana upward.
The arm that still held the katana, faced up.
「I’ve got you!」
Landing on all fours, Akane took a huge step while pulling back her right hand.
Light gathered in her right hand and, looking like it was going to scatter, Akane grasped it.
「Impac――ッ」
「Since that looks like it would hurt, I won’t take it.」
The thrust out fist was repelled up.
Looking closely, the black scabbard that was carried at Sakuya’s waist was now grasped.
「Th…that’s not fair, Sakuya! I didn’t hear anything about the scabbard being used!」
「It’s Akane’s fault for not deciding that a warrior could not use clever schemes. ……Fufu, at present, I guess I’m still above you?」
The edge was thrust before Akane’s throat. Akane gulped at the glimmer of the drawn sword.
「Akane-sa~n! Sakuya-sa~n!」
As the outcome for the two people was decided, from somewhere, they heard a girl’s voice calling to them.
「Really, I can only hear him as a girl.」
「Rather, isn’t he already a woman?」
A girl’s voice………However, the one that emitted this voice, concerning these girl’s, was a male of the opposite sex.
*Tattatta* (Step step step). Footsteps ringing, the one that ran in front of the two was a baggy black robe wearing and wooden staff that exceeded her height holding with both arms beautiful girl………that was all that you could see him as boy.
「What’s wrong, Akira. You know that you can’t do exercise.」
Akane worried about the short boy, Akira, who, the moment he arrived, had a rough respiration as if he were out of breath.
「He’s come back…! Kaito-san has come back from the labyrinth!」
Without waiting for his words that he somehow managed to declare while out of breath, Akane started running.
「Eh, ehh!? P, please wait for me, Akane-sa~n!」
「Now, wait, Akira. There’s you to worry about as well. Let’s go slowly.」
About to chase after Akane who started running, Akira also tried to run, but Sakuya grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.
「Kaito!」
At the place that Akane arrived at, there was a giant gate and, standing behind that gate, a black-haired young boy. His clothes were tattered and his body was covered in wounds and dirt, but, his eyes and the magic sword that he held in his hand were the only things that didn’t lose their radiance.
In front of the Luxeria princess and the Imperial Court Sorcerer Head that seemed to have come to welcome back Kaito, Akane ran up to Kaito and embraced him.
「Wah! A, Akane!?」
Kaito was bewildered by the childhood friend that had suddenly embraced him.
「S, shut up! B, be quiet for a bit!」
It was five days for the girls. It was only five days, but for Kaito who was in the Labyrinth of Time, he was in a den of monsters for a time that was equivalent to a month.
With him left in a place to fight every day for a month, there was no way that Akane wouldn’t worry about him.
Although she believed that he wouldn’t die, Akane constantly worried about things like “Did he get a large injury?” or “Is he suffering?”
They were separated for only five days, but at the fact that he returned in perfectly good health, Akane was delighted from the bottom of her heart.
「…………」
Having his childhood friend near him after a month, he expressed a smile that he hadn’t made in a long while after coming to this world.
AdvertisementsFor the first time since August, Gwyneth finally sat with all her panels on. Granted—the wing and light cover were still painted in red oxide, but at least she looked like she was ready for the road.
Whilst still up on axle stands, I started undersealing her ready for winter. As I shimmied my way under the car, the driver’s side footwell presented a rather frustrating finding—yet more rust. This time the hole was in the driver side chassis rail, where it meets the footwell. I understand that Mazda tried their hardest to replicate the classic British sports car, and they certainly got the melting into the ground part nailed.
Having spent a good deal of time welding up the front passenger side sill, one more hole to fix wasn’t a big concern – even if the A-arm being in the way made access less than ideal. So out came the welder and she was patched up before lunch.
Underseal: Attempt Two
After lunch and back under the car the underseal came out once more. This time there was some success to be had, painting over the exposed parts of the chassis where the old underseal had dried out and flaked off. Working my way towards the back of the car I was feeling optimistic that I could get Gwyneth MOT’d for the weekend.
Unfortunately I found yet more rot at the back! This time it was the passenger side sill that required attention. I didn’t believe that the passenger side of UK cars fared the worst, but it was certainly proving to be the case. All the salt and slush collecting on the side of the road definitely takes its toll.
Taking a grinder to the offending metal, I was able to see what we were working with. In this case, not a lot!
With another hole confirming we weren’t done with the welder yet, I thought I had better take the time to give the car a thorough prod.
By the time I’d finished poking, I was looking at quite a list:
The near-side rear wheel well was rotten — both at the front and at the rear
both at the front and at the rear The off-side front wheel well was rusted behind the wheel arch liner
The near-side passenger foot well was corroded in the same place as the driver side
At this point, I was confident that I had found all of the grot on the car. At least I knew where I stood.
Pulling out the welder for the final time, I was able to get most of the bodywork patched up by the evening. The next time I was in the garage, Gwyneth was successfully stitched up and coated liberally with seam sealer.
Underseal: Attempt Three
Now back to the black stuff. Third time lucky…
Whilst working around the suspension arms, I noticed a rather flaky bit in the near-side rear wishbone. Screwdriver in hand, I gave it a good poke.
Further investigation found that the off-side wishbone had been previously welded! A quick post on one of the Facebook groups turned up a set of wishbones for cheap, but I wasn’t looking forward to breaking through the years of crust to rip the old ones off.
The long bolts through the bottom of the hub were especially stubborn, requiring a liberal dose of Plusgas and a big hammer to draw them out. Predictably, two camber bolts were refusing to budge and snapped off in the process.
The captive nuts in the rear wishbone that hold the struts were spinning, so the bolt would not come out. The trusty grinder relieved enough space in the wishbone for a spanner to hold the nut whilst the bolt was wound out.
The final thing preventing the removal of the wishbones were the droplinks. The bottom bolts were refusing to come undone, so the top bolts were removed instead and the wishbones were dropped to the ground. One of the metal sleeves had slipped out of the perished rubber, so it was back to Facebook once again for a good set of droplinks.
As for the bolts, Autolink came to the rescue, replacing them all for a good price.
Nut so fast
Reaching into the boot to undo the bolts on the top mounts revealed a secret that Gwyneth had been hiding from us. Considering that up until this point I hadn’t found any strange paraphernalia or human slime, this considerable hoard of peanuts came as quite a surprise.
Dropping the struts from the car revealed a broken spring. Whilst coilovers were always on the wishlist, it now made sense to pick up a set sooner rather than later. With that in mind, I moved to the front of the car and removed the camber bolts to make removing the struts much easier. She was going to need an alignment anyway, and it made sense to get the camber bolts free rather than struggling with them at the alignment shop.
Referencing the list from the previous installment in this series, we had made reasonable progress – albeit a little |
place for open source data, software or hardware design in the future of ADAS?
Open source software provides a great pathway for groups with few (or no) financial resources to develop relatively cheaply and with constant maintenance, from children to engineers (which are just another kind of children in my experience).
They are useful for trying things out and a lot of open source software (with necessary robustness added) can be found everywhere from phones to cars to spacecraft.
For example, the president of the Genivi alliance, Matt Jones, is also Director of Future Technology at Jaguar Land Rover, promoting Linux in ADAS development and machine learning cores.
The typical modern car can have more than 100 million lines of source code in it, and several of the modules will have come from other applications, so it is difficult and imprudent to avoid open source code, as long as issues of intellectual property and robustness are addressed.
[Editor’s note: Patrick is a mentor at CoderDojo, which supports and runs coding clubs and advocates the use and development of open source software]
Where is best?
Are there particular countries whose approach to education, legislative reform or investment in research and innovation make them well-placed to support development in the ADAS sector?
Germany has a long established history of automotive development, longer than anyone else, and depend heavily on the automotive sector, so they are already geared up for automotive development; however, new product differentiators are coming from several non-classically automotive industry and no country has a monopoly on innovation in ADAS.
In my own work I have found innovators all over the place. At a time when there is a drop in general venture capital funding in Silicon Valley, it is actually increasing there in ADAS for example.
Google has worked closely with NHTSA on autonomous driving and NCAP works closely with European automotive companies, so there is a lot of interaction going on.
The innovation creates jobs and products, and every country is interested in supporting that.
This is the second of a two-part interview with Patrick Denny, Chair of the AutoSens conference Advisory board. For the complete picture, read part one, or go straight to challenges facing OEMs (car manufacturers), standards development in the field and the importance of understanding big data.
Find out more
We will be delving deeper into all of these areas and a host of extra content at the AutoSens conference 2016, held in September at AutoWorld in Brussels, Belgium.
Carefully selected experts will discuss the shared challenges, innovation, standardisation and supply chain collaboration involved with the development of the latest ADAS technologies and self-driving cars via panels, presentations and conversations.
Join the AutoSens Mailing ListEvery television show struggles, as the seasons pile up, to elevate the stakes, push the plot further, and justify new adventures without straining audience credulity. Few shows, even the best, pull it off entirely.
The 115th season of Major League Baseball was one of the most purely spectacular seasons to date, but if you think about it for more than a few minutes, the whole thing comes crashing down faster than a Giancarlo Stanton homer in the Marlins Park bar. More than any other season, this one glossed over so many logistical hurdles and relied on so many convenient twists to arrive at its endgame that it didn't make much sense at all.
In an effort to highlight the glaring moments of Season 115 that just didn't make any sense, we came up with 27 basic questions the writers failed to answer.
1. Why is the best player so short? There's nothing about being short that makes a baseball player especially likely to be good. In fact, shortness has been an obstacle to greatness for most of history. Yet the best player in baseball this year (out of hundreds and hundreds) is the shortest player in baseball (out of hundreds and hundreds), which is awfully convenient, and feels like a needlessly colorful detail introduced not because it's meaningful but because it's darling.
2. Why is the other best player so tall? There's also not much of an advantage to being freakishly tall (unless you're a pitcher), and yet the second-best player in baseball is the tallest? So out of 672 position players, it's just a coincidence that the two best players make for the cutest possible picture? We all love fan service, but it shouldn't be this easy.
3. Speaking of Aaron Judge: Is it really plausible that the second-best player in baseball would have been fighting for a job in March? Obviously, a lot of great plot lines hinge on the obliviousness of other characters, but it defies belief that none of us would recognize an otherworldly superhero standing right next to us.
4. For that matter, where did all these new characters come from? There were 10 rookies this year who hit 20 or more home runs, and there are two more within two of that mark heading into the final weekend. There had never been a season before this with more than six 20-HR rookies, and only seven seasons in history with even five. This is too many adorable youngsters to pass muster. Are all of their parents on archaeological digs in South America?
5. Why hadn't I even heard of Rhys Hoskins six months ago? If he has a sophomore slump will we call him Rhys Maaskins, or are we better than that?
6. Sure, home runs are up, but the American League and National League rookie home run records -- two records that had each stood for decades -- are broken in the very same year?
7. Speaking of Cody Bellinger: It's fun that the Dodgers finally jumped that tier from good to great, but is it really plausible they would do so with a roster mostly unchanged from last year, other than the incorporation of Chris Taylor (whom the front office wanted to keep on the bench), Alex Wood (whom the front office wanted to keep in the bullpen) and Bellinger (whom the front office wanted to keep in the minors)? Is it really fair to expect us to believe the only reason the Dodgers got super-great was because three crucial things went wrong for them early in the year, forcing them to accept the heroics of three overlooked stars? Is it?
8. For that matter, is it fair to ask us to believe that the Red Sox's two best hitters this year have been the two third basemen (Eduardo Nunez and Rafael Devers) they were forced to add midsummer, thereby turning the offseason's single worst trade (Travis Shaw to Milwaukee) into the club's salvation? Does that make sense? Isn't that stupid? Do this sport's scriptwriters think we're stupid?
9. Then there's the way the Twins' failure to move Brian Dozier in the offseason was considered the worst single "move" of the offseason? Because the Twins were coming off a 100-loss season, and no team has ever gone from 100 losses to the playoffs, and the Twins were barely even trying? Now the Twins are the second wild-card team, and Dozier has been worth 4.3 WAR? Isn't that a little too slick?
10. Also, just generally, the Twins?
11. And how the Twins were so unlikely to make the postseason they traded their closer at the deadline? Because they collapsed in July, on account of not actually appearing to be a very good team? And then had the best August in team history?
12. For that matter, these wild mood swings are just inexplicable. Twins shortstop Jorge Polanco hit.078/.158/.118 in July. He was the worst hitter in baseball that month. Then in August he hit.373/.413/.686. He was the seventh-best player in baseball that month. Does that seem plausible to anybody?
13. One of the six names ahead of him was Tim Beckham. Beckham was the guy the Rays took first overall (instead of Buster Posey) in the 2008 draft, the guy whom Tampa Bay spent nine frustrating years waiting to turn into something, and they finally give up on him and he immediately turns into a star? I get that screenwriters see breakups as convenient instigating events in the journey toward self-actualization, but have you ever actually known a real person who got dumped and then the next day could suddenly run a four-minute mile?
14. Honestly, a lot of these performance swings are too extreme to even qualify as randomness. Fernando Rodney:
His June was the fifth no-hit month (minimum nine innings pitched) in the modern era. OK.
15. Now Rodney is the closer for a National League wild-card team, most likely facing the Rockies. Don't think I don't see what the writers are setting up, the pistol they hung on the wall. The winner of that wild-card game will face the Dodgers, who have played 20 different teams this year. They have a losing record against two of them:
The Diamondbacks.
And.
The Rockies. These guys.
16. The whole Dodgers season -- the best run in franchise history, followed by the worst run in franchise history -- has been an insult to our intelligence. They were, in mid-August, arguably the greatest team ever; there was no one on earth like them; they were blameless and upright. Then they immediately and inexplicably fell into the worst slump in the 60-year history of the team? That story's a little derivative, don't you think?
17. It happened simultaneously with the longest winning streak in American League history. It's always a dark and stormy night when the mysterious death occurs, isn't it?
18. During Cleveland's 22-game winning streak, infielder Jose Ramirez hit.423/.462/.944 and hit his 50th double of the season and took the AL lead in total bases and extra-base hits. Why, if it isn't the second-shortest everyday player in the American League. We're back to leaning too heavily on short characters.
19. Like Scooter Gennett, who is 5-foot-10 and named after literally the smallest motor vehicle, and who hit more home runs in a single game than Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols ever did. Four homers in a game, done only 16 times in 115 years, and here's a guy doing it who had never previously hit more than that in a month.
20. And the Reds' whole infield? Gennett, a 27-year-old who had been a below-average hitter in his career, is hitting.297/.345/.540. Zack Cozart, a 31-year-old who had been a below-average hitter in his career, is hitting.301/.388/.556. Eugenio Suarez, a 25-year-old who had been a below-average hitter in his career, is hitting.261/.369/.466. If Cozart homers once more, the Reds will be the first team in National League history to have six players with 25 home runs.
The Reds are in last place.
21. Because everything in this season is bananas. A veteran who a few years ago hit zero homers in a full season now has 20. A veteran who had never hit 10 now has 27. A veteran who had never hit 40 now has 57. The ball is so jumpy my friend Craig tried to convince me that 31-year-old Cozart suddenly matching Barry Larkin's best season at the plate is actually normal. And, in the sense that the writers decided to set this season on the moon, it sort of is. But who suddenly moves a show to the moon?
22. Why does Robert Gsellman, a pitcher, have the league's best contact rate at the plate?
23. Pujols has been the least-valuable player in baseball, by WAR, but he has also been the third most clutch hitter in baseball? Cute conceit, but life doesn't really work that way.
24. It also doesn't work this way:
Craig Kimbrel has allowed baseball's highest exit velocity this year, and the fifth-lowest WHIP of all-time — Sam Miller (@SamMillerBB) September 26, 2017
None of it works this way.
25. Why did every Cubs starting pitcher lose between 1 and 3 mph from his fastball this year? Sure, they threw a lot of innings last October, but the Indians' starters threw just as many without any problem. Isn't this a transparent deus ex machina to prevent the unstoppable Cubs dynasty we were all expecting?
26. The Tebow crossover plot line worked better than anybody expected, but why did it last so long? The last four weeks were hard to watch.
27. Finally, there's the most unrealistic thing of all: The division winners this year are going to be the Astros, Indians, Red Sox, Dodgers, Cubs and Nationals. In other words: The six teams we all actually picked to win the divisions. Baseball never works that way.
Tip of the cap to this article, which we admiringly imitated.What is a Parklet?
A parklet is a small urban park that is typically created by taking existing street parking or unused urban space and converting them with into an open public space that serves as an extension of the sidewalk. Parklets can be used by anyone to sit back and enjoy the sights and sounds of the neighborhood. Seattle launched its Pilot Parklet Program in 2013 and the Chinatown-International District is one of three neighborhoods chosen to participate in this program.
We Need More Green Space!
The Chinatown-International District’s parklet will be a tremendous asset for the neighborhood which has some of the least amount of green space per capita of any neighborhood in Seattle. As an open space for all to use, our parklet will provide residents and visitors alike with an inviting place to enjoy a performance, eat their lunch, or sip their bubble tea.
Our Parklet:
While most parklets are typically constructed in on-street parking spaces, the location of our parklet was carefully chosen to occupy the "no parking" zone within 30 feet of an existing stop sign. As a result, no parking spots will be lost due to the construction of our parklet.
The proposed area of the Chinatown-ID’s parklet measures roughly 24’ long by 6’ deep and is located on the west side of 6th Ave S between S Weller St and S King St. The parklet is designed to reflect the simple architectural elements of the adjacent building and will serve as a public space for people to gather, spend time with family and friends, and enjoy the rich history and culture of Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.
We’re Ready!
The parklet team, which includes the Chinatown-ID BIA, the City of Seattle, Barker Landscape Architects, GMD Custom (general contractor) and members of the community, have been working closely to ensure the design meets the strict requirements of the City and the aesthetic standard of the neighborhood’s historic review board. Our parklet has received permitting and approval from Seattle’s Department of Transportation and the International District Special Review District board. All we need is some help with the funding.
Give What You Can!
Your support is really the key to help us implement this project and activate Seattle’s Chinatown-International District! We would greatly appreciate it if you could give what you can!
Who We Are:
The Chinatown-ID BIA (CIDBIA) is a local non-profit that looks after, and promotes the economic vitality of the Chinatown-International District. The CIDBIA coordinates several of the neighborhood’s major events including the Night Markets and Lunar New Year Celebration, in addition to Dragon Fest. The CIDBIA also advocates on behalf of its constituents with respect to a host of public policy, planning, and quality‐of‐life issues. For more information about the Chinatown-ID BIA, log onto www.cidbia.org.
The parklet was designed by Barker Landscape Architects, an architectural consulting firm that was founded in 1989. They provide innovative, creative, and environmentally sound landscape designs, while specializing in community parks, playgrounds and open space, and much more.
The parklet will be constructed by GMD Custom, a general contracting company which performs comprehensive commercial and residential services. GMD Custom specializes in architectural millwork installation, custom casework design, fabrication & installation, as well as cafe, restaurant and small commercial build-outs.Story highlights Pedro Valdez repeatedly tried, failed to get appointments with Phoenix VA, his daughter says
He ended up being hospitalized before seeing a VA doctor; he died in January
The VA hasn't responded to this specific claim, but is looking into general allegations
Valdez's daughter: The VA "kicked him when he was down, when he needed them"
Pedro Valdez, a Vietnam veteran, wanted help. And he knew where to get it -- through the Phoenix VA -- or so he thought.
Again and again, starting in December 2012, Valdez would try to schedule with -- and would even show up to see -- doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities in Arizona about his shortness of breath, according to his daughter. He thought he had gotten confirmed appointments; even toting cards with a specific date and time.
"He'd have the card in hand, go to check in, and they'd tell him, 'Mr. Valdez, you don't have an appointment in the computer. We have no idea what you're talking about," his daughter Priscella Valdez told CNN.
In October 2013, Pedro Valdez showed up at his daughter's house after going in for another appointment that never happened. His daughter set out then to make sure Valdez had a firm time in the VA computers, not just written down on a card. The next available slot he could get, after all that effort, was in three months, on January 6, 2014, according to his daughter.
Pedro Valdez never made it.
JUST WATCHED VA's Shinseki writes letter to vets Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH VA's Shinseki writes letter to vets 01:32
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On New Year's Eve 2013, he struggled for breath and was rushed to a private hospital. Valdez was diagnosed with acute respiratory failure; "he was only breathing at 50%," according to his daughter. The next day, he was in intensive care.
And six days later -- on January 7, a day after he was to finally see a doctor at the Phoenix VA -- he was dead. He was 66.
Priscella Valdez remembers her dad as a man who "made it out of a gruesome, gruesome, gruesome war," who dutifully worked in construction, who raised three children on his own and who never put himself first. More than anything, she remembers him as her "best friend."
She believes that the system that was supposed to care for him -- a man who'd risked his life for his country -- instead let him down.
"They took a man and broke him down and kicked him when he was down, when he needed them," Priscella Valdez said. "... These people who were supposed to take care of him are able to live freely."
The Valdez family is not the first to levy accusations against the federal agency charged with overseeing health care and benefits of veterans and their dependents.
CNN first reported six months ago about allegations of alarming shortcomings within the VA medical care system that, according to the VA, led to 23 deaths.
The allegations include the possible destruction of a secret waiting list for care at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care System. There have also been claims of delayed care and cooked books at VA facilities nationwide.
The VA did not respond to a CNN request for a response to the Valdez family's specific allegation. And because of privacy laws, it is hard to know if Pedro Valdez was on anyone's list at the Phoenix VA, secret or not.
The VA's Office of the Inspector General is now investigating these various allegations at 26 VA facilities, and there have been hearings on Capitol Hill. Priscella Valdez has been among those speaking up; CNN first learned of her family's story after she appeared at a forum in Phoenix featuring Sen. John McCain in the wake of the scandal.
Much of the focus has been on the VA's management back in Washington, including calls for Secretary Eric Shinseki to be fired. Yet Priscella Valdez says no one looking into this matter can fully comprehend the frustration and the torment experienced by families like hers, who just want their loved ones looked after in a fair, responsible, humane way.
"I don't think anybody clearly understands what's going on," she says, "unless you actually lived it and you're going through it."2:15PM | The Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) has released additional information regarding the death of 29-year-old Long Beach resident Ryan Anderson, who was shot by another resident after entering their home early Sunday morning.
According to the LBPD, evidence suggests that Anderson had scaled a wall to gain access to the backyard, broke a window, and proceeded to steal items from the household before a resident, one of two residents home at the time, shot Anderson multiple times.
LBPD officers discovered Anderson’s body inside the home after taking two minutes and twenty seconds to respond to the scene following a 9-1-1 call. Anderson was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
“The suspect was found to have personal property belonging to the resident on his person,” LBPD said in a release. “There is no indication at this time there is any connection between the suspect and the residents of the home.”
29-Year-Old Long Beach Resident Ryan Anderson Shot and Killed After Entering Home on 3rd St
August 10, 11PM | Early Sunday morning, 29-year-old Long Beach resident Ryan Anderson was killed after attempting to enter a random home near 3rd and Temple in what police are calling an attempted burglary, while friends are describing the incident as “drunken mistake.”
According to LBPD, officers responded to the 2800 block of E. 3rd at 2:30AM on August 10 to a “burglary in progress where the resident had shot the suspect inside the home,” said LBPD spokesperson Megan Zabel.
Anderson, the alleged suspect who had no criminal record, had been pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics and, according to Zabel. It has not been confirmed whether or not Anderson was armed at the time of the incident.
“I heard three shots, which I thought were firecrackers, but they were shots,” neighbor Dina Milonas told CBS. “Then I heard the homeowner next door to me scream, ‘Help me, help me.’”
Anderson, who lived nearby at Newport and 3rd, was described by friends as a pacificist and “never confrontational.”
“I am not mad at someone protecting themselves and their home—but [Ryan] wasn’t a burglar,” said long time friend Jay Diebel. “He was a good kid. Always funny, always a good remark… But just someone who would never break into someone’s house. He didn’t need that.”
Anderson, a Seattle-to-Long Beach transplant, had left V Room at 4th and Alamitos alone shortly before 2AM, according to Diebel. Police have not confirmed this information.
“With his beanie and beard and [being] drunk—yeah, of course he’d look suspect,” said Diebel. “Anyone would [look suspect] in a house that wasn’t theirs… I just don’t want this becoming a conversation about the rising crime in the area because that’s not what this is. It was a freak accident.”
While LBPD continues their homicide investigation, friends of Anderson lament the loss of what was a young life.
“We feel guilty—how can we not?” Diebel said. “But we’re all big kids and we have to watch out for one another. I can only assume he thought he was home [when he walked into a stranger’s house]. I’m not mad, I’m not angry; I’m just gonna miss this kid. He was a gem.”
This marks the second intruder who has been shot by a Long Beach resident in the last three weeks, after 80-year-old Tom Greer grabbed his.22-caliber Smith and Wesson revolver and shot Andrea Miller during a home invasion burglary in Bixby Knolls.
More information as it becomes available.
Photo courtesy of Jay Diebel.
{FG_GEOMAP [33.7680885,-118.1589492] FG_GEOMAP}BBtv: Graffiti Research Lab, the movie
Grab your LED throwies and your laser tagging units, comrades, and join the revolution. Today on Boing Boing tv, a sneak peek at a new documentary film on the subversive public art collective known as Graffiti Research Lab, who develop and distribute "open source technologies for urban communication." The voices you'll hear in today's episode -- GRL founders James Powderly and Evan Roth.
Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion and downloadable video.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
From their statement, redacted by the "U.S. Dept. of Homeland Graffiti"...
From their origins in the trash room of a non-profit in Manhattan to their emergence as the instigators of an international art movement, Graffiti Research Lab: The Complete First Season documents the adventures of an architect and an engineer who quit their day jobs to develop high-tech tools for the art underground. The film follows the GRL and their network of graffiti artist collaborators (and commercial imitators) across four continents as they write on skyscrapers with lasers, mock advertisers with homemade tools, get in trouble with The Department of Homeland Security and make activism fun again. Primarily using video footage from point-and-shoot digital cameras (“The Pocket School”) and found-content on the web, the movie’s visual style draws as much from the art of the power point presentation and viral media as conventional documentary cinema. Narrated by GRL co-founders, Roth and Powderly, The Complete First Season makes a humorous and insightful argument for free speech in public, open source in pop culture, the hacker spirit in graffiti and not asking for permission in general. The film was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008. Available 24/7 on The Pirate Bay.
Part two of today's episode documents GRL's hijinks at Maker Faire 2007. That event's 2008 edition is coming up next week.
GRL was mistakenly credited with the Boston Mooninite LED Terror Freakout; while their work no doubt inspired the street marketing team responsible for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force debacle, Powderly told Boing Boing the day it happened that GRL was not involved.
Link to more info about the DVD and where you can download a torrent -- or, see it at the premiere, May 4, at New York's MOMA.Rangers comfortably beat Falkirk to remain four points behind Scottish Championship leaders Hearts.
Nicky Law's drive separated the two sides at the interval, the midfielder scoring midway through the first half.
Lewis Macleod, fresh from being called up to the Scotland squad, headed the home side's second.
Kenny Miller stretched out a foot to net Rangers' third and his replacement, Nicky Clark, struck to complete the scoring.
Ally McCoist's side struggled to carve open Falkirk in the first quarter.
The visitors were attacking when they got the chance, but David Smith finished poorly after good work from Luke Leahy.
But Peter Houston's men crumbled in the 25th minute after the home side's first spell of sustained pressure.
Lewis Macleod and Nicky Clark both scored for Rangers
They initially defended well, Joe Shaughnessy putting in a crucial challenge on Lee Wallace after Macleod had put Falkirk on the back foot with an exquisite long pass.
Macleod then split the defence with a pass to Miller, but again Jamie MacDonald narrowed the angle and blocked.
The Bairns struggled to deal with the resulting corner, with Darren McGregor and Miller having efforts half-cleared before David Templeton put the ball back into the goalmouth.
Peter Grant blocked it, but David Smith was caught waiting for the ball to come to him and Law nipped in and fired it into the bottom corner from six yards.
Falkirk tried to hit back before the break, but Shaughnessy skewed a shot wide after running from his own half and Will Vaulks had a 20-yard strike deflected just wide after good skill.
Shaughnessy also beat Rangers goalkeeper Steve Simonsen to a corner but could not keep his header down.
However, they were leaving gaps at the back and Templeton had several chances, hitting one wide and having two other efforts deflected out of harm's way.
Rangers punished them when Blair Alston's flick went straight to a light blue shirt following a Falkirk throw-in deep inside the home side's half.
Miller broke and fed Jon Daly, on moments earlier for Kris Boyd, and the Irishman crossed for Macleod to arrive on the six-yard line and bullet a header into the net.
Macleod soon moved from left midfield to the right when Steven Smith replaced Templeton, but he was just as effective, arrowing a low cross from 18 yards across the goalmouth for Miller to slide in and steer home in the 75th minute.
Rangers went further ahead in the 82nd minute when Wallace burst to the bye-line yards from goal and forced the ball back for Clark to guide into the empty net with MacDonald stranded.HONG KONG (REUTERS) - The buildings are sky high and so are their prices.
An auction has just confirmed Hong Kong's status as one of the world's most expensive property markets.
The lot under offer was... a multi-storey public carpark.
It's location, among the headquarters of some of Asia's biggest businesses, was the main attraction.
The final price was US$3 billion (S$4 billion) dollars - that's US$6,400 for every square foot.
"We have extremely low vacancy of around about 1.4 per cent vacancy in the current market, a huge amount of demand from mainland firms coming into Hong Kong, setting up their offices here in Central, and as a result it will alleviate a lot of the pressure we're seeing built up in core central," said Hong Kong CBRE managing director Tom Gaffney.
All four of Hong Kong's main property developers were bidding.
The eventual winner was Henderson Land, a firm founded by Hong Kong's second richest man Lee Shau Kee.
It has offices in 14 mainland Chinese cities but no flagship skyscraper in Hong Kong - yet.
"Not many people park their cars there. So I'm hoping the developer will be able to turn it into something that can help the economy," said local resident Ella Wong.
It's the first time in two decades that a plot of land with this much commercial potential has come on the market in Hong Kong.
And whoever ends up living or working there will have some wealthy neighbours.
The buildings either side are owned by Hong's richest man Li Ka Shing.by
The Metric System Is Stupid –I’ll concede upfront that the metric system is probably the best system for science and for doing auto repair. The people who do those things seem to like it, and they know their fields better than I do. However, I am too smart to do auto repair and too dumb to do science so I don’t really care. Use the metric system as a specialized system of measurement in those fields all you want, like Kelvin or Sabermetrics.
But for day to day use, the metric system is stupid. Americas courageous resistance of the metric system stands as one of the proudest chapters in our history. One of our virtues is our pragmatism and another is being big and rich. When presented with the metric system we were pragmatic enough to see that it is inferior for daily use and big and rich enough to tell everyone else to cram it with walnuts.
Those unfortunate peoples who have embraced the metric system out of pseudo-rationalism, or who were forced to capitulate to it and now want to maintain the illusion of making a rational choice, will say that the metric system is superior for three basic reasons, each of which is bullshit. Lets go through them.
1) Le aauuhahaha… your whole system of measurement is based on arbitrary things, like a kings foot. But le’ metric system is not arbitrary at all!
Do we really want to bring up the subject of kings and rational attitudes towards them? Because, most of you metric people live in countries where the proper thing to do is to prostrate yourself before in-breds who were chosen by God to wear golden hats. All of the metric states I have been to are lovely countries full of fine people and delicious food, and at least a few things that were done better than in the U.S. I’m just sayin’…
But let’s set that aside. Firstly, the foot as a unit of measurement dates back to ancient Greece. It is not like some guy picked a random body part from a random king and said, let’s measure everything by this guys feet! Otherwise, we might have been stuck with impractical units and wound up having to say someone is 2.1 torsos tall, or yeah, that restaurant is down the road about 8600 KPs (kings penises).
People picked a man’s foot because we are human beings. We use our human bodies to interact with the world. So it makes sense and is practical to use our bodies to measure that interaction.
I’m sure they tried hands, heads, femurs and other things, but the foot stuck because it works well in practice. For example, something that was ten feet high was just beyond a man’s reach (they didn’t have black people back then). If you are six feet tall, you are tall. If you are under five feet tall you are very short. Someone who is a foot taller than the next person is much taller. 100 feet is a tall building or a high ledge and if you fell off you would die.
If a king’s foot ever did become involved, it was just because someone said, hey, our feet are all different sizes, we should have a uniform foot.
Then someone else said, “Why not use the king’s foot”?
Then the first guy said, “OK, fine”.
How willlllldly irrational!
So the truth is that imperial measurements are not arbitrary at all. To the contrary, they are the product of centuries of pragmatism. Saying that the imperial units are arbitrary is like saying that it is arbitrary for cars to have four wheels and for pants to have two legs. Maybe a more charitable example would be eggs being sold by the dozen. They don’t sell eggs by the dozen because the inventor of the egg cartons lucky number was twelve. They do it because that’s about how many eggs people want and because dozens and half dozens of things fit well into packages.
The metric system is, of course, based on measuring everything using the circumference of the earth. Why? Well, we do live on planet earth. But other than that it is… guess what? Arbitrary as shit! Could just as easily be the circumference of the moon, or a cantaloupe or the length of The Nile. That base unit did not come from centuries of practical use. It came from some guy pulling it out of his ass.
So this first criticism has it backwards. The imperial system, based on centuries of practical use, is the opposite of arbitrary. The metric system, based on a whim, is as arbitrary as can be. Therefore, if you want to use a system that is not arbitrary, you should use the imperial system.
Clear your mind. Pretend there are no units of measurement at all. Its not an Anglo vs. Continental thing or an America vs. the world thing.
All of our memories have been wiped out and we are piecing together a new society. For day to day purposes, does it make more sense for us to measure each other by how many feet tall we are, or by how many earths tall we are? 6 feet or 1.82 40 millionths earths?
This is the core of the whole issue. It brings us to the second criticism of the imperial system, which is here:
2) The metric system divides all its units into tenths, but the imperial system does not.
I am an open minded guy. I’ll concede the point that the cartoon makes about dates. I don’t think its a very big deal either way, but if someone said we should all switch to DD/MM/YYYY, I wouldn’t care.
But the other point is bullshit. Yes, the metric system is based on units of ten. The advantages of this are that 1) It takes you a bit less time to learn measurements when you are in second grade and 2)????
If it is always better to measure things in tenths, why not time? Do we find it difficult to keep a handle on the fact that there are 24 hours in a day, but 60 minutes in an hour? And seven days in a week? And 365 days in a year! Oh my God, my head is going to explode! Its almost impossible to keep track of! Because I’m too intelligent and logical to grasp it!
Since the way people measure time now is so irrational, lets sit back in our armchairs and devise a superior system, which we can then impose on people until they adjust to it and it seems normal to them.
As it stands now, the day is the length of time that it takes for the earth to rotate once. Isn’t that kind of arbitrary? Why should we base our measurement of time on the way we experience time? To truly embrace the metric spirit, we would base units of time on something more independent of our own experience. Perhaps, the period between the big bang and the formation of the earth. Isn’t that more objective? The answer is no. But it might seem that way if you were blinded by pretentiousness.
So our basic unit of time can be unimaginably large and applicable only on the cosmic scale. Then we can divide that up into smaller units for day to day use. Why bother with all of that, you ask? Because now we can say things like, I have an appointment in 1.35 eighty trillionths of the time between the big bang and the formation of the earth, in the same way we use the metric system to say that someone is 1.85 40 millionths of the circumference of the earth tall.
Since that’s a bit hard to imagine, because it is so stupid, lets just keep the day at the same length. But there can’t be 24 hours. Since everything must be divisible by ten, days can either have 100 hours or 10 hours.
10 hours makes the most sense, I suppose. 100 centihours in an hour. So your hour long session with your doctor or trainer or prostitute is now.42 hours or 42 centihours. What activity takes an |
what was a terrific display from the Aussie veteran.
He was never going to win the race — Vincenzo Nibali was clearly the strongest climber, time-trialist and rider overall — but it was inspiring to watch the typically-gutsy Evans fight his way onto the podium in the horrendous conditions that defined the race (and were arguably a season highlight on their own).
Of course Evans paid for his exertions at the Giro, fading badly at the Tour. But given Cadel won’t be riding the Tour next year in order to throw everything at the Giro, it will be more than worth staying up to watch how he goes come next May.
9. Orica-GreenEDGE’s four days in yellow at Le Tour de France
When the Orica-GreenEDGE bus got stuck under the finish gantry on stage 1 of the 2013 Tour de France it looked like it was going to be a memorable race for the Aussie squad for the all the wrong reasons. On stage 3 Simon Gerrans turned the team’s fortunes around.
Orica-GreenEDGE had targeted the stage as one for Gerro and reversed their lead-out, with Daryl Impey leading Gerrans out in the finish in the Corsican town of Calvi. So powerful was Gerrans’ kick that he outsprinted the fast-finishing Peter Sagan.
When Orica-GreenEDGE won the team time trial in Nice on stage 4 Gerrans took the yellow jersey which he would wear for two days. On stage 6, Gerrans sat up in the closing stages of the race, ensuring his teammate Daryl Impey would become the first South African ever to lead the Tour de France.
Impey wore the maillot jaune on stage 7 and stage 8, before Chris Froome took charge of the race and never lost the lead. It was an inspiring example of the closeness of the Orica-GreenEDGE squad and a memorable few days for Aussie fans.
Click here to see photos of Simon Gerrans’ win.
10. The crosswinds on stage 13 of the Tour de France
It was supposed to be a boring flat stage that wouldn’t affect anything overall. And while Chris Froome didn’t lose the leader’s jersey, this stage did thwart Alejandro Valverde’s chances of a top-five finish overall.
It was a stage that saw echelons form and split apart all day and riders had to be both strong and strategic throughout to ensure they wouldn’t lose huge chunks of time.
Omega Pharma-QuickStep did the early damage, splitting the field to pieces before Saxo Tinkoff did the same with 30km to go. Mick Rogers came to the front and threw everyone in the gutter in what turned out to be a brilliant tactical move.
Race leader Chris Froome missed the decisive split and lost more than a minute to rival Alberto Contador. It didn’t turn out to be too much of a problem for Froome in the grand scheme of things, but it was arguably the most entertaining stage of this year’s Tour de France.
Check out some photos from and analysis of the stage here.
11. Marcel Kittel’s four stage wins at Le Tour
Going into the Tour de France the biggest question when it came to the sprinters was “how many stages will Mark Cavendish win?” In the end the Manx Missile claimed two wins, but it was Marcel Kittel that took out the honours as the best pure sprinter with four wins beside his name.
His win into Bastia on stage 1 came from a reduced bunch that didn’t include Cavendish, Peter Sagan or Andre Greipel, leading some to suggest he could only beat the smaller-name sprinters. When Kittel won on stage 10 Cavendish was slightly out of position due to an ugly incident involving Kittel’s teammate Tom Veelers. Two days later Kittel took his most impressive victory of the race thus far, outsprinting Cavendish fair and square.
And then, in the twilight finish on the fabled Champs Elysees, Kittel snatched his fourth victory, taking the final stage of the Tour de France in a compelling display of pure strength. If it wasn’t clear how good Kittel was before this year’s Tour, it certainly was afterwards.
12. Chris Froome’s climbing dominance and occasional vulnerability
When Chris Froome attacked on stage 8 of this year’s Tour and went on to win the stage my nearly a minute (over his teammate Richie Porte, no less), many people sighed and said “right, that’s the Tour won”. And in effect it was.
Froome confirmed he was the strongest climber in the race a week later, winning stage 15 on Mont Ventoux with a scary attack that only Nairo Quintana could respond to. Even the dimuitive Colombian finished nearly 30 seconds back in the end.
But despite Froome’s dominance on those two stages, it was reassuring to see him struggle at other times. On stage 9 Froome was left isolated when his teammates, exhausted from the previous day’s exertions, couldn’t match the high pace set by Movistar. Froome later described it as “one of the hardest days I’ve ever had on a bike”.
And on the final climb on stage 20, Froome looked to attack like he’d done earlier in the race but he didn’t have the legs to get away. In the end he would fall off the wheels of Nairo Quintana and Joaquim Rodriguez to come third, unable to handle the pace of the pure climbers. But the damage had been done — Froome would win the 2013 Tour de France.
13. Giorgia Bronzini’s six consecutive stage wins at the Route de France
The eight-stage Route de France was held in early August and featured a prologue ITT, six flat stages and then a hillier seventh stage to finish. After Orica-AIS’s Swedish leader Emma Johannsson won the prologue, Wiggle Honda’s former world champion Giorgia Bronzini got to work and won six stages on the trot.
Granted, other big-name sprinters like Kirsten Wild weren’t racing, and neither was Marianne Vos who has a powerful sprint as well, but to win six stages in a row shows more than strength. Bronzini demonstrated remarkable consistency in keeping herself out of trouble every day until making one decisive move.
What’s even more remarkable is that Bronzini spent some of those days working on the front for her GC-contender teammate Linda Villumsen or even riding off the front solo for 10-15km. An incredible effort.
14. Taylor Phinney’s win on stage 4 of the Tour of Poland
This might seem like a strange addition to the list — it’s a single stage in a small race, but if you watch the final kilometres of the race you’ll see why we included it:
Phinney attacked solo with 7.7km remaining in the 232km stage and quickly opened up a 10-second lead over the surging peloton. With 4km left, Phinney had a 15 second advantage and his team director screaming in his ear to “go full gas and don’t look back”.
Phinney obliged and buried himself as the sprint trains formed behind him on the final run in to the finish. In a desparately close finish, Phinney just managed to stay away, winning the stage by about 50m. Great to watch.
15. Tony Martin’s 175km ITT at the Vuelta
Michael Morkov might have won stage 6 of this year’s Vuelta a Espana but the hero of the day was undoubtedly Tony Martin.
The German time-trial specialist attacked from the opening kilometre of the race and with no-one able to match his pace, Martin set off alone. It was a move that was supposed to be reeled back in at some point but over the course of the 175km stage Martin opened up a gap of as much as six minutes. But with 40km left to go the gap started to come down.
With 10km remaining Martin only had a 20-second advantage, and it seemed as if he would be caught at any moment. But the ITT world champion rallied and with a kilometre left, Martin still had an advantage over the panicked peloton.
It was only in the final five metres that Martin was overtaken and it was so close that he eventually finished seventh on the stage. What a remarkable performance and a heartbreaking finish.
16. Chris Horner’s Vuelta a Espana victory
Much has already been written about Chris Horner’s performance at the Vuelta and whether or not we should be sceptical of a 41-year-old winning a Grand Tour.
Such questions aside, there’s no doubt it was an impressive performance from Horner who took the overall lead after winning stage 3, lost it the next day to Vincenzo Nibali, won it back on stage 10 after winning that stage, lost it for eight stages to Nibali again, and then took it back for the final three days.
Horner’s most impressive effort probably came on the monstrous L’Angliru climb on the penultimate stage when we withstood half a dozen attacks from Nibali, before attacking once and winning the Vuelta overall. Great to watch.
17. The rise of Jan Bakelants and Michal Kwiatkowski
What do Jan Bakelants and Michal Kwiatkowski have in common? Not much, other than the fact they were both relatively unknown riders coming into the 2013 season and they both finish the season as arguably the most improved riders in the peloton.
Kwiatkowski seemed to be everywhere during the Spring Classics, getting in the right moves, pulling for his teammates and even picking up fourth place in the Amstel Gold Race and fifth in Fleche Wallonne.
In the Tour de France the Polish national road race champion was equally impressive, forming a vital part of the Omega Pharma-QuickStep train and picking up seven top-10 results in the 21-stage race.
Jan Bakelants, meanwhile, forced us to pay attention when he took a stunning victory on stage 2 of the Tour de France. He wore the yellow jersey for two stages as a reward and was seemingly in a breakaway everyday for the rest of the race. He finished third on the mountainous stage 19.
For the rest of the year Bakelants continued to animate races and he won the Grand Prix de Wallonie after outfoxing Thomas Voeckler in the closing kilometre.
18. The resurgance of Colombian cycling
It’s hard not to enjoy watching the likes of Nairo Quintana, Carlos Betancur and Rigoberto Uran at full flight when the road goes up.
Quintana finished second overall in the Tour de France after being active on virtually every major climb throughout the race, and after winning stage 20 on the tough climb to the Semnoz ski resort. He also won the Tour of the Basque Country and the Vuelta a Burgos in 2013 and is confident of winning the Tour de France at some point in the years to come. We wouldn’t bet against him.
Carlos Betancur was a fixture at the head of affairs in the hilly Classics, finishing third in Fleche Wallonne and fourth in Liege-Bastogne-Liege. In May he won the youth classification in the Giro d’Italia and came fifth overall after seven top-10 performance in the 20-stage race.
And Rigoberto Uran, who leaves Sky in 2014 to join Omega Pharma-QuickStep as a GC contender, was brilliant in the Giro, finishing second overall.
With these riders (and the likes of Sergio Henao who was second in Fleche Wallonne) the future of Colombian cycling is very bright indeed.
19. Peter Sagan’s victory celebrations and other antics
There’s no doubt Peter Sagan is a polarising figure. Some people love his showmanship, his wheelies and the fact he’s just so damn good to watch. Others are put off by his apparent arrogance.
Here at CyclingTips we’re big fans, and we love nothing more than a video of Peter Sagan showing off, whether that’s with an outrageous victory salute, a video of him jumping his bike onto the team car (we don’t mind if it’s a fake), or riding up some stairs (see video above).
Perhaps our favourite was Sagan’s wheelie and camera salute while climbing Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France, just as his breakaway was caught by the main field. Brilliant.
20. Marianne Vos’ continued domination and her worlds wins
There’s little doubt Marianne Vos is the most complete female cyclist in the world (if not of either gender) and in 2013 she proved that with another truly dominant display.
Of the seven races in the UCI Women’s World Cup that she could win (the eighth race was a TTT), Vos won five, taking out the overall title comfortably. She won three stages at the Giro Rosa (the biggest women’s stage race of the year) and a shedload of other big races as well.
Early in the season she won the UCI World Cyclocross Championship for the fifth consecutive year and the sixth time overall, and she also won a handful of MTB races.
And just the other week, in the women’s World Championship road race (see video above) Vos put in a performance that was as perfect as you’re likely to see in a bike race. She stayed out of trouble all day, following the right moves, and then on the final climb of the day, she put in one attack, left the field behind and soloed to victory. Brilliant stuff, and a great way to cap off another exceptional year for the Dutch worldbeater.
What were your favourite moments from the 2013 season? What did we miss?Social bookmarking is the act of labeling a site and sparing it for some other time. This strategy permits Web clients to share, arrange, and deal with their most loved site pages. As a peruser, you can perceive what other individuals with comparative interests to you are bookmarking as imperative. Social bookmarking sites are allowed to utilize. For the individuals who have their own particular site or blog, this strategy is an extraordinary approach to get quality backlinks and increment movement.
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2013-Present GS ERA FIP xFIP K% BB% GB% HR/9 David Price 37 3.59 3.08 3.08 22.2% 3.2% 44.5% 0.95 Corey Kluber 34 3.72 3.00 2.99 23.7% 5.4% 45.7% 0.80
Now, Corey Kluber isn’t David Price. We know that. But that’s over a full season’s worth of data from which to draw a conclusion, and Kluber has pretty much matched Price across the board. Price is one of the faces of baseball, who will almost certainly be cashing in for well over $100 million when he hits free agency in 2016, while Corey Kluber is mostly known as that guy who doesn’t smile.
Last season, Kluber emerged as a legitimate MLB starter, posting the 24th-best FIP in the MLB (3.30), right ahead of Homer Bailey, and the 12th-best xFIP (3.10), sandwiched between Jose Fernandez and Stephen Strasburg. Most pitchers who, in their first full body of work, post these kind of numbers become “sensations” or “phenoms,” like Fernandez and Strasburg themselves. Instead, Kluber was often referred to as the Indians third or fourth-best pitcher. A big reason why is because Kluber is already 28 years old and was never considered a real prospect. Part of it was due to his 3.85 ERA, which was still good, but didn’t match his dominant peripherals. It could have something to do with Justin Masterson having his best year and emerging as a team leader while Ubaldo Jimenez resurrected his career and Danny Salazar struck out everybody he faced in his first 10 MLB starts. Or you could say it’s because Kluber’s on-field personality is best described as: “absent.”
This season, Masterson’s strikeouts are down, his walks up and he has an ERA north of 5.00. Jimenez is in Baltimore and Salazar is in Triple-A. Meanwhile, Kluber’s 3.43 ERA is creeping closer to matching last year’s peripherals, and his peripherals are getting even better. By WAR, Kluber has been the most valuable pitcher in baseball this season, tied with Yu Darvish and Jon Lester and immediately ahead of Felix Hernandez and Masahiro Tanaka.
Whether it be his age, his prospect status, his lack of exuberance or something else that leaves him underappreciated, it might be time to start viewing Corey Kluber not only as the ace of the Cleveland Indians staff, but a true major league ace.
So how did a 27-year-old fringe prospect transform himself into one of the MLB’s better pitchers in less than two years time? Kluber will tell you that it started with the two-seamer. Kluber never threw a two-seam fastball until Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway advised him before the 2012 season to ditch his four-seam fastball for the sinking two-seamer in an effort to work down in the strike zone more often and generate ground balls. Now, Kluber throws it half the time. On the first pitch, he throws it 60% of the time. In a hysterical in-game interview from Tuesday, Kluber credited getting ahead of hitters as the most important thing to his success, and the two-seamer is what he uses to get ahead of hitters.
“I think the biggest thing for me is always just being aggressive and trying to attack the strike zone. Trying to avoid falling behind hitters is the biggest key for me and probably most pitchers. Obviously, it’s a lot easier to hit when you’re ahead in the count and you can try to zone in on the one pitch you’re looking for.”
Here’s Kluber on the first pitch, perfectly spotting his two-seamer with great movement to get ahead in the count on Edwin Encarnacion, one of the MLB’s best power hitters:
And if it was Kluber’s two-seam fastball that put him on the map, it’s his cut fastball that helped turn him into an ace. Despite PITCHf/x calling it a slider, likely due to the massive amount of horizontal movement it has, Kluber himself calls it a cutter and Brooks Baseball knows better and classifies it as such. But before we talk about Corey Kluber’s cutter, let’s put it into context. Below are the 10 most valuable pitches in baseball since the beginning of 2013, according to PITCHf/x run values.
Behold:
Included in this table are:
a.) A lot of baseball’s very best pitchers.
b.) A lot of “signature pitches” – pitches so good that guys have become known for them.
c.) Corey Kluber and his cutter.
Kluber’s cutter has a swinging strike rate of 21.2%. That is absolutely elite. To put it into more context, Yu Darvish’s slider, the most valuable pitch in baseball since the start of 2013, has a whiff rate of 18.5%. Now, an elite whiff rate is not all that makes an elite pitch. It certainly helps, but what makes Kluber’s cutter so good isn’t just its swinging strike rate, but his ability to command it. As evidenced by his fantastic 5.4% walk rate, a top-20 mark in the majors since 2013, Kluber has impeccable control.
Consider this zone breakdown of Kluber’s cutters in 2014:
Kluber has an approach, and he sticks with it. He’ll pound that bottom-right quadrant for swinging strikes over and over, starting on the plate and moving it low and away.
Observe:
91 mph + that amount of movement breaking down and away from a righty + being spotted that well = darn near impossible to hit. Pitches like those make up a big chunk of that bottom-right quadrant in the image above and his ability to consistently spot it in that location is the main reason why Kluber’s cutter is one of baseball’s very best pitches.
To lefties, he works the other side of the plate, starting outside the strike zone and cutting it in to catch the outside corner. Look at where the catcher is set up in all of these GIFs. Kluber rarely misses his spots.
But Kluber doesn’t have just one “out pitch” with one of the best whiff rates in baseball, he has two. PITCHf/x calls it a curveball, Brooks Baseball calls it a slider. It’s probably best to call it a slurve. Whatever you’d like it to be called, it also has an elite whiff rate of 21.3% and Kluber isn’t afraid to throw it to a lefty or a righty.
Here’s Kluber’s slurve making the best hitter in baseball look silly:
And against a lefty:
He also has an above-average changeup, which he throws almost exclusively to lefties for both swings and misses and to generate ground balls, and he still occasionally pulls out the four-seam fastball, which he can crank up to 95 mph.
To put it simply, Corey Kluber has a full arsenal of well above average pitches and one of baseball’s best in his cutter. He revolutionized his career by learning a two-seam fastball that generates ground balls at an above league average rate and gets him ahead in the count. Getting ahead in the count allows him to throw an elite cutter and a great slurve to rack up strikeouts. A solid changeup which he throws to lefties allows him to minimize his platoon splits, so you can’t just stack a lineup full of lefties to beat him. He has elite strikeout and walk rates, is above league average at generating ground balls and limiting home runs, and, especially this year, has been pitching deep into games. There’s not much to dislike about what Kluber does on the mound.
Despite doing it without the fanfare of some of the game’s more exciting young pitchers, Kluber has turned himself into a legitimate front-end starter and has clearly emerged as the ace of the Indians rotation. And though he might not show it, Corey Kluber is certainly something worth smiling about.New report says half of all teachers spend over $500 each year on items like stationery, with 10% spending over $2,000
Teachers are dipping into their own pockets and cash-strapped public schools are leaning heavily on fundraising to pay for essential supplies, a new survey has found.
Half of Australian public school teachers are spending more than $500 of their own money each year on items including stationery, classroom supplies and library resources while one in 10 are spending more than $2,000.
Julia Gillard: Gonski reforms shifted debate towards needs-based funding Read more
More than 80% of schools are engaging in fundraising and the overwhelming majority say it is important for their annual budgets, the Australian Education Union’s State of Our Schools survey for 2017 found.
The poll, which was completed by 1,428 principals and 7,513 teachers, was released on Sunday as the union ramped up its calls for the government to commit to Gonski school funding ahead of the May budget.
Schools were most likely to use fundraising for computer hardware or software, sports equipment, library resources or textbooks.
One in four used the money for basic maintenance on school infrastructure, while others spent the funds on classroom air conditioning, camps, excursions and playground equipment.
Two-thirds of teachers said their school was under-resourced while three in four believed their workloads were increasing.
More than half of full-time teachers worked more than 50 hours per week on school-related activities, while almost 30% clocked up over 55 hours.
“Teachers and principals should be spending all their time on the education of their students, not working out how many barbeques they need to organise and run to pay for a literacy and numeracy program,” AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe said.
“Teachers are aware of the shortages of resources in their schools, and it is a major concern they feel that they need to pay for basic resources which should be available to all students as a matter of course.”
The education minister, Simon Birmingham, said the federal government was carrying the can on increasing education investment, with commonwealth funding rising 23% in four years while state funding had grown by just two per cent.
“The survey is a union push-poll that was always designed to play politics rather than focus on how we can best support hardworking teachers to drive improved education outcomes,” he said.
But opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said the survey results were alarming and she restated Labor’s commitment to needs-based schools funding.After a string of teaser trailers got fans excited about the possibility of a new MechWarrior game, it's now official: a new entry in the franchise is under development. However, this won't be a sequel to 2002's MechWarrior 4, but instead will be a reboot for the long-running series.
The game is being jointly developed by Vancouver-based Piranha Games and Smith & Tinker, a company made up of former members of the now defunct FASA. After forming the company in 2007, Smith & Tinker co-founder Jordan Weisman was able to secure the rights to the MechWarrior franchise from Microsoft, along with other prominent intellectual properties like Shadowrun and Crimson Skies.
IGN was able to get some early details on the game, which include plans for a single-player campaign, four-player co-op campaign, as well as numerous multiplayer modes. The game will also reward players for picking a specific mech and sticking with it, providing upgrades like increased accuracy and more powerful weapons. This feature is also expected to give the game a lot of replay value, as playing through with different mechs should provide very different experiences.
There's currently no word on a release date, and the developers are still in the midst of finding a publisher for the game, which will be coming to both the PC and Xbox 360. In the meantime, check out the debut trailer below.National Magazine Award Finalist for Single Topic Issue
From the Magazine: Waiting for the Rapture One day a machine will blink into consciousness, but it’s just wishful thinking to believe that people could escape death by uploading their minds.
By Glenn Zorpette Web Exclusives: INTERACTIVE Mapping the Body Electric Human senses and body parts are increasingly augmented by a stunning array of high-tech devices. View our three-dimensional model to gauge progress toward the age of cyborgs.
Signs of the Singularity The writer who first postulated the singularity answers skeptics and tells us what to look for as the world slips closer to the edge.
By Vernor Vinge VIDEO How to Prepare for the Singularity Vernor Vinge on the run-up to the singularity and what technologists can do to engineer the best outcome for humans.
The Singularity: Who’s Who A guide to the singularity true believers, atheists, and agnostics.
By Paul Wallich Two Paths to the Singularity MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld and technology futurist Ray Kurzweil both believe that we are on the event horizon of a technological singularity.
By Tekla S. Perry
The Consciousness Conundrum How can we hope to create consciousness if we don't know anything about it?
By John Horgan Tech Luminaries Address the Singularity Candid assessments from leading voices such as Steven Pinker, Gordon Moore, Esther Dyson, and more
Rupturing the Nanotech Rapture Tiny robots that can fix all our bodily flaws sound lovely, but they violate the laws of physics.
By Richard A.L. Jones SLIDE SHOW Born Bionic These robots are pushing the envelope of humanoid design—they can play the violin, unload a dishwasher, and climb stairs.
Economics of the Singularity Machines of merely human intellect could put humans out of work if they were cheap enough.
By Robin Hanson Teaching AI to Be Sociable Humans can already form social bonds with robots, but the real trick may be getting AI equally interested in us.
By Jeremy Hsu
Singular Simplicity The argument for technological fabulism rests on baseless extrapolations.
By Alfred Nordmann PODCAST Talking to Vernor Vinge More from the author of "Rainbow's End"Record of the Day – ” Apes Live A Life” by The Blind Shake
this is not our 1st post on The Blind Shake, you can follow those links below. This is from Slovenly Recordings
Slovenly Recordings is hyped as hell to announce our inevitable teaming with Minneapolis, MN bald headed freaks THE BLIND SHAKE. This intense trio led by The Brothers Blaha (Jim and Mike, plus drummer / brother from another Dave Roper) has been plowing through massive waves of reverberation since 2003, releasing a heap of deep records along the way, including a few collaborations with legendary space-punk Michael Yonkers – check his essential “Microminiature Love” collection on De Stijl / Sub Pop for the cold hard truth.
Taking a more melodic approach than on previous releases, this 9 cut “Fly Right” 12inch EP is another sonic hurdle for the band, steadily alternating between bold, phaser heavy garage-punk wail (“Tar Paper,” “Holy Road”), trippy spaghetti-western tinged surf (“A Clock, A Window, A Pyramid,” “Diamond Days”) and viscerally dramatic scare tactics (title track “Fly Right”). The Blind Shake has forged a unique concept with their bizarre visual assault, combined with instigating on-stage behavior and a virtually bottomless well of haunting songs that all seem to draw from a specific pinpoint of punk rock twang, and have concocted another hypnotic document for an unworthy world.
Related articles across the webINTJ Development
To understand the INTJ’s development, we have to understand the hierarchy of mental functions for the INTJ. The hierarchy of mental functions for the INTJ is about which mental function (Sensing, Intuiting, Thinking or Feeling) the INTJ is most comfortable with using and which they are least comfortable in using.
Without going too much into Type dynamics, let’s look at the INTJ’s hierarchy of mental functions:
The INTJ is most comfortable with the Dominant Function Introverted Intuition and least comfortable with the Inferior Function Extraverted Sensing.
Childhood to Puberty
DEVELOPMENT OF INTROVERTED INTUITION
As a child, the INTJ will develop the Introverted Intuition function. They will be most fascinated by stories that stretch their imagination and will often ask their parents to repeat fairy tales or myths to them.
They may also prefer to stay at home to read and learn instead of heading out to socialize with other children. They may also show intelligence beyond their age in understanding the world.
If they have not properly developed this function in their youth, they may not develop sufficient insight to make good decisions, thereby becoming stubborn or narrow-minded.
Puberty to Age 30
DEVELOPMENT OF EXTRAVERTED THINKING
During puberty, the INTJ will start developing the auxiliary function, Extraverted Thinking. They will develop the ability to make judgment calls and decisions according to external, objective criteria that are easily observable to all.
They become straightforward, frank and objective teenagers who are generally not concerned about popularity or peer pressure.
If they have not been allowed to develop this function, they may not know how to use their creative insights to achieve their goals or make their decisions.
Areas of Development
Assuming an environment is supportive to their development, most INTJs would have developed Extraverted Thinking and Introverted Intuition by the time they’re above 20 years or so.
Their areas of improvement will most likely come from the underdeveloped sides of Extraverted Sensing and Introverted Thinking.
Here are some suggestions for improvement:
Break your big ideas down to specific tangible steps
Learn to give negative feedback constructively
Share your insights early and in specific language so that others can understand
Learn to be more comfortable with uncertainty
Socialize and network with people more
Age 30 to Midlife
DEVELOPMENT OF INTROVERTED FEELING
If these behaviours have not been developed by the age of 30, the INTJ will feel the tension to continue growing and start developing the Tertiary Function Introverted Feeling.
The INTJ may start to show compassion and sensitivity toward those around them; they may even surprise their loved ones with their new-found expressions of love and emotion.
The INTJ can further develop the Introverted Feeling function through these simple exercises:
Think about a good quality of another person; find an appropriate time to praise and appreciate that person.
If you have a conflict with another person, think about what is important to that person in that particular situation and ask yourself if you can suspend your need to be right in order to preserve the relationship.
In a group meeting, observe the verbal and non-verbal cues of others and try to gauge the thoughts and feelings of people by observing their body language.
From Midlife
DEVELOPMENT OF INTROVERTED FEELING
From midlife onward, the INTJ’s focus turns toward the inferior function, Extraverted Sensing.
Their underdeveloped Extraverted Sensing comes out in a childish and undeveloped way when they are under stress, causing them to over-indulge in material pleasure or put their focus on unimportant details.
But in midlife, there is an unconscious shift and desire to develop that inferior function in order to achieve wholeness and continual growth. It is an uncomfortable but necessary transition.
Here are some simple exercises to consciously develop the Extraverted Sensing function:LISTEN HERE
Hunter S Thompson on 911
Hunter S. Thompson, talked to Mick O'Regan
from Radio National's Media Report.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
6:15am - Thursday 29 August 2002
please note the transcript has been edited as well as CENSORED.
transcript:
Mick O’Regan: Unlike Walter Cronkite, Hunter S. Thompson is a stirrer, a deliberately provocative commentator and a freewheeling iconoclast, infamous for his relentless critique of the American government and military.
He lives in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and that’s where I found him at the end of a less than perfect telephone line, to ask his opinion of the state of the US media.
Hunter S. Thompson: Well let’s see, ‘shamefully’ is a word that comes to mind, but that’s not true in the case of The New York Times, The Washington Post, but overall the American journalism I think has been cowed and intimidated by the massive flat-sucking, this patriotic orgy that the White House keeps whipping up. You know if you criticise the President it’s unpatriotic and there’s something wrong with you, you may be a terrorist.
Mick O’Regan: So in that sense, there’s not enough room for dissenting voices?
Hunter S. Thompson: There’s plenty of room there’s not just enough people who are willing to take the risk. It’s sort of a herd mentality, a lemming-like mentality. If you don’t go with the flow you’re anti-American and therefore a suspect. And we’ve seen this before, these patriotic frenzies. It’s very convenient having an undeclared war that you can call a war and impose military tribunals and wartime security and we have these generals telling us that this war’s going to go on for a long, long time. Maybe not so much the generals now, the generals are a little afraid of Iraq, a little worried about it, but it’s the civilians in the White House, the gang of thieving, just lobbyists for the military industrial complex, who are running the White House, and to be against them is to be patriotic, then hell, call me a traitor.
Mick O’Regan: Do you think that most of the American media, or say most of the influential American media has bought that patriotism line, and as a result are self-censoring themselves?
Hunter S. Thompson: There you go, self-censorship, yes, that’s a very good point. Yes, I would say that. Now there are always exceptions to that but there’ve been damn few. Yeah.
Mick O’Regan: So is it the White House laying down what they think is appropriate journalism, or is it the news media outlets deciding that they have to be patriotic, that they’re under some sort of undeclared duty at the moment, to somehow reflect the patriotism of the American public?
Hunter S. Thompson: Well it goes a little deeper than that, because this Administration is well on the road to seizing power, and Tom Dashell, the Senate Democratic leader the other day accused Bush of trying to seize dictatorial powers. Now that |
meta-analysis looked at the so-called “Best Possible Self Intervention” — let’s call it the BPSI — in which participants were instructed to spend about a half-hour “Imagining yourself in the future, after everything has gone as well as it possibly could. You have worked hard and succeeded at accomplishing all the goals of your life …” Others studies examined “CBT, mindfulness, self-compassion training, and also some quirky approaches like lying on a bed of nails and sensory isolation.”
Jarrett sums up the results thusly:
Aggregating the results from all these studies revealed a small but significant increase in optimism for participants who received an intervention, as compared with control participants. Focusing on just those studies that used the Best Possible Self Intervention, this effect grew to medium in size. Shorter interventions actually seemed to be more effective than longer ones, but this is probably just because the most effective approach – Best Possible Self – is typically very short. Indeed, there is a problem with looking for patterns in aggregated results, like this study does, because different factors that seem to have an effect on outcomes can be confounded with each other, such as the nature of the intervention and the length of intervention. [emphasis mine]
Overall, the researchers don’t think a BPSI is going to permanently supercharge anyone’s optimism level, but it does seem to at least help in the short term. And what’s interesting is the similarity between this intervention and other forms of visualization exercises that have shown promise.
One example is WOOP, the system that NYU psychologist Gabriele Oettingen developed to help people reach their goals without succumbing to the complacency sometimes induced, according to her research, by standard-issue positive thinking. WOOP is a four-step process for achieving a challenging goal in which the letters stand for Wish, Outcome, Obstacles, Plan. The middle two steps, Outcome and Obstacles, specifically involve imagination or visualization: During the Outcome step, you imagine the best-case scenario of how it will feel when you accomplish the goal you have in mind, while the Obstacles step involves conjuring up, well, obstacles that could prevent you from getting there (you can read an excerpt of Oettingen’s book Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation here, or a post by Melissa Dahl on WOOP here).
WOOP involves both positive and negative visualization, but some advice in this genre focuses more on imagining negative outcomes. Organizational psychologists, for example, have long been interested in the problem of groupthink. When a bunch of co-workers get together to come up with a plan, and no one feels empowered to say, “What could go wrong if we enact this plan?,” disastrous consequences frequently ensue. That’s why the decision expert Gary King, along with his colleagues, developed what they call a “Project Premortem.” As he explained in Harvard Business Review in 2007:
A typical premortem begins after the team has been briefed on the plan. The leader starts the exercise by informing everyone that the project has failed spectacularly. Over the next few minutes those in the room independently write down every reason they can think of for the failure—especially the kinds of things they ordinarily wouldn’t mention as potential problems, for fear of being impolitic. For example, in a session held at one Fortune 50–size company, an executive suggested that a billion-dollar environmental sustainability project had “failed” because interest waned when the CEO retired. Another pinned the failure on a dilution of the business case after a government agency revised its policies.
Next the leader asks each team member, starting with the project manager, to read one reason from his or her list; everyone states a different reason until all have been recorded. After the session is over, the project manager reviews the list, looking for ways to strengthen the plan.
All these practices have solid research behind them — the act of forcing yourself to sit down and visualize the future seems to have some very real effects. Again, it’s important not to veer into Secret-land, into silly claims about effortlessly willing your preferred reality into existence. But these techniques really can be harnessed to your benefit if you know how.The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: An Eaglais Shaor Chlèireach) was formed in 1893 and claims to be the spiritual descendant of the Scottish Reformation: its web-site states that it is 'the constitutional heir of the historic Church of Scotland'.[1] It is occasionally referred to by the pejorative term the Wee Wee Frees (as distinct from the pejorative "Wee Frees", the post-1900 Free Church of Scotland).[2][3] Although small the church has congregations on five continents.
The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland is Reformed in doctrine, worship and practice, and says that all its actions are based on the Word of God: the Bible. The subordinate standard of the church is the Westminster Confession of Faith.
History [ edit ]
Timeline showing the evolution of the churches of Scotland from 1560
In 1892 the Free Church of Scotland, following the example of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the Church of Scotland (1889), passed a Declaratory Act relaxing the stringency of subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith, which was widely perceived as paving the way for unification with the United Presbyterian Church. This was met by a protest from Rev Donald MacFarlane (1834-1926) of Kilmallie (later of Raasay)[4], who was later joined by one other minister, the Rev Donald MacDonald (1825-1901) of Shieldaig. The result was that a large number of elders and some congregations, mostly in the Highlands, severed their connection with the Free Church of Scotland and formed the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, along lines they considered to be more orthodox. By 1907 this body had twenty congregations and twelve ministers.
A few years after the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland (FPC Church) was formed (in 1900), the Free Church of Scotland united with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland to form the United Free Church of Scotland, with a somewhat larger minority remaining outside the union and retaining the name Free Church of Scotland. Initially, some wondered if the two churches would merge, but this did not happen, partly because the grounds on which the later separation was based had been the Establishment Principle,[5] rather than the Declaratory Act, which had only been rescinded post separation by the Free Church of Scotland (post 1900).The two denominations took a different view of the 1892 Declaratory Act: the Free Church of Scotland did not regard it as having been a binding measure while the Free Presbyterians did.
In 1905 the Free Presbyterian Synod debated proposals for union with the post-1900 Free Church minority. The Synod declared that it would consider union with a church which held ‘the infallibility and inerrancy of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and the whole doctrine of the Confession of Faith, both in her profession and practice’. The Synod’s assessment of the post-1900 Free Church was that ‘although she made ample profession in words’ nevertheless she ‘came far behind in her practice’. One major issue was the Free Church's employment of Dr WM Alexander, who had written a book which the FPs and some post-1900 Free Church conservatives believed to be ambiguous about the status of the Bible, as a lecturer in its college. A 1917 Free Church Reply to a FPC Statement of Differences stated underlined the fact that Dr Alexander had in 1905 withdrawn the book from circulation, expressed regret 'for any reflections which the book was fitted to cast on the infallibility of the Word of God' and in 1906 publicly reaffirmed his belief in the inerrancy of Scripture in these words: 'I cherish as more precious than life itself the absolute infallibility of the Word of God'. However a motion was carried at the 1918 FPC Synod which characterized the Reply as containing 'evasive statements and suggestions of compromise'.[6]
Some of the Free Presbyterian ministers preferred union with the post-1900 Free Church minority to maintaining a separate Free Presbyterian witness. In 1905 Revs John Macleod (Kames), Alexander Stewart (Edinburgh) and George Mackay (Stornoway) were accepted by the Free Church. In 1918, Revs John R Mackay (Inverness), Alexander Macrae (Portree) and Andrew Sutherland followed suit.[7]
The two denominations are often confused, though not as often as in the past: they were initially of a predominantly Highland background, continue to share support for the Westminster Confession of Faith, and express a socially conservative outlook. However, the Free Presbyterian Church considers it a sin to use public transport to go to church on the Sabbath,[8] while the Free Church does not. The Free Church permits the use of modern Bible translations, while the Free Presbyterian Church prescribes the exclusive use of the Authorized Version in public worship (by resolution of the Synod in 1961[9]), and as the only version recommended for use in family and private devotions..
Split in 1989 [ edit ]
In 1989, a splinter group formed the Associated Presbyterian Churches "following the perceived failure of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland to put into practice chapters 20 and 26 of the Westminster Confession of Faith",[10] following the suspension of Lord Advocate Lord Mackay of Clashfern as an elder for attending the Roman Catholic funeral masses of fellow judges. The Moderator of Synod at the time was a minister from Zimbabwe, the late Aaron Ndebele, an Ndebele.
The FPC continues to oppose many aspects of the Roman Catholic church including the mass. It also protests from time to time against figures in positions of authority and the Royal Family attending mass. It wrote to Prince Charles to complain of his presence at a requiem mass for a cousin in 2013.[11]
Disunity in the Scottish Reformed church scene [ edit ]
The Free Presbyterians believe that the denominations in Scotland adhering to the Westminster Confession of Faith should unite with it after repentance over historical retreat from the Confession. The FPC Catechism (the 2013 edition is an updated version of the original 1942-1943 edition) says: 'All Presbyterian Churches in Scotland claiming to represent the Reformed Church and who have caused or who maintain schisms contrary to the avowed Westminster Standards are bound to repent and to return to purity in doctrine, worship, government and discipline. The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland is not guilty of schism and claims to be the true heir of the Reformed Church of Scotland in doctrine, worship, government and discipline. While she certainly does not claim perfection, she maintains that all churches in Scotland should unite around her constitution and testimony'.[12]
Recent developments [ edit ]
Church extension work tends to be low-key and results to be measured in the long-term in the Free Presbyterian Church. It stresses the need for the Holy Spirit to work in the soul before any spiritual life will be present, the need for the church to provide Bible-based and Christ-focused preaching, emphasizes the need for a holy life by those who claim conversion, and encourages example as well as precept in evangelism. It has not emulated other evangelical churches in their approach to reaching the secular UK. Its Catechism explains: 'Many modern churches have drama, dancing, and music bands in their worship and use sport and social entertainment to attract and retain young people; but these things are of the world and should not be countenanced by the Church of Christ for promoting the interests of the kingdom'.[13]
Public pronouncements about the current state of the nation tend to combine concern about Free Presbyterian spiritual decline with fears of increased secularization of other Reformed churches. A recent report to the FP Religion and Morals Committee quoted from a FP Outer Isles presbytery report, but said the issues were relevant for many other parts of the country. 'We must acknowledge the low state of religion among ourselves' it said, adding of other denominations: '...we find that many professing Christians in the Churches are actively encouraged to continue their former worldly interest in professional and amateur sport, worldly music, entertainments such as the cinema, dances, use of public houses, concerts and ceilidhs, and that many speak and dress like the world with little distinction to be found between them and their former companions'.[14]
Presbyteries [ edit ]
The individual churches[15] of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland are each part of[16] one of six[17] Presbyteries. Presbyteries meet regularly, and all Presbyteries meet at the yearly Synod in May.
Asia Pacific Presbytery [ edit ]
The Asia Pacific Presbytery covers Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. The congregations in Australia[18] are found on the East Coast: one in Grafton (received 1911),[19] and one in Sydney.[20]
The congregations in New Zealand are all on the North Island: Auckland,[21] Gisborne (founded 1954), Tauranga, and Carterton.
There is one congregation in Singapore (received 2000).
Northern Presbytery [ edit ]
The Northern Presbytery[22] comprises the congregations Inverness, Dingwall, and Aberdeen among others.
Outer Isles Presbytery [ edit ]
The Outer Isles Presbytery consists of the congregations on the Outer Hebrides.
Southern Presbytery [ edit ]
The Southern Presbytery[23] consists of the Scottish congregations South of the Scottish Highlands, and the congregations in England and North America. There is one congregation in London (founded 1898). There is one congregation in Canada, in Chesley, Ontario (founded 1902).[24] In the United State of America there is one congregation, in Santa Fe, Texas (received 2000).[25]
Western and Skye Presbytery [ edit ]
The Western and Skye Presbytery[26] consists of the Western parts of Scotland including Skye, but also the congregation in Odessa,[27] in the Ukraine (received 2002).
Zimbabwe Presbytery [ edit ]
in Zimbabwe services are held in forty locations[28] with their centres in Bulawayo, Ingwenya, Mbuma, New Canaan and Zenka. The Zimbabwe mission began in 1904.
List of congregations in the UK [ edit ]MUZAFFARABAD, PAKISTAN — Artillery fire and shelling from India targeted several Pakistani villages and struck a passenger bus near the dividing line in the disputed region of Kashmir on Wednesday, killing 12 civilians and wounding more than a dozen others, the Pakistani military and officials said. Hours later, Pakistan’s military said three soldiers, including an army captain, were killed while responding to the Indian attack. It said seven Indian soldiers were also “killed in retaliatory fire” but there was no confirmation on the casualties from India.
Pakistani protesters shout anti-Indian slogans during a demonstraion on November 23, 2016 against the cross border firing by Indian troops. At least a dozen people were killed in cross-border fire which hit a Pakistani bus in disputed Kashmir on November 23, officials said, the latest deadly skirmish between India and Pakistan. ( AFP/Getty Images )
The deadly violence marks the latest escalation in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided between the two nuclear-armed neighbours and claimed by both in its entirety. According to Deputy Commissioner Waheed Khan, an artillery shell hit a passenger bus in the scenic Neelum Valley in the Pakistani part of Kashmir, killing 10 people — three died on the scene and seven later, at a hospital. Another two civilians died when a mortar shell hit their house in the Nakyal sector in Kotli district, said police official Waseem Khan. The shelling sent residents fleeing in panic, he said.
Article Continued Below
At least 15 people were also wounded in the bus strike and elsewhere in Wednesday’s attacks. Pakistani Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz said the country’s Cabinet expressed grave concern over the latest escalation. Sardar Masood Khan, the president of the Pakistani-governed part of Kashmir, denounced “India’s aggression” in a statement and appealed to the international community to take notice of India’s ceasefire violations in Kashmir. He also urged the United Nations Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan, or UNMOGIP, to “investigate these incidents and assign responsibility for these violations of ceasefire.” Earlier, an army statement said Pakistani troops were firing back on Indian military positions. The statement also said that an ambulance, which had rushed the scene of the attack, was fired upon by India. Pakistani security officials said Wednesday’s fire forced Pakistani villagers with their families to take to field bunkers, built years ago for such attacks. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the attacks with reporters. In India, army spokesman Col. Nitin Joshi said an intense exchange of fire was underway between the two sides.
Wednesday’s fire came a day after Indian army spokesman Col. Rajesh Kalia said attackers mutilated the body of one soldier in the Machil sector in Indian-controlled Kashmir. He did not specify if the attack was carried out by Pakistani soldiers or rebels fighting since 1989 against Indian rule in the region. Reports of the soldier’s mutilation have inflamed sentiments, which likely contributed to the retaliatory exchanges between Pakistan and India.
Article Continued Below
“Retribution will be heavy for this cowardly act,” Col. Rajesh Kalia, another Indian army spokesman, said following Tuesday’s attack. In the past, the Indian military has blamed a combination of the Pakistani army’s border action team and militants for carrying out operations along the Line of Control, which separates the Pakistan- and India-controlled parts of Kashmir. Deadly exchanges in Kashmir have intensified in recent weeks. Tensions have escalated since militants attacked an Indian army base there in September. India said the militants were supported by Pakistan, charges denied by Islamabad. Both sides accuse the other of initiating the firing along the volatile boundary. So far this week, at least 18 people, civilians and soldiers, have been killed on both sides. Last week, Pakistani army claimed to have shot down a small Indian drone in Kashmir, a day after the Pakistani navy claimed it had intercepted Indian submarines entering the country’s territorial waters in the Arabian Sea. Two of the three wars between India and Pakistan since 1947 have been fought over their competing claims to Kashmir.
Read more about:Microsoft is being probed by the EU
The technology giant is to publish key software blueprints on its website.
It also promised not to sue open source developers for making that software available for non-commercial use.
Microsoft is being investigated by the European Commission on the grounds that limiting access to its technology could be stopping competition.
Implementation?
"The Commission would welcome any move towards genuine interoperability," it said.
"Nonetheless, the Commission notes that today's announcement follows at least four similar statements by Microsoft in the past on the importance of interoperability."
In January, the Commission launched two formal investigations into Microsoft for suspected abuse of its dominant market position, including one on the interoperability of its software.
The commission said it would assess whether the principles announced on Thursday were in fact "implemented in practice".
Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer said: "Our goal is to promote greater interoperability, opportunity and choice for customers and developers throughout the industry by making our products more open and by sharing even more information about our technologies."
In 2004, the commission fined Microsoft 497m euros (£375m, $735m) and forced it to offer a version of its Windows operating system without Microsoft's own media player.
The firm was also told to give competitors more information about how Windows operates, so their own software could work better with the operating system, which runs on some 90% of the world's computers.
Microsoft recently made an unsolicited bid to acquire Yahoo in a cash-and-share deal worth more than $40bn (£20.4bn), but the move was rejected.
Since then, Microsoft has stepped up its campaign to buy the firm by hiring a company that specialises in take over deals.BARCELONA
08:02h CEST
El Barcelona empieza a invertir los 222 millones de euros recibidos por Neymar y Paulinho va a ser el primero en aterrizar en la Ciudad Condal después de que este sábado el Daily Mail publicara que la llegada del centrocampista estaba hecha tras el acuerdo por los 40 millones de su cláusula de rescisión.
La casi totalidad de ese dinero irá a para al Guangzhou Evergrande de China, pero parte del pastel se lo repartirán entre seis equipos más por los que pasó el brasileño durante su etapa formación y por la que la FIFA exige el pago de la ‘cláusula de solidaridad’ a todos los clubes por los que pasó hasta los 23 años.
De esta forma, el 5 por ciento del dinero del traspaso del centrocampista irá a parar a cuatro equipos de Brasil y dos de Europa, tal y como informa UOL. Corinthians, Club Atlético Juventus, Bragantino y Audax son los agraciados con parte de ese porcentaje.
Al Timao le correspondería un 0,86 por ciento del total, unos 343.000 euros. El que más dinero se va a llevar por formación será el Audax Osasco, club donde pasó la mayoría de los años durante esa etapa de formación. Este club paulista ingresará unos 705.000 euros. El que menos dinero ganará con la operación Barça-Guangzhou será Juventus con poco menos de 50.000 euros.
Dos clubes europeos también rascarán algo: el Lódzki Klub polaco y el Vilnius lituano. Los primeros ganan con el fichaje 150.000 euros y el segundo 191.000 euros.“It’s almost become a game to try to figure out the significance of the color combinations illuminating the grand building all the way up to the dome,” former San Francisco Mayor turned SF Chronicle columnist Willie Brown said in 2014. And he’s not wrong: While sometimes the color combinations are obvious (see February’s trans-flag display) other times it’s less clear.
The building’s exterior lighting, which became significantly easier to swap out when its old system was replaced for its centennial celebration in June of 2015, has also drawn fire, like when it was lit in a Christmassy red and green just a few months later, during Hanukah. It’s also regularly rented out for events, during which the lights are the color requested by the temporary tenant—for example, Fitbit’s blue takeover in January 2016. But barring the whims of those paying to dine and dance under the dome, who makes the colored light call?
#prince A post shared by Jason Bayless (@bayless) on Apr 21, 2016 at 8:27pm PDT
KQED reports this week that the decision makers are a holy trinity. There’s City Administrator Naomi Kelly, of course, but joining her at the table are Martha Cohen, who’s currently known as “the mayor’s director of special events” and has a long history in city business, first as then-mayor Frank Jordan’s neighborhood liaison and then head of the SF Film Commission.
Rounding out the team is SF’s chief of protocol, society maven Charlotte Shultz, who City Hall says “has served in eight mayoral administrations, helped to present San Francisco to distinguished and notable guests from around the world, arranged for its largest civic celebrations, and facilitated diplomatic relations with the San Francisco Consular Corps.”
Who better to decide if City Hall should go blue and yellow for the Warriors or whatever colors represent the flag of the country most recently beset by terror?The Government is targeting a reduction in the development approval process timeline from 90 to 60 days by March 2018.
Finance Minister Audley Shaw says the Administration has also taken steps to reduce the time taken to establish a business by facilitating an electronic registration process.
He says these measures form part of the thrust to further improve Jamaica’s investment climate and competitiveness by removing impediments to the ease of doing business in order to facilitate investors.
They are among the programmed reforms for which the World Bank has provided the Second Competitiveness and Fiscal Management Programmatic Development Policy Loan worth J$9 billion.
Speaking at the signing of the loan agreement with World Bank Country Manager for Jamaica, Galina Sotirova, yesterday, Shaw said the loan will also support the Administration’s targeted programme of fiscal consolidation and enhanced public financial management.
He notes that this is another priority area for the Government which, he says remains committed to improving public efficiency, quality and cost effectiveness.While this was playing out, BP was having mixed success at the Court of Appeals.
In October, an appeals panel agreed with the company about accounting methods. Judges ordered the creation of a policy requiring all businesses to align revenue and expenses more precisely, a change potentially worth billions of dollars to BP.
Virtually all business claims have been delayed for six months awaiting the drafting of the complex new claims policy, which currently runs to 88 pages.
With a solid victory, BP pressed for the biggest prize of all. Its lawyers argued in Federal District Court that businesses that could not prove their losses had been caused by the spill had no standing to sue. If the court agreed, it would essentially upend the settlement.
Instead, in a blistering order that quoted emails from BP’s own lawyers, Judge Barbier rejected the argument and accused BP of trying to “rewrite” the history of the case.
Last month, a divided three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals rejected BP’s argument as well. Claimants already have to sign a form attesting they were hurt by the spill, Judge Southwick wrote. Although “these requirements are not as protective of BP’s present concerns as might have been achievable,” he wrote, “they are the protections that were accepted by the parties and approved by the District Court.”
BP has appealed that decision to the full Court of Appeals.
Mr. Freeh’s operation has meanwhile grown, with scores of employees now taking over a floor in the office building that also houses the claims center. Members of Mr. Freeh’s team have become more closely involved in the center’s operations, with a senior investigator even considered for the role of the center’s chief executive. (Randall Black, a former chief accounting officer for CitiMortgage, was recently named to the post.)
Close inspections of individual claims have grown widespread, and members of Mr. Freeh’s team have been empowered to take back payments deemed illegitimate. Investigators for the center have interviewed Mississippi restaurant owners about where they buy shrimp and tracked down notaries at their homes to confirm signatures. Multiple audits of the claims process have begun or been completed, two by large private accounting firms; this month, the District Court appointed a separate audit committee to advise the program as well.Researchers have created software that predicts when and where disease outbreaks might occur based on two decades of New York Times articles and other online data. The research comes from Microsoft and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
The system could someday help aid organizations and others be more proactive in tackling disease outbreaks or other problems, says Eric Horvitz, distinguished scientist and codirector at Microsoft Research. “I truly view this as a foreshadowing of what’s to come,” he says. “Eventually this kind of work will start to have an influence on how things go for people.” Horvitz did the research in collaboration with Kira Radinsky, a PhD researcher at the Technion-Israel Institute.
The system provides striking results when tested on historical data. For example, reports of droughts in Angola in 2006 triggered a warning about possible cholera outbreaks in the country, because previous events had taught the system that cholera outbreaks were more likely in years following droughts. A second warning about cholera in Angola was triggered by news reports of large storms in Africa in early 2007; less than a week later, reports appeared that cholera had become established. In similar tests involving forecasts of disease, violence, and a significant numbers of deaths, the system’s warnings were correct between 70 to 90 percent of the time.
Horvitz says the performance is good enough to suggest that a more refined version could be used in real settings, to assist experts at, for example, government aid agencies involved in planning humanitarian response and readiness. “We’ve done some reaching out and plan to do some follow-up work with such people,” says Horvitz.
The system was built using 22 years of New York Times archives, from 1986 to 2007, but it also draws on data from the Web to learn about what leads up to major news events.
“One source we found useful was DBpedia, which is a structured form of the information inside Wikipedia constructed using crowdsourcing,” says Radinsky. “We can understand, or see, the location of the places in the news articles, how much money people earn there, and even information about politics.” Other sources included WordNet, which helps software understand the meaning of words, and OpenCyc, a database of common knowledge.
All this information provides valuable context that’s not available in news article, and which is necessary to figure out general rules for what events precede others. For example, the system could infer connections between events in Rwandan and Angolan cities based on the fact that they are both in Africa, have similar GDPs, and other factors. That approach led the software to conclude that, in predicting cholera outbreaks, it should consider a country or city’s location, proportion of land covered by water, population density, GDP, and whether there had been a drought the year before.
Horvitz and Radinsky are not the first to consider using online news and other data to forecast future events, but they say they make use of more data sources—over 90 in total—which allows their system to be more general-purpose.
There’s already a small market for predictive tools. For example, a startup called Recorded Future makes predictions about future events harvested from forward-looking statements online and other sources, and it includes government intelligence agencies among its customers (see “See the Future With a Search”). Christopher Ahlberg, the company’s CEO and cofounder, says that the new research is “good work” that shows how predictions can be made using hard data, but also notes that turning the prototype system into a product would require further development.
Microsoft doesn’t have plans to commercialize Horvitz and Radinsky’s research as yet, but the project will continue, says Horvitz, who wants to mine more newspaper archives as well as digitized books.
Many things about the world have changed in recent decades, but human nature and many aspects of the environment have stayed the same, Horvitz says, so software may be able to learn patterns from even very old data that can suggest what’s ahead. “I’m personally interested in getting data further back in time,” he says.The Haunted House is a time-honored horror setting. All of us have shivered our way through spooky flicks such as The Haunting, The Amityville Horror, The Sentinel and Poltergeist.
It’s not only at the movies that we pay good money to frighten ourselves to death: commercial haunted houses are an integral part of 21st-century Halloween theater, with an estimated 5,000 such attractions operating in the United States each year.
The portrayal of cinematic haunted houses has remained remarkably consistent across time, and the architects of our annual macabre Halloween rituals incorporate all of the same bells and whistles (okay – creaks and groans) that we’ve come to expect.
From a psychological point of view, the standard features of haunted houses trigger feelings of dread because they push buttons in our brains that evolved long before houses even existed. These alarm buttons warn us of potential danger and motivate us to proceed with caution.
Haunted houses give us the creeps not because they pose a clear threat to us, but rather because it is unclear whether or not they represent a threat.
This ambivalence leaves you frozen in place, wallowing in unease.
For example, it would be considered bizarre and embarrassing to run screaming out of a house that makes you feel uneasy if there is actually nothing to fear. On the other hand, it could be perilous to ignore your intuition and remain in a place that is dangerous.
These are the psychological mechanisms behind feeling “creeped out.” They may be useful if they help you maintain vigilance when threat is uncertain. They also help you manage the balance between self-preservation and self-presentation (ie, presenting yourself in a socially desirable way).
While human psychology can explain what makes a haunted house so scary, it also provides the perfect guide to making one ourselves.
Things that trigger our ‘agent detection’ mechanisms
Evolutionary psychologists have proposed the existence of agent detection mechanisms – or processes that have evolved to protect us from harm at the hands of predators and enemies.
If you’re walking through the woods alone at night and hear the sound of something rustling in the bushes, you’ll respond with a heightened level of arousal and attention. You’ll behave as if there is a willful “agent” present who is about to do you harm.
If it turns out to be a gust of wind or a stray cat, you lose little by overreacting. But if you fail to activate the alarm response and a true threat is present – well, the cost of your miscalculation could be high.
Thus, we evolved to err on the side of detecting threats in ambiguous situations. Things that activate hypervigilance for malevolent supernatural (or natural) agents abound in large, drafty old houses: rattling or creaking sounds in upstairs rooms; the sighing and moaning of wind passing through cracks; ragged curtains fluttering in the breeze; echoes; and cold spots.
Feeling trapped
Research has consistently shown that we need more personal space while seated than while standing, more space when we are in the corner of a room rather than in the center of it and more space in rooms with low ceilings.
We feel uncomfortable when our personal space is violated anywhere, but especially so in situations where we feel as if escape will become difficult.
Such feelings of discomfort are symptomatic of the fact that we are constantly – even if unconsciously – scanning our surroundings and assessing our ability to flee if it should become necessary.
Consequently, a haunted house is our worst nightmare.
The prototypical haunted house is in a remote, isolated location, far removed from the rest of society (think of the off-season resort hotel in The Shining, for example). If bad things do happen, help would be a long time coming, even if communication with the outside world were possible. (Conveniently, in old horror movies the telephones always stop working.)
Also, the darkness and confusing layout of the house may cause us to get lost; at the very least, it would slow us down. Escape could further be impeded by hedges, iron fences or crumbling stairways, all of which are featured prominently in Hollywood haunted houses.
A womb with a view
British geographer Jay Appleton was the first to describe two crucial features that determine whether a place is attractive or frightening to humans: the more “prospect” and “refuge” a place offers us, the more attractive it is.
Refuge means having a secure, protected place to hide where one can be sheltered from danger, while prospect refers to one’s clear, unobstructed view of the landscape. Attractive places offer us a lot of prospect and a lot of refuge, or what landscape architect Randolph Hester refers to as a “Womb with a View.”
In the words of Appleton, these are, evolutionarily speaking, places where “you can see without being seen, and eat without being eaten.”
Unfortunately, most haunted houses make for a bad combination of very low prospect for us, and very high refuge for the creepy-crawly things that are lying in wait to get us. Research has confirmed that people experience such environments as unsafe and dangerous.
Such places also lack what environmental psychologists refer to as legibility. Legibility reflects the ease with which a place can be recognized, organized into a pattern and recalled – in other words, a place that we can wander around in without getting lost.
Thus, the typical haunted house is large, dark, surrounded by overgrown vegetation, and full of surprising architectural features such as secret rooms and closets under staircases. Attics and basements are also must-have items, and, of course, spider webs, bats, rats and insects make nice accessories.
The older the better
Most haunted houses have some sort of “legend” associated with them. It usually involves a story about a grisly death or accident. There may even be a history of suicide and murder.
The older a place is, the more likely we are to perceive it as haunted because there’s been much more time for tragic things to have taken place.
Stimuli such as moldy odors, antiquated Victorian or Gothic architecture, wood interiors and old portraits on the wall reinforce an ambiance of great age. Assuming that the house is no longer occupied, signs of life suddenly interrupted and frozen in time only amplify the fear factor.
For example, remnants of a half-eaten meal on a kitchen table or clothing laid out on a bed waiting for a homeowner who has apparently vanished without warning create a frightening ambiguity about what may have taken place in the house. (There are bonus points awarded if the house is conveniently located next to or on top of an old cemetery or burial ground!)
Ultimately, whether or not a house is perceived as haunted obviously depends upon something other than the physical features of the house. Just as important are the inherent beliefs of the person exploring the house.
Individuals who believe in paranormal phenomena and have expectations that creepy things might actually be present in such a place are more likely to engage in the sort of top-down, cognitive processing that induces fear.
For these people, otherwise innocuous but uncertain surroundings can become a chilling experience.In this episode I visit a well-known mill with quite a lot of history. This mill was build in 1920, after the Germans set the previous mill on fire at the start of World War I in 1914. The new mill was painted white in 1953 and named “De Witte Molen” (The White Mill). Since then it has always been a part of the catering industry. In the sixties and seventies it was a very famous dancing for the Flemish people. When the dancing suddenly closed, it became a popular Thai restaurant. Later on, there was even a private sauna.. But then things got quiet.
On the 9th of november 1994, the government decided to classify the mill as a protected monument. This ment that nobody could demolish it, but nobody knew what to do with it either. The mill just stood there with blocked sails, waiting for a new owner. Finally, in 2005, the mill was bought by Dirk Nuyts; who already owned a couple of casinos in |
at Medscape. His work has appeared in Wired and Scientific American, and on The Atlantic.com. He graduated from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 2005. He's also on Twitter: @BretStetkaRA Pharma slides after data as analyst voices competitive concerns
Ra Pharmaceuticals (RARX) announced that its RA101495 SC for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria met the primary endpoint in the Eculizumab native cohort in a clinical trial.
However, Piper Jaffray analyst Christopher Raymond argued that the data “underwhelms on efficacy” in comparison to Alexion’s (ALNX) Soliris.
TRIAL RESULTS
Ra Pharmaceuticals has announced interim results from the company’s ongoing, global Phase 2 clinical program evaluating RA101495 SC for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria.
RA101495 SC met the primary endpoint in eculizumab naive patients. In these patients, a rapid, robust, and sustained reduction in lactate dehydrogenase levels from baseline to the mean of Weeks 6-12 and near-complete suppression of complement activity were observed.
Interim results from the ongoing switch cohort demonstrate near complete, sustained, and uninterrupted inhibition of complement activity during and after eculizumab washout. In the U.S.-based cohort of inadequate responders to eculizumab, who have a history of elevated LDH, 3 patients have been enrolled.
LDH stabilization and relief of side effects associated with eculizumab intolerance have been observed in the first patient enrolled in this cohort. Across all cohorts, no meaningful safety or tolerability concerns have been identified after more than 300 patient weeks of cumulative exposure, the company reported.
DATA ‘UNDERWHELMS’ COMPARED TO SOLIRIS
Piper Jaffray‘s Raymond told investors that he believes the paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria data from RA Pharmaceuticals “underwhelms on efficacy” in comparison to Alexion’s Soliris “and for that matter” ALXN1210.
Noting that inferior efficacy to Soliris on its own should put the threat from Ra Pharmaceuticals to bed, he reminded investors nonetheless that ALXN1210 should raise the bar from a convenience standpoint.
The analyst added that he sees “little reason to fret” at this point over the competitive threat to Alexion from RA101495, and reiterated an Overweight rating and $170 price target on Alexion’s shares.
RA PRICE TARGET UPPED
Meanwhile, his peer at BMO Capital raised his price target for RA Pharmaceuticals to $34 from $31, while reiterating an Outperform rating, after its RA101495 demonstrated clinical benefit in all three cohorts in the ongoing Phase 2 trial.
Analyst M. Ian Somaiya told investors in a research note of his own that he believes the phase 3 design is rational and likely to succeed.
Commenting on the potential impact on Alexion, the analyst noted that positive ‘1495 data supports his view that ALXN1210 Phase 3 results need to maintain if not raise the high efficacy and safety bar set by Soliris.
Data from Phase 1/2 trials in the first half of 2018 of Roche (RHHBY)/Chugai’s C5 antibody, with a similar profile to ALXN1210, represents the biggest competitive threat to Alexion, he contended.
PRICE ACTION
In Monday afternoon trading, shares of Ra Pharmaceuticals have dropped almost 40% to $8.80, while Alexion’s stock has gained about 3% to $112.37.
STOCKWINNERS
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This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility.Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles, a square kilometre in the city’s downtown devoted to the arts, is a one-stop shopping destination for culture vultures. Offerings include classical music concerts, opera, ballet, comedy and improv, and funky urban street performances.
The Quartier des Spectacles, (French for “entertainment district”), has more than 80 cultural venues and hosts about 40 festivals a year, an entertainment hub rivalled only by New York City's Broadway, some experts argue.
“Montreal is not a huge city like Paris or New York, but it’s become some sort of international hub of creativity,” said Pierre Fortin, executive director of the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership, a non-profit public organization that oversees the neighbourhood’s development.
“There is always something surprising and new and different in the area,” Fortin said. Earlier this year, for six weeks, 21 balançoires (swings), created music when people swung. And “the music becomes louder and in harmony”, when they swung synchronized, Fortin said. The project, designed by artists Melissa Mongiat and Mouna Andraos, is expected to return next year.
The Quartier, located around the Place des Arts and at the intersection of Ste-Catherine and St-Laurent Streets, has been the city's cultural heart for more than 100 years, and has a long and colourful history. In the 1920s, when the age of variety shows, “scopes” movie theatres and nightclubs were in full swing, the city’s Red Light district emerged as a destination “for pleasures of every kind”, according to Partnership materials. Prohibition in the US, as well as the area’s affordability, attracted many artists and cultural organizations.
But over time, the neighbourhood fell into decline. In recent years, the large public spaces and vacant parking lots were taken over by festivals. The International Jazz Festival, Just For Laughs, and FrancoFolies de Montreal -- three of the largest -- draw more than five million visitors every year, according to the Partnership.
In the early 2000s, a plan was conceived to redevelop and revitalize the area, the name Quartier des Spectacles was given, and the transformation began.
“In a lot of cities, you have to fight to make installations. But in Montreal, they promote it,” said Sakchin Bessette, co-founder and creative director of Moment Factory, a new media arts and entertainment studio that designs, among other things, multimedia urban public installations all over the world.
Last fall, the partnership commissioned Elixir, a 20 minute multimedia show presented in a very large water fountain. “It’s a love story between a water drop and a pixel,” Bessette said. “We took over the fountain and projected video and light on the water. When the light touched the water, it really created a beautiful effect -- a dance of water, light, video and music like dancing rainbows,” said Bessette, whose company’s motto is “We do it in public.”
Historically people would gather around campfires and share stories, but “now, in a world of personal screens and personal devices, it is important to have a reason to gather,” he said. “The Quartier brings all of the people together,” artists, residents, tourists, “in a kind of community”.
La Vitrine, a cultural information and last minute ticket booth, currently has a playful interactive light and video installation by Moment Factory, that will move to a new building, scheduled to open this autumn.
The Quartier’s overall plan includes the Luminous Pathway, which uses exterior lighting to highlight the facades of cultural buildings at night. A double line of red dots (red is a nod to the district’s “red light” history) on the ground indicates there is a cultural venue.
Also planned are the redesign and creation of many public spaces as well as a number of buildings currently in development, like the Maison des Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, and the concert hall for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, scheduled to open in September.
Last week, in collaboration with the One Drop organization, the partnership announced that Guy Laliberté, founder of Cirque du Soleil, will hold a special outdoor exhibition of photos from his recent trip aboard the international space station. Beginning 1 September, 65 large scale photos will be shown on the Promenade des Artistes.
Corresponding with Montréal Complètement Cirque’s performances at different venues throughout Montreal, from 7 to 24 July, passersby walking on a giant chessboard in the Quartier will trigger video projections that preview upcoming shows. And 50 circus artists will perform a variety of free mini shows in the Quartier. (The daily schedule will be posted on their Facebook page.)
“The real end is to have people smile and be happy in Montreal. That’s our mission,” Fortin said.
Upcoming festivals include:
The Montreal International Jazz Festival through 4 July
Festival International Nuits D’Afrique from 12 to 24 July
Just for Laughs from 5 to 31 July
Divers/Cité, a LGBT arts and culture festival, from 25 to 31 July
The First Peoples’ Festival from 2 to 9 AugustThe Israel Prison Parole Board gave its approval for a convicted sex offender rabbi, who is under house arrest, to make a pilgrimage to Uman in Ukraine in the coming days, Hebrew media reported Sunday.
Eliezer Berland, 80, was sentenced to 18 months in jail in November 2016 after being convicted on two counts of indecent acts and one case of assault.
The rabbi was authorized to travel to Uman for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Each year tens of thousands of Jews converge on the Ukrainian city, which is the final resting place of the Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav, an 18th-century luminary who founded the Bratslav Hasidic sect
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He was released earlier this year after serving five months behind bars, in part due to suffering from cancer. He was given permission to move to a hotel next to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center on Mount Scopus, where he was to be under constant surveillance until October, when his sentence will end.
Long considered a cult-like leader to thousands of his followers from the Bratslav sect, Berland fled Israel in 2013 amid allegations that he molested two female followers, one of them a minor.
According to the indictment, Berland would often receive people in his homes in Jerusalem and in Beitar Illit and held private meetings intended for spiritual guidance, counseling or benedictions. The rabbi would sometimes take advantage of the meetings and of his position in the community to engage in sexual acts with women, including minors, according to the charges against him.
He was on the run from authorities until 2016, eluding several Israeli attempts to extradite him. He moved between Zimbabwe, Switzerland, the Netherlands and South Africa, accompanied by a group of devout followers numbering around 40 families.
Following a plea bargain the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court convicted and sentenced him in November 2016, though some seven months that he spent in jails in South Africa and the US were counted as time served.
In April, Health Minister Yaakov Litzman was criticized for visiting Berland in the hotel. Litzman explained after the visit that it was part of his “ethical duty” to care for all sick people, regardless of their backgrounds.Helping to shift community attitudes is a good end goal for ANZ Bank following the social launch of its 2017 work for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and Auckland Pride Festival, chief marketing officer of ANZ’s Australia division, Carolyn Bendall tells Mumbrella.
“Big brands have powerful voices, and if they’re used to the right effect they really can have an impact in communities and societies,” she says.
“Of course we want to achieve as much reach, as far and wide as possible, so the message we have created can really have an impact and hopefully help to bring down some of the stigma and encourage more people to hold hands, and most importantly for others not to consider that a big deal.”
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ANZ is no stranger to making bold statements about diversity and equality.
Last year the bank transformed its Oxford Street Sydney branch into a Baroque-inspired ‘GayNZ‘ and tackled the subject of equal pay with young children.
This year’s campaign, with the theme ‘Hold Tight’, launched through social for the first time and features a hashtag and short video.
The video shows members of the Australian LGBTIQ community, letting go of each other’s hands because they felt uncomfortable. It urges the LGBTIQ community to “hold tight”.
An internal analytics report for ANZ across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and ANZ’s site showed at close of business last Friday the ad been seen by 5.7m.
Speaking with Mumbrella ahead of the launch of this year’s GayTMs, which will ‘hold’ each other, Bendall said the Mardi Gras and Pride Festival sponsorship isn’t approached by the company as a traditional “campaign”.
“We’ve got a pretty long history of supporting the Mardi Gras and indeed the Big Gay Out in Auckland in New Zealand so for us, we don’t tend to approach it like a campaign,” she said.
“We’ve deliberately created a campaign and set of assets that can live beyond Mardi Gras and we of course are observing the marriage equality debate in Australia and believe there may be a time when we’ll speak to utilise some of these materials again and crack way into the national conversation again knowing that it is such an important societal topic.”
This year’s work was developed from insights found in research commissioned by ANZ, which reported the LGBTIQ community were three times more likely – 52%- than others in the Australian community -14% – to have felt uncomfortable holding hands in public.
The insights, developed from a sample of 1,001 respondents, also reported 94% of Australians agree everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, should feel comfortable holding hands in public.
However, 43% of the LGBTIQ community do not feel at ease doing so, the report suggests.
Commenting on the report, Bendall said other insights came from the ANZ’s pride community as well as agency partners.
“Between ourselves and our agency partners, it was something that really was actively monitoring and listening. We use our internal pride community, pride group as key advisers and they are great in terms of contributing their thoughts and insights,” she said.
“This topic of something as simple as holding hands and the basic sign of human love and affection is just so dramatically difficult and different from the rest of the population for the LGBTIQ community.”
“It shone a light on something that most of us have not thought twice about because it is so basic and so simple.”
To date, ANZ has managed to successfully build on each year’s sponsorship effort, increasing the reach and support of the Mardi Gras and Auckland Pride Festival.
Commenting on the challenges of building on the work each year, Bendall says the “biggest test” is making sure each campaign “hits the right mark.”
“If we were to take ourselves back to that first year, which was 2014, that was the biggest test for us was could we actually pull this off in terms of getting the internal support to do something as bold and big as we did as GayTMs, but also to ensure we got it right?
“We take a lot of care in testing it and sounding out these ideas and making sure what we are doing achieves its purpose but also hits the right mark, because the last thing we want to do is miss that mark and offend anyone.”
While this year’s campaign moves beyond the GayTM transformation, Bendall says the GayTMs are still an “enduring symbol” for ANZ.
She adds the “real stroke of brilliance” for this year’s campaign was the additional video featuring ANZ staff talking about #holdtight.
“That’s what’s helped the whole thing resonate; because it is actually something that’s started from within and something our people care about,” she said.
“The majority of the people of that film are from our pride community and the LGBTIQ community,” she said.
“It is a really important part of us as a brand, the issue is important and nobody would dispute that, and it has enabled ANZ to have a more authentic voice because we’re talking about something that is true to our DNA and it is absolutely true.
“It does have an impact when you do something that your own staff are proud of,” she adds.
ANZ has sponsored the Mardi Gras for the past 11 years and the Auckland Pride Festival for five.
Bendall says the sponsorship was a creative way of bringing the “brand value of inclusion to life”.
“Coupled with that – and this comes back to our close working partnership with TBWA – Mardi Gras and the GayTM has also helped us develop our brand tone of voice and our personality,” she says.
“Essentially it’s about positioning our brand. We recognise the role we play in the community and we have a loud voice and a large voice so we take a lot of care with it.
“That will make us then more relevant and then more top of mind. When our consumers, when they have a financial need, if they are looking to start a business, if they are looking to buy a home, we’d like to think we are helping to position ANZ as a brand that’s relevant.”
When asked about brands jumping on social issues Bendall said while it’s “important” she warned those who did so for ulterior motives.
“It is important to support social issues, but only when it is done authentically back to the true DNA of the brand,” she says.
“If there are other more shallower reasons for brands to weigh in on things, they will come undone around it.”Image via Facebook
After ingesting the hallucinogenic mushroom(s), LBREPORT.com is told that Mr. Morad began acting as if he were having an anxiety attack, which friends tried to but couldn't calm. He jumped out of an apartment window (through its glass), bloodied himself and an LBPD response followed in which the officer used a taser (one miss, a second with no effect) and shouted commands without results. A person present says friends shouted to the officer that Mr. Morad was unarmed before an LBFD paramedic directed them away from the scene. From a distance, three shots were heard (4600 block E. 15th St.) from which Mr. Morad did not survive.
Mr. Morad was described by friends and on Facebook as a gentle, kind and thoughtful young man who scored highly in a 2015 national forensic debate competition. He also competed in a statewide community college debate championship this year. While still attending high school in Woodland Hills, Mr. Morad participated in a national speech and debate championship tournament.
Friends say that although he was accepted to UCLA and UC Berkeley, Mr. Morad chose to attend Moorpark Community College and transfer to CSULB to conserve funds.
Further to follow on LBREPORT.com.
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DisqusContrary to assumptions, it isn’t just the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that is stirring up divisiveness. Fear of Narendra Modi and the BJP is making opposition politics even more divisive and communal in rhetoric, making the cow politics of the BJP seem practically humdrum in comparison.
You can see this divisive script being played out best in Karnataka, where the Congress fears losing the one big state it controls in the next assembly elections due in May 2018.
First, the government headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah backed Kannada chauvinists, by making a big deal out of Hindi signboards in the Namma Metro. He and his party spokies make daily threats against Hindi and think it will win them votes. It is now difficult to find any difference between Siddaramaiah and Raj Thackeray, whose partymen ended up beating Bihari taxi drivers some time back in Mumbai to drum up support for his “Marathi manoos” electoral plan. Mumbai did not vote for him.
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Next, conscious of the fact that the Lingayat vote may swing decisively towards the BJP, whose tallest leader in the state is B S Yeddyurappa, the Congress is seeking a split, by encouraging the Veerashaivas to agitate for being declared a non-Hindu minority religion. The Veerashaivas (a community guided by five peethas based in Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh and Varanasi) and Lingayats, followers of Basavanna, are both considered Hindu sects, despite some doctrinal differences. The Congress is trying to drive a wedge between them by saying the two are different, and promising to get them separate minority status. The Seers of the Lingayat community are now trying hard to heal this politically-created rift.
This is the Ramakrishna Mission episode all over again. In the late 1980s, when the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front tried to meddle with the Mission in West Bengal, the latter declared itself a non-Hindu minority community to retain institutional autonomy. The Supreme Court saw through the game and rejected the idea, but that has not stopped politicians from dangling the freedoms given to minority-run institutions to sever Hindu institutions from their roots. This is the cynical game now being played in Karnataka.
Third, the Karnataka government stirred a hornets’ nest when it decided that it will seek official status for a state flag. While there is nothing wrong in this idea itself, the reality is the state already uses its distinct red and yellow flag at state events, and making this official is hardly going to make a big difference to regional pride. The attempt clearly is to stoke regionalism, by creating emotive issues for voters so that they avoid evaluating Siddaramaiah governance failures.
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The problem is not the flag, or promotion of the regional language or even giving religious institutions greater autonomy under the garb of giving them minority status. It is about confusing the voters by deliberately stoking divisiveness, and the brazen attempt to chop off smaller denominations of Hindu institutions from their religious roots.
Consider the ruckus that would be caused if the Uttar Pradesh government had decided that it will be adopting the bhagwa as its flag and Om as its mantra. Or if it decided that Vande Mataram will be its state song. It would be called communalism and divisive politics. One wonders why the same attempt by the Congress is somehow just about diversity and the Idea of India.
The rise of Modi is clearly psyching the opposition to seek desperate remedies for lack of a clear message to the voter. Seeing no easy way of dislodging the BJP from power, the opposition is trying hard to divide voters along communal, caste and religious lines in the run-up to 2019.
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Be prepared to see the most vicious political battle in 2019. The game is “Divide India” and it can’t ultimately do any good to our sense of nationhood. Neither the BJP nor its opponents seem to realise that they are playing with fire.In September 2011, the LRB published a Diary by James Lasdun about learning to fire a gun. A few weeks later we received an email from his stalker. It read: ‘His writing is boring and doesn’t sell. Stop publishing that hairy-nosed Jewish wanna-be-Protestant bore of a boar. His wife’s cunt smells of dead rabbits. His girlfriends are the most hideous.’ It goes without saying that its author hates Lasdun. But it’s pretty clear that she’s in love with him too: the abuse she levels at him seems tame, even cheeky – ‘bore of a boar’ – next to the insults she reserves for his wife and ‘girlfriends’. The jealousy is unmistakable. Stalking, a kind of crime passionnel, confuses our sympathies: how do you feel about someone who loves you but wants to ‘ruin’ you; who massages your ego as she damages your career; who has read your books more attentively than anyone else, but slates them on Amazon; who can be sickeningly offensive one day, and the next write: ‘James, you should marry me and I’ll support all of the Lasduns.’ Or: ‘I’m still in love, so much in love. Can we have coffee?’
The behaviour of Lasdun’s stalker, described in his memoir Give Me Everything You Have, is an example of what some criminal psychologists call ‘desired intimate stalking’. The pattern – infatuation, perceived betrayal and revenge – is well established. In the autumn of 2003, Lasdun began teaching a graduate creative writing course at a college in New York. By far his best student was a shy, well-dressed woman in her thirties – he calls her Nasreen – and he was ‘extremely impressed’ by her first book, a large-scale family drama set in Tehran in the last days of the shah. ‘There are seldom more than a couple of students in any workshop who seem natural writers … Nasreen was one of them. Her language was clear and vigorous, with a distinct fiery expressiveness in the more dramatic passages that made it a positive pleasure to read.’ He praised her work, in front of the class and in private advisory sessions, and the pair got along well, but he says he didn’t expect to see her again after she graduated – for one thing, she was due to be married.
Two years later, Lasdun received a message from Nasreen telling him she’d finished the first draft of her novel. He wrote back to congratulate her, told her he’d happily recommend her work to his agent, and they entered into an ‘amicable email correspondence’: she gossiped and recommended music to him, he gave her encouragement and advice. He was living a secluded life in the Catskills, and says he was glad to have made ‘a brand new friend’. But the tone of her emails, which had always been flirty (Lasdun confesses he felt flattered by it), became more and more overtly sexual. He told her he was going on an overnight train journey and she offered to smuggle herself into his ‘roomette’. When he said he was taking a trip with his wife she sent him an email containing a story that, she claimed, a former member of the creative writing class called Elaine had sent her about an American woman who seduces an Arab man. Nasreen believed, or said she believed, that the story was a veiled account of a real affair between Elaine and Lasdun: ‘In effect Nasreen appeared to be reproaching me for rejecting her as a lover and accusing me of favouritism by having bestowed my attentions on another student.’ Nasreen must have written the story herself, but seemed convinced of the truth of her own fabrication.
The attention Lasdun gave her work, Nasreen assumed, had had a sexual subcurrent. To the Elaine email, Lasdun replied: ‘I like your writing and want to help, but I don’t want to be a figment in anyone’s private fantasies.’ Nasreen remained ‘curiously insistent’. Lasdun wrote again: ‘on the rare occasions when I like someone’s writing I tend to feel an affinity with them, an openness to friendship. Forgive me if this has read differently to you.’ Nasreen, in a lucid moment, replied: ‘I’m not used to having men lend me support, help or friendship without any sort of amorous or sexual intentions.’ Lasdun doesn’t say so, but his novel The Horned Man, about an English professor at a New York college who believes he is being framed for sex crimes against his students, may also have encouraged her to get hold of the wrong end of the stick: Lasdun was known to be fascinated by the sex and power dynamics of pupil-teacher relationships, and Nasreen had read the book ‘closely’. But her moments of lucidity became less frequent, and the Lasdun she imagined grew in deviousness and lechery. By April 2008 she was writing to the head of a college that had given him a temporary teaching post: ‘James Lasdun was not interested in my work but was trying to sleep with me.’ When he wrote a piece for the Guardian she posted the following comment: ‘Mr Lasdun, your own personal life is a bad porn film and I’m sorry I didn’t sleep with you and so you had me raped and gave my work to Aipac.’
‘Stalking is an old behaviour but a new crime,’ the American psychologist J. Reid Meloy wrote in The Psychology of Stalking. There’s nothing new about obsessive love, but celebrity culture has produced a new class of high-profile targets and normalised obsession with them, while technology has made victims more accessible. Nasreen’s campaign is so modern it almost doesn’t qualify as stalking. There’s no searching through bins in this story, no kidnapping or murder, no physical pursuit: she is a wholly digital menace. Lasdun has been attacked in the comments sections of any number of websites, as well as in the constant emails Nasreen sends him, and he describes the review she posted on Amazon of his novel Seven Lies as the beginning of a ‘new order of harm’. (She wrote, again with that mix of venom and eroticism: ‘I think he may have a penchant for sadism. His short story “The Siege” is disturbing in romanticising surveillance … It’s also racist in sexualising a black woman from a “revolutionary” country, who loves her husband but is demeaned and made to have sex with “the english composer” to save her true love’s life.’) But he has met Nasreen in person just once since the end of the MFA programme, and she has never intruded on his property. Nasreen is an internet-enabled armchair-stalker, and is therefore able to operate with impunity. She is based in California, Lasdun in New York, and the New York cops can’t extradite her for what, in the absence of explicit death threats, counts only as aggravated harassment – a misdemeanour, not a felony.
Her attacks have been coloured by political currents in the Middle East and buoyed by the mood of the Arab Spring. In her eyes Lasdun, as ‘an Anglo-American Jew, a family man, a published author, a middle-aged man in a position of power’, represents the affluent elite, while she’s the gumptious revolutionary set to take him and his kind down. Her emails express solidarity with the disenfranchised majority – ‘after you kill all of “us” what will you do?’ – and a desire to possess and redistribute his property. (The book’s title, taken from one of Nasreen’s emails, is strikingly similar to the message dropped through the letterboxes of Pepys Road in John Lanchester’s novel Capital – ‘We Want What You Have’.) Lasdun’s parents were Jews who converted to the C of E, and Nasreen’s communications quickly became virulently anti-semitic: ‘Do you have to be the stereotype of a Jew, James?’; ‘I think the holocaust was fucking funny and about as hilarious as the holocaust industry’; ‘Look, muslims are not like their Jewish counterparts, who quietly got gassed and then cashed in on it.’ She has often accused Lasdun of being involved in a Zog-like conspiracy to steal her ideas and sell them to other Jewish authors. He is not an observant Jew, nor is Nasreen a practising Muslim, and neither of them has family in Israel-Palestine, but it’s clear that in her mind the Arab-Israeli conflict dignifies her aggression, and that she sees herself as a political activist, not a criminal. A ‘lone jihadi’, as Lasdun puts it. No wonder he took shooting lessons.
Lasdun became ‘fixated’ by Nasreen’s anti-semitism. He says he wanted ‘to find the line where Nasreen’s attacks on me, personally, crossed from legitimate grievance … to deliberate, malicious smear’. This forbearance – most people would have seen Nasreen’s anti-semitism as a straightforward attempt to be as offensive as possible – seems to grow out of his bewilderment at the fact that both he and his father, the architect Denys Lasdun, received anti-semitic hate mail: how could two ‘unbelieving, not entirely kosher’ Jews from the same family provoke such an extreme reaction? For Lasdun, whose predicament brought out a superstitious side, the ‘curious recurrence’ became a ‘sign’ that he hoped would allow him to ‘penetrate the mystery’.
The toxic missive sent to Denys Lasdun in the late 1970s came in an envelope with a swastika scrawled on it. Inside were his designs for the new Hurva synagogue in Jerusalem, which had been published in the Architectural Review, defaced with threats in knucklehead capitals (‘IF YOU DESIGN THIS YOU WILL DIE PREMATURE DEATH’) and punning insults (‘HOMOSEXUALS USE SINAGOG’). The reconstruction of the Hurva was a controversial issue. The original had been built by Polish Jews with Arab money in 1700, and was burned down by their creditors when they defaulted on their debt; the second Hurva was built by Lithuanian followers of the charismatic rabbi known as ‘the genius of Vilnius’ but destroyed by the Jordanian army during the 1948 war. Thirty years later, Teddy Kollek, the mayor of Jerusalem, asked Denys Lasdun to come up with designs for a third temple. Lasdun, who, though not religious, was ‘responsive to the “numinous”’, did so without knowing that the genius of Vilnius had prophesied that the completion of a third Hurva would herald the rebuilding of the Great Temple on the Mount: the site of the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque. When the third Hurva, rebuilt in a 19th-century style that Denys Lasdun would have despised, finally opened in 2010, Arab Knesset members predicted a third intifada and Hamas called for a ‘day of rage’: had Lasdun’s designs been used, his son speculates, he would have been complicit in a chain of events that might have triggered ‘a third world war’. There are a fair few conditionals in that sentence; Denys Lasdun’s involvement with the Hurva hardly justifies Nasreen’s assault, but it does seem to have made James Lasdun realise that Jewish identity isn’t something you can shake off by not being religious.
Lasdun took a trip to Israel at the end of 2010, just after the new Hurva opened. On a walk through old Jerusalem, he tells us, he quoted for his companion’s benefit Saul Bellow’s line that Israel had become ‘a moral resort area’, and assented to his friend’s criticism of the ‘oversimplifications’ of anti-Israel protests; he also remembered a story about an academic at Ben-Gurion University who was told by an editor that his article would be accepted only if he compared Israel to apartheid South Africa; and he bought a copy of The Penitent by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Lasdun found himself identifying with the novel’s protagonist, Joseph Shapiro, a ‘regular flawed and fallen human being’ like him until he bought a ticket to Israel and returned to the faith of his fathers. Lasdun summarises one of the key scenes in which Shapiro shares a few kisses and a grope with a woman he met on the plane, then cringes with self-loathing as a Hasid walks past him: ‘I realised … that without earlocks and a ritual garment one cannot be a real Jew … Had I worn such an outfit that night I wouldn’t have been exposed to those temptations.’ Lasdun didn’t return to the faith of his fathers, but he sounds at times as though he is inches away from doing so. As for the line between anti-semitism and legitimate grievance, this depends, he discovers, on where you start the story: ‘The army bulldozed the Palestinian’s home. But his son tried to blow up a supermarket. But it was a supermarket on land illegally occupied by settlers. But the land was part of ancient Judea. But the Jews have been absent from Judea for over two thousand years. But the Holocaust.’ Lasdun tells us that one of the reasons he wrote this book was to show what happens when ‘a writer of impeccable (by his own reckoning) liberal convictions … finds himself subjected to a firestorm of unrelenting anti-semitism’. What happens are stirrings of a cultural identity that could quite easily take the shine off his principles.
*
Jenny Turner has criticised Lasdun for not making enough of an effort to understand Nasreen’s condition: ‘“borderline personality” is mentioned, as are “chemical imbalances”, but Lasdun isn’t interested in a diagnosis, preferring to see her behaviour as motivated by “a malice that … simply is”.’ In fact, he makes more effort to empathise than most authors of stalker-lit. He begins the second part of the book by admitting that he ought to have been more alert to the effect his early encouragement had on her hopes for the future: ‘When you have as much at stake as these students do in these expensive, highly competitive programmes, you are not going to be unflustered by your teacher’s enthusiasm … the experience had transformed me from a teacher respected merely out of convention into a figure of heightened power, similarly implicated in her fate.’ He goes on to reproach himself for not having been sympathetic enough when she told him she had broken up with her fiancé: ‘What I didn’t consider, and no doubt should have … was that she might have been traumatised.’ Nasreen is treated more compassionately than the stalker in Kate Brennan’s memoir Stalked, for example, a ‘monster’ who plays a ‘sick game’ and is ‘too sick and too arrogant to be afraid’; or those in Polly Clarkson’s collection Stalkers, who are, variously, ‘monsters’, ‘lunatics’, ‘bullies’. The gradual disappearance from Lasdun’s book of attempts to diagnose Nasreen – he’s conscientious at first, but by the end she has become an entirely impersonal, disembodied blizzard – is essential to his story. Her physical invisibility combined with her ubiquitous online presence have destroyed his ability to empathise with her; again, his principles have been unseated. Lasdun’s stalker is unusual in that she is female – 90 per cent of stalking is by men of women – which may be one reason why Turner felt more explanation was required. Besides, Lasdun got a book out of Nasreen, while she remains alone, her novel unpublished, clearly very ill. She’s not exactly wrong about him recycling her writing either, at least in one sense: around a quarter of the words in Give Me Everything You Have are hers |
on several forms of fakery to give the false impression that Hillary is actually popular. They have produced blatantly photoshopped images of a Hillary rally (see below). They constantly make it look like Hillary is speaking to a large room by keeping the camera at one angle, putting bleachers or rows of people behind her, and never panning the camera around the room. They have been busted over and over for camera trickery and fakery, but unless you are tuned into the alternative media, you probably won’t see it.
Hillary’s fake photoshopped rally. This is a collage of images. It’s fake!
Was She Even There? Hillary Takes Fakery to a New Depth
It was somewhat stunning, even for someone as fake and fraudulent as Hillary Rodham Clinton, to release a video of a purported rally which is entirely faked (embedded above). Look carefully at the video. There are at least 3 separate people holding smartphones pointed at her, yet when she finishes and exits off the stage, the images reflected in the smartphone screens are not what they should be! They show different images entirely. Was the entire rally “made up”? Is anything about this woman true at all, or are we living in a Wag the Dog/Truman Show movie set?
Election Fraud Through Fractionalized Voting
Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.com has done tireless work to expose election fraud over the years. She has recently come out warning the American public of the latest technique in election rigging, which is to fractionalize votes, i.e. make them only worth a fraction (e.g. one fifth, one third, one tenth, etc.) of what they should be (one whole vote). She writes in her article FRACTION MAGIC – PART 1: VOTES ARE BEING COUNTED AS FRACTIONS INSTEAD OF AS WHOLE NUMBERS:
The results of this study demonstrate that a fractional vote feature is embedded in each GEMS application which can be used to invisibly, yet radically, alter election outcomes by pre-setting desired vote percentages to redistribute votes. This tampering is not visible to election observers, even if they are standing in the room and watching the computer. Use of the decimalized vote feature is unlikely to be detected by auditing or canvass procedures, and can be applied across large jurisdictions in less than 60 seconds.
This means that with just a little computer code, someone can flip the vote and make, for example, all of the whole votes for Donald Trump suddenly worth only one quarter (0.25) instead of one (1). Vote rigging like this has already happened in the past. The system is already in place. Welcome to the USA, champion of democracy! Can you see now how other nations feel about the US enforcing democracy down the barrel of gun, when things are so utterly subverted and fake at home?
Trump’s Connections to the Shadow Rulers
Although this article has so far highlighted the fraud surrounding Hillary, the point here is not to support Trump. The Donald himself has a myriad ofconnections and associations with NWO agents such as the head of the Rockefeller CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) Tommy Haas. Trump is also close to Paypal founder, millionaire and transhumanist Peter Thiel, CIA asset and Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, as well as Louis Lesser partner of CIA Asset Meyer Lansky (who was involved the JFK assassination). To what degree Trump is influenced or controlled by these men is an open question, however we know enough to say that he has tyrannical tendencies, is an ardent Zionist and a possible or probable pedophile – hardly the choice you want to be given in a free and open society.
DHS and UN to Take Control of US Presidential Elections?
The issues of voter fraud and election rigging have become large enough that Obama was recently asked about it. Not long after this, Jeh Johnson, the head of the DHS (Department of Homeland Security), let slip that his department is considering taking control of the US presidential election (problem-reaction-solution). Johnson tried to claim that elections may have become part of “critical infrastructure”. The DHS is the very same department that was created right after the 9/11 false flag with a fast bill slammed through Congress that no-one had time to read. It’s also the same department that oversees the TSA, which gives airline passengers the choice of molestation or radiation. It’s funny how almost all governmentally-proposed solutions have the characteristic of centralizing more power in the government. Perhaps this 2016 US presidential election will be hard to rig for Hillary (given her massive unpopularity) so her controllers want more power over the election process to ensure she gets in.
Top Conservatives and Neocons Bust the Two-Party Illusion by Openly Declaring Support for Hillary
As if all the fakery listed above isn’t enough, consider the fact that many top Republicans, neocons and conservatives have openly come out and stated that they would rather vote for Clinton than Trump. Why? Almost certainly because she’s more likely to start foreign wars (against China and Russia), more likely to continue the corrupt status quo and more likely to advance the New World Order agenda in line with the ambitions of these shadow rulers. Those at the top know the fake left-right paradigm is a facade designed to fool the masses into thinking they have a choice. Look at the cosy relationship between George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton, supposed opponents on opposite sides of the aisle (nothing like some CIA Mena cocaine and Satanic ritual to bond over). However, the 2016 US presidential election is unique in that it appears that some of these guys aren’t even trying to maintain the illusion of freedom.
May 2016 be the Year the Masses Awaken to the Fakery of the US Presidential Election
There’s enough fakery to fill a few hundreds football stadiums with this US presidential election. Hopefully we are about to see it reach a tipping point where a critical mass of people simply refuse to buy into at all. Once enough people see the “bread and circus” show for what it truly is – a distraction, a fanciful ruse, a facade and a silly game of no real consequence – they will lose confidence in the whole system and begin dreaming of new, better and fairer systems. This, of course, is the worst nightmare of the NWO controllers.
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Makia Freeman is the editor of alternative news / independent media site The Freedom Articles and senior researcher at ToolsForFreedom.com (FaceBook here), writing on many aspects of truth and freedom, from exposing aspects of the worldwide conspiracy to suggesting solutions for how humanity can create a new system of peace and abundance.
Sources:
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgCK2GY9gE4
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2gJgyIC8Sg
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2togSItA77E
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoGeDGHmwJU
*http://endingthefed.com/wikileaks-hillary-clinton-wears-diapers.html
*http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-03/hillary-promises-deliver-regular-press-conferences-one-condition
*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/44-reasons-to-not-elect-hillary/
*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/voting-for-hillary-clinton-body-count/
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEkMctGrabY
*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/real-hillary-clinton/
*http://blackboxvoting.org/fraction-magic-1/
*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/insider-trump-nwo-connections/
*http://www.blacklistednews.com/The_Donald_and_The_Deep_State/53900/0/38/38/Y/M.html
*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/jfk-assassination-who-how-why-part-1/
*http://www.madcowprod.com/2016/03/17/donald-trump-dirty-money-the-filthy-rich-in-palm-beach/
*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/zionist-trump-at-aipac/
*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/trump-pedophile-lawsuit/
*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/trump-2-shutdowns-muslims-internet/
*http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/homeland-eyes-special-declaration-to-take-charge-of-elections/article/2600592
*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/911-13th-anniversary-13-questions/
*http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-list-of-establishment-republicans-that-say-they-are-voting-for-hillary-clinton-is-staggering
*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/new-system-consciousness-not-new-president/New York Times writer Tim Kreider may not live in Baltimore, but he sure knows how to get its goad. In a recent Sunday Review section, the writer waxed nostalgic about time spent slumming in Charm City a decade ago. Part memoir, part trend piece, part white-flight fear made plain, the article traverses the city's gritty textures, basking in the glow of its trashcan core and lack of ambition.
Sure, Kreider nails a very specific nostalgia experienced by expats, but describing the current landscape with decade-old anecdotes and references to The Wire is simply insulting. Based on my own five years spent working in New York media, I could mirror his article in exactitude. I'd describe present day Brooklyn using wistful recollections of the extreme cheapness and sketchiness of pre-gentrified Bushwick. Then I'd support it with references to locations used around that time in Sex in the City scenes and quote something told to me by the city's cultural ambassador, TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone (who for the record ALSO hunts the same Union Pool barstool he did a decade ago). But that would be ridiculous, right?
Kreider's piece is also condescending, but it's not just because he's talking about us. You'd be amazed at how many writers insult NYC as a narrative technique, compliment the quaintness of another place and then end with "but NYC is what's right for me NOW". It's right for you now because you've become ambitious? Stopped stalling? Finally made it? Or just grew up?
It's an all-too-familiar trope and a humble brag any way you slice it. That's the core of the local outcry: it's a visceral reaction to the writer's lack of self-awareness. There's a reason I chose to move to Baltimore instead of back to Brooklyn but it's not because I don't know better or am suddenly unambitious. (I actually met more more grand-scale visionaries when I lived in San Francisco, anyway).
I've stayed because my sense of what is important and most useful to society has shifted. That new ethos manifests as a less showy ambition, but not one that's in any way smaller. I've been a loud voice on a national stage, but I think the work I've done recently, below the radar, is of equal or greater importance. It's condescending to assume that a lack of similarity to one's own ambitions means another person lacks ambition entirely.
To say nothing of the fact that the assumption of our wandering lifestyles is baldly inaccurate. Several guests at my 4th of July party had just come off national/international tours and about a dozen folks didn't attend because they are currently out there. Another just got off the road supporting his book for Scholastic, a bunch of folks are doing work for Adult Swim. We had several people from NASA, one person who works on House of Cards, another from VEEP. A friend who shoots for the City Paper told me his coverage of the uprising was syndicated all over the world and his work recently bought by Library of Congress. We had several nurses/docs in training from Shock Trauma / Hopkins, both consistently rated top-tier learning facilities of their kind. New tech companies. New activism. New blood... and old blood too. Very, very old blood. Blood that remembers when Baltimore was king and the Big Apple was bankrupt.
They aren't an aberration. This city is alive and spinning with significantly more than criminals, quirky Hons and John Waters lookalikes. Failing to acknowledge the dynamism of a place where so much has occurred and is occurring is either a dismissal of its achievements or a willful act of ignorance. I love New York, both for its people and its history, but, with respect:
It isn't a city of unique ambition. It's a city of unique and unending self-promotion.
And it enforces its primacy through the denigration and/or assimilation of OTHER peoples' talents and ambitions. Doesn't mean it isn't its own kind of amazing, but let's be honest: these types of articles aren't about Baltimore. They're about another place's constant, unending need for affirmation.Though lots of people grumble about the government bailing out banks in the financial crisis, we have at least taken some comfort in the idea that the government has turned a profit on that bailout.
Only problem is, that profit comes from taxpayer money -- money that was meant to spur banks to develop communities and help small businesses. Instead they've used it to develop and help themselves.
All told, including dividend, interest and other payments, U.S. banks have repaid the government $211.5 billion under the Capital Purchase Program (CPP), the first phase of the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), according to a report Thursday by the Government Accountability Office, a congressional watchdog. That's more than the $204.9 billion the banks initially got under TARP.
$211.5 billion minus $204.9 billion equals profit, right?
But 48 percent of the banks that have repaid the CPP used money they'd gotten from other federal programs, according to the GAO report. Those programs include the Community Development Capital Initiative -- another TARP program -- and the Small Business Lending Fund, a program designed to encourage lending to small businesses. Both of those programs have more favorable borrowing terms for the banks than the original CPP.
This isn't a new issue -- The Wall Street Journal reported last October that banks were repaying TARP funds with cash earmarked for small-business loans, after the Independent Community Bankers of America lobbied for the ability to switch money "from one Treasury program to the other."
Small businesses have continued to struggle to get credit, a drag on the recovery, while banks have been using funds earmarked for lending to small businesses simply to pay back their first TARP bailout.
At Yahoo Finance, Dan Gross sees a silver lining in the fact that these banks have at least swapped out of one government program that simply hands them cash for ones that encourage them to do something constructive with that cash.
Still, the fact that some banks refinanced their initial TARP investments by borrowing from other federal government programs undercuts the Treasury Department's claim that the government has made money from TARP, wrote Matt Stoller, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and a former senior policy advisor to former Democratic Florida Rep. Alan Grayson, in a post at the Naked Capitalism blog:
Our banking system is still reliant on the government for support. Officials can claim that TARP made money, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that this is a way of avoiding a description of the actual policy framework.
Meanwhile, there is still about $16.7 billion in original CPP money that hasn't been paid back, the GAO report says. (The government has turned a slight profit on CPP so far because the dividend and interest payments from other banks have amounted to more than that $16.7 billion). And while the biggest banks have paid their money back, several smaller banks are having trouble making regularly scheduled payments to the government, the GAO report says.
The Wall Street Journal's Real Time Economics blog wrote:
As of Nov. 30, 158 had missed quarterly payments, a marked increase from eight in February 2009, GAO said. And the number of problem banks–those that demonstrated financial, operational or managerial weaknesses that threatened their continued financial viability–rose to 130 in December 2011 from 47 in December 2009 GAO said.
It may be unfair to quibble with the Treasury Department's claim that the government is making money on TARP. After all, the bailout was not meant to be a get-rich-quick scheme. It was meant to stop the financial sector from collapsing into a giant black hole that was going to suck the global economy inside of it.WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 10: Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee delivers remarks to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Marriott Wardman Park February 10, 2012 in Washington, DC. Thousands of conservative activists are attending the annual gathering in the nation's capital. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee took part in a conference call with hundreds of Missouri Baptist pastors and Christian talk radio hosts Friday in an effort to rally support for embattled Republican senatorial candidate Todd Akin.
Akin came under fire last week for saying that victims of "legitimate rape" are biologically unable to get pregnant.
Although Akin later apologized for the statement, saying he misspoke, the backlash against the House Republican was swift and stinging, with politicians including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and Karl Rove calling on conservatives to pull their support, and more importantly, their funding.
On Tuesday, however, a defiant Akin went on Huckabee's radio show to announce he would not be bowing out.
"I haven't done anything morally or ethically wrong," Akin told Huckabee, adding that he felt the harsh criticisms leveled at him "seem like a little bit of an overreaction."
In the midst of this recent political maelstrom, Huckabee has emerged as one of Akin's biggest supporters. On Thursday, Huckabee sent out an email blast calling for donations, according to CNN, which resulted in a "dramatic uptick" in campaign fundraising for the candidate.
The conference call on Friday, however, featured some of the strongest language yet by the colorful Huckabee. CNN, which was provided a dial-in number for the call, quoted the politician as saying Akin was being humiliated in an "unprecedented" display of rhetorical force.
"I’ve never seen an effort like what I’ve seen this week with party leaders coming together expressly for the purpose of taking one of their own wounded soldiers on the battlefield — and instead of coming to get him off the field and to the hospital — basically opening up rounds and rounds of fire on him, and then running over him with the tanks of the trucks, leaving him to be ravaged by the wolves of the other side," Huckabee said, speaking from his Fox News office in New York City, according to Politico.
The call was convened by Don Hinkle, editor of Missouri Baptist Convention's "The Pathway." Also speaking during the hour-long call were David Barton, Texas author and pastor; former Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts; Baptist pastor David Baker; and Dick Bott, the founder of a Christian radio network; and John Yeats, the executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention.
According to Politico, Yeats told the group that "One of the things we have to remind ourselves of and remind our people of is that Congressman Akin represents the mainstream of our values. He is the mainstream of our values.”
Speaking on behalf of Missouri Baptists everywhere, Baker, a pastor in Belton, Mo., told the callers "“We have a responsibility as prophets to speak out."
Watts, who spoke before Huckabee dialed into the call, said he had been attempting to contact Akin to personally offer his support. Watts, who was House Republican Conference chairman in the late '90s, said that Akin "has not been the problem. He has been the solution," to various societal ills that threaten America's children.
"Over the last 10, 12 years the homosexual lobby is more powerful than they’ve ever been in Washington. Planned Parenthood is more powerful than they’ve ever been. Our children’s innocence is more threatened," Watts said.
Best-selling, albeit controversial, evangelical author David Barton, who is also the founder of Walbuilders, was asked by the group to provide some historical context for the situation.
Huckabee, for his part, had referenced the holy battle between Elijah and the prophets of Baal in the Book of Kings. "We’ll see whose God answers the prayers and brings fire from heaven," he said.
Barton took the holy metaphor a step further, however, connecting the alleged persecution of Akin to a whole host of well-known biblical figures.
"One of the greatest leaders in Israel’s history was David, who had [committed] adultery, murdered Uriah, etc,” said Barton, a self-professed Christian historian. "But he repented. God gave him forgiveness. Great leader. But that was not a misspeaking of words. And then Noah had trouble with drunkenness. God still used him. Samuel couldn’t control his children. He ran a nation. Moses, guilty of murder. He came back, delivers a nation.”You look at her from a distance, and all you see is just another punk chick who’s nothing but trouble; born under a bad sign. You’d figure she’s pierced her body in lord only knows how many different places, and the mascara applied to her eyes might make you see her as an intimidating threat. Not once does she try to adjust her antisocial behavior or clothing attire in the workplace, and this is a sign of how unwilling she is to compromise her learned set of values.
But once you get to know her, you will find Lisbeth Salander is not your average punk rock girl. In fact, she’s a brilliant hacker and researcher who knows more about yourself than you could possibly realize. Bo Diddley was right when he said you can’t judge a book by looking at the cover. I mean you could, but she would just kick your ass because a rough upbringing has more than prepared her for the harsh reality of life.
Lisbeth Salander is the heroine of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” a brilliant mystery/thriller based on the best-selling novel by the late Stieg Larsson. Many have said Noomi Rapace gives a star making performance as Lisbeth, and nothing could be more true. She finds the heart of this incredibly intelligent yet mysterious character whose past is hinted at but never explained until the end, but we come to get enough of a glimpse which helps us understand where she is coming from. Lisbeth sets the bar high in terms of compelling characters (and not just females) you can find in movies from any country.
Right from the start, this film absorbs us in its compelling mystery involving the case of a missing girl which has remained unsolved for 40 years. Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), the publisher of Millennium Magazine, is coming off of a trial where he was wrongfully disgraced, and soon after he is hired by rich man Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube) who wants him to look into the disappearance of his great-niece Harriet who was last seen years ago when she was only 16. Henrik believes Harriet was murdered by someone in his family, and it’s a very dysfunctional family filled with those who will fight one other for the whole inheritance without a single thought for anyone else.
Please believe me when I say “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” puts so many American movies of this genre to utter shame. Seriously, many of the mystery thrillers I have seen in the past few years are full of plot holes Michael Bay could lead both Autobots and Decepticons through no matter how enormous they are. Instead of being enthralled, we come out of them feeling like they are average at best, but they do allow us to feel smarter than the filmmakers since we spotted all their foolish mistakes.
Compared to all those wannabes, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” has a very well-constructed plot to where if it is at all flawed, we certainly don’t realize it because we are too caught up with what’s unfolding onscreen. But where this movie truly succeeds is as a character piece in how deeply it involves us in the lives of two very different people. The two main characters are well developed and are very complex, something I always look forward to seeing. Lisbeth is a wounded person, damaged by life, and the trust she puts in others is exceedingly rare. These two end up coming together as Lisbeth has been hacking into Mikael’s computer as part of his case, and she ends up giving him some clues which have eluded him. While she is hesitant to get involved with Mikael professionally or emotionally, he points out how she contacted him in a way that is easy to track.
Lisbeth and Mikael are indeed an odd couple, and yet perfectly matched to work on the coldest of cases. They are also coming together at a time where they are in a very isolated state, having been largely misunderstood by just about everyone around them. While many view them negatively, they come to see one another as who they really are. The more they work together, the more they gain each other’s trust. In the large scheme of things, these are two people who do not let others define them.
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” was directed by Niels Arden Oplev, a three-time award-winning director from Denmark. He deserves a lot of credit for keeping us deeply involved in a movie that could have easily overstayed its welcome. Not once did I find myself getting bored or restless while watching it. Oplev balances out the story and the acting to where they are on equal footing and never upstaged by style. Never does he indulge in quirky camera angles or other visual elements which would have taken away from this movie. Some directors just love to show off instead of just trusting what is there, and Oplev has clearly laid his complete trust in the story and the actors cast.
Noomi Rapace brings a powerful life force to Lisbeth Salander, a character destined to become as iconic as Clarice Starling from “The Silence of the Lambs.” Beneath her hard exterior is a person whose trust in others is practically non-existent for reasons which eventually become clear. Rapace more than succeeds in making Lisbeth tough as well as sympathetic. Her performance could easily have been a caricature, but she proves to be far too good of an actress to allow this to happen.
Michael Nyqvist does excellent work as Mikael Blomkvist, showing his strong resolve and utter frustration without ever going overboard in his performance. When he is first shown to the audience, it is as a man who has just been found guilty. We don’t know why at first, so we can only assume he had it coming or perhaps he was framed. We see him walking down the street when his picture comes up on television, pretty much defining him in the eyes of those who do not know him personally. But Nyqvist invests his character with a strong moral code which he never surrenders even when it seems smart for him to do so. We sympathize with Mikael as it always seems the wealthiest of people are more than willing to smash down the individual, especially when said individual is correct in what he or she discovers about them. The truth always seems to come at a heavy price.
Peter Andersson doesn’t even try to hide the hideous slime that consumes his utterly immoral character of Bjurman, a sexually abusive bastard who takes advantage of Lisbeth in the worst way possible. Even worse, he is her new legal guardian who takes charge of her trust fund after her original guardian suffers a stroke. Not to worry though, the pain Bjurman inflicts on Lisbeth comes back at him in a most vicious way, showing us once again what you see on the surface does not even begin to tell you the whole story.
Two sequels based on Stieg Larsson’s follow up novels have already been made, and I eagerly await the opportunity to see them on the big screen. They will have a tough act to follow after “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” but with Rapace and Nyqvist reprising their roles, they will continue one of the more interesting and unusual partnerships you can hope to find in cinematic history.
It will be interesting to see who will be the next idiotic human being who foolishly thinks they have complete control over Lisbeth. Even more interesting will be in what way Lisbeth lets said person know just how wrong they are. Pray for whoever it is.
* * * * out of * * * *
AdvertisementsCyprus Foreign Minister, Ioannis Kasoulides in a question by the press today stated that there is no agreement for Russian naval or air bases in Cypriot territories and that neither Russia has made a request for such an agreement. He also explained that what the President, Mr Anastasiades said in an interview on Friday regarding this subject was about a renewal or a preexisting agreement on military cooperation which includes the maintenance of military equipment which was sold to Cyprus years ago as well as the purchase of spare parts in accordance to existing contracts.
Moreover regarding the Russian request to use facilities in Cyprus, he explained that they are purely for civilian and humanitarian purposes such as the removal of Russian nationals from Middle East if the need arises.The most recent presidential debate started off with an age-old political appeal: Think of the children.
“The last debate could have been rated as MA, mature audiences, per TV parental guidelines,” Patrice Brock, an undecided voter, said as she addressed Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. “Knowing that educators assign viewing the presidential debates as students’ homework, do you feel you’re modeling appropriate and positive behavior for today’s youth?”
The answer, according to the nation’s parents? Not really.
Neither presidential nominee is seen by a majority of parents as a good role model, according to a HuffPost/YouGov poll, but Trump raises substantially more concerns. The survey was taken after a tape of Trump bragging about sexual assault was published last Friday, but before newer accusations about his conduct came to light.
A 75 percent majority of Americans who have kids under the age of 18 say Trump is not a good role model for children, while just 12 percent say he is. In contrast, opinions on Clinton are about evenly split, with 42 percent saying she is a good role model and 43 percent saying she isn’t.
GOP parents are considerably less likely to want their children looking up to their party’s nominee. While nearly 7 in 10 Democratic and Democratic-leaning parents think Clinton is a good role model, fewer than one-quarter of Republican and Republican-leaning parents say the same about Trump.
Americans as a whole say by a 52-point margin that Trump isn’t a good role model, and by an 11-point margin that Clinton isn’t either.
Even if they don’t want to see their children grow up emulating Trump, however, most parents aren’t too concerned about the effect the election is having on their kids.
Forty-nine percent of parents say they’re “very comfortable” talking with their kids about the election, while 86 percent are at least somewhat comfortable doing so.
A small group ― 11 percent ― say their kids are disturbed or upset by the elections.
“My 16-year-old son is afraid that Donald Trump will start WWIII with the Muslims and all of the boys his age will be drafted into military service,” one Democratic parent said in response to the survey. “My 11-year-old daughter is frightened every time they put Trump on TV.”
“They do not like any of the choices available,” a Republican parent wrote. “Everyone is rude to one another and no one really answers the questions.”
However, 50 percent of parents say their kids are aware of the election but not troubled by it, while 28 percent say their kids aren’t paying much attention at all, and 11 percent aren’t sure what their kids think.
The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted Oct. 8-Oct. 10 among U.S. adults, using a sample selected from YouGov’s opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.
The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls.You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov’s nationally representative opinion polling. Data from all HuffPost/YouGov polls can be found here. More details on the polls’ methodology are available here.
Most surveys report a margin of error that represents some, but not all, potential survey errors. YouGov’s reports include a model-based margin of error, which rests on a specific set of statistical assumptions about the selected sample, rather than the standard methodology for random probability sampling. If these assumptions are wrong, the model-based margin of error may also be inaccurate. Click here for a more detailed explanation of the model-based margin of error.#Update
Yesterday, we reported a major milestone and probably the most significant news in Supreme Pharmaceuticals’ (FIRE.V) (SPRWF) history.
Although we were favorable on this news, we were cautious with the shares due to its market cap being larger than a few of its peers, which are more advanced and larger than Supreme.
Our cautious approach proved to be correct and Supreme dropped almost 11% yesterday on strong volume. At the opening bell, Supreme was more than twice the size of Emblem Corp. (EMC.V) (EMMBF) and larger than Organigram Holdings (OGI.V) (OGRMF) and Cronos Group (MJN.V).
At current levels, Supreme’s market cap still trumps Emblem, Organigram, and Cronos. We continue to prefer these firms to Supreme and will monitor how the market responds to yesterday’s weakness.
We are now watching Supreme closely and will provide updates as this story develops.
Better late than never…
This phrase can be applied to Supreme Pharmaceuticals (FIRE.V) (SPRWF) after its wholly-owned subsidiary, 7ACRES was granted permission to sell medical marijuana under the ACMPR.
Supreme is a publicly traded Canadian cannabis company focused on becoming a leading cannabis cultivator and distributor through 7ACRES, a licensed medical cannabis producer that operates inside a 342,000-sq. ft. hybrid greenhouse facility in Kincardine, Ontario.
A Long-Time Coming
In March 2016, Health Canada issued 7 Acres its cultivation license and the 16-month gap was by far the largest wait time for any ACMPR licensed producer.
Although the amount of time between license approvals was strenuous, it was not without cause and was not because of Health Canada.
First, 7 Acres cultivates from a seed which takes longer than a clone and adds several weeks to the grow process. And Second, the process was delayed when a nutrient the company uses was involved in a regulatory inquiry earlier this year.
Supreme is Now Larger than Cronos, Emblem, and Organigram
Is the news already priced into shares of Supreme or is there still upside to current levels?
We are cautious with Supreme at current levels as its market cap is north of $250 million. At these levels, Supreme is more than twice the size of Emblem Corp. (EMC.V) (EMMBF) and it is larger than Organigram Holdings (OGI.V) (OGRMF) and Cronos Group (MJN.V).
Although we are favorable on Supreme, we continue to prefer Organigram, Emblem, and Cronos.
Organigram was one of the first publicly traded licensed producers and its valuation is very attractive after a 23% pullback this year. Emblem is the most undervalued licensed producer and is an attractive play on the cannabis and biotech-cannabis markets. Cronos on the other hand offers investors leverage to a firm with a proven track record of success as well as an expanding global footprint.
Is the News Priced in or How High Can Shares Go?
Yesterday’s license grant was significant and we will monitor how the market responds to this today. Supreme received a favorable response from the market after this news was announced and the shares jumped almost 9% higher (shares were down when it was reported).
We will monitor how Supreme trades today and Technical420 Premium Members will receive an updated research report covering this development.
Become a Technical420 Premium Member to learn more!
Important Investor Disclosures
This report was authored by and is property of Technical420. All information and data relied upon in drafting this report is publicly available. The author believes and considers its sources to be reliable, but does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in this report. Any and all information, data, analyses and opinions are provided for informational purposes only and is not intended, in any manner, as investment advice. Any projections or other information generated by Technical420 regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results, and are not guarantees of future results. None of the material contained in this report is intended as a solution or offer to sell or purchase a specific stock or any other investment. This report is not directed to, or intended for distribution or use by, any person or entity that is a citizen, resident or located in any municipality, state, country or other jurisdiction where the distribution, publication, availability, or use of this report is contrary to any governing law or regulation. The securities discussed in this report may not be eligible for purchase and/or sale in certain jurisdictions or by particular individuals. It is important that you check any and all governing laws and/or regulations that may be applicable in your jurisdiction. Investing in securities of issuers organized outside of the United States, including ADRs, entail certain risks. The securities of non-United States issuers may not be registered with, nor be subject to the reporting requirements of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Please contact a Financial Advisor for professional advice regarding any and all securities investments. This report is intended for informational purposes onlyThe Nobel Prize
Since 1957, there have been eight Chinese (including Chinese-born) winners of the Nobel Prize. The Nobel Prize is a Sweden-based international monetary prize. The award was established by the 1895 will and estate of Swedish chemist and inventor Alfred Nobel. It was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace in 1901. An associated prize, The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was instituted by Sweden's central bank in 1968 and first awarded in 1969.
Following is a list of Nobel laureates who have been citizens of the Republic of China or the People's Republic of China[1] and of overseas birth.
Summary [ edit ]
Nobel laureates who are citizens of Republic of China or the People's Republic of China.
Number of Nobel laureates by category Category Chinese citizens Others born as Chinese Total Remarks Physics 3 2 5 Daniel C. Tsui became a US citizen in 1960s.
Charles K. Kao became a British/ |
there is a better way.
Thank you.
2 Ines M. Lima Azevedo, M. Granger Morgan and Lester Lave, The Electricity Journal, Jan/Feb 2011, Vol 24, Issue 1.Leroy Sane has pulled out of Germany's Confederations Cup squad
Leroy Sane has pulled out of Germany's Confederations Cup squad and will instead have surgery on his nose.
The Manchester City winger, nominated for the Professional Footballers' Association Young Player of the Year award in his first Premier League season, was named in a 23-man squad.
But Sane will now sit out the World Cup warm-up tournament, which runs from June 17 to July 2 in Russia, while also missing Germany's games against Denmark and San Marino at the start of June.
He said in a statement: "I would have liked to have gone to Russia, but after talks with the medical team, I have decided to use the summer break for this operation so that I can go into the new season with a clean bill of health."
Germany boss Joachim Low named three Premier League players in his initial squad - Sane, Shkodran Mustafi of Arsenal and Liverpool midfielder Emre Can.
Mesut Ozil has been rested along with Thomas Muller, Mats Hummels and Manuel Neuer.Everything You Never Knew About CSS Floats
What do floats really do anyway? How do they affect the box model of the elements involved? How do floated elements differ from inline elements? What are the specific rules governing the position of floated elements? How does the clear property work and what is it for?
Floats can trip up even experienced developers and understanding their behavior can really set you free from many of the woes that you face with CSS. Even if you think you already know all about floats, we’ll dive deep enough that you just might learn something new!
What Is a Float?
Some elements in CSS are block level elements, which means they automatically start a new line. For instance, if you create two single word paragraph elements, they won’t flow into each other but will appear on separate lines. Other elements are inline elements. This means that they appear “in line” with the previous content. One example is an anchor tag, which can appear within another element such as a paragraph without causing any extra whitespace or new lines to occur.
One way to cheat this model of layout is to use floats, which allow a given element to shift to one side of its line and have other content flow down its side. A right-floated element will be pushed all the way to the right of its container and have content flow down its left side and a left-floated element will be pushed all the way to the left side with content flowing down its right side.
The classic example is when you toss an image in with a paragraph and want the two to appear side by side rather than stacked. First we create both elements with some HTML:
<img src="http://lorempixum.com/200/200/" /> <p>Lorem ipsum...</p> 1 2 < img src = "http://lorempixum.com/200/200/" / > < p > Lorem ipsum... < / p >
Alone, this code does not produce the effect that we want. The paragraph element is a block level element that appears on its own line and so the paragraph and the image are shown stacked in the normal document flow.
We can change this behavior by floating our image to the right. The CSS for this is very basic:
img { float: right; margin: 20px; } 1 2 3 4 img { float : right ; margin : 20px ; }
With this code in place, our image is scooted to the right side of its line and the paragraph is allowed to flow down its left side. Click here or on the image below to see and tweak a live example of this code in action.
One interesting thing about the behavior of this image now that it is floated is that our other content will actually attempt to wrap around it where possible. If we resize our container or browser window to be narrower, the text simply reflows itself so that it never touches the image.
How the Box Works
Odds are you already understood this behavior to a decent degree. However, in order to wield floats properly, you need to understand how these two elements are interacting on deeper level. For instance, how do we add extra margin between the paragraph and the image? You might think that this will work:
p {margin: 20px;} 1 p { margin : 20px ; }
However, this won’t put even a single pixel of extra space between the image and the paragraph. Instead, we have to apply our margin to the image:
img {margin: 20px;} 1 img { margin : 20px ; }
The question you should be asking yourself is, “why?” Why wouldn’t increasing the paragraph margin increase the space between the image and the paragraph? The reason is that we’re failing to grasp the box model as it pertains to that paragraph.
If you’re ever doubtful about how your layout is working on a basic level, try applying a border or two to see what’s going on. If we use this technique on the paragraph, the result may surprise you.
p { border: solid 1px black; } 1 2 3 p { border : solid 1px black ; }
As you can see, the image is actually inside of the paragraph’s box! This solves our margin riddle. Any margin that we add to the paragraph is being applied way off to the right of the image, this is why it doesn’t increase the space between the image and the paragraph.
If we wanted the change this behavior so that the paragraph doesn’t wrap around the image, we could float the paragraph to the left and give it a specified width (without expressing the width, the paragraph is 100% wide and won’t fit next to the image).
img { float: right; margin: 20px; } p { float: left; width: 220px; margin: 20px; } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 img { float : right ; margin : 20px ; } p { float : left ; width : 220px ; margin : 20px ; }
Crazy Float Rules
Now we know what a float is and how it affects the boxes of the elements that are involved. Let’s move on to another piece of information that many developers probably don’t understand in the least: the rules that govern a floated element’s position.
It’s often the case that developers will use floats to govern the positioning of list items, perhaps in an image gallery or feature listing. Let’s see how this works by creating a simple list full of images.
<ul> <li><img src="http://placehold.it/100x100&text=1"/></li> <li><img src="http://placehold.it/100x150&text=2"/></li> <li><img src="http://placehold.it/100x100&text=3"/></li> <li><img src="http://placehold.it/100x100&text=4"/></li> <li><img src="http://placehold.it/100x100&text=5"/></li> <li><img src="http://placehold.it/100x150&text=6"/></li> <li><img src="http://placehold.it/100x100&text=7"/></li> </ul> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 < ul > < li > < img src = "http://placehold.it/100x100&text=1" / > < / li > < li > < img src = "http://placehold.it/100x150&text=2" / > < / li > < li > < img src = "http://placehold.it/100x100&text=3" / > < / li > < li > < img src = "http://placehold.it/100x100&text=4" / > < / li > < li > < img src = "http://placehold.it/100x100&text=5" / > < / li > < li > < img src = "http://placehold.it/100x150&text=6" / > < / li > < li > < img src = "http://placehold.it/100x100&text=7" / > < / li > < / ul >
By default, all the list items will appear in a big vertical stack, which obviously means that they are block level elements. Even though the images are inline elements, they’ll be governed by their parent block level list items. To fix this, we might float the list items to the left. When multiple items in a row are floated, they take on a similar effect to a stream of inline elements. However, as we’ll see, there are some key differences.
li { float: left; margin: 4px; } 1 2 3 4 li { float : left ; margin : 4px ; }
Now, if all of our images were the same height, this would be a pretty unremarkable example. The result would look like a simple image gallery with the images appearing in order from left to right:
However, our images are not the same height, some of them are 100px tall, others are 150px tall. This causes some seriously wacky results! Click here or on the image below to see this effect live.
The first time I saw this effect, I was baffled. What in the world was going on here? Why is image number four off to the right side like that? Shouldn’t it be trying to float itself as far left as possible? If we remove the float and instead use display: inline on the list items, the result is drastically different.
li { display: inline; } 1 2 3 li { display : inline ; }
For starters, this example is different in the fact that the images are defaulting to a state of being vertically aligned along their bottom edges. This causes them to look quite different than our previous example, but we can fix this with a single line of CSS.
img { vertical-align: top; } 1 2 3 img { vertical - align : top ; }
Now we’re starting to look a lot like the float example, only displaying the list items inline has a much more predictable stacking order. When there’s no room on the x-axis for the next item, it starts back on the left slide in the next line.
So why doesn’t our floated image gallery work like this? What strange voodoo governs floated items?
Translation Required
It turns out, the CSS spec outlines a list of nine rules that govern the behavior of floats. The problem with this list though is that it was written so that only lawyers and other boring people can understand it. Here’s a direct quote from one of the rules:
“If the current box is left-floating, and there are any left-floating boxes generated by elements earlier in the source document, then for each such earlier box, either the left outer edge of the current box must be to the right of the right outer edge of the earlier box, or its top must be lower than the bottom of the earlier box. Analogous rules hold for right-floating boxes.”
Maybe your reading comprehension is higher than mine, but this and the other rules in the list made my head spin. All this talk of the left outer edge being to the right of the right outer edge is actually pretty basic stuff dressed up to sound complicated. To make things simpler, here are Josh Johnson’s nine rules for float behavior, translated into English for your convenience.
Floated elements are pushed to the edge of their containers, no further. Any floated element will either appear next to or below a previous floated element. If the elements are floated left, the second element will appear to the right of the first. If they’re floated right, the second element will appear to the left of the first. A left-floating box can’t be further right than a right-floating box. Floated elements can’t go higher than their container’s top edge (this gets more complicated when collapsing margins are involved, see original rule). A floated element can’t be higher than a previous block level or floated element. A floated element can’t be higher than a previous line of inline elements. One floated element next to another floated element can’t stick out past the edge of its container. A floating box must be placed as high as possible. (No translation necessary) A left-floating box must be put as far to the left as possible, a right-floating box as far to the right as possible. A higher position is preferred over one that is further to the left/right. (No translation necessary)
Here we can see that many of these are pretty much common sense, but they must be explicitly stated so that every person and browser is on the same page. Basically, the gist of the situation is that floated elements go right up to the specified edge (left or right), but no further. Unless of course there is another floated element before it, in which case it just goes next to that one.
The real surprise that confused us before comes in the rules at the end, which state that floated elements try to stay as high as possible and that this vertical positioning rule takes precedence over the horizontal left/right floating rule that pushes an item to an edge.
In our previous example, image number two stretched the height of the line down so that after image number three, there was still some vertical space for image number four to squeeze into. Even with these rules in mind, the pattern isn’t always easy to predict.
Just keep in mind that when you have one floated element, the next floated elements behind it will take up at least the same amount of vertical space or more before breaking the line and going lower in the flow.
Float Order
One last note regarding the rules that we’ve laid out here. The second rule has some interesting implications for the order of items that are floated. Let’s say we again have a list of images numbered one through six, like this:
<ul> <li><img src="http://placehold.it/100x100&text=1"/></li> <li><img src="http://placehold.it/100x100&text=2"/></li> <li><img src="http://placehold.it/100x100&text=3"/></li> <li><img src="http://placehold.it/100x100&text=4"/></li> <li><img src="http://placehold.it/100x100&text=5"/></li> <li><img src="http://placehold.it/100x100&text=6"/></li> </ul> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 < ul > < li > < img src = "http://placehold.it/100x100&text=1" / > < / li > < li > < img src = "http://placehold.it/100x100&text=2" / > < / li > < li > < img src = "http://placehold.it/100x100&text=3" / > < / li > < li > < img src = "http://placehold.it/100x100&text=4" / > < / li > < li > < img src = "http://placehold.it/100x100&text=5" / > < / li > < li > < img src = "http://placehold.it/100x100&text=6" / > < / li > < / ul >
If we float these images to the left, they’ll appear in order, starting at one and going through six; left to right, top to bottom. However, here’s what happens if we float the list items to the right:
As you can see, the first image actually takes the rightmost position. Similarly, when the line breaks, the fourth image is placed on the right side. This is why you’ll rarely see anyone float a list of navigation elements to the right. To do so screws with the order and would require undesirable changes in the HTML hierarchy to resolve.
Clearing Floats
Floats are handy for accomplishing some great layout feats like creating columns of content. However, once declared, they have an effect on the rest of the document’s flow that you might or might not like! For instance, let’s say we wanted to throw in a paragraph after a block of left-floating list items like the one we had above.
The result is probably not going to be what you hoped for:
The answer here is to use the clear property, which makes it so that no floated items can appear on a given side of the element it is applied to. For instance, let’s say we target the second list item in our little gallery and apply a value of “clear: left”.
ul li:nth-child(2) { clear: left; } 1 2 3 ul li : nth - child ( 2 ) { clear : left ; }
What this code does is tell the browser that the top of the second list item must be below the bottom of any left-floating items before it (in this case, the first list item). If we had all floated all of these elements to the right, we would’ve had to use “clear: right” instead.
Notice that after this, the rest of the floated items maintain their course. That’s because they’re still set to float left, the clear property does not somehow cancel this out. This means that our problem with the paragraph is not fixed by clearing any of the list items.
Instead, what has to happen is that the paragraph element, which is a block level element that has not been floated, must be cleared. This will make sure it appears below the floated elements rather than next to them.
p { clear: both; } 1 2 3 p { clear : both ; }
We technically only needed a left clear here, but when a developer wants to be sure to clear all floats, it’s common practice to see the both value used. This change fixed our problem up nicely!
Float Quirks and Clear Fixes
There’s a peculiar action that takes place when a given element contains only floated elements: the parent element’s height collapses. To illustrate this, let’s say we wanted to put a background color on the unordered list that we’ve being using in all our examples. If the elements in the list aren’t floated, then we need only apply the color to the background using CSS.
ul { background: gray; } 1 2 3 ul { background : gray ; }
As you can see in the example below, the box that defines the unordered list has been turned gray and the list items within are stacked on top of each other.
However, the second that we float those list items, that UL contains only floated elements, and so its height collapses, leaving a newbie developer wondering what the heck happened to his background color.
There are a number of ways to solve this problem. The easiest and most straightforward solution is simply to apply an explicit height to the parent element, which is the unordered list.
ul { height: 300px; } 1 2 3 ul { height : 300px ; }
As you can see, this did indeed give us our background fill back. However, this is rarely the desirable course to take simply because it’s more convenient in the long run if the height is automatically computed based on the contents. If we add three more rows of images to our list now, that height won’t be adequate.
Clearfix To The Rescue
This is where the term “clear fix,” also written “clearfix,” comes into play. Clearfixes address this collapsing height problem traditionally through the use of the clear property.
What developers used to do is create an empty element (often a div) in their HTML on the same level as the floated items, then apply a class of “clearfix” to that empty container. Back in CSS, you would then add clear the floats on the “clearfix” property.
.clearfix { clear: both; } 1 2 3. clearfix { clear : both ; }
This immediately fixes the collapsed height issue:
Given what we’ve already learned, we know exactly why this trick fixed our problem. The reason the height had collapsed is because the parent contained only floated children. Now it has one child, albeit an empty one, that isn’t floated, so the auto height works as expected again.
The problem with this method is that no one liked that extra ugly element in the HTML. It simply wasn’t semantic, meaning that it wasn’t helping to communicate the clear hierarchy of the page.
The new fancy fix for this problem is to take advantage of the overflow property, which governs the functionality of content that extends beyond the boundaries of its containing box. It turns out that if you set overflow to hidden or auto on the parent item, it fixes the height collapse!
ul { overflow: auto; } 1 2 3 ul { overflow : auto ; }
This is definitely the briefest and most elegant solution to fixing the collapsing height issue and should be your go to strategy. That being said, there will be cases where you want the overflow of an element to be set to visible, what should you do then?
The answer is to use Nick Gallagher’s Micro Clearfix Hack, which uses some genius CSS to fix this issue. First, it uses :before and :after to add in some content that we can use to create something in the parent that isn’t floated. However, you don’t really want any content in here, so we leave it empty but set the display to table to create an anonymous cell (empty and takes up no space) and finally use our old friend clear. This creates the invisible block level item we need to fix the height collapse without extra HTML markup. Older versions of IE require their own fix so this is thrown in as well.
/* For modern browsers */.cf:before,.cf:after { content:""; display:table; }.cf:after { clear:both; } /* For IE 6/7 (trigger hasLayout) */.cf { zoom:1; } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 /* For modern browsers */. cf : before,. cf : after { content : "" ; display : table ; }. cf : after { clear : both ; } /* For IE 6/7 (trigger hasLayout) */. cf { zoom : 1 ; }
Conclusion
In this article, we went over a ton of great information, both basic and complicated. We started with a discussion of how what floats are and how they work on a basic level, then proceeded to how setting an element to float affects the bordering boxes of the elements involved so you can properly figure out how to get your margins to work like you want them to.
Next, we moved onto the basic rules that govern the position of a floated element and arrived at some interesting conclusions for how floated elements of varying heights will be positioned as well as how right floated items appear in reverse order.
Finally, we clearly laid out the entire tale of how a parent containing only floated children will have a collapsed height and how you can solve it based on your particular scenario.
If floats were something that confused you before reading this article, join the club. They confuse us all at first. Hopefully though you now have an outstanding knowledge of how floats work and how you can use them to achieve any layout you want. Leave a comment below and let us know if you found this information helpful.McMaster University president Patrick Deane has published a defence of the university's handling of a Friday debate over free speech and political correctness that was derailed by protesters.
But Deane's open letter to the McMaster community also said the "extremely regrettable" incident did not meet the standards of open debate —alongside peaceful protest —the university should foster and aspire to.
Fallout from the cancelled debate continues to be felt on campus, as the university also says it is investigating an allegation of assault as part of the protest that prevented Dr. Jordan Peterson from speaking to a crowd last Friday at McMaster University.
The debate, which was to include three professors to counter Peterson, quickly turned into a shouting match as Peterson struggled to be heard over clanging cowbells, blowing air horns and chanting protestors. Eventually, Peterson retreated outside the hall, where he continued speaking while standing on a bench.
Taking the opportunity to listen to a speaker, even one with whom one may vehemently disagree, is an important aspect of education. - Patrick Deane, McMaster President
One individual was seen blowing an air horn very close to Peterson's ear. Another person reportedly threw glitter on Peterson's face and suit.
Peterson was making an appearance for what was supposed to be an academic debate about freedom of speech and political correctness, especially in academic settings. Peterson objects to the use of gender-less pronouns and laws that would require him to use them.
In his open letter to the McMaster community, Deane, defends the need for open debate on controversial topics on campus. But he says, while the university supports the right to free speech, the right for people to peacefully protest is equally as important.
Opportunity to listen
"Taking the opportunity to listen to a speaker, even one with whom one may vehemently disagree, is an important aspect of education and a cornerstone of academic debate. It has not, therefore, been my approach, nor that of this University, to intervene to shut down events, exclude speakers, or prevent discussion of issues, even where controversial topics are under discussion."
The university's president said the university received numerous calls from both sides prior to the event: some demanding the university shut it down, others demanding the university block the protesters from disrupting it. He decided the best course of action was to let the debate proceed as scheduled. He wrote that, except for "extreme circumstances" the university would not be excluding individuals or canceling events. Protests need to be within the laws and university codes of conduct.
Deane also affirmed the university's commitment to supporting diverse communities and to the rights of minorities.
"As such, the presence on campus of a speaker who may challenge the rights of any particular group should not be seen as undermining the University's commitment to inclusivity, but merely as an opportunity to explore and debate the topics under discussion."
McMaster University president Patrick Deane's second term will stretch from June 2015 to June 2020. (Courtesy of McMaster University)
In reply, Dr. Mark Mercer, president of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship, an organization that says it is dedicated to the defence of academic freedom and respectful debate, called Dr. Deane's response "gravely concerning."
"By conferring a de facto hecklers' veto, this is an open invitation to protestors to shut down events through obstreperous behavior."
"Academic freedom becomes meaningless if protestors are invited to silence whichever speaker or shut down whatever events they chose. A president's defense of academic freedom has to consist of more than reciting abstract words; it must include taking action to remove those who prevent peaceful discussion from taking place."
Jordan Peterson is a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. (jordanbpeterson.com)
Peterson, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto, came into the spotlight last year when he spoke out publicly against what he calls "compelled speech." Peterson told CBC News in a radio interview he does not recognize another person's right to determine what pronouns he uses to address them.
'We never got to have a discussion on freedom of speech'
Hadhy Ayaz, a third year global health student, is the director of political action for the student group called Overcome the Gap. Ayaz said the group decided to organize the debate because they say the issue is relevant to McMaster students and the debate was planned well before the group knew of Dr. Peterson.
It's turning Peterson into a free-speech martyr, which I don't think he deserves. - Dr. Philippa Carter, McMaster professor
In the wake of Friday's protests, Ayaz says Overcome the Gap will be speaking with Deane this week to discuss ways to move forward, including the possibility of organizing another discussion.
"We feel like we never got to have the event we wanted to have, we never got to have a discussion on freedom of speech."
"We want to work with the presidents office to organize a follow-up event, maybe have him on the panel with various McMaster profs and speakers from other institutions to see if we can get a dialogue going," Ayaz said.
"We're hoping this can lead to some positive action on the part of the presidents office."
'Besmirched the reputation of the university'
Dr. Liyakat Takim and Dr. Mathew Grellete of McMaster University decided to back out of the debate. Ayaz said the professors mentioned receiving critical e-mails, which he says might have discouraged their participation.
Dr. Philippa Carter, a professor of religious studies at the university, was to be the third panelist from McMaster. Carter called the entire situation upsetting, saying the incident has damaged McMaster.
"It's besmirched the reputation of the university, that's what bothers me about it. It's turning Peterson into a free-speech martyr, which I don't think he deserves."
Dr. Carter said McMaster faculty is not organizing any kind of action or statement as of right now. However, Ayaz said he hopes to see more faculty members take an active role by joining in the discussion.
Gord Arbeau, director of communications for McMaster University told CBC News the university continues its investigation into an alleged assault. Arbeau said the individual being investigated is not affiliated with McMaster.
McMaster security officers have the ability to investigate, make arrests and lay charges if necessary. Arbeau declined to comment whether Hamilton Police Service will be involved in the investigation.Author Notes:
Finally back with another chapter. I'm really sorry this one took so long to come out. There's a part near the start of this explaining why Frank can only count to nine on his hands. It's a little dark, since, you know, he used to be able to count to ten. So consider yourselves warned. Thanks to everyone who left reviews, PMs and constructive criticism. They are greatly appreciated.
Funnybombninja, slydino, Guest, Fireblade57, Susanbermudez28, Alpenwolf, Angela3000: Thanks so much for your continued support.
G. G. Lapresa and MaxNeverMaxine: Really sorry this took ages. I've been working on this a lot since the last one. I just couldn't bring things together in a timely fashion.
Fireblade57: Regarding Grey and Mercy Graves from superman, I never actually got to watch superman animated; I had to track down a couple of episodes just to see how Mercy behaved. I think it's true I've written Grey kind of similar on a superficial level (officially Prescott's driver, unofficially does 'bad things' for him); to be honest that's probably because Sean Prescott's a bit Lex Luthor-y, in that he's a rich guy who likes to control others rather than act directly. Hopefully some differences will show up in the future. So far Grey's uniform has pants, so I guess that's something?
GrumpyCat42: Thanks. I don't think they shoot the correct part of the bumper for that in the game. Actually, I'm not sure the round hits the bumper at all. Last time I played it, it seemed to go higher, and given that, it probably should have gone straight through the vehicle. In any case if you do happen to hit the exact right point on the curve to get a 180 degree deflection, you run into a different problem, in that the collision becomes highly inelastic with the bullet's soft metal deforming to adsorb most of the impact energy. The flattening of the bullet also reduces impact pressure. And pistol rounds don't usually have that much energy to begin with. When it comes back, unless it hit an eye, the amount of damage it would do would be highly questionable, possibly not even breaking the skin. The highest chances of a lethal ricochet against the shooter are when you get the bullet returned by several glancing deflections, not a single straight 180 degree one.
Random reader: I'm not sure that you've replied to the correct story. Unless those are innuendos, in which case I sincerely look forward to writing about them.
MangekyoMasta510: I lost count of how many times I heard Max tell me there was a bonfire spot near by. Protip to game designers: when you want to give the player a clue as to the location of something, actually include a clue as to its location.
Crowthorne : Wowser, you put a lot of thought into that review. Thank you. Regarding Warren, he has a special place in my heart. A place that could probably do with a bypass operation. His fate was decided with episode 5, where he gets co-opted as the voice of the game authors to info dump, leveraging his alleged intelligence to convince the player. I say alleged since a smart person wouldn't have jumped to the conclusions he did in that info dump – they'd have probably told Max that her use of powers and the storm were uncorrelated given a closer look at the evidence. Nor would they put sodium or potassium in water. So, with this fic having a satirical theme against the original game's forced tragedy themes, it's only natural that Warren becomes a bit of a target. That said, I don't think I've written him as that stupid (yet). Just hopelessly naive about Max liking him, and self-entitled. Arguably not that different from what the original game actually presented, especially if you keep Warren trapped in the friend zone from the beginning and don't give him any hope.
I have a feeling Chloe and Max would be more aware of the first tomb raider reboot. They'd have been a couple of years old at best when the original tomb raider came out, and Legend came out a couple of years before Max left for Seattle. On the other hand, Max might have sought out and played the original for hipster cred.
And LOL at the homicidal deer being dontnod personified. Though I won't deny that at times I feel that may be a somewhat valid meta-interpretation.
Guardian of Azarath: Some of your questions might be answered in this chapter.
SuomynonAX and The Madreader: Regarding Frank, I find him particularly is difficult to write in this, since I try to make everyone a little smarter with their plans and motivations. But for him, pretty much everything involves stupidly antagonising Max and Chloe, mostly due to his bull-headed impulsiveness and short temper. In the original game, Max can provoke him into attacking her right in front of a police officer. Not the smartest thing for anyone to do, let alone a known drug dealer with his rv outside, probably loaded with product. By episode four, he already knows Chloe and Max may have a gun, but sees red so much he tries to choke Max in front of Chloe and wont back down if a gun is pulled on him.
The soft sensation of hand-woven material was a small comfort to Frank Bowers, as it slipped between the three remaining fingers on his left hand. His plan to confront Chloe in her hideout had been less than successful. As had been his search of the rest of the junk yard. Somehow they must have known he was on to them, all he'd found was an old bracelet of Rachel's, sitting on a small table improvised from a wooden reel. It was a lot like the bracelet Rachel had given him, except smaller. A plastic 'R' letter had been incorporated into it. And inseparably linked with it was another identical bracelet, this one with a 'C'. How appropriate, Chloe's bracelet clung to Rachel as desperately as Chloe had in person. He felt a spike of jealousy as he remembered. Always tugging at her arm when the three of them were hanging out, pulling her away from him. In the end, she seemed to have abandoned both of them. Still, some bonds were not so easily severed, those born out of necessity. Like the one between Chloe and her means of transportation. All he really needed to do was wait by her truck, and catch her when she returned.
There was a buzz from Frank's left jacket pocket. He reached inside and extracted his phone. He felt a sudden shot of pain run through his little finger, the finger he no longer had, as he read the text message, and the identity of its sender.
Two (LIMY PSYCHO): If I might have a moment of your time. I know there is a matter of some petty cash between you and one of the girls that arrived on that truck. You will let them get into their vehicle and carry on their merry way or I will be paying you another visit.
Frank practically jumped about face, half convinced he'd find the Prescott's assassin standing behind him, peering over his shoulder. He saw nothing, the place looked deserted. He looked back at his three fingered hand and noticed it was shaking. He remembered a boast he'd often made. That "he wasn't afraid of anyone except his maker." That woman had shown him how wrong, how hollow those words had been.
He recalled the moment that precipitated all of it. An instant of anger when he'd backhanded Nathan across the face. To be fair, the little bastard had really deserved it. Nathan had shown up high in the middle of the night, ranting incoherently about death, ghosts and some stupid school photography project, and nearly brought the cops down on them. It was blind luck that the pursuing police had been far enough back not to notice Nathan drive down to the beach, and instead continued down the coastal highway. Needless to say Frank was more than slightly put out: if the police had declared him an accomplice to whatever Nathan had gotten up to and used it as grounds to search his RV, his entire inventory would have been discovered.
Even then, Frank had realised pimp-slapping Nathan was a dumb idea; the screw up was one of his most prolific customers. What Frank did next caused more lasting damage though, grabbing the terrified kid by the scruff of the neck and showing him his blade. Telling him "he'd carve a chunk out of him and let his dog eat it" if this ever happened again. He sighed. Nathan had been unlucky, he'd caught him at a bad time, it was a couple of weeks after Rachel had left him and he was still sore. Back then he read her parting gift, the most cliché riddled Dear John letter he'd ever seen, every night. "I'm a Leo, so I don't look back" it had said. It really only underscored the age gap, that what they had would have never worked in the long term.
Frank didn't realise the depth of his mistake though. He never stopped to think why Nathan had such a gross excess of disposable money for drugs, ridiculous even for an entitled Blackwell student, or inquire |
That’s what I want."Image copyright AP
The restoration of one of Egypt's oldest Coptic Christian churches, the Virgin Mary church in Cairo, has been completed after 16 years.
Also known as the Hanging Church because it is seated above a 2nd Century Roman fortress, it was home to the Coptic pope until the 13th Century.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab and Coptic Pope Tawadros II attended the opening ceremony at the church.
Christians make up about 10% of Egypt's mainly Muslim population.
Image copyright AP
Many Christians were sympathetic to the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi last year and dozens of churches were damaged in the ensuing violence.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has called for Christians and Muslims to be united and is said to have a good relationship with Pope Tawadros.
Prime Minister Mahlab said the restoration, which cost more than $5m (£3m), was delayed by engineering challenges posed by subterranean water courses.
He was taken on a tour of the church to learn more about the renovation process.
The church is in a compound close to Cairo's first mosque and one of the oldest synagogues.Legislation would set up state fund for obtaining Oregon Inlet
By Rob Morris on May 16, 2014
Legislation to authorize buying or making a trade for Oregon Inlet and establish an acquisition fund that could also be used for dredging was introduced this week in the General Assembly.
The bill, submitted by Republican Sen. Bill Cook, calls for an appropriation of $15 million to create the Outer Banks Land Management Fund, which would accumulate interest for a potential purchase of the inlet and federal land surrounding it.
In last year’s session, the General Assembly set up the Oregon Inlet Acquisition Task Force. The panel is wrapping up a study of options for obtaining ownership, which would give the state more power to build jetties and maintain the channel.
Money from the fund, if the bill passes, would be used to create Oregon Inlet State Park.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is now responsible for dredging but has had to scratch around for money in recent years. The latest budget proposal from the Obama administration allocates only $800,000 for maintenance of the inlet and nearby waterways, barely enough for surveying.
While the state negotiates with the federal government over obtaining the inlet property, money in the management fund could be used for dredging under Cook’s bill. Memorandums of agreement are already in place to allow the state to pay the Corps for dredging.
The short session deals primarily with budget and non-controversial issues.
Major dredging funded by $7.8 million in Hurricane Sandy relief money cleared a channel more than 14 feet deep and 400 to 600 feet wide in December. But the work was quickly undone by sand migrating south from Bodie Island spit.
At one point, the channel was impassable through the navigation span of the Bonner Bridge. A cut has since been cleared by the Corps to deeper water.
Establishment of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore transferred ownership of the property around the inlet to the U.S. Department of the Interior, according to a statement from Cook’s office. The deed was recorded Sept. 3, 1958, in the Dare County Registry of Deeds.
“While the federal government may have had good intentions when they purchased the land around the inlet in 1958, they have unfortunately failed to uphold their promise to take good care of the inlet. Under their control the inlet has been unnavigable and dangerous,” Cook said in the statement. “The time has come to reclaim the land around Oregon Inlet to properly develop and manage it.”CAIRO – The movement for change sweeping across the Middle East has now rocked Libya. Thousands of people have taken to the streets across many cities to demand an end to the 41-year autocratic rule of maverick leader Muammar Al- Gadhafi.
International human rights organizations say at least 24 people have died since the protests erupted Thursday. The regime, encountering its first ever major challenge, launched a violent crackdown.
As with the revolutions that swept two dictators out of office in Tunisia and Egypt, social media remains the most robust source for information on the public revolt in Libya.
The unrest started when Internet activists opposed to the decades-long dictatorial rule of Gadhafi called for a "day of rage" on Feb. 17 to demand his ouster. Activists set up a website to compile web-posts and information on the unrest (http://www.libyafeb17.com/).
Videos filmed with mobile phones show demonstrators in the eastern province of Benghazi attacking the offices of Gadhafi’s so-called people’s committees, which are really government offices.
Young protesters also destroyed official statues of The Green Book, authored by Gadhafi as the country’s de facto constitution in which he spells out his ideology.
"The people want regime change," protesters chanted in online videos, picking up slogans from the Egyptian revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
"Down, Down with the Dictator," Libyan protesters shouted in recordings of demonstrations.
Most of the complaints of Libyans are similar to those that prompted people in Egypt and Tunisia to rebel. Many called for an end to corruption, bringing in democracy, and better use of oil revenues.
The protests in Libya drew a bloody response straightaway. Some tweets alleged that the personal security troops affiliated with Gadhafi’s sons were involved, and had fired upon demonstrators.
International rights organizations confirm that the regime was using live ammunition against the demonstrators.
According to local sources, the regime used mercenaries from African countries to disperse the protesters. Gadhafi, known for his eccentric ways, had in recent years assumed the title of "king of kings of Africa".
Online posts by Libyan citizens say that the city of Derna in the east is "now free", meaning it had no Gadhafi troops by the end of Friday. Other posts in Arabic claimed that Derna citizens were heading to Benghazi to help the locals against the mercenaries.
On Thursday, Amnesty International urged the Libyan authorities "to stop using excessive force to suppress anti-government protests."
The protests come even though the Libyan regime had taken measures to pre-empt the kind of protests that erupted in Egypt and Tunisia. Scores of activists were arrested, and citizens warned against joining protests. Security forces stepped up presence in the streets.
The government banned all press coverage of events, and arrested several reporters in the Mediterranean city Benghazi, which is witnessing some of the most violent clashes.
On Friday, Gadhafi’s government banned all access to the Al-Jazeera website.
"The Libyan authorities tried to smother this protest before it even got off the ground but that, clearly, did not work," Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa said in a statement. "Now they are resorting to brutal means to punish and deter the protesters."
The group urged the Libyan authorities to order an immediate investigation into the deadly attacks against the demonstrators.
Local reports suggest protesters took control of Al-Sehaba Square in Derna city, much as Cairo protesters took over Tahrir Square. They then took control of the whole city, the reports claim.
The government countered with Gadhafi demonstrations. The official Libyan Jamahiriya News Agency (JANA) (http://www.jananews.ly/Index.aspx? Language=1) reported that thousands of Libyans marched in support of Gadhafi on Thursday and Friday. The agency published more than 40 reports suggesting that Gadhafi enjoys the backing of people around the country.
Gadhafi, who overthrew the monarchy in 1969 in a military coup when he was only 27, is the region’s longest-serving leader. He has ruled this nation of 6.5 million with an iron fist. Opponents have been executed, and others sent to life-terms in prison, human rights groups say.
Gadhafi forces study of his Green Book on school students, and has changed the names of calendar months to titles of his own making.
Libya, a mostly desert country, is oil rich. Oil and gas sales accounted for more than 95 percent of export earnings and an estimated 80 percent of fiscal revenues in 2008, according to the IMF.
The unrest may disrupt exports to European countries or push oil prices higher. Libya exports oil to Italy, Germany, France, and Spain. After lifting sanctions against Libya in 2004, the United States has also increased imports of Libyan oil.
(Inter Press Service)
Read more by Emad MekayTheresa @theresamay, don't focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 30 novembre 2017
Britain First is a vile, hate-fuelled organisation whose views should be condemned, not amplified. https://t.co/Qf8plF4wOx pic.twitter.com/tDrG3UggRN — Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) 29 novembre 2017
I hope our Government will condemn far-right retweets by Donald Trump. They are abhorrent, dangerous and a threat to our society. — Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) 29 novembre 2017
Trump sharing Britain First. Let that sink in. The President of the United States is promoting a fascist, racist, extremist hate group whose leaders have been arrested and convicted. He is no ally or friend of ours. @realDonaldTrump you are not welcome in my country and my city. — David Lammy (@DavidLammy) 29 novembre 2017
Trump has legitimised the far right in his own country, now he's trying to do it in ours. Spreading hatred has consequences & the President should be ashamed of himself. — Brendan Cox (@MrBrendanCox) 29 novembre 2017
This is why WE LOVE TRUMP and WHY the FAKE NEWS MEDIA HATES TRUMP. He brings to light what the lying, Fake News Media Won't. The truth is the media covers up horrific numbers of racist hate crimes against White people! https://t.co/G9pP9qCUNM — David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) 29 novembre 2017
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DONALD TRUMP, HAS RETWEETED THREE OF DEPUTY LEADER JAYDA FRANSEN'S TWITTER VIDEOS! DONALD TRUMP HIMSELF HAS RETWEETED THESE VIDEOS AND HAS AROUND 44 MILLION FOLLOWERS! GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA! OCS @JaydaBF @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/BiQfQkTra9 — Jayda Fransen (@JaydaBF) 29 novembre 2017
- L'account Twitter diha ritwittato tre video anti-islam pubblicati da un gruppo di estrema destra britannico. Si tratta di video pubblicati da, numero due di Britain First, gruppo fondato nel 2011 da membri del Partito Nazionale Britannico e che - ricorda la Bbc - ha attirato l'attenzione sui social media denunciando quella che afferma essere "l'islamizzazione del Regno Unito".Una mossa criticata dal portavoce del premier britannicoche ha definito la condivisione dei video "un errore". "È sbagliato che il presidente abbia fatto questo", ha dichiarato il portavoce, aggiungendo che "Britain First cerca di dividere le comunità con l'uso di narrative dell'odio che fanno circolare bugie e alimentano tensioni. I britannici a grande maggioranza respingono la retorica frutto di pregiudizi dell'estrema destra, che è l'antitesi dei valori che questo Paese rappresenta: decoro, tolleranza e rispetto", si legge nella nota diffusa. Ma alla presa di posizione della premier britannica replica lo stesso Trump che in un nuovo tweet si rivolge alla May ammonendola: "Theresa, non concentrarti si di me, concentrati sul terrorismo islamico che si sta facendo spazio in Gran Bretagna".Al portavoce di Downing Street aveva fatto ecco un tweet del sindaco di Londrache ha twittato che le opinioni di Britain First sono impregnate di odio e andrebbero condannate e non amplificate.A rincarare la dose l'indignazione dei maggiori esponenti del Labour Party,in testa, alcuni dei quali hanno chiesto di annullare l'invito per la visita di stato di Trump nel Regno Unito in programma a gennaio.Anche il consiglio dei musulmani britannici ha condannato "il chiaro sostegno" dato dal presidente Usa "alla vile propaganda anti islamica" ed ha espresso la speranza che "il nostro primo ministro prenda le distanze da Trump".La condanna emotivamente più forte è arrivata da, il marito di, la deputata britannica assassinata lo scorso anno da un uomo che avrebbe gridato "Britain First" mentre l'attaccava. "Trump ha legittimato l'estrema destra nel suo Paese ed ora sta cercando di fare lo stesso nel nostro - ha scritto in un tweet - diffondere l'odio ha conseguenze ed il presidente dovrebbe vergognarsi".Ma se Downing Street ha stigmatizzato i tweet di Trump, in tutta risposta è arrivata la dichiarazione dell'ufficio stampa del presidente alla Casa Biancache ha giustificato il gesto: "Io non parlo della natura del video - ha detto la portavoce parlando ai giornalisti - credo che vi stiate concentrando sulla cosa sbagliata. La minaccia è reale ed è di questo che sta parlando il presidente". Secondo Sanders i video sottolineano la necessità di rafforzare la sicurezza ed i confini nazionali.Entusiasta il nazionalista bianco ed ex gran maestro del Ku Klux Klanche ha elogiato Trump: "Ecco perché lo amiamo mentre i media delle fake news lo odiano. La verità è che i media nascondono gli innumerevoli crimini razzisti perpetrati contro la popolazione bianca".Nel primo dei tre video, intitolato 'Un migrante musulmano picchia un ragazzo olandese sulle stampelle', si mostra un giovane dai capelli scuri che va incontro ad un ragazzo biondo sulle stampelle in un parco. Prima lo abbraccia e poi all'improvviso comincia a prenderlo a calci e pugni in modo brutale.Nel secondo filmato, dal titolo 'Un musulmano distrugge la statua della Vergine Maria!', il protagonista è un uomo dalla barba lunga e nera, tunica e copricapo tipicamente arabo, che prende una statua della Madonna e la getta in terra con violenza riducendola in pezzi. Accanto all'uomo, un altro con la barba nera ride di fronte al gesto violento.Nell'ultimo video, 'bulli islamici islamico spingono un ragazzino sul tetto di un palazzo e lo picchiano fino ad ucciderlo', si sentono le urla della vittima circondata da uomini con il volto coperto. Uno di loro sventola una bandiera nera che potrebbe essere quella dell'Isis. L'ambientazione ricorda o è chiaramente quella di una città mediorientale. Alla fine del filmato l'immagine shock del ragazzo spinto giù dal tetto.La Fransen, che ha 52mila follower, ha ovviamente esultato per il fatto che i suoi tweet sono stati condivisi dal presidente Usa. "Donald Trump stesso ha ritwittato questi video ed ha circa 44 milioni di follower nel mondo - ha scritto - Dio benedica Trump! God bless America!". Fransen, è stata già condannata per crimini d'odio e nelle prossime settimane deve affrontare un altro processoSarah S (Read) Last spoken to 10 months ago Chatting for 14.8 days 12 emails
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Me? I'm a bacon fanatic, and I'll use any excuse to add bacon (or bacon grease) to anything.
I figured I'd start compiling a list of 1,001 things to do with bacon, and I invite -- or, rather, challenge -- you to join along. Drop me an e-mail with your ideas, recipes or links. I want to see how fast we can grow this list.
In the meantime, here are some recipes to get us started:
#1 Candied Bacon Martini
#2 Panzanella (Italian bread salad with, of course, bacon)
#3 Apple bacon coffeecake
#4 Roasted potato salad (with, of course, bacon)
#5 Maple-bacon biscuits from Zoe Nathan, the pastry chef at Rustic Canyon in Santa Monica
And here are more bacon recipes to tide you over until next time.
-- Noelle Carter
Photo credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles TimesYou will never guess who’s soon to be winning. Well, unless you read the title. Or are remotely familiar with tired pundit tropes.
Writing for the Forbes contributor network and Nigel Farage LARPing Academy (jokes torn unceremoniously from today’s headlines like a soggy Band-Aid!), Ben Sin says everything’s coming up Samsung! A-gain.
“With iPhone 7 Likely To Disappoint, This Fall Is Samsung's Time To Strike.”
Samsung is ever the coiled viper, Apple the unsuspecting and well-fattened bunny with a limp.
According to Sin, the iPhone 7 will be nothing but a in-flight fail sandwich from the food cart of Yesterday’s News Airlines, as Apple saves all its thunder for the iPhone 8 in 2017.
I made that assumption based on early leaks from Apple insiders. While those sources are highly reliable, they are still of the “niche” variety.
MY SOURCES ARE UNIMPEACHABLE. One of these guys literally works at the Orange Julius two doors down and across the way from the Minnetonka Apple Store.
(The Macalope originally wrote in “Cinnabon” instead of “Orange Julius” but then he decided, no, phoning it in like that is no good for his readers, so he went to the web site for the Ridgedale Center in Minnetonka. What’s actually two doors down and across the way from the Apple Store? Dairy Queen/Orange Julius. Boom. The horny one is sure that it’s this level of detail to a stupid joke that keeps his readers coming back for more stupid jokes.)
…now even the very mainstream Wall Street Journal (who also has a good track record with Apple leaks)…
I AM JUST LIKE THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
…has confirmed that the iPhone 7 will likely disappoint the general public.
CONFIRMED. IPHONE 7 A SNOOZE SALAD WITH ENNUI DRESSING FROM AU BORE PAIN.
Why is the iPhone 7 so decidedly, verifiably lackluster? Because it will come in the same general shape as the iPhone 6s. That’s the argument.
Let us pause for a moment to review two competing arguments being made about Apple. Another article the Macalope considered writing about for today was about how the iPhone SE selling so well was bad news for Apple because cannibalism, blah, blah, who cares, it’s just another Apple extinction event. So, the iPhone SE, which has the same body shape as the iPhone 5 which came out in 2012, is selling briskly. And, yet, the iPhone 7 will fail because it will have the same body as the noooo, none of this makes any sense. You’re absolutely right.
So now if you’re Samsung, and you’ve been battling Apple in a smartphone war (that has spilled onto the courtroom) for half a decade, and you know the iPhone 7 will likely generate a “huh? this is it?” reaction, then you have to go all-out this fall and take your biggest shot, right?
Now’s the time! Slap together a phone with flying buttresses and a cup holder and enhanced creeper technology!
(No, you stop linking to that ad.)
It’ll be virtually impossible for Samsung to overcome Apple in total profits, but it can push the market share gap further in its favor.
Oh, were we just talking about market share? Dude, nobody cares about market share. We settled that like three years ago.The'shaker hood' option is a throwback to the 1960s
Model LeAnn Michele shows off the new'shaker hood' scoop on the special edition Dodge Challenger at the SEMA convention in Las Vegas (Photo11: Dan MacMedan USA TODAY) Story Highlights The'shaker hood' is back
It's an induction scoop that sticks up through a hole cut in a car's hood
Chrysler is offering it as feature on the Dodge Challenger
LAS VEGAS -- There's going to be a new option for buyers of the Dodge Challenger next year that will pay even more homage to the great muscle cars of the 1960s.
It's an air-induction scoop sticking up through a hole in the hood.
With an assist from Chrysler's Mopar aftermarket parts division, buyers of the 2014 Dodge Challenger R/T will be able to buy a "shaker" edition -- so named for the so-called "shaker hood" that will come with it. It is designed to further showcase the car's 5.7-liter V-8 Hemi engine.
That might not sound like rocket science, but bringing the look back is tougher than it sounds. Lots of safety regulations have changed since the heyday of the 1960s muscle cars. Plus, engineers had to make sure the scoop won't be clogged by snow, sleet and rain.
The hood scoop's return came at the place where Dodge and Mopar are likely to find a high concentration of nostalgic high-performance addictes, the SEMA aftermarket auto parts trade show here. Dodge showed off a 1970 Challenger, as well as the new one, to see how close in concept the new shaker hood is to the original.
"The legendary'shaker' performance hood is back...making the new 2014 Dodge Challenger R/T Shaker the real deal," said Tim Kuniskis, CEO of the Dodge Brand in a statement. "With Challenger having its best sales-year ever, the time is right to provide our most loyal fans with the return of the shaker."
It's called a shaker because back when they were popular, you could see the engine vibrating, or shaking, from the parts sticking oer the hood.
The new 2014 Challenger R/T Shaker will arrive at Dodge dealerships in the early next year at $36,995 before delivery charges are added, or $37,495 a buyer wants the racing stripes too. The shaker option, which includes a few other performance items, is $2,500 more than the Challenger R/T Classic. Through Mopar, the shaker hood feature can also be added to other late-model Challengers.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1hjYQdYThe population of the city of Jarablus in northern Syria has increased from 3,500 to approximately 35,000 people after Turkey-backed forces liberated the city from Daesh, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency.
The Turkey-led Operation Euphrates Shield, which began late August, aims to improve security, support coalition forces and eliminate the terrorist threat along the Turkish border through Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters backed by Turkish artillery and jets.
Approximately 1,900 square meters, including the city of Jarablus - a critical province in northwestern Syria close to the Turkish border - was cleared from Daesh militants after the operation started.
Since the civil war started in Syria in 2011, Jarablus was controlled by not only Daesh but also by the PKK and Democratic Union Party (PYD) from time to time. The city was under Daesh control when the Turkey-led operations liberated it by using howitzers and other air equipment.
The number of residents to whom the Turkish government provides humanitarian aid increased from 3,500 to approximately 35,000 after the liberation, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency. Before the civil war, the population of the city was around 30,000.
Drinking water and electricity in the province was provided by Turkey's southeastern Gaziantep governor's and mayor's offices soon after the liberation.
Schools in Jarablus, rebuilt by the Turkish government, also started to operate after a three-year break due to the war.
Hospitals and health and emergency centers were also opened with the help of the Turkish government in the province.
Shopping centers, restaurants, bakeries and even jewelry shops are currently serving Syrians in Jarablus.
"Our business is doing well," Muslum Ali, owner of a jewelry shop in Jarablus who started his business three months ago, told Anadolu Agency. "It's good enough for us to be in our nation."
President of the Jarablus Assembly, Muhammed Habesh, told Anadolu Agency migrations to Jarablus since last August had continued from other neighboring cities.
Habesh said commercial activities were getting revived in the city, thanks to Operation Euphrates Shield.
"Our priority is security. People here can live freely right now, they can go out into the streets whenever they want," he said. "It happened thanks to the contributions of Turkey and the Turkish soldiers for sure."
After the liberation of Jarablus, the Turkey-supported FSA continued its operations in the area by hitting 883 targets with 965 bombs and destroying 2,392 improvised explosives and 42 mines.
The town of al-Rai in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo was liberated as well. FSA forces are currently trying to liberate al-Bab, which is a strategic city for Daesh.
Since the operations there began at the end of November, more than 2,700 targets were hit and 391 Daesh militants were killed.MGM Resorts International has spent months laying the groundwork to bring Las Vegas-style gambling to Georgia, including a behind-the-scenes push to woo influential leaders and trips to scout potential sites for a $1 billion complex, interviews and documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution show.
Supporters of the effort to expand gambling insist there’s a pathway to put a constitutional amendment to legalize casino gambling before Georgia voters as early as 2016, despite signs of opposition from Gov. Nathan Deal and key lawmakers.
MGM officials have toured property near Centennial Olympic Park and “the Gulch” in downtown and are also interested in bringing gambling to Savannah, according to documents obtained through the Georgia Open Records Act.
The casino giant has crafted a pitch that gambling can help revive Georgia Lottery-funded programs like the HOPE scholarship that have cut rewards amid increasing demand. Advocates also claim casinos under the proposed legislation could create more than 10,900 jobs statewide.
MGM and its supporters sense that political winds have shifted in recent years, with a slim majority of GOP voters voicing support for casino gambling in 2012 and some traction this year to allow horse racing.
“We like the concept of putting a resort somewhere in the metro Atlanta area,” said Lorenzo Creighton, the president of the MGM National Harbor in Baltimore and a member of the team scouting Georgia. “It all starts with the HOPE scholarship, which would be the primary benefactor. It’s a win-win.”
To get there, supporters of expanded gambling must overcome obstacles that have scuttled a litany of previous proposals. Efforts to build gambling complexes in Underground Atlanta, in suburban mixed-use sites and in hard-hit neighborhoods fell flat amid political opposition.
They face critics such as Deal and state Sen. Judson Hill, a Marietta Republican who said lawmakers should be focused on reducing regulatory burdens and cutting spending rather than seeking “unproven solutions.”
“This is not in the best interests of Georgia,” Hill said.
Kicking the tires
As casino supporters prepare their public pitch — a legislative committee is set to study the idea this year — MGM and its allies have met with senior Georgia World Congress Center officials. MGM joined the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, despite having no major operations here.
The president of MGM Resorts, Bill Hornbuckle, toured the World Congress Center on April 30 with a team of company executives. Mark Zimmerman, the center’s general manager, wrote Hornbuckle the next day that it was “very exciting” to hear about the company’s developments.
“I look forward to this journey and hopefully being a key resource for data and information so that you and your organization can make an informed decision on what is best for the Congress Center and Atlanta,” Hornbuckle replied.
A spokeswoman for the Georgia World Congress Center Authority said the convention center does not have a position on expanded gambling in Georgia.
In a statement, Frank Poe executive director of the GWCC Authority, said “At the request of MGM, we met with their executives to learn more about their business. The Authority has not requested, received, nor offered any proposal for development with MGM on our campus.”
People with knowledge of the situation have told the AJC that MGM is most interested in sites near the Georgia World Congress Center and future Falcons’ stadium because of the high tourist and convention traffic.
The company has examined the site of the current Georgia Dome, but Kim Schreckengost, a top aide to Falcons owner Arthur Blank, said that site will be a parking and tailgating site for fans. She declined further comment.
Creighton, the MGM executive, confirmed multiple locations are under consideration.
“We are putting some thought into what we do, what potential locations we’re looking at,” said Creighton. “But it’s not unusual for us to do that, now that the conversation has started.”
The casino company is also talking up the financial impact. One projection sent by MGM lobbyists to the Georgia Lottery showed more than 10,900 statewide jobs could be created if six casinos are built. (Total casino revenue projections were redacted from the document to protect sensitive MGM information, a lottery spokeswoman said.)
State officials are doing their own due diligence. The GWCC has vetted MGM and its new developments in Massachusetts and Maryland, and asked a noted hotel consultant to determine how other convention centers are affected by casinos. They also obtained a joint marketing agreement between MGM and a Massachusetts agency that operates a convention center in Springfield.
‘A lot of juice’
The prickliest question involves how to overcome the objections of the governor, who has repeatedly said he opposes expanded gambling.
Deal wouldn’t have to sign off on the ballot question seeking voters’ approval for casinos in Georgia. But he would have to approve legislation that lays out the nuts-and-bolts of how it works.
The governor’s top aide, Chris Riley, pointedly predicted that won’t happen while Deal is in office. His term ends at the end of 2018.
Supporters hope to change Deal’s mind and win over lawmakers by depicting the debate as crucial to the future of the HOPE scholarship, which has had to cut awards to students in recent years as lottery sales struggle to keep up with high demand and rising tuition costs. This comes despite record profits from the lottery for the fourth consecutive year.
The casinos would be required to pump revenue into an education account that, according to one industry estimate, could generate $250 million a year for the program — about a quarter of the money the lottery pumped into pre-k and HOPE in fiscal 2015.
Creighton points to the National Harbor complex taking shape in Prince George’s County, Md., as an example. The company says it will have 12 restaurants, a luxury hotel, spas and stores, and a 4,000-seat entertainment venue. Some 3,600 employees will be on the payroll.
“We build resorts, and resorts are different than the traditional concept people see in a casino. We think this fits well in Atlanta’s tourist mix,” said Creighton. “It’s totally different than just putting slot machines in a building.”
A study committee will meet this year on the future of the scholarship. Co-chair Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, predicted the findings will focus on an expansion of gambling.
“It’s pretty clear we have to look at other funding streams beyond the lottery,” said Beach. “That brings us to horse racing and casino gambling.”
State Rep. Ron Stephens, a Savannah Republican who sponsored the legislation, said the legislative push could begin in earnest in January.
“There’s a lot of juice behind this,” Stephens said.It was the second day of Eid and I had traveled with my companion, Iqbal Qaiser, to the village of Makhdoom Pur Pahuran, almost halfway between Lahore and Multan.
We were in search of a gurudwara, the premises of which were now being used for a government school. The wooden door of the school was looked. After much effort, we located the guard and requested him to lead us to the gurudwara.
There were two missiles at the entrance of the school, named Abdali and Ghori, on the nuclear warheads that the Pakistani establishment boasts. Before us was the main gurudwara, raised on the spot where Guru Nanak, hailed as the founder of Sikhism, preached his message of peace and tolerance.
This now housed the office of the principal. There was a Quranic verse on the forehead of the building, extolling the significance of education. The boundary wall going all around the school was filled with the 99 names of Allah and other verses from the Quran in calligraphy. A section of another wall was dedicated to Muslim scientists.
Every day, young and impressionable children come to this and thousands of other such schools spread across the country. Here, they are indoctrinated with propaganda about Islamic superiority and nationalism, premised upon half-baked historical facts.
In textbooks across Pakistan, historical Islamic characters are depicted as legendary figures who challenged the demonic rajas or kings of India. Tales of Muhammad Bin Qasim, Muhammad Ghori, Mahmud Ghaznvi, and Ahmad Shah Abdali are taught to Pakistani students in subjects as varied as Urdu, Islamiyat, and Pakistan Studies. Last year, it was reported that some Quranic verses were also included in chemistry textbook.
The situation is not much better in private schools. A few years ago, while I was working in one of the country's leading private schools of the country I noticed similar propaganda all over its premises. One board was dedicated to Islamic heroes, which included all the aforementioned invaders. Devoid of their political contexts and character traits, they were presented as Islamic warriors fighting for the cause of Allah.
Another board proclaimed the benefits of fasting and prayer and said it is alright to beat up young children if they do not fulfill their Islamic duties.
This indoctrination continues into colleges and universities. According to the laws of the country, all students have to be taught Pakistan Studies - roughly, the history, geography, politics culture and demography of the country - and Islamiyat in school as well as college. This rule applies to public as well as private institutions and the only exceptions are non-Muslim students, who can opt for civics instead of Islamiyat.
However, many members of minority religions whom I spoke to said they prefer to study Islamiyat over civics. This is because there have been complaints of discrimination during college admissions against students who have not taken Islamiyat. Others assert that in an Islamic society where the threat of the blasphemy law looms large, many minorities like to acquaint themselves with Islam so that they don't unconsciously offend the sensibilities of Muslims.
Recently, I interacted with a Hindu student from Tharparkar, in the Sindh province, residing in Islamabad who spoke of how Hindus in Pakistan are expected to respect the sensibilities of Muslims, but the reverse does not hold.
In all government universities, bonus points are awarded to students who are Hafiz-e-Quran - that is, they have learned the Quran by heart. No such benefit exists for non-Muslim students with respect to their religious knowledge.
Over the years, universities and colleges churn out Islamised students who go on to form the new breed of professors and administrators that mould the curriculum and the atmosphere of the universities according to their moral standards.
Recently, the University of Sargodha banned boys and girls from sitting together anywhere on the campus. A notification from the university stated that they may sit together only in groups of three or more. Similarly, the University of Swat had issued a notification disallowing students from sitting or walking with the opposite sex inside and outside the campus. The notice was later withdrawn.
At Punjab University in Lahore, one of the largest universities in the country, the Jamiat-e-talaba, the student wing of religio-political party Jamaat-i-Islami that is known for its sympathy to Islamic militants, has maintained a stronghold for nearly three decades now. Roaming around the campus, their cadre ensures that the so-called Islamic environment of the university is upheld. Several private universities in Pakistan have also boasted of the Islamisation of their environment.
Some student groups and liberal professors have tried to fight back and |
to vegetable oils but the butters are fixed vegetable fats that are solid at ordinary or regular temperatures but usually melt at or below body temperature.
Shea Butter
Off-white fatty substance from the nuts of the African Shea tree. Not a conditioner but rather a sealer that will seal in the moisture you need to keep your hair moisturized.
SheaMoisture Raw Shea Butter Moisture Retention Shampoo heals dry, damaged hair, and promotes growth and strength.
Cocoa Butter
A pale-yellow fatty substance extracted room the cocoa bean. High in Vitamin E and rich in minerals and has been used in hair conditioners for years. It increases the resilience of hair and adds volume.
As I Am DoubleButter Cream Rich Daily Moisturizer is a rich emollient blend of organic oils and vitamins and add softness, shine and manageability.
Mango Butter
The fatty acid that’s cold pressed from the mango seeds and the mango originates from southern Asia. It’s great for nourishing hair and scalp and has moisture sealing properties like most butters.
Oyin Handmade Burnt Sugar Pomade contains a massive blend of oils, butters and vegetable waxes is a superior humectant and protectant for your hair while adding high sheen and serious moisture.
Hydrolyzed proteins
Proteins that have been hydrolyzed just mean the chemical compound has been split into smaller units through the hydrolysis process. This makes them easier to be absorbed into the hair shaft. They increase hair’s ability to retain moisture and impart gloss to damaged hair.
Hydrolyzed Silk proteins
Derived from one of the strongest fibers in the world. Forms a crystalline protective barrier around hair strands and improves hair’s elasticity.
Ouidad Curl Recovery Ultra Nourishing Cleansing Oil is a nourishing cleansing oil envelopes the hair shaft to rebuild and protect it from damage and retain moisture and shine.
Hydrolyzed wheat proteins
A protein derived from whole wheat that is moisturizing and conditioning to hair.
Curlisto Repair Styling Cream is a leave-in conditioner that will add shine and softness while warding off breakage and dullness.
Hydrolyzed Soy proteins
Water soluble protein derived from soy that strengthens and mends the hair fiber while increasing the hair’s ability to hold moisture. It will add shine and smooth out the hair shaft.
U R Curly Tight Curl Enhancer will rejuvenate your curls, coils and waves with this alcohol-free, rich with glycerin and soy protein curl enhancer that will work hard at conditioning your hair.Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich was pressured to step down after it was revealed that he donated $1,000 to California’s Proposition 8 ballot measure against gay marriage. In a story twist, it was revealed that the Internal Revenue Service was responsible for a leak in which they turned over the donor records of the campaign to a gay rights group.
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The controversy heated up when dating website OKCupid asked users not to access their site using the browser as an act of protest, which initiated a firestorm that resulted in Eich’s resignation. Curiously enough, Eich presided over some of the most pro-gay policies of any company in America, including health care benefits and anti-discrimination policies. It also was revealed that he donated to libertarian leaning former congressman Ron Paul. So why did he donate to Prop 8? And were the tactics used to get Eich to step down legitimate?
All that and more on the Freedom Report podcast!
The Libertarian Republic is giving away a replica of George Washington’s flintlock pistol. Click here to learn more and enter your email for a chance to win a model of our first president’s beautifully engraved firearm. Or simply enter your information below and you’ll be registered!I would like to introduce a new set of NextCloudPi dockers.
Finally, it seems that the upstream docker containers both for x86 and ARM are caching up in terms of reduced size. That is great news because it relieves the burden of creating and maintaining the minidebian and miniraspbian base images.
This means that we can finally rebuild the NextCloudPi container easily on top of Debian Stretch. The result of this is a set of containers for different architectures that can be generated from the NextCloudPi codebase.
We now have
Nextcloud docker container for ARM: ownyourbits/nextcloud-armhf
Nextcloud docker container for x86: ownyourbits/nextcloud-x86
NextCloudPi docker container for ARM: ownyourbits/nextcloudpi-armhf
NextCloudPi docker container for x86: ownyourbits/nextcloudpi-x86
You can find them in dockerhub
We will also have arm64 containers, as soon as I set up my new odroid HC1 to create the images.
Nextcloud containers
These contain only Nextcloud, Postfix and so on but no other software or management interface. You still have to do your certificates and networking yourself.
This used to be known as the nextcloudpi container before.
NextCloudPi containers
The difference between nextcloud and nextcloudpi is that the latter contains also ncp-web, letsencrypt, DDNS, package autogrades and many other NextCloudPi features.
The first goal of creating this container was to facilitate an easy x86 development environment for NextCloudPi. We have this today.
The second goal, looking into the future, is to provide a docker image that benefits from the NextCloudPi web panel and package of related services, such as Let’s Encrypt, DDNS, unattended upgrades or backups. Nextcloud needs a bunch of networking, system configuration and management, and our goal is to simplify this.
At this moment, the extra NextCloudPi layer contains a subset of the options available in the SD image. Some options, such as wifi management don’t make sense at all inside a container, and others still need some work to be adapted.
As usual, help, issue reports and sugestions are welcome.
Installation
See this other post in order to setup docker on your Raspberry Pi if you haven’t done it yet.
Docker is the only requisite, but it is also nice to install docker compose for easier management.
For instance, in Arch
sudo pacman -S docker docker-compose 1 sudo pacman -S docker docker-compose
Or in Debian
sudo apt-get install docker.io docker-compose 1 sudo apt-get install docker.io docker-compose
Usage
The usage has not changed. If we are not in localhost, we need to provide the IP address or domain in order to be included in the trusted domain list.
IP=192.168.1.130 docker run -d -p 4443:4443 -p 443:443 -p 80:80 -v ncdata:/data --name nextcloudpi ownyourbits/nextcloudpi-armhf $IP 1 2 IP=192.168.1.130 docker run -d -p 4443:4443 -p 443:443 -p 80:80 -v ncdata:/data --name nextcloudpi ownyourbits/nextcloudpi-armhf $IP
The first time it will take some seconds to do the initial configuration, wait until you see ‘Init done’ in
docker logs -f nextcloudpi 1 docker logs -f nextcloudpi
Then, you can log into Nextcloud
https://<ip_or_url> 1 https://<ip_or_url>
, or the web panel
https://<ip_or_url>:4443 1 https://<ip_or_url>:4443
If you want to have your persistent volume in a particular folder, you can pass an empty folder as an argument
IP=192.168.1.130 docker run -d -p 4443:4443 -p 443:443 -p 80:80 -v /media/USBdrive/ncdatadocker:/data --name nextcloudpi ownyourbits/nextcloudpi-armhf $IP 1 2 IP=192.168.1.130 docker run -d -p 4443:4443 -p 443:443 -p 80:80 -v /media/USBdrive/ncdatadocker:/data --name nextcloudpi ownyourbits/nextcloudpi-armhf $IP
With docker-compose (optional)
First, clone the repo to get the compose files
git clone https://github.com/nextcloud/nextcloudpi.git cd nextcloudpi 1 2 git clone https://github.com/nextcloud/nextcloudpi.git cd nextcloudpi
Then, run one of them with compose up. Examples:
docker-compose up -d # x86 NCP docker-compose -f docker-compose-nc.yml up -d # x86 NC only IP="192.168.2.130" docker-compose -f docker-compose-armhf.yml up -d # ARM with trusted domain 1 2 3 docker-compose up -d # x86 NCP docker-compose -f docker-compose-nc.yml up -d # x86 NC only IP="192.168.2.130" docker-compose -f docker-compose-armhf.yml up -d # ARM with trusted domain
Notes
For nc-forward-ports to work, you need to run with –net=”host”, or setting up the docker0 bridge address to that of your local network, or use the macvlan driver. All of those are advanced or reduce isolation, so I would recommend to do the port forwarding manually at this point.New Questions About Timing Of Romney's Bain Departure
Enlarge this image toggle caption Evan Vucci/AP Evan Vucci/AP
The Boston Globe reported new details Friday about Mitt Romney's lingering ties to his private equity firm, Bain Capital, after he left Boston to run the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
The Globe says Romney was "not merely an absentee owner" between 1999 and 2002, despite financial disclosure forms that say he "has not been involved in the operations" of Bain Capital "in any way," for more than a dozen years.
Writes the Globe:
"Interviews with a half-dozen of Romney's former partners and associates, as well as public records, show that he was not merely an absentee owner during this period. He signed dozens of company documents, including filings with regulators on a vast array of Bain's investment entities. And he drove the complex negotiations over his own large severance package, a deal that was critical to the firm's future without him, according to his former associates."
The Fact Checker column in The Washington Post had previously accused the Obama campaign of "blowing smoke" about Romney's role at Bain. Friday, the Post softened its position, citing what it called "ambiguity" about Romney's position.
It's been a week since Romney's TV blitzkrieg, in which he tried to put to rest the questions about his role at Bain Capital.
Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed as late as 2002 list Romney as the CEO. But in interviews with CNN and others, Romney insisted he was not responsible for Bain's decision-making once he left to run the Olympics.
"There's a difference between being a shareholder — an owner, if you will — and being a person who's running an entity," Romney said last Friday to CNN's Jim Acosta. "And I had no role whatsoever in managing Bain Capital after February of 1999."
The Obama campaign has scoffed at this distinction, producing a Web video in which ordinary citizens raise their eyebrows at Romney's legalese.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who studies political communication at The Annenberg Public Policy Center, says it's no wonder people are confused.
"When a candidate is speaking in the technical language of a specific kind of business enterprise, the public is going to have difficulty understanding what he's saying," she says.
Romney's challenge is made harder because he didn't officially retire from Bain until 2001. That was after negotiating a severance package that continued to pay Romney for a decade after he'd left for Salt Lake City.
"When one uses a word such as retroactive retirement, or when one is explaining how one continues to get income, even though one is not actually managing day-to-day operations, one is dealing in a universe that most of us have no experience with," Jamieson says.
In contrast, President Obama's argument about Romney is straightforward.
"I think most Americans figure if you're the chairman, CEO and president of a company, that you are responsible for what that company does," Obama said last week in an interview with Washington, D.C., television station WJLA.
Obama has been criticizing Romney over Bain Capital's investments in companies The Washington Post said helped ship jobs overseas. That outsourcing charge coincides with questions about when Romney stepped down from Bain. But the timing may not be that important, since some of the investments in outsourcing firms were clearly made while Romney was still in charge.
"Nobody really cares when he left. That's not what's relevant. And that's not what's gaining traction," says Frank Luntz, a Republican messaging guru.
"What is having somewhat of an impact, and I've seen it myself in the research I've done in Ohio," he says, "is a doubt, whether he connects to those who are economically challenged, who have already decided the Obama administration hasn't delivered for them over the last 3 1/2 years, but now aren't certain whether Mitt Romney will deliver for them over the next four years."
Romney cites his business experience as one of his key qualifications for the White House. Jamieson says the Obama campaign is trying to neutralize that argument by casting doubt on Bain's track record and forcing Romney to distance himself from the firm.
"By virtue of positioning Bain as a central element in his resume, it's becoming an indictment," Jamieson says.
If there's any lasting impact of this timing debate, that could be it.Once the home of ‘champagne socialism’, much has changed in Islington since New Labour’s 1997 victory. With the borough now set to spawn a very different kind of Labour leader, we visited the streets where extreme poverty exists alongside the capital’s ‘super-gentry’
There can’t be many people left in the country who’ve never heard of Jeremy Corbyn. He’s up there with Calais migrants and Cecil the lion as the story of the summer of 2015. But at dusk in Richmond Crescent, Islington, the time of day when Ocado vans are drawing near and there’s a distant sound of corks being gently eased from bottles, I stop two residents in the street and they look blankly at me when I mention his name. For the past 32 years, Corbyn has been the MP for Islington North, but there’s not even a flicker of recognition. “We’re Canadian,” the man explains. “It doesn’t mean anything to us.”
I’m here because Islington, the borough that nurtured Tony Blair and the New Labour dream, that became synonymous with the new middle class, aspirational Labour party, the party of sundried tomatoes and polenta and holidays to Tuscany, is back in the spotlight. With Corbyn’s emergence as the leadership frontrunner, Islington has found itself, once again, on the frontline of Labour politics. And I’m trying to figure out what has changed in the space of time between Blair and Corbyn. In Richmond Crescent, I have my first clue.
Because if anywhere can be said to have been the heart of the New Labour project, then it’s Richmond Crescent, a street of handsome four-storey, flat-fronted early Victorian houses. This wasn’t just Islington. It was Islington – the mythical media invention, the signifier of how the Labour party had changed; how it had evolved beyond its factionalist past, its years of unelectability.
Even the Canadian couple, off for dinner in one of the many restaurants of nearby Upper Street, know something of the street’s history. “Tony Blair lived right there, didn’t he?” says the man, pointing a few doors down. He did, I say. But then they look blank again when I point out the house of Emily Thornberry, their MP in Islington South (and shadow attorney general until she resigned after tweeting a photo of a white van covered in England flags during the Rochester byelection). A couple of doors past hers is an identical one belonging to Margaret Hodge, the former leader of Islington council and now MP for Barking and Dagenham. “We knew that actually,” says the woman, “because our landlady is her sister.”
Back in 1997 it was a place of middle-class gentrifiers. The Blairs bought their house for £375,000 in 1993, and Emily Thornberry, a barrister like Cherie, tells me she and her family moved into the street on the same day. (“Ours cost £300,000 and didn’t have much of a roof.”) But now, as Loretta Lees, a professor of geography who lives in the north of the borough, tells me, the gentrifiers have been replaced by “super-gentrifiers”. And when I describe the Canadian couple I meet – he works in the City though declines to say as what – she says, “That’s them!” The deregulation of the banks that began under Thatcher with the big bang then picked up pace after 1997 with Gordon Brown’s raft of changes, has brought forth a new demographic in Islington: the global elite.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Former prime minister Tony Blair and wife Cherie lived in Islington until relocating to Downing Street in 1997. Photograph: Nick Cornish/Rex Shutterstock
These new residents, whether British or foreign, says Lees, share certain characteristics: “The UK super-gentrifiers tend to have gone to the same elite private schools and then to Oxford and Cambridge, and move in the same circles. And the Americans and Canadians and so on tend to be the same. They’ve gone to the same elite universities, and often move between London and New York and Hong Kong, so their networks are global.”
The word “gentrification” was coined in 1964 and soon came to be used to describe what was happening in Islington, but the process has never ended. Lees first noticed what she calls super-gentrification in Brooklyn Heights, New York, and then realised it was also going on in London. In the original wave, the stripped-pine pioneers of the 60s and 70s, it was largely liberal lefties who moved back into the inner cities, Lees says, and living among the working class was part of the appeal. “Whereas now you have a super-elite sitting next to marginalised council estates, and the social tectonics are quite different. What does the global elite have in common with someone off the local council estate? Nothing. And they don’t mix.”
I’d hoped to knock on Tony Blair’s front door to see who lives there now, but I can’t: there’s no front door. If you want a symbol of how London has changed since 1997, it’s right there: the entire front of the house has been blocked off with hoardings and the board of a fancy architect. Every Londoner recognises the signs: there’s a super-basement in progress. “Super-basements are very super-gentrification,” says Lees.
The house was last sold in March 2014 for £2.9m. Though since that’s just over a year ago, in the hyper-inflated world of London property, Zoopla now estimates it’s worth £3,425,000. And yet it’s not a road of millionaires. In Islington, rich and poor really do live side by side. Watering his garden, opposite, is Stephen Flanagan, 74, who tells me he rents his flat from the council and points out Emily Thornberry’s and Margaret Hodge’s matching Toyota Priuses parked next to each other. He’s no fan of Thornberry, it turns out, though he’s even less a fan of Hodge. “I’ve lived here for years. And none of them has ever invited me in.”
His neighbour, a thirtysomething lawyer who works at a firm in the City, does say hello, however. She’s living in a shared rented flat, she tells me, but is moving out “because I want to find somewhere cheaper”.
The dominance of the City, the arrival of massive foreign wealth, the hollowing out of the middle class, the transformation of this part of Islington into an area where even corporate lawyers can’t afford the rents – these are all things that have changed since 1997. For the past eight years, Britain has been suffering the consequences of the financial crash, and in Islington, it’s being played out on the streets. It’s where the bankers who presided over the system live side by side with those who are now paying for it: the poor.
But there’s no doubt that many people have done well out of two terms of New Labour and the coalition government that followed. Property owners, in particular; and property owners in London, above all.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Labour MPs Emily Thornberry, above, and Margaret Hodge live in the same street in Islington, a few doors down from Tony Blair’s old house. Photograph: Glenn Copus/Evening Standard /Eyevine
But, in Islington, that’s just 31% of the borough’s population. A greater proportion, 42%, live in social housing, and another 27% rent from the private sector. In the public perception, “Islington” is a dog whistle. It symbolises overpriced cappuccinos, loaves that cost a fiver, and the kind of over-entitled metropolitan privilege that makes much of the rest of the country come out in an allergic rash. Private Eye satirises it in its cartoon strip “It’s Grim Up North London”. And many despise what it stands for, and the fact that large parts of the media – the Guardian and Observer, whose office is in the borough, very much included – seem to believe it is the centre of the known universe.
It’s breathtakingly unequal here, one of the most unequal places in Britain and becoming more so
“People think it’s where champagne socialists sit in their £3m townhouses, don’t they?” I say to Kristina Glenn, director of the Cripplegate Foundation, an Islington-based charity. “Well some do,” she says. “There is a portion of the population of whom that’s true.” And then there’s everyone else. And she reels off the stats: “The fourth-highest child poverty in the country. The 14th most deprived borough. A third of children living in overcrowded conditions. Forty per cent of older people living in poverty. The lowest life expectancy in London. The highest number of serious mental health issues in the country. The highest levels of depression in England.”
She draws breath briefly. “And that’s sitting cheek by jowl with a world in which a one-bed flat costs half-a-million pounds and private rents take up 40% of people’s incomes. And it’s in your face, this other world. The shops on Upper Street, and the cafes where coffee costs £4. If you grow up here you know you are never going to walk into that world. It’s a glass wall. And you see it come out in terms of mental health. Stress, anxiety, depression – what is that a reflection of? Why do we have that here? Why do we have the highest levels of male suicide in Britain?”
It’s breathtakingly unequal, Islington, one of the most unequal places in Britain, and becoming more so. Its complaints, its problems, its housing crisis, its soaring levels of mental health issues – all of these suggest something rotten in the heart of the system: crippling, chronic, ever worsening levels of inequality. And maybe this is why what has happened in Islington between Tony Blair becoming leader and the present moment – with the Labour party either staring into the abyss, or finally rediscovering its cojones – really does matter.
Is Islington a bellwether, I ask Glenn. Inequality is rising everywhere, so is this a more exaggerated version of what’s happening in the country as a whole? “I hope not!” she says. And then adds firmly: “I don’t think it’s inevitable.”
The Cripplegate Foundation, which she tells me has been fighting poverty in Islington since 1500, is all about taking action, not just talking about it, and she’s relentlessly positive. “There are things you can do,” she says. You just have to do them.
At Camden town hall in King’s Cross, yards over the border from Islington, on Monday night, I find 1,500 people who think Jeremy Corbyn is the man to do these things. It’s his first central London engagement since his great leap forward in the polls, and I turn up an hour early to make sure I get in. Ha! The queue is 500 yards down Euston Road, and when I turn the corner I discover that’s just the overflow queue for returned tickets. The queue to get in the door is 200 yards further on. And inside, it’s mayhem.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Arsenal’s Emirates stadium was opened in 2006, with 60,000 seats and at a cost of £390m. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP
Corbyn is greeted like Mick Jagger… Jagger in a yellow shirt with vest peeping through and biros in his pocket
It’s the first time many Westminster lobby correspondents have seen the Corbyn roadshow in action. A deputy political editor who has managed to squeeze through the crush collapses next to me. “I’ve never seen anything like it!” he says. “I covered the entire general election but this is… unbelievable.” Most of the crowd are under 30, and there’s a sense of wild anticipation. “Actually, Nicola Sturgeon’s first breakthrough rally,” he says. “That had the rock music. And the young people. And the religious overtones in the secular setting.”
Religious?
“You know. The enthusiasm. It’s like a revival meeting.”
The hall is packed, as are three overflow halls, all of which Corbyn addresses in turn, and there are still hundreds outside, so he climbs on top of a fire engine belonging to the firemen’s union and talks to them from there. The only comparison in my memory banks is that it’s like when I saw Jagger come on stage at a Stones concert. Jagger in a yellow shirt, with his signature vest peeking through, a row of biros in his top pocket. The roar is deafening.
It’s only then, glancing around at the people cheering from the upper balcony, and others craning in from a window outside, that I realise I’ve been in this room before. On 1 May 1997 I ran out of my flat across the road in Euston, where I was watching the election results on TV with a group of friends, in a state of high excitement, and it was in this chamber that I saw Glenda Jackson being returned to great whoops of joy as MP for Hampstead in the Labour landslide. The atmosphere is not dissimilar. There’s the whiff of gunsmoke in the air: some of the people here are the age I was then, and for them this feels like as much of a change.
Why are you here, I ask 26-year-old Joe Odell. “Because it’s amazing to have someone actually speak to us,” he says. “It feels like, finally, this is our time!”
You need a 66-year-old to speak on your behalf? “It doesn’t matter that he’s 66. It’s not about celebrity. He speaks our language. We just want what our parents had. I’ve graduated with £50,000 of debt. I work for Centrepoint [the homeless charity] and pay £650 a month in rent to live with seven other people. It’s a miserable life. What long-term future do I have in London? ”
He had done a masters in Middle Eastern studies at Soas, and still he considers himself “one of the lucky ones”. He had found work at least, and has been able to move out of his parents’ house in Reading into a shared flat. The big thing about Corbyn, he says, is that he offers hope. “My generation has been silenced. We’re locked out. So many careers are dominated by a small elite of privately-educated people who can afford to do unpaid internships. We want a politician who’s honest. That’s all we want. And to have politics that isn’t being made by a focus group. And that’s why it’s so exciting right now.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The flat from cult sitcom Spaced is in Tufnell Park. It now costs £460 per week to rent, compared with £90 a week when the programme first aired in 1999.
It’s a similar story from Josh Fenton-Thomas, a 26-year-old from Sheffield, who’s just completed a masters at UCL. He previously voted Lib Dem and Green but has joined Labour to vote for Corbyn. “There’s been a lot of scaremongering but what he says really resonates with me.” Miranda Larbi, 25, is another Green. “But everyone in my office is obsessed with Jeremy Corbyn, so they told me to come to this and be Corbynated.” And have you? “I don’t know. Maybe. I’ll see.”
In the great scorecard of winners and losers of the past 15 years, the young are the greatest losers of all. Everyone seems to agree on this, and nobody has done anything about it. Emily Thornberry, Corbyn’s counterpart in Islington South, tells me that “nobody should be left behind”. And she runs through some of the same stats about the borough that Glenn gave me. “We have child poverty worse than Glasgow. There’s this total misconception about what Islington is like.”
Everything, she says, “boils down to housing”. “Housing is about intergenerational justice. It’s the same as what happens when there’s a crisis in a pension fund. The ones who are already in it are OK. They ate all the fish. They use up all the funds. And it’s the new people coming in who pay for it. And, yet, that younger generation is not voting.”
But the Labour party presided over this entire process, I say. There are things it could have done that it didn’t, and things it did that made it so much worse. The Labour party encouraged buy-to-let. “I agree with you,” says Thornberry. “Whenever I saw Gordon, he’d say to me. ‘Yes, I know. Housing. Housing. Housing.’”
“But can’t you see,” I say, “how it sticks in the craw that Tony Blair has come out of this with a property portfolio worth millions? That a third of MPs are buy-to-let landlords?”
There’s a hesitation before she answers, and it’s only afterwards I realise why. According to the Daily Mail, she, too, is a buy-to-letter. “I was brought up on a council estate and my mother lived on benefits, and I ended up doing very well. I bought my own place and one for my mum and now that she’s not there I’ve rented that out. That’s the reality of my life. And I have a depth of experience that I’ve learned from and can bring to bear.”
But that route is now closed. From council flat to Islington townhouse is a preposterous storyline in 2015. And while wealth isn’t a predictor of political sentiment, or an obstacle to it, it’s perhaps not a coincidence that so many politicians of a certain generation – and political commentators – didn’t see the pent-up frustration and lack of hope that has propelled Jeremy Corbyn to the centre stage.
David King, a 22-year-old who works for a housing association and campaigns on behalf of the pressure group PricedOut, lives in the north of the borough and tells me about his flat. “We actually consider ourselves quite lucky because we found this cool web tool called OpenRent, where you don’t pay fees to an agent, but it’s a tiny, slightly damp flat in Archway with single-thickness brick walls, so it’s freezing in winter, and it’s surrounded by tall buildings so has no direct sunlight.
“You’re part of this big London machine where you get a job you could never have got anywhere else, and you have access to these fantastic places and events – and then you look at your bank balance and there’s no money there, and it’s never going to pay you enough to escape this way of life.”
He’s another Corbyn supporter. “He’s so out of date that he’s actually cool. He’s not the old leftwing nutter that people are trying to paint him as. I think he actually believes in the principles of cooperatives, and that’s just another word for the sharing economy that everyone’s always talking about.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kings Place, home to the Guardian Media Group since 2008, is inside the borough, as is Google’s new London headquarters. Photograph: David Levene
Dick Whittington – London’s great Everyman – entered the city near David King’s flat at Archway, I point out, and we mull the point for a while. “It’s the dark side of the meritocracy argument,” he says. “If London is a place where you’re meant to make it and you don’t, how does that make you feel? At my age, people are quite romantic about the hopelessness of it all. It’s the ones in their 30s who are angry or in denial. They don’t want to admit their lack of options. There’s a certain degree of shame.”
And worse. Ruth Hayes of the Islington Law Centre forwards me a case worker’s notes on one of their clients: “B, a 61-year-old, turned up for advice very stressed and upset that his private landlord might unlawfully evict him from his home. B suffered from pain attacks, anxiety, claustrophobia, chronic fatigue, vertigo, high blood pressure, sleep apnoea and diabetes. B had signed an assured shorthold tenancy agreement and recently received a letter from his private landlord’s solicitor asking him to vacate the premises in two months’ time. B had nowhere to go.”
People who are older can cast their minds even further back to a pre-sundried tomato Islington. Jonathan Portes, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, grew up in the borough and still lives there. (He went abroad at the wrong time, he tells me, and now rents: “I don’t complain about it because I’m lucky to be able to afford to.”) But he has seen the place transform. “It’s happened in my lifetime and it’s just astonishing.”
In the 1970s, when his parents moved in, they were the leading edge of gentrification. There was a pillow factory at the end of the street, he says, and London was believed to be in terminal decline. Portes remembers the 1980s and fills me in on a part of Islington’s history I didn’t know about. It was at the forefront of leftwing politics then too. “It was the epicentre of the SDP. In the early 1980s there were three constituencies in Islington, and all three Islington Labour MPs defected to the SDP in 1981. The battles in the Islington Labour party were very bitter.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Watch our film The Jeremy Corbyn Effect: ‘Jez we can’ - John Harris charts the rise of the Labour leadership contender
That time could come again, some believe. Many think that Corbyn could split the party in as bitter and contested a way. The Observer’s Nick Cohen is another long-time Islington resident, who moved there in 1987. “I’d got married, I was a reporter, my wife was a manager at John Lewis, and we were still able to buy a flat in Islington within six months.” He’s in the more affluent south of the borough, which takes in Richmond Crescent and the edges of the City, the tech hub at Silicon Roundabout and the parade of fancy chains and restaurants on Upper Street (where Granita once stood, the restaurant that hosted the infamous Blair-Brown non-aggression pact). Islington North, he points out, “is a bit like a south Yorkshire constituency. [Much of it] is very, very poor, and it’s only ever had a Labour MP. It’s only MPs for safe seats who can hold these kinds of positions. It’s like John Redwood on the right, who has a massive majority. If you’re in a marginal seat, you’re desperate for swing leaders. You appreciate your leader’s attempts to compromise.”
Cohen, a veteran observer of Labour politics, isn’t buying what Corbyn is selling. “He’s done lots of disgusting things including sticking his head up the arse of half the tyrants on the planet because he’s in an absolutely safe seat.”
Corbynmania is, in his view, “very narcissistic. It’s people saying, ‘We don’t care if we lose. We just want to feel good about ourselves. It’s identity politics. Your identity comes first, above everything else. It’s not about trying to achieve something.”
But the problems are so huge – in Islington, in the Labour party, in the country – that it’s not hard to see why so many people feel so hopeless about that prospect. Four years ago, Islington council, under its leader, Catherine West, now the MP for nearby Hornsey and Wood Green, set up a groundbreaking “Fairness Commission” and asked Richard Wilkinson, the co-author of The Spirit Level, a seismic study of inequality published in 2009, to help chair it.
“What was interesting was how many people showed up,” he tells me. “We held a series of public meetings and huge numbers wanted to come and tell their stories. They wanted to have their say. I think there’s a very large number of people who normally don’t express opinions but who, when they see some possibility of improvement, or someone who seems to offer something different, the lid comes off. It’s like the 10 million people who watched Mhairi Black’s maiden speech, and the similar number who watched the interview with Russell Brand. There’s a lot of people pissed off with the whole political world.”
There were some results from the commission. The council now pays all its employees the living wage, and when a new chief executive was appointed, it involved a £50,000 pay cut. But the problem is bigger than that. It’s systemic. And what The Spirit Level showed was that inequality makes life worse for everybody. The most unequal countries are the most violent, and have the poorest health, the highest levels of teenage birth and prison populations, and the lowest educational achievements.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Former Labour party leader Neil Kinnock, now Lord Kinnock, lives in Tufnell Park. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
“The more inequality we have, the more we seem to judge one another and the more anxious we get,” says Wilkinson. “Everything becomes about status.” And it’s in this context that Islington’s record levels |
you a text message alerting you of the security change. Now notice that this is nearly 100% identical to the current softfork functionality.
If you used the drop-into-spv option during the bip66 fiasco you would have had exactly the same outcome as a non-upgraded node.
But soft forks are ugly and make the codebase complex!
If you look at the historical codebase, Satoshi themselves appears to have realised soft forks were possible after the first release, adding, for instance, ten NOP opcodes that we’ve since used for upgrades. In my own CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY making it a soft fork was an obvious decision – the hard fork version of it is a cosmetic change, precisely because it can use one of the NOP’s Satoshi added.
Not all softforks will result in ugly protocol design (apologies if I gave that impression). What I had in mind was p2sh and segwit which could have been designed much better by dropping the softfork requirement. In the case where the softfork just redefines an OP_NOP, my criticisms are restricted to those related to security and process.
But soft forks are undemocratic!
An interesting non-technical objection is that because nodes and miners who haven’t adopted the soft fork end up in the main chain anyway, this is a case of a majority undemocratically forcing a minority to adopt new policies. Of course, it’s your choice to use a protocol with this feature! Satoshi could have just as easily written Bitcoin to treat unknown block versions as invalid, but choose not too.
In today’s development environment, softforks can be rolled out with the approval of only a handful of core developers and a handful of mining pool operators. The grand total of people needed to sign off on a change right now is about a dozen. This is part of the reason why many of us feel development and governance are broken.
Remember back to the example above where Peter said your options in the face of a softfork are:
1) Upgrade
2) Take a security hit and continue
3) Turn off your node and stop using bitcoin.
With a hardfork you have a fourth option ― refuse to upgrade and continue on the current chain. If enough people threatened to do this (meaning there isn’t broad community consensus for the change), the miners will be effectively blocked from upgrading since they wont want to risk the coins they mine being unspendable. The hardfork process prevents the scenario where 10 people ram through a change over the objections of everyone else.
When Peter says, “Of course, it’s your choice to use a protocol with this feature!”, he’s basically suggesting that if you don’t like the possibility that the rules governing your money can be changed by a committee of 10 people then you don’t have to use Bitcoin!
I’m tempted to comment further but I’m pretty sure that statement speaks for itself.
More pragmatically, if 95%+ of the hashing power disagree with what you think the protocol should be, the remaining 5% chain probably isn’t secure anyway, so at minimum choosing to still use it should be an explicit choice (and you probably need a new PoW function).
This would be a much stronger argument if mining was not consolidated into the hands of just a few pool operators. If you want to ram through a change by softfork, all you need to do is convince these people to run your code:
The process of making protocol changes by hardfork is inherently more inclusive as those miners will have to consider what the rest of the community, where they will be spending their mined coins, wants. If 95% of miners upgrade in a hardfork, you will still need to cave in and upgrade to use Bitcoin, but at least you know the reason the miners upgraded is because nearly everyone else supported the change. The same cannot be said for softforks where the change could (in theory) be pushed through over the objections of the rest of the community.
Could softforks be made less objectionable?
I think they could but they would end up resembling the outcomes you’d get with a hardfork. Consider the following objections and how you would address them:
Involuntary security reduction
If softforks had a grace period similar to BIP101 your node could be made notify you (preferably by email or SMS as very few people read the logs) that you have two weeks to upgrade or else suffer a security downgrade. At least here people are give an explicit choice and the security downgrade doesn’t just hit them out of the blue. If they choose not to upgrade even after the warning then I think you could conclude they consented to the security downgrade.
Full node veto
As I said earlier, in a hardfork full nodes get an effective veto of protocol changes since refusal by super-majority to upgrade will block any change from going through (since miners wont want to risk mining coins they can’t spend). But with a softfork, miners can force a change on people since their nodes just follow the longest chain.
But this could be changed to give node operators the option to reject blocks with a version number they disapprove of. For example, if miners want to upgrade to version 5 blocks but nearly everyone objects, node operators could instruct their node to reject version 5 blocks and block the change. Just like with a hardfork.
The fact that today full node operators don’t have either of these options when a softforks rolls out is the source of most of my objections. But note that if these changes were made, softforks would just end up looking like hardforks anyway. Except with hardforks you still get a better protocol design in cases like segwit.Ubuntu designers have unveiled an updated set of icons for use in Unity.
New icons for the Ubuntu Software Center, the Software Updater, and Nautilus have been ‘released’ today as ‘part of a larger set of Launcher icon changes’.
As OMG! Ubuntu! writer Sam Hewitt recently noted, a unification between the Software Center and various ‘Software Updater’ applications was missing.
This update appears to address that directly by way of a uniform update icon ’emblem’ (an ‘A’ (presumably fo ‘Application’) with a loading bar 3/4 completed across it).
An asset attached the bug update for the icons’ release reveals that other new icons are on the way, too. These include a revamped BFB (the Ubuntu icon in the Unity launcher); a Faenza-style Ubuntu One icon; and a cleaner Workspace Switcher item that highlights the workspace currently in use.
Ubuntu recently confirmed that Faenza icon designer Matthieu James had been hired to work on a new icon set for Ubuntu – are these the first fruits of his labor?From Cornelia to Eos: A Final Fantasy Series Retrospective from a First Timer November 24, 2017 by Keegan Lee Part I: Final Fantasy I-III As a young boy, I picked up an attachment to video games very early. Starting out as the "Player 2" to my sister's "Player 1," I didn't have a console of my own until the release of the original PlayStation, and with it came a game I'd never heard of before: Final Fantasy IX. Before this, my gaming experience had been limited to platformers and Tetris. It didn't take long for me to become enraptured in the game's world, though there was one problem. At that point in my youth, my reading comprehension was lackluster, to say the least. Whenever a dialogue-heavy scene would occur, I would have to call my mother in to help me read the text. For anyone who has even a passing knowledge of Final Fantasy, you can imagine how often this happened. It didn't take long before my mother got fed up and gave me an ultimatum: "Learn to read, or give up the game." It was quite a burden to put on my young shoulders, but I was determined to continue exploring Gaia. So, with as much gusto as a little kid can manage, I threw myself into my education, buying up chapter book after chapter book, spending my nights buried in homework, until I was reading at a high school level. If it hadn't been for Final Fantasy IX, I literally wouldn't be the man I am today. I owe so much to this series, and what better way to repay that debt than to ring in Final Fantasy's 30th anniversary by replaying the mainline series? Starting at the very beginning, I plan on knocking out Final Fantasy I through XV before the end of this year. While I will be excluding XI and XIV for the sake of brevity, rest assured that every mainline Final Fantasy game will be discussed. My intention with these features is to take a look throughout the series, and to discuss the good, bad, and ugly parts of Final Fantasy. So, without further ado, let's start at the very beginning.
Final Fantasy: Back to the Future While Final Fantasy IX was the first Final Fantasy I ever played, the Game Boy Advance port of Final Fantasy was the first game in the series I completed. Unfortunately, my old Game Boy is long gone, so for this playthrough, I went with the PSP version, which in my opinion, is probably the best version of the game currently available. While the original NES version was definitely a pioneer at the time, it is very dated by today's standards and its issues are notable. Certain stats simply didn't work in the game, and you had to be precise with your targeting. For example, if your Warrior and Thief were attacking the same enemy and the Thief killed said enemy before the Warrior attacked, the Warrior would simply do nothing when his turn came. For my playthrough, I ended up with a party consisting of a Warrior, Thief, White Mage, and Black Mage. It's a very solid party, especially when you complete the class change side quest, which allows the Warrior and Thief to cast white magic and black magic respectively. If you decide to pick up Final Fantasy, I highly suggest you only have two mages in your party, as magic can be extremely expensive. Which leads me to my next point, specifically the grinding required in the game. While it's possible to beat the game quickly, if you wish to be prepared and adequately leveled, you need to spend a few hours grinding. Magic and items become quite pricey around the middle of the game, and with a leveling system that tends to hand out stat boosts at random, it's essential that you take time to work on your party. I spent a good amount of time leveling around Elfheim, the third city you end up visiting, and I was pretty well off until the end of the game. Story wise, Final Fantasy presents a pretty simple plot by today's standards, minus some confusing time travel and an inescapable time loop revealed towards the end of the game. However, the story does not easily present itself to the player. Like many older RPGs, Final Fantasy has very few cutscenes, requiring players to talk to NPCs found within towns to get a full grasp of what's going on and where to go next. I remember my first time playing through on the Game Boy Advance version; I tended to get lost very easily. It's a pretty straight shot from the beginning of the game to the Dark Elf fight, but once you have the ship and the world opens up, it's very hard to tell exactly where to go next. Sure, you have your basic mission: restore the four crystals of earth, wind, fire, and water. But figuring out where these crystals are can be time consuming. Though it may sound like I'm quite negative towards the game, Final Fantasy established much of the groundwork that we still see in modern games. Many of the monster designs are unique and strange enough that they can still be seen in even the most recent Final Fantasy releases. We also see the beginning of the Black, White, and Red Mage, character designs that proved massively popular throughout the RPG community and beyond. Final Fantasy is like a grandparent. Yes, his stories might be dated and even a little boring, but when you know how much he's accomplished in his life, you can't help but respect him. Would I recommend Final Fantasy to a modern audience? Absolutely. But don’t expect a mind-blowing experience akin to modern games. Instead, you should relax, sit back, and watch history unfold before your eyes.
Final Fantasy II: Dear God, Why Quest 64 was one of the only RPGs released on the Nintendo 64, and it was not a good game. The story was drab, the controls were abhorrent, and the grinding would push even the most patient of gamers to their limits. So why am I discussing Quest 64 in a Final Fantasy feature? Because I would rather play nothing but Quest 64 for the rest of my life than play another hour of Final Fantasy II. If you want a quick synopsis, I’ll keep it simple. Final Fantasy II is a bad game. When I first started this journey, I thought that my biggest obstacles would be towards the later half, with the likes of FFVIII and FFXIII, which are generally considered low points in the series by most fans. Unfortunately, in my hubris to complete the early entries, I completely forgot about Final Fantasy II. To call Final Fantasy II a bad game is an understatement. It hits all the wrong notes for an RPG, and it plays like an elephant trying to do origami. At the beginning, Final Fantasy II seems like a large improvement over its predecessor. The story starts off strong, with four newly orphaned children escaping the "evil empire," a trope that would become a staple in later entries in the series. In its defense, Final Fantasy II is responsible for many reoccurring elements in the Final Fantasy series. The Ultima spell makes its first appearance here, along with Chocobos and the original Cid. However, this is the only good thing I can say about this game. To start, let's discuss the leveling system. Unlike every other Final Fantasy game, where characters level up after acquiring a certain amount of experience, Final Fantasy II functions similar to the Romancing SaGa games. For example, if you want a character to be a strong sword fighter, you have to make sure the character battles using mostly swords. I'll admit, this doesn't sound too bad on paper, but the other stats are where this system falls short. The only way to increase a character's HP is to take damage and end the battle in a wounded state. So if you want your party to survive against even a gentle breeze, you must be constantly damaged. And if you want to build a capable healer, you have to use healing spells on these wounded characters. But if a character is at full health, then they have no chance of increasing their HP. I hope you can see how truly backwards this system is. Most players spend the first few hours simply attacking their own party members to increase their skills. In turn, this can make Final Fantasy II either the hardest or easiest game in the series. Those who are new to the game more often than not experience plenty of party wipes, while experienced players tend to overlevel and rush through the game easily. If you are worried that rushing through the game will hinder your experience, I promise you, you aren't missing much. The story is lifeless, even when compared to other NES-era RPGs. The main characters are dull as bricks, while the temporary party members, who actually have rather decent backstories, get killed off at such a rapid rate that it almost becomes humorous towards the end of the game. And even these temporary party members function exactly the same as the main party, so when they do join up with the main characters, you're practically forced to spend hours leveling them up to an adequate point. Grinding, thy name is Final Fantasy II. Honestly, it surprises me that the Final Fantasy series managed to survive past this entry. Final Fantasy II was before my time, so admittedly, I can't speak on how the game felt when it was first released. But compared to later entries in the series, II is really the lowest point. Fortunately for me, it's all uphill from here. Long story short: please don't play Final Fantasy II. Your sanity will thank me.
Final Fantasy III: Introducing the Job System I was really excited to play Final Fantasy III, as it was the only Final Fantasy I'd never touched. Before working on this feature, I had dabbled in most Final Fantasy entries, even completing a few back in the day. But Final Fantasy III had eluded me for all my life. I think this mostly had to do with the fact that gamers in the west didn't have the chance to experience it until the DS release in 2006. At the time, I was going through school, so my gaming hours were sorely taken up by school work and being an angsty teenager. So how does Final Fantasy III fare in this day and age? Starting out, I noticed that Final Fantasy III has a rather high initial difficulty. It took roughly an hour for all four player characters to join the party, and even then, there was a bit of time before I had access to the job system. But this little hitch goes away very quickly once the meat of the game is introduced. For those unfamiliar with the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy III was the first game to introduce the job system. While Final Fantasy I did have character classes, once you picked your team at the beginning of the game, you were stuck in those roles. With FFIII, however, players are able to freely change jobs on the fly to suit their needs and create the ultimate party. The system did need some refining, which we'll see in Final Fantasy V, but hey, it's a start! My process for games that involve changing jobs is to constantly and obsessively make sure the classes are equally leveled. This turned out fantastic for me, but for those who would prefer to stick to only a few classes, this can potentially lead to disaster. For example, near the beginning of the game, the party must be under the Mini status ailment in order to proceed. This means that, for this particular dungeon, physical attacks are completely worthless; you need a full party of magic casters. My only gripe with this scenario is that there's no advance warning for players. If you want to play through Final Fantasy III, you're going to have to grind. A lot. And God help you if you aren't prepared for the final dungeon. The Crystal Tower is a gauntlet of bosses, with practically no breaks in between, and no chance for players to catch their breath, as the regular enemies are no laughing matter as well. Pray that your healers stay alive, and maybe you'll get to see the ending. Scholars and Ninjas are your friend! Grinding aside, Final Fantasy III is a very enjoyable experience. The story is perfectly up to par, though I can't really speak for the original NES version. For those unaware, the DS version of Final Fantasy III contains more than just pretty graphics and quality of life changes. While the main party in the original NES version were essentially blank slates, the DS version features a fully fleshed out party, with intricate backstories and quirks. I feel like this really gives a leg up to the DS version, especially if you prefer your games to be story heavy. Now, let me discuss the biggest problem for anyone currently playing the DS version. Final Fantasy III has a mailing side quest that relies heavily on the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. This service allowed DS owners to access DLC and online services for games, similar to what we see now in modern consoles. The service, however, was discontinued in 2014. This scenario wouldn't be such a big deal if it didn't affect the base game. Unfortunately, some endgame content in Final Fantasy III requires this service. Players are no longer able to access the post-game dungeon or acquire the ultimate class, the Onion Knight. I admit, this may not be important to some, but for a completionist like me, it's a big letdown. Out of the original three entries, I feel that Final Fantasy III is the strongest. Building on the original gameplay of Final Fantasy I, while simultaneously destroying almost everything from Final Fantasy II, this entry is a solid experience, with a story that still has legs even to this day. If you're like me and missed it when it released, do yourself a favor, and pick up a copy of Final Fantasy III.
The Complete Journey < Return to Feature Hub
Twitch Schedule & Status Sunday, March 3rd
TBA • 10am PST/1pm EST Mondays
Suikoden w/Maxx • 12pm PST/3pm EST
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory w/Kat • 4pm PST/7pm EST Tuesdays
Kingdom Hearts III w/Kyle • 3pm PST/6pm EST
Chrono Cross w/Scott w/Scott • 7pm PST/10pm EST Wednesdays
Mass Effect w/Nathan • 10am PST/1pm EST
Chrono Cross w/Scott • 7pm PST/10pm EST Thursdays
Tales of Vesperia - Definitive Edition w/Kat • 4pm PST/7pm EST
Chrono Cross w/Scott w/Scott • 7pm PST/10pm EST Fridays
Super Robot Wars X w/Kyle • 3pm PST/6pm EST
Final Fantasy XIV Online w/Scott • 7pm PST/10pm EST Saturdays
Final Fantasy XIV Online w/Scott • 5pm PST/8pm EST Wargroove Review Random Encounter 159 Podcast Sunless Skies Review Crowdfunding Chronicles Volume 7 Feature The Eightfold Road: Metal Arrangements from Octopath Traveler ReviewStory highlights Buttock enhancement had the largest gains of any procedure in 2013
Plastic surgeons see women who want the derrieres of stars
"Cosmetic gynecology" is also on the rise
Last year was the Year of the Butt.
According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, there was a 58% increase in buttock enhancement surgery in 2013 compared to the year before. This operation had the largest gains of all cosmetic procedures for the year.
So why are so many Americans undergoing surgery to enhance their derrieres?
I believe the answer lies with the media, both broadcast and social. Plastic surgeons are seeing more and more women who want the backsides of various stars. While I don't hear Jennifer Lopez's name much anymore, other stars with ample behinds have taken her place.
Ratings for her reality show may be declining, but Kim Kardashian is still the poster child for a large and shapely backside. In fact, a recent butt selfie (also known as a "belfie") on Instagram went viral with over 1 million admirers "liking" it. Beyonce's skimpy outfit at the Grammy Awards this year displayed her well-rounded tush for all to see and admire. And Internet sensation Jen Selter's nearly impossibly round and smooth bottom is quickly becoming the most requested rear end of all. In fact, one of my patients even dubbed it the "Eighth Wonder Of The World."
Dr. Anthony Youn
It's not easy to get curves like theirs. The most common type of buttock enhancement, called the "Brazilian Butt Lift," involves liposuctioning fat from the thighs or hips, purifying it, and then re-injecting it into the buttocks.
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The surgery typically takes a minimum of two to three hours to complete and costs more than $5,000. In addition, I instruct my patients to avoid sitting on their bottom for a month in order to prevent the fat and derriere from flattening out. Not an easy thing to do.
The other technique of buttock enhancement involves insertion of solid silicone implants, one in each cheek. This surgery can be quite painful, and in the wrong hands has a high risk of infection and implant displacement. Because of this, it's not an operation that I perform.
Interestingly, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the other procedure that underwent a huge increase in 2013 was labiaplasty. Last year the number of women undergoing labiaplasty increased by a whopping 44%.
So what exactly is labiaplasty?
This surgery involves removal of excess skin from a woman's labia minora. Yes, the skin is cut off in order to treat problems such as chafing, pain during intercourse, and even cosmetic concerns.
This field of cosmetic surgery has been dubbed "cosmetic gynecology" and is being increasingly performed by both plastic surgeons and gynecologists. In fact, between 2012 and 2013 the number of plastic surgeons performing labiaplasty increased from 21%-29%.
So why are more and more women having this done? According to my esteemed colleague Dr. Christine Hamouri, "The reality is that women have been grooming themselves differently for about the past 10 years, with many eliminating pubic hair altogether, and consequently, they are noticing what things look like in that region as a result. Many of my patients want to achieve a clean, smooth look as they would with their face and underarms."
So what do you think? Would you consider having one of these increasingly popular "below-the-belt" procedures?WASHINGTON — Rep. Chris Collins finally has a Democratic opponent, and if resumes win votes, she could be a serious challenger.
Erin Cole of Lockport, an Army veteran who has worked all over the world as well as in trade development in Washington and Western New York, told The Buffalo News on Tuesday she's planning to challenge Collins, a Republican from Clarence, in the 2018 election.
And while she may not be Collins' only potential opponent, she starts with a depth of experience that's unusual for a congressional candidate.
She experienced the veterans' health care system's problems herself after coming down with Gulf War Syndrome.
She has worked in U.S. embassies in Russia and Central Asia.
And, while every politician talks about creating jobs, she's worked on job development in Washington and Western New York.
Now, Cole said, she wants to be something she says Collins isn't: a representative who truly represents the people of New York's 27th District.
"He says it's useless to meet with his constituents" in town hall meetings, which Collins refuses to do, Cole said. "But if it's useless to meet with them, how can you possibly represent them properly? You have no idea what the issues are and you're not addressing those issues to the point where you're bringing in benefits."
Cole is the first Democrat to publicly announce a bid against Collins, whose fifth year in Congress has been marked by controversy over his investment in an Australian biotech company that critics said could have benefited from his work on a bill aimed at speeding clinical trials of new drugs.
Cole might not be the only Democrat looking to take on Collins. Diana Kastenbaum, a Batavia businesswoman who challenged Collins in 2016, is interested in running again, as is Sean Bunny, an assistant district attorney in Erie County, said Erie County Democratic Chairman Jeremy Zellner.
The eight Democratic chairs in the 27th District will endorse a candidate after this year's election, Zellner said.
Of Cole, Zellner said: "She has an exciting resume and a passion for serving the community."
Cole, 46, recently resigned her job as senior vice president of Global NY, an Empire State Development Corp. effort to expand exports and bring foreign investment into the state, in order to run for Congress.
Given where she worked, Collins' political adviser, Christopher M. Grant, dismissed her as a tool of New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. "After aligning with Washington elites like Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton while running an administration seeped in corruption, Andrew Cuomo is now hand-picking candidates in our community to advance his high tax and anti-jobs agenda," Grant said. "We look forward to putting Chris Collins' pro-jobs, anti-tax, pro-American worker agenda against Governor Cuomo's radical, special interest politics anytime."
Told of Grant's comments, Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said: "Chris Collins is embroiled in an insider trading scandal and his plot to rob his own constituents of healthcare just blew up in his face — again — so it’s no surprise he has an opponent. This is the first we're hearing of this, but it's clear Western New Yorkers deserve better than Chris Collins."
Cole talked tough about Collins.
"President Trump himself vowed that he was going to drain the swamp in Washington, and ironically, his number one supporter — Chris Collins — is the epitome of an unethical self-promoter who has literally accomplished nothing for the people of the 27th District, the very people he's supposed to represent," Cole said.
About Collins' Innate Immunotherapeutics investment — which has led to an Office of Congressional Ethics investigation — Cole said: "He's focused on himself and self-promotion, building his own wealth, bragging to people that he's making millionaires in Buffalo when people in his own district never see him."
Cole vowed to be a much different member of Congress. She said she would focus on serving the district's veterans, as well as promoting small businesses and trade.
Cole, who as a teen was entranced by the Army's "Be All You Can Be" advertisements, enlisted in the Army when she was 17 after graduating from West Seneca East Senior High School. She served on active duty for eight years, learning Russian and working in military intelligence before a deployment to Iraq during the Gulf War. She was embedded with an armored unit, and once the war ended, she spent weeks gathering intelligence and searching for abandoned weapons systems.
After, she started suffering symptoms related to Gulf War Syndrome, which left some vets with fatigue, headaches and other symptoms. Frustrated with care she received at the Buffalo VA Medical Center, she co-founded Veterans for Common Sense, an advocacy group.
Cole earned a bachelor's degree from the University at Buffalo and a master's in public administration from Syracuse University. She worked for the State Department in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the U.S. Agency for International Development in Moscow and several Central Asian countries. Cole later joined the Department of Commerce to work on trade promotion — the same sort of role she played in state government in recent years.
Trade is likely to be one of several issues where Cole and Collins are opposed. She favors free trade and said that as a member of Congress, she would continue to help local companies and farmers try to boost their foreign markets. Collins, in contrast, has been a sharp critic of international trade deals which, he has said, have stripped the district of manufacturing jobs.
The two candidates would also likely clash on health care. Cole criticized the failed Republican attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare, while Collins has been one of Obamacare's chief critics.
It's less clear that the candidates would clash on gun control.
Cole, like Collins, said she is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and understands why many in the district want to own guns — although she said she would be open to tighter background checks aimed at keeping potential terrorists from owning weapons.
Asked why she wanted to run, Cole said: "I think, honestly, living in the district here, there is so much more that I can do to improve the situation here in the district than Chris Collins is doing."What’s the best lottery ticket to buy? The state lottery’s scratch ticket games are players’ best bet, particularly the more expensive games, according to a Globe review of the lottery’s prize returns.
Scratch tickets had average returns of 77 cents on every dollar spent, compared with figures as low as 50 cents for some of the lottery games traditionally sold from terminals.
The best returns of all came from the lottery’s most expensive scratch tickets, those costing $20 or $30. The $30 tickets have an average return of 81 cents per player dollar spent — the highest of all of the lottery’s games. At the lower end of the scratch ticket spectrum, $1 tickets returned 70 cents for each dollar played.
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One big caveat: The numbers reflect the total average payouts to players. That number reflects a few who will win big, more who will win small or just break even, and many more who won’t win at all.
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The odds are never in the players’ favor, said Ronald Wasserstein, executive director of American Statistical Association.
“There aren’t any really good bets in the lottery because the purpose is to make money for the state of Massachusetts,” he said.
The lottery last week announced it had a record-breaking fiscal year, with sales topping $5 billion for the first time. During fiscal year 2015, players won $3.64 billion back — but overall they lost $1.37 billion.
With more than 72 cents given as prizes for every dollar spent across the line of lottery games, Massachusetts consistently has the highest payouts of any state lottery in the country, lottery officials trumpet.
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The money kept by the state covers administrative costs and vendor incentives and forms the bulk of the state’s local aid program, which will return nearly $1 billion to cities and towns.
What's the return on each Massachusetts lottery game? Average prize return per $1 spent All Instant Scratch Tickets $0.77 Jackpot Poker $0.73 KENO $0.70 Numbers Game $0.63 Lucky for Life $0.60 Mass Cash $0.55 Megabucks Doubler $0.55 Mega Millions $0.50 Powerball $0.50 SOURCE : Massachusetts State Lottery
To keep people playing, the lottery tantalizes people with wins, even if the prize payout is minimal, said Wasserstein.
“Maximizing revenue means maximizing participation,” said Wasserstein. “The lottery wants people to play and play regularly. How do you accomplish this? They need to win sometimes.”
People play the lottery for a variety of reasons. Many call it simply a form of entertainment, offering thrills and dreams of easy riches. Factors like the return on an investment play little role in people’s choices of a game.
With scratch tickets, players may choose games based on their names, ticket colors, different styles of play, and bonus features, said Christian Teja, a spokesman for the lottery.
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“The lottery offers a mix of products that appeal to players in different ways,” he said.
Game choices may also be dictated by the price of admission, said George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University who studies lotteries. More low-income players opt for the $1 or $2 scratch tickets over the $30 ones, despite the lower return to players and the lower probability of a “win.”
(The probability of winning or breaking even generally tracks the average payout per dollar gambled, rising to its highest level, 1 in 2.79, with $30 scratch tickets.)
Affluent players tend to purchase the more expensive tickets, Loewenstein said, because they can — and because the tickets pay out more.
Even so, Loewenstein said, anyone who plays the lottery can’t be too worried about getting the best value for their dollar. It’s a losing proposition overall.
“If they are buying lottery tickets, they are not concerned about an immediate negative return on the investment,” said Loewenstein. “They’d do better buying penny stocks.”
No matter what game a person plays, Wasserstein said, “As a general rule, the bets are all losing bets.”
How lucky is your lucky scratch ticket game? DATA: Massachusetts State Lottery
Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified the university for which George Loewenstein works.
Catherine Cloutier can be reached at catherine.cloutier@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @cmcloutierPiston-Graphics got a new design. The new design is based on a principle “objects as functions”. Let’s take a look at it!
This is how you clear the screen and draw an image:
graphics::clear([1.0,..4], gl); graphics::image(&image, &c, gl);
The Context object now only contains view and transform information, so the actual render logic must be provided through other parts of the library.
When looking up the source code for the image function, you see this:
/// Draws image. pub fn image<B: BackEnd<I>, I: ImageSize>( image: &I, c: &Context, back_end: &mut B ) { Image::new().draw(image, c, back_end); }
The image function is a convenience function for a more powerful way of rendering images. The Image type is declared as following:
/// An image #[deriving(Copy)] pub struct Image { /// The color pub color: Option<internal::Color>, /// The rectangle to draw image inside pub rectangle: Option<internal::Rectangle>, /// The image source rectangle pub source_rectangle: Option<internal::SourceRectangle>, }
If you want a colored image, you can use Image::colored([r, g, b, a]).draw(&image, &c, gl).
With Piston-Current you can also use builder methods:
use current::Set; Image::new().set(Color([r, g, b, a])).set(SrcRect([x, y, w, h])).draw(&image, &c, gl);
This pattern is a modified version of Rust-Modifier, tuned to work better with generics.
So why is the Image separated from the image data?
The principle is called “objects as functions” and defines a type of semantics where you do not want to deal with pure states or pure functions. First you think of what the main purpose of using the object is, and use as argument the part that changes most frequently. In the case of rendering an image, the actual image object changes most frequently. We could call it DrawImage instead of Image but because the library is fully generic over image objects, it makes sense to just use Image or graphics::Image if you have an image object.
Initially this started out as an experiment, but after seeing how nice this played out in practice, I decided to go with it.
For example, it makes it easier to separate out stuff and name things from loops. Here is an old piece of code that renders a snake’s tail from Sea Snake Escape:
let n = snake.tail.len() / 2; for i in range(0, n) { let x = snake.tail[i * 2]; let y = snake.tail[i * 2 + 1]; if (i / 8) % 2 == 1 { cam.circle(x, y, rad).color(colors::BLACK).draw(gl); } else { cam.circle(x, y, rad).color(settings::SNAKE_TAIL_COLOR).draw(gl); } }
If you look briefly over the source, it is not easy to see immediate what going on. Here is the new design:
let black = graphics::Ellipse::new(colors::BLACK); let tail = graphics::Ellipse::new(settings::SNA |
ella announced Microsoft's largest-ever lay-offs when he said 18,000 employees, most inherited from the $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia's handset business, will be cashiered in the next 12 months. The bulk of those jobs were cut last week.
The week before, Nadella had sent Microsoft workers a 3,100-word epistle that, among other things, said the company would abandon Ballmer's strategy of turning the firm into a "devices and services" seller. Instead, Nadella added "productivity and platforms" to his earlier "mobile-first, cloud-first" phrase, and said Microsoft would "reinvent productivity to empower every person and every organization on the planet to do more and achieve more."
Wall Street rewarded Microsoft for the job cuts, pushing the price up 5.5% between Thursday morning and yesterday's closing bell. That increase alone bumped up Ballmer's portfolio by $783 million, Gates' by $747 million, Turner's by $3.2 million and Nadella's by $1.3 million.
Depending on the results of Microsoft's second-quarter earnings call later today, the holdings of Ballmer, Gates, Nadella and other Microsoft executives and employees could rise or fall.
Ballmer, for one, must be hoping that the share price will climb even higher.
According to reports by ESPN and USA Today, Ballmer met Monday afternoon with Donald Sterling, co-owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, to talk about the pending $2 billion sale of the NBA team.
Ballmer, who struck the record deal for the team with Sterling's wife Shelly in May, had what ESPN described as a "friendly conversation" of 90 minutes with Donald Sterling at his home Monday.
Donald Sterling is embroiled in a state court battle with his wife over the sale of the Clippers. He has contested her right to sell the franchise, while she and her lawyers have argued that he was mentally incapacitated.
Ballmer and Donald Sterling failed to reach a settlement during their discussion, the sports network said, and the court case will resume today in Los Angeles. Shelly Sterling is again expected to take the stand.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver is trying to force the sale of the Clippers after racist comments Donald Sterling made in a private conversation went public earlier this year. Sterling was also banned for life from the league and fined $2.5 million.
Donald Sterling has claimed that the Clippers are worth much more than $2 billion. In his court testimony two weeks ago, Sterling said he could get between $2.5 billion and $5 billion for the team.
Ballmer's new-found $2.8 billion may come in handy.
The "Nadella Effect" has also increased the value of the CEO's share holdings by 23% since Feb. 3, the day before he took over, to $24.8 million as of Monday. (Data: SEC.)
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at Twitter @gkeizer, on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His email address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.This all seems like it may have been inspired by Marvel's current Captain America event "Secret Empire". From the previews it seems like they are making Nightwing a villain in the eyes of the rest of the heroes. This is very risky, however DC aren't always against twisting the politics of their character's either, as we have seen with Injustice: Gods Among Us. Which essentially turned Superman into a dictator. DC will need to be careful with the publicity of this event, Marvel are raising a lot of hell with Hydra Cap so DC should take notes and be careful to not make the same mistakes.
I'm very intrigued to see what writer Kyle Higgins does with this story. He's no stranger to the Batman Family, or even even the future for that matter! He has worked on Nightwing‘s New 52 reboot, the digital-first Batman Beyond 2.0, Batman Eternal, and Batman: Gates of Gotham with Scott Snyder. He had this to say about the book's concept:
“My all-time favorite DC books throw characters we know and love into future worlds that are equal parts familiar and terrifying, laced with moral issues that aren’t black and white or easily solved. Ultimately, these stories say something about our world. And that’s what we are aiming to do with this Nightwing series, through the lens of a future generation of heroes.”
Trevor McCarthy is on art, who is also no stranger to the Batfam. He has previously worked on Gates of Gotham with Higgins and he worked on Batwoman. He had the following to say about this project:
“As an artist, there’s nothing better than world building. Diving in and figuring out a visual identity for a book, a character, a city…this is why I love making comics. Add to that the fact that it’s NIGHTWING—the first book I ever drew as a pro—and a chance to work with Kyle again, and I was beyond thrilled for the opportunity.”
I have a lot of questions about this book, like "how did we get to this stage?", "how can Nightwing take down the likes of Superman?", "which target is it that makes him see the error of his ways?", "what does Batman think of all of this?" and perhaps the biggest question: "is he too late to redeem himself?"
However, I understand that the best way to have These questions answered is to pick up the series when it starts this summer!Carmen Tovar remembers the apologies. The doctors who stood around the body of her 17-year-old daughter Nakarid told her they were so very sorry, but the girl had died, and so had the baby she was trying to deliver. We did all we could, the doctors told Ms. Tovar – we're terribly sorry.
Nakarid had high blood pressure all through her pregnancy, but the free clinic in their hillside slum on the edge of Caracas had no drugs to treat it, and her mother could not afford the wildly inflated prices in the private pharmacies. When Nakarid's contractions started, on the night of Dec. 7, Ms. Tovar took her to a nearby maternity clinic, but they were turned away: no beds available there. Same thing at the next clinic. By the time they reached the third, Ms. Tovar, 49, was out of money to pay another taxi, and her daughter was disoriented, dizzy with a shattering headache. Ms. Tovar demanded a bed, and that clinic reluctantly took Nakarid. But she died a few hours after they reached the hospital. The doctors said she had pre-eclampsia; they lacked even a basic intravenous line to treat her.
Ms. Tovar recognized the sympt oms because she had the condition herself, 24 years earlier, when her elder daughter was born. She remembers how doctors tucked pills under her tongue when the crushing pain gripped her own head, remembers a catheter, remembers electrodes taped to her chest.
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"Those were other times, another Venezuela," Ms. Tovar says, her mouth a bitter line.
A two-bed room at Clinic University Hospital, unusable due the lack of cleaning supplies, bathrooms and mattresses.
These times, in Venezuela, are brutal ones: There are anti-government protests every day in cities across the country. At least 67 people, most of them under the age of 30, have been killed in clashes with the National Guard and colectivos, pro-government militia-like groups, since April 1, according to the Attorney General's office, and more than 1,000 others have been injured. At least 3,000 protesters have been arrested, and 360 have been taken before military tribunals, charged with "treason to the homeland," for which they face a maximum sentence of 30 years.
Protesters are demanding that President Nicolas Maduro step down and call new elections. They are incensed at the state of their country: The conditions in public hospitals, such as the one where Nakarid died, are medieval. Maternal mortality rose at least 65 per cent last year over the year before; child deaths are up at least 30 per cent since 2015, although doctors say the government is under-reporting. There is a resurgent epidemic of malaria, once nearly eliminated here, and children are dying of diphtheria, a disease not seen for two generations.
The shelves in government stores are bare; the prices in the black market resale stores are beyond the means of all but a small elite. A third of the population skips at least one meal a day, according to a national survey of living conditions by three public universities. So many people have punched new holes in the ends of their belts that it's like some strange fashion – the extra leather flaps loose in the front, or wraps twice around their waists.
Public security has deteriorated alongside living conditions. Caracas is the most violent city in the world, with a murder rate of 103 per 100,000 people – a rate 100 times higher than Toronto's – and Venezuela has the highest incidence of violent crime in South America, judging by official statistics, which are almost certainly an underestimation.
The economy is moribund: Many private businesses have shut down, unable to function because of currency controls and a lack of imported materials; others have been nationalized, but also lie idle without supplies. For Venezuelans who still have jobs, salaries are laughable. The minimum wage is 200,000 bolivars a month – or $28 (U.S.) at the black-market exchange rate – made up of 70,000 bolivars in cash and the rest in food-staple coupons. Low-income families qualify for a monthly batch of staples sold at fixed prices but, these days, that arrives weeks late or not at all (and, increasingly, only to people who participate in pro-government rallies or otherwise demonstrate their loyalty). In the survey on living conditions, nine of out 10 people said they did not earn enough to cover their family's food needs.
These conditions would be harsh anywhere, but there is a particular bitterness to them here – because everyone has a recollection similar to Ms. Tovar's. Venezuela was a functional and prosperous country in recent memory. People here know their nation has the world's largest proven oil reserves, great mineral wealth, vast agricultural potential. The hardships of daily life seem doubly painful to many Venezuelans, because they are so needless.
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The morning after a night of looting in the El Valle neighborhood of west Caracas.
The salt in the wound is the rosy image put forth by Mr. Maduro. The President regularly appears on television celebrating the achievements of the "Bolivarian revolution" begun by his predecessor Hugo Chavez – or, on days with particularly large opposition demonstrations, he takes over the national airwaves to host a salsa music program. In an Orwellian declaration not long ago, he celebrated a reduction in obesity thanks to government health programs.
For those who remain to be persuaded, Mr. Maduro's government maintains a colectivo presence in low-income neighbourhoods to enforce the party line. Ms. Tovar kept her voice low as she described her bubbly daughter's agonizing death – unsure of who among her neighbours might be keeping tabs.
"I never imagined it, never in my life," she said a few days ago. "To think that we might be reduced to living like this."
Now she wonders how much worse life can possibly get – and how Venezuela might return to the country she remembers.
Far below Ms. Tovar's single-room cement block home, which clings to a hillside in a community called Junquito, the acrid blue-tinged haze of tear gas was building in the streets. Protesters in a middle-class neighbourhood of apartment blocks were pushing to occupy a highway leading downtown. Eighty per cent of Venezuelans say they want Mr. Maduro to leave office; these latest protests were sparked by an attempt by the Supreme Court, which he controls, to override Congress, where the opposition has a two-thirds majority.
The near-daily confrontations are a level of public pressure not seen here in 15 years; while previous opposition protests have relied on a middle- and upper-class base, some of the most raw displays of anger are now in lower-income areas, once the government's bastions of support.
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Venezuela's opposition – a fractious coalition of groups opposed to the socialist regime that has ruled for 18 years – has managed to cobble together a sufficient degree of unity to sustain the protests. But, far from ceding to their demands, Mr. Maduro is doubling down. He announced in early May that he would convene an assembly in July to rewrite the constitution, in what seems a clear effort to concentrate more power in executive hands. He is devoid of the charisma of his predecessor Hugo Chavez, who chose him as his deathbed successor, but is demonstrating a greater willingness to defy international pressure and abandon democratic norms.
"The hardliners are more and more entrenched: You can conclude they are prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to stay in power," said a Western diplomat in Caracas who was not authorized to speak on the record. "I don't think we've seen the end of what the people around Maduro are willing to do. They view it as short-term pain for long-term gain. There is a new desperation, and I expect we will see more deaths."
The leadership is singularly focused on retaining power, said Nicmer Evans, a former adviser to Mr. Chavez who broke with his Socialist Party after the leader's death in 2013 – and while those in Mr. Maduro's inner circle may have some vestige of commitment to the Chavez "revolution," they likely have other motives, too. A core group of Chavistas, as they are still known, has grown immensely wealthy because of their access to hard currency and control over key businesses.
There are mammoth levels of corruption related to government contracts. A recent U.S. Justice Department settlement with the construction giant Odebrecht SA said that company alone paid $98-million (USD) in bribes to government officials for public works jobs between 2006 and 2015. The U.S. government also ties many senior figures to narco-trafficking, including two of Mr. Maduro's nephews by marriage, who were convicted by a U.S. court last year of conspiring to transport cocaine.
Meanwhile, Venezuela's leadership is increasingly isolated. The United States has frozen the assets of senior government figures, including eight Supreme Court justices involved in the attempt to subvert Congress. (Although the government accuses the United States of waging "economic warfare" on Venezuela, the country is nevertheless a favourite destination for the Chavista leadership's college-going children and their forex bank accounts.) As Mr. Maduro and his inner circle deepen repression, they also raise the chance they could face prosecution at a body such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Mr. Evans said he believes Mr. Maduro is attempting to dispense with the legislature because he wants to be able to borrow more money internationally, without Congressional approval that is presently required. Venezuela's external debt is at least $117-billion (USD). The government's foreign exchange reserves are near empty. Oil exports keep precious dollars coming, but production at Petroleos de Venezuela SA(PDVSA), the national oil company, has been falling steadily for years. Oil earnings cannot bankroll both the government's foreign debt payments and the network of social programs that Mr. Maduro relies on to buy support.
It's hard to find anyone, even in neighbourhoods where pictures of "El Comandante" Chavez adorn the walls, who still believes that a foreign conspiracy is to blame. The question is how much they can do about it.
Two protesters get ready moments before clashing with Venezuelan security forces in Caracas.
Carmen Tovar warned Nakarid against having sex. Don't fool around with that boyfriend of yours, she'd say. Her admonishments were part Catholic morality, and part cold pragmatism. All around them, girls were getting pregnant: no surprise, since the IUDs and Depo-Provera injections they once relied on disappeared a few years ago. Condoms sell for 7,000 bolivars for a box of three these days – more than Ms. Tovar earns in a day of cleaning houses down in the middle-class neighbourhoods.
As with teenagers everywhere, Nakarid ignored her mom. Her boyfriend disappeared when he heard she was pregnant. And Ms. Tovar was left with nothing to do but hope. She had no illusions about the medical system: She has high blood pressure, and she knows there have been no medications available in the government pharmacies that theoretically supply the poor, not for years. Back when Nakarid found out she was pregnant, the government was refusing to release health statistics, but Ms. Tovar didn't need their figures: Everyone knew women were dying having babies.
When Mr. Chavez was first elected, nearly two decades ago, Venezuela had some of the best public health indicators in Latin America. That reflected decades of steady progress: In 1958, at the start of the democratic era, 140 of every 100,000 women died giving birth, but the figure had fallen to 68 women by 1990. When the government finally released 2016 data a few weeks ago, the figure was back up to 112 per 100,000 women. "The health system is so deteriorated that we're going back in time," said Rafael Orihuela, who was the minister responsible for public health in the last government before Mr. Chavez swept to power.
"What do I have when I go to deliver a baby? Only a pair of gloves and maybe a clamp for the cord," said David Flora, who recently completed a two-year stint as the sole doctor in a referral hospital in Rio Chico, a town three hours' drive west of Caracas. "If the placenta doesn't descend, if I need to stop bleeding, if the baby has respiratory distress – I have no way to attend that. I have one bed and a pair of gloves and a line of women waiting at the door to deliver. Women arrive at 40 weeks pregnant with no file, they have had no prenatal care, and I know nothing about them. I don't even know how many babies are in that belly because they haven't had an ultrasound. I don't even have a fetoscope to listen, so I don't know the size of the pelvis, the size of the baby, if the baby is even alive. If the mother needs a caesarean, she dies."
These days, Dr. Flora works in internal medicine at the Central University Hospital in Caracas. It's the country's premier medical institution. His desk is stacked with charts for patients with cancer, kidney failure, diabetes. The hospital has no dialysis, no chemotherapy, no functioning X-ray machine, no strips to test for sugar levels. Dr. Flora, almost manic in his frustration, flings open the doors of the wards, row after row of which are empty. The plumbing gave out months ago and there are no parts to fix it. The operating theatre functions when it receives an infrequent delivery of supplies from the health ministry, or when a patient has family members who manage to track down every single thing, from scalpel to gauze, that an operation will require, and can pay for it themselves.
There is, in short, very little for Dr. Flora to do, in terms of the medicine he was taught to practise. "I have no way to bring these patients back – so I can console. Be there at the moment that they die. That's what I can do."
When Dr. Orihuela, the former minister, talks about Venezuela moving back in time as it loses hard-won gains in public health, he is correct about the worsening indicators. But his claim that pre-Chavez Venezuela had excellent and universal public health is not incontrovertible. This has historically been one of the world's most unequal countries. Mr. Chavez was elected in a landslide because, while Venezuela had been one of the world's largest oil producers for decades, wealth stayed concentrated in the hands of a small elite. He used the income from oil prices over $100 a barrel to take free primary health care into the country's most marginalized communities, often relying on Cuban doctors whose work Havana swapped for oil. Nakarid Tovar saw a Cuban doctor at one of these clinics for her prenatal care. But he had no medication for her either: The slum clinics are in no better shape than the hospitals these days.
The legacy of Mr. Chavez's economic redistribution schemes underlies the food shortage as well. Thanks to nationalizations, price and currency controls, Venezuela no longer imports enough food, nor grows it. For most people, that means the question of what they will eat is the consuming preoccupation of most of their waking hours.
Yanis Montilla, 34, moved to Caracas with his wife from the countryside eight years ago. Back then, the city held the promise of prosperity. "There were a lot of jobs and the supermarket shelves were full of many things," he said. But last December, the construction company he was working for shut down for lack of materials. Since then, he earns about 30,000 bolivars, a couple of times a week, doing odd jobs such as cutting grass; it's enough to pay for two simple meals a day.
His nine-year-old-daughter Yanise has hip and collarbones that jut through her thin cotton clothes. One day a week, Mr. Montilla and his wife Isgleidy each spend the day in line, hoping there will be something left in the price-controlled market by the time they get in the door. (Everyone is allotted a day of store access based on the numbers in their national ID card.) A typical shift of standing in line runs six to eight hours. Mr. Montilla's shoulders slumped just describing it. Back when he was working, they could skip it some times, and buy essentials at the resellers, where people with connections to government resell staples at prices marked up more than 100 times. "We don't have money for that any more." Now, they rely on beans and tubers that relatives in the country give them, and on bananas they can grow on a little patch outside their door of their small hillside house.
Mr. Montilla blames Mr. Maduro for the mess of things, but he has not joined the demonstrations. For one thing, any time that he isn't waiting in a line for food, he is scrounging for work. For another, he's afraid. "It used to be that demonstrations were peaceful. These days you go out and you don't know if you'll come back."
A man walks inside a looted supermarket in El Valle in west Caracas.
Venezuelan protesters are dying from wounds sustained from tear-gas canisters fired at point blank range, from metal-tipped marbles, rubber bullets, and live ammunition. (Four National Guard officers have also died; one retired police officer and one pro-government agent were murdered by mobs of anti-government protesters.)
Alfredo Romero, the director of a network of human rights lawyers called Foro Penal who have been working to try to get protesters out of jail, said nearly everyone they defend reports torture in prison, and security forces have started arresting people from their homes in the night. But the government nevertheless feels it needs to use further repressive measures. "It's not as effective as it was before – that's why they are using the killings, in order to intimidate people even more," he said.
The violence is deterring some people, such as Mr. Montilla, but it is also calling international attention. This may explain why the opposition leadership has not corralled the slingshot-wielding students who face off against the heavily armed government troops, nor insisted on peaceful demonstrations: wounded, teargassed teenagers make for good footage.
One key reason Mr. Maduro has held on this long is the character of his opponents. The opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable, is made up of a number of parties whose political orientations range from neoliberal to social democratic. They have historically had trouble uniting and even now struggle to convince those who once supported Mr. Chavez that they are concerned about them. "The opposition has done nothing to speak to their issues or mobilize the popular class," said David Smilde, who teaches Latin American politics at Tulane University in New Orleans and who has lived here in Caracas for much of the past 25 years. They don't go to poor areas, and they haven't put forward a clear message about what a transition after Mr. Maduro would look like, he said.
And while life has become more difficult for nearly all Venezuelans in recent years, difficult is still a matter of degrees: Upscale neighbourhoods of Caracas are full of restaurants where a salad costs a week's minimum wage. For people with access to hard currency, from relatives abroad or their jobs, luxuries – chic handbags, Prosecco, facelifts – are absurdly cheap. Women in gold wedge heels and giant sunglasses step out of chauffered SUVs, their gaze sliding past families foraging in dumpsters. Inside the French bistros painted in three shades of white, waiters apologize that only four of 10 menu options are available.
But there are tentative signs of a change: A few senior political figures have begun to distance themselves from Mr. Maduro – most notably the Attorney General, Luisa Ortega, a veteran Chavista who over the past six weeks has made a series of increasingly sharp criticisms of Mr. Maduro and on Thursday openly broke with the government. Holding a copy of the nation's constitution in her hands on the steps of the Supreme Court, she called on its judges to cancel plans to rewrite the document, and for voters to oppose the change. "What's at play here is the country," she said. "The integrity of Venezuelans." Mr. Maduro has not fired her yet, which suggests she is not alone in her views. Two Supreme Court justices and a former general have also publicly criticized the President in recent days.
To encourage other senior figures to abandon the government, the opposition would need to hold out welcoming arms, Mr. Evans, the former Chavez adviser, said; instead, they reiterate that, once they take power, they will prosecute anyone in the current regime for corruption and human rights abuses.
The opposition's chief hope is that the Maduro regime finally will go completely broke. When the food runs out entirely, the thinking goes, the streets will fill and people won't go home until he leaves. As with so much in Venezuela's history, that equation seems to hinge on oil. Production is now two million barrels a day, down from 2.6 million in 2015.
"The only way to stop the decline would be investment and there are no resources for this: It will keep falling," said Rafael Quiroz, the chief adviser on the oil industry at the country's central bank. "And even $60 a barrel wouldn't give them what they need."
Protesters use an improvised slingshot to attack Venezuelan security forces during a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Mr. Maduro, however, still has some friends. In mid-May, Goldman Sachs bought $2.8-billion in 2014 bonds issued by Petroleos de Venezuela that had been held by the central bank. The steeply discounted bonds are a star performer in emerging-market funds, since a change in government could bring a payout at twice the purchase price. "Many people on both sides overestimate their ability to obliterate the other side," Prof. Smilde of Tulane said. "The opposition forgets that the government has most of the institutions, guns and money. People in government think: 'We can push through the [constitutional rewrite] – our real problem is the threat of being pushed out, and we can end that.' And so you don't see dialogue or negotiation."
On the morning of May 3, Armando Cañizales filled out the registration paperwork for medical school. Then he gathered his gear: a respirator, for defence against tear gas, plus a plywood shield, and work gloves for lobbing back tear gas and Molotov cocktails – the uniform of the young men and women who march at the front of the demonstrations, directly confronting the National Guard. His mother, Monica Carrillo, a pediatrician, was worried, but he had turned 18 a few weeks before, so she could hardly forbid him; and, anyway, she didn't feel it was right to ask him not to go. "I had the chance to live my dreams as a young person – how could I stop him from fighting for the chance to live his?"
A couple of hours into that protest, Armando suddenly slumped to the ground. Blood bloomed across his yellow T-shirt. His older brother, Alejandro, who was marching beside him, and a couple of friends scooped him up; they flagged one of the rescue motorbikes that patrol the sides of the protests, and Alejandro wedged his younger brother's limp body between himself and the driver as they rushed to an ambulance.
By the time Dr. Carrillo got to the hospital, her son was dead. In the morgue, they raised the sheet just far enough for her to see Armando's face, but she pulled it down further. "It went in there, right at the artery," she said, lifting her fingers to a spot just above her collarbone, to show the place where the projectile that killed her son entered his neck.
After his death, the government said Armando was hit by ammunition fired from the opposition side at the National Guard. Opposition leaders have blamed the shooting of protesters on security forces and members of colectivos who mingle with the government troops in the confrontations. Dr. Carrillo says a team sent by the prosecutor, Ms. Ortega, met with her family and promised a full investigation.
Dr. Carillo and her husband had talked for years about sending their boys out of Venezuela, to relatives who had already sought refuge elsewhere. Alejandro said he would go. Armando said no way. "He used to say, I will drive you to the airport – but I'm staying here." Armando played football, danced salsa, took English class on weekends, and was a gifted violinist. Now his parents have forbidden Alejandro to march; instead he paints shields for the protesters, in the red-blue-and-yellow of Venezuela's flag, each with a treble clef in memory of his brother.
When they had to choose a tombstone for Armando, Dr. Carrillo rejected the usual Bible verses. Instead, she had the stone engraved with the message her son kept on the screen of the cellphone they returned to her in the hospital morgue.
Prohibido rendirse: solo respira profundo y continua. You can't give up: Just take a deep breath, and push on.In the early days of this blog, I came up with a concept. That concept was based on the idea that on Friday I would try hard not to be so serious. On Fridays, I would seek out the finest woo in the world and aim a bit of my not-so-Respectful Insolence. Thus was born Your Friday Dose of Woo. It was a serious that I maintained close to religiously for nearly two years, before I started to feel the strain of having to com eup with something funny or quirky on every Friday. So gradually I let the series go, until it became an occasional feature. These days, it’s so occasional now that the last time I did a YFDoW installment was nearly two years ago. One advantage of the intermittent nature of this sort of blogging is that I can now do a post about some particularly silly bit of woo pretty much any time I feel like it. It’s Tuesday? So what? I found some woo.
Specifically, I found Vitastiq, which bills itself as the “world’s first personal device for checking your mineral and vitamin levels.” Truly, Vitastiq is worthy of resurrecting YFDoW on a Tuesday, as you will see. Not only does it combine modern tech with ancient woo. It even has an iPhone and Android app to go along with it to generate the “mineral” and “nutrient levels” based on...pure, unadulterated fetid dingos’ kidneys. Check out the promotional video below, and then we’ll unpack the claims and apply a bit of the ol’ Insolence to them:
The first thing I wondered about Vitastiq was why it looks like a giant pencil. I couldn’t help but compare it to the Apple Pencil, which is so much thinner and sleeker. On the other hand, the Apple Pencil has only one purpose: As a fancy Bluetooth stylus that allows one to write and draw on an iPad Pro screen. If you believe its makers, the Vitastiq is a miraculous device that can measure the levels of so many minerals and nutrients, a total of 30! Of course, there is one thing about it that seems—shall we say?—rather weak, mainly the second thing I thought about it: The company making Vitastiq is going to be very, very unhappy, given the announcement last week of the iPhone 7, given that the iPhone is losing the 3.5 mm audio jack in favor of using a Lightning connector. After all, Vitastiq works through the 3.5 mm audio jack. (What? No Bluetooth?) That, of course, makes me wonder: How does the giant stick/probe send its “data” through that old analog jack?
Let’s take a look at the claims made for Vitastiq. Just for yucks I downloaded the Vitastiq app from the Apple App Store. Unfortunately it wanted me to sign on with Facebook or Google, and I had no desire to do that, nor did I have any desire to give the company any information about me to set up my own account. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, as I don’t actually have a Vitastiq.
In any case, the manufacturers of Vitastiq claim to have used knowledge of acupuncture in order to create their device, which is placed on certain parts of the skin to measure levels of various vitamins and nutrients thusly:
A thousand years of acupuncture knowledge indicates that acupuncture points differ from the surrounding skin. EAV (electro-acupuncture) methodology is based on traditional Chinese acupuncture and its energy patterns. The knowledge of these points serves as a basis for the EAV measuring method.
First of all, even though a thousand years of acupuncture knowledge might say that acupuncture points differ from the surrounding skin, that doesn’t mean that acupuncture points actually do differ from the surrounding skin. As I’ve pointed out before, there is no anatomical structure that corresponds to acupuncture meridians or acupuncture points. The utter lack of evidence for the existence of anything resembling a recognizable anatomic structure or structural difference in the skin of acupuncture points isn’t for lack of trying to find it by acupuncturists and blievers in “integrative medicine.” No such evidence has ever been found, and it sure isn’t for lack of trying by advocates of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). That’s why it’s not surprising that it doesn’t matter where you place the acupuncture needles. Heck, it doesn’t even matter if you place the acupuncture needles. One of my favorite studies is a study of acupuncture for low back pain that used toothpicks twirled against the skin as sham/placebo controls. “True” acupuncture did not beat toothpicks.
None of this, of course, stops the company making Vitastiq from proclaiming:
EAV methodology was tested and proven by a team of medical doctors headed by Dr. Reinhard Voll. Dr. Voll and his team established that acupuncture points differ from the surrounding skin and that there is an increased electrical conductance (decreased electrical resistance) at these points. The EAV method measures the electrical conductance of acupuncture points and determines your vitamin and mineral levels.
OK. Let’s think about this for a moment. Its makers claim that the Vitastiq can measure the levels of 30 different nutrients, vitamins, and minerals just by placing its giant pencil onto acupuncture points and using a smartphone app to calculate it. Really. You have to watch these brief promotional videos to see the full extent of this woo. First, here’s the one telling you how to prepare to measure all the goodies Vitastiq measures:
I was amused at how the video instructs users to take off their watches and all their jewelry first and then to wash their hands. Then check out the device! It all looks so science-y. Now here’s how to measure:
I will give Vitastiq credit. It has a much more computer/smartphone pleasant interface than any previous woo device I’ve examined before. If you want to see the typical sort of computer interface I have to deal with when I check out devices like Vitastiq, I remind you of the...EPFX/QXCI Quantum Xrroid Consciousness Interface. Compare that to this:
To be honest, this device looks to me to be just as much pure pseudoscience as EPFX/QXCI Quantum Xrroid Consciousness Interface, just a bit more convincing. Certainly, it’s not based on any more solid science.
Believe it or not, I hadn’t heard of Dr. Voll before. Or at least I don’t remember having ever heard of him before. So, as is my wont, I did a bit of Googling. It didn’t take me long to discover a website that described Voll thusly:
In the early 1950s, Reinhold Voll, a German medical doctor, developed an electronic testing device for finding acupuncture points electrically. He was successful in finding acupuncture points and demonstrating that these points, known to Chinese acupuncturists for millennia, had a different resistance to a tiny electrical current passed through the body, than did the adjacent tissues. Many other researchers have also verified that electrical conductance at the acupuncture points is significantly greater than the surrounding tissue.
Of course, this story is highly dubious on many levels. For one thing, in the 1940s and 1950s, almost no one in the West knew much about acupuncture. For another thing, it was right around this time period that Chairman Mao was inventing TCM from the many strands of traditional Chinese medicines, and using it to give the illusion of bringing medical care to his people when he didn’t have enough real doctors to go around, and selling its “integration” with scientific medicine and adoption by credulous Westerners looking for something exotic. So it strikes me as highly unlikely that Voll came up with his device as describe above and elsewhere, although it is possible. It’s just hard to tell because the main evidence I’ve been able to find consists of accounts by Voll or his acolytes.
In any case, it needs to be remembered that there is no science to measuring nutrient levels with a fat electronic pencil like Vitastiq, at least none from Voll, who named his technique “meridian stress assessment” (MSA), although Vitastiq calls it electroacupuncture according to Voll (EAV). The same technique is sometimes also called electrodermal screening (EDS). Other names include |
fingers. Police said the officer remained calm the entire time and even instructed the father on how to take over so he could retrieve a CPR mask from his car.
“He responded exactly like we would hope an officer would respond,” Deputy Granbury Police Chief Jim Marshall said. “He was calm, and I truly believe that his calm demeanor helped stabilize the parents a little bit. At one point, he needed the father to take over chest compressions while he returned to his patrol vehicle.”
“Officer Miller knew from his training that the child would need a breathing mask to survive,” Marshall added.
Miller returned to the boy and continued performing CPR as the child’s helpless parents watched. With each second, it seemed, the intensity of the moment compounded.
Though the video doesn’t show it, Marshall said Miller performed CPR for about three minutes.
And then, just like that, the boy began breathing.
He was taken to a hospital, where he has fully recovered after suffering from a seizure and a high fever at the time of the emergency.
“I thought my life was over when it happened,” Brayden’s mother, Bethany Hoover, told NBC DFW. “I mean, he is my life.”
[This teenager was walking for hours to and from work — until a police stop changed his life]
On Tuesday, Granbury Mayor Nin Hulett presented Miller with a lifesaving award.
There to greet him was the little boy he rescued: Brayden.
“Go give him a hug,” the boy’s mother instructed, sending Brayden to embrace Miller.
Officer Chase Miller shared a special moment tonight with the boy whose life he saved. Well done, Officer! pic.twitter.com/t0hNfrheU9 — Granbury, Texas (@cityofgranbury) October 18, 2016
“It feels good to know that he’s all right,” Miller said, according to NBC DFW. “I’m very thankful.”
As it turns out, the boy’s favorite cartoon character is a K-9 officer named Chase on “Paw Patrol,” his mother told police.
Miller, the hero officer, gave Brayden a toy police dog, according to ABC News.
“Officer Miller’s exceptional performance reflect great credit upon himself, the Granbury Police Department and the city of Granbury,” police said.
Marshall, the deputy police chief, said Miller “is an extremely humble man, and he doesn’t consider himself a hero. We found out he didn’t even tell his wife about saving the child’s life when he got home that night. In his mind, he was just doing his job.”
Today we recognize Officer Chase Miller of the @GranburyPD in Granbury TX for saving the life of a three year old boy. Thank you officer! pic.twitter.com/oxRqvQqJOn — Thank a cop today! (@thankcops) October 20, 2016
MORE READING:
Did the debate stress you out? There’s now an app with ’emergency election stress’ meditations.
What if doctors could prescribe something to treat social isolation in seniors? It’s happening now in Silicon Valley.
This doctor pioneered a way to treat stress in children, a startling source of future diseaseBirth rate in Finland hits hundred year lows
The Finnish statistics show that there year to June 2016 has seen fewer childbirths than any period since the country's independence almost a hundred years ago.
According to Statistics Finland's preliminary data, 26,517 children were born in Finland in January to June 2016. This is the lowest figure during Finland’s independence. Despite the fall in the number of births, the country's population grew by 6,269 persons during the first half of 2016. The reason for the population increase was migration gain from abroad: the number of immigrants was 7,022 higher than that of emigrants. The excess of births was negative as the number of births was 753 lower than that of deaths. Finland's population was 5,493,577 at the end of June.
From January to June Finland's population increased by 414 persons more than in the corresponding period in one year previously. The biggest reason for the growth in population increase was the increased migration gain received from abroad. Migration gain for immigration was 1,853 higher than the year before. Natural population increase went down by 1,439 persons from one year earlier.
According to the preliminary statistics of June, a total of 26,517 children were born during the first half of 2016, which was 912 fewer than in the corresponding period in 2015. The number of deaths was 27,270, which is 527 higher than one year earlier.
Written by Janita on Tuesday July 26, 2016
Permalink -Avaya has filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which allows organisations to re-organise their affairs in part by temporarily relieving them of obligations to creditors.
The company's canned statement positions the decision to seek Chapter 11's protections as a necessary refresh of arrangements made a decade ago. Avaya went private in 2007 when private equiteers Silver Lake Partners and the Texas Pacific Group splashed US$8.2bn on the company.
At the time the new owners said going private would help Avaya to accelerate product development, helped in part by the $900m acquisition of Nortel Enterprise Solutions in 2009. That acquisition added ethernet switching and VoIP code to Avaya's portfolio.
But while that Avaya digested Nortel the world started to shift towards software-as-a-service and cloud for voice services. The company made plenty of strides in that direction, but so did Cisco, Microsoft and others. And those rivals weren't paying off debts that Avaya's found harder and harder to service. In coming months the company has some big payments to make leading it to consider selling its contact centre products to Genesys in 2016, in the hope it would raise a nice lump of cash.
But that plan didn't come to fruition and the company's now decided to seek Chapter 11 protections, for the reasons outlined in the following explanation from CEO Kevin Kennedy:
This is a critical step in our ongoing transformation to a successful software and services business. Avaya’s current capital structure is over 10 years old and was put in place to support our business model as a hardware-focused company, which has evolved significantly since that time. Now, as a result of the terms of Avaya’s debt obligations and the upcoming debt maturities, we need to recapitalize the Company.
Kennedy also says that the company has decided that it will keep the contact centre business, as doing so will be best for Avaya in the long run. The company “remains in ongoing negotiations to monetize certain other assets”.
The company's received a big vote of confidence for the move from Citibank, which underwritten a $725 million financing facility to help the company through the re-jigging of its finances. \
There's also good news in the company's financials, also announced today, which revealed quarterly revenue of $958m and annual revenue of $3,702 million. The Q4 number was pleasant, inasmuch as it topped forecasts, but there was also a $542m write-down of goodwill that tipped the company into a $428m loss. The company blames “lower demand for unified communications hardware” for its current problems. The whole-year number was down down 9 per cent compared to 2015's figure.
On the upside, the company can point to services and software revenue growing from 71.3 per cent in 2015 to 74.9 in 2016. It also has fat margins over 60 per cent.
Avaya will operate as usual during the Chapter 11 process. Kennedy hasn't outlined how long the restructuring is expected to take, but financial media are suggesting a quick, 45-to-60-day, transition to new arrangements.
Chapter 11 only impacts Avaya's United States operations. In the rest of the world the company is moving to assure customers and stakeholders that it's business as usual.
Avaya Australia/new Zealand, for example, has told us it "closed fiscal 2016 with its strongest quarter in 12 quarters."
"This result mirrors international performance, with global revenue reaching US$958 million, up US$76m from the previous quarter, and EBITDA increasing by 25.3 per cent to US$223m in the same period."
"Avaya A/NZ’s position is the outcomes of several significant agreements with organisations including (but not limited to) major government departments and tier 1 banks, and continues to work closely with partners to deliver on market demands. Under the continued leadership of Peter Chidiac – who was appointed Managing Director in August 2016 – Avaya A/NZ is in on track for 2017 with a strong pipeline supplementing existing momentum." ®• China’s capital beat Almaty in Kazakhstan by four votes • Promises from Chinese president of an excellent Games
Beijing celebrated winning the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics on Friday night, insisting it had the energy and the resources to stage a dazzling event despite concerns over a lack of snow in the region.
Chinese officials and athletes leapt into the air and broke down on national television after it was announced Beijing had defeated Almaty by the tightest of margins: 44 votes to 40.
The International Olympic Committee’s decision means China’s capital will become the first city to host the summer and winter events.
“I am so excited,” Wang Beixing, a Chinese speed skater and Olympic medallist, told the state broadcaster CCTV after the IOC president, Thomas Bach, broke the news. “My tears cannot hold in there,” she added, pointing to her eyes. “I am really happy.”
There was a muted reaction in Beijing itself but residents of Zhangjiakou – a city around 125 miles from Beijing that will co-host the Games – danced in the streets. “We are all very happy. The whole county is going wild with joy,” said Zheng Xiaolong, 27, who works in the tourism industry selling tickets to a ski resort. “People are cheering and lighting firecrackers to celebrate the good news.”
China’s victory capped a dramatic final day of campaigning in Kuala Lumpur, which almost ended in farce when the IOC’s electronic voting system malfunctioned and its 85 voting members had to cast written ballots.
In its final offensive, China had enlisted one of the most powerful men on earth, attempting to wow the IOC committee with a one-minute video message from the country’s president, Xi Jinping.
“The Chinese people are looking forward to this opportunity. Let me assure you that if you choose Beijing the Chinese people will present to the world a fantastic, extraordinary and excellent Olympic Winter Games in Beijing,” he said, sat before a painting of the Great Wall of China.
The mayor of Beijing, Wang Anshun, vowed to take urgent steps to counter his city’s smog problem and promised to put on “Games that are joyful and harmonious, Games that are safe and reliable”.
Kazakhstan had sought to capitalise on what many had seen as Beijing’s achilles heel – a shortage of snow. The slogan for the Almaty 2022 bid – “Keeping it real” – was a not-so-subtle swipe at China’s promise to compensate with artificial snow.
“Real snow, real winter ambience, real winter games,” boasted a promotional video produced by Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry.
Susan Brownell, an expert in Chinese sports who has been travelling to the country since the 1980s, said the dearth of snow around Beijing was not an insurmountable problem for the cash-flush Communist party.
“You do have to laugh a little bit at the concept of a winter Games in a place that doesn’t get snow but I think they have the technology, the money and the manpower. They will solve it,” said Brownell, an anthropologist and former track and field athlete from the University of Missouri–St Louis.
Speaking before Beijing’s victory, Liu Peng, the president of the Chinese Olympic Committee, said. “Ski resorts have been operating in Zhangjiakou for decades. Beijing 2022 will build on its existing snow-making capability to supplement natural snowfall.”
Chinese authorities have also faced questions over the logistics of the Beijing Games. Almaty’s bid emphasised how all its events would be held within a 20-mile radius of the city. China’s Games will be spread between three locations: Beijing, Zhangjiakou and Yanqing, around 40 miles northwest of the capital. Liu Peng, the Chinese Olympic chief, said his country was a master of infrastructure building that would have no problem ferrying athletes and visitors between events. “In the past decade China has built the world’s largest high-speed rail network,” he said.
That network will soon grow further with the construction of a high-speed rail link between Beijing and Zhangjiakou that began last year and will be completed in 2019, according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency.
Brownell added the Beijing Games had the potential to create a vibrant winter sports hub in northern China.“People have underestimated a little bit the degree to which north-east Asia is a winter sport country. That hasn’t been well developed under the communists since 1949. But there were traditions of skating and skiing and I think with this growing ‘leisure class’ there is the potential to build up regular visitors to resorts, especially ones that aren’t too far from Beijing.”
Human rights activists reacted with bitter disappointment to Beijing’s victory. Both bidding countries have faced criticism over their human rights records but China is in the midst of a severe offensive against dissent that has seen scores of people detained or interrogated in recent weeks.
Sophie Richardson, the Human Rights Watch’s China director, said: “The Olympic motto of higher, faster, and stronger is a perfect description of the Chinese government’s assault on civil society: more peaceful activists detained in record time, subject to far harsher treatment. In choosing China to host another Games, the IOC has tripped on a major human rights hurdle.”
Hu Jia, a prominent dissident who has spent long periods under house arrest because of his activism, said the Communist party would view Beijing’s victory as a major political victory, “a jewel in Xi Jinping’s crown”.
He called on the IOC to “exert its influence on Beijing” in order to push for change. “The next seven years will be a very critical time for China and the Olympics will be a very good opportunity for the country to transform from an authoritarian regime to democracy.”
For his community, Zheng Xiaolong, from Zhangjiakou, said the Games would dramatically improve people’s lives. “Our county is a small county and many young people, after their graduation, need to find work in big cities like Beijing and Tianjin. The Olympics will bring many job opportunities here and the youngsters can stay and find good jobs,” he said. “I’m sure they will build more schools, hospitals and even an airport here.”
Nor was he worried about the snow. “Snow is not a problem. We have a reservoir here to supply water to make snow. Last year we had more than 150 days of it.”
Additional reporting by Luna Lin______
Gloria Elizo es diputada de Podemos y vicepresidenta cuarta de la Mesa del Congreso
Parece ser que de Palacio salieron los patricios tocándose la nariz del fuerte olor a tubería que se coló por los augustos salones regios.Es lo que tienen las banderas, que tapan mal que bien la corrupción, pero se te escapan los olores.Andan las élites tratando de cerrar el Régimen desde arriba y repitiendo aquel mantra de que. Catalunya vale para todo, y todos quieren sacar su tajada unilateral de la independencia.Anda sobre todo Pedro, pensando que quizá con este lío de las banderas lo pueda hacer sin que su nuevo PSOE se le envejezca demasiado aprisa. El viejo PSOE se pasó todo el canapé real buscándolo para leerle la cartilla. Pero Pedro andaba en otra cosa.Barruntaba tal vez lo bien que soportaba la peste palaciega, que, que con la peineta de María Dolores de escudo es mucho más difícil que se te escapen los viejos comisarios de las alcantarillas y que, al fin y al cabo, nadie como la derecha mediática para escribir panegíricos y tapar con banderas los olores de la enésima restauración borbónica.Pensaba tal vez Pedro que Catalunya bien vale un no es sí que le abra el cielo comunicativo, la caja negra del Ibex, las puertas de la Casa Real, el balcón en el Corpus de Toledo y la unidad de acción contra los salvajes. QueNo cuenta Pedro con–ora de tanto juntarse con la pandilla de María Dolores se le ha pegado la alucinante incompetencia de la ministrísima para mentir, ora porque Mauricio absorbe hasta la última gota de sinceridad de cualquiera que se le acerca–en que realmente vaya a encontrar a alguien que lo crea, un rictus que no recordábamos desde aquel antológico finiquito en diferido de su nueva aliada.Es verdad que todo el mundo sabe queque, ya se sabe, van a convocar un referéndum. Y ya se sabe que Podemos se hunde, se hunde, pero no se da hundido. Pero es que mentir es una competencia fundamental si vas a bailar con el aroma a cloaca y aún más si vas a refundar el Régimen con la sola ayuda de Margarita y de una asociación para delinquir.En cualquier caso, que no vaya a haber reforma constitucional no quiere decir que Pedro no haya puesto sus condiciones. En esta boda real,. No es fácil. No faltan en el Gobierno de Mariano esforzados soldados en preparar su defensa.Es tanta la insistencia de los contrayentes que la batalla del poder se ha trasladado al Consejo de Administración de Prisa. Mientras Ana Patricia se relame,, viendo además como Juan Ignacio de Cospedal se va de rositas.María Dolores primero decapitó a esos jefes de la Guardia Civil empeñados en personarse en la cueva de Alí Babá. Luego defenestró a los policías de la Comisión Judicial que se atrevieron ni más ni menos que a abrir la tapa de la alcantarilla del Gran Comisario. Luego fueron a por el CNI, dóndecon el reproche de no haber encontrado esas urnas de plástico que tanto han dignificado a la patria de Gao Ping.Si ahora Juan Luis cae… quién vendrá a defenderla cuando vayan a por ella.Mientras Juan Luis trata de ser fuerte poniendo sus dossieres encima de la mesa, a Soraya le crecen las reprobaciones en el Congreso. Pero. Lo que a Soraya le aterra de verdad son los ojos de hielo de María Dolores sobrevolando el campo de batalla, mientras el nuevo bipartidismo cierra las puertas de la ciudadela con la vicepresidenta fuera. Ella sola –y la momia incorrupta de Mariano– enfrentándose a mandobles de verbo ágil y código penal –sin policías, sin fiscales, sin jueces– contra todos los salvajes.Mientras, al otro lado de la ciudad,Margarita puede arrearle al gobierno mientras el gobierno sea Soraya.. La Gran Coalición una y trina bajo la paternal mirada del viejo Felipe, de su joven y marcial tocayo, de sus policías desfilando por la Castellana, de sus muchas y grandes empresas –todas domiciliadas en Madrid– y una sola cloaca blanqueadora y sus grandes cabeceras –todas madrileñas– dirigidas por un solo gurú de la comunicación.La política hace extraños compañeros de cama…y sueña con la Moncloa, con repartirse a medias el placer de las minucias: acabar con la acción popular, mover jueces de un sitio a otro, despedir periodistas, amenazar denunciantes, expedientar policías, expulsar –como dice el Comisario Barrado– a cuanto quede decente en el sistema.Y poner muchas, muchas banderas para conjurar a esos salvajes, a esos expulsados,a esos de Podemos que no se ablandan ni con las moquetas, al tropel de profesionales que no logran tener algo que perder, a los creadores, a los emigrantes, a los estudiantes, a los pequeños negocios asfixiados por la corrupción, a las puñeteras estadísticas imposibles de maquillar y hasta a los corresponsales de los países que, ¡vaya!, sí tienen prensa.Pero¿Qué pueden unos milloncejos de salvajes contra una Gran Coalición que nos dará la preciada 'estabilidad' y unas cuantas mayorías parlamentarias?Poca cosa comparada con¡Ah! Y con Albert reclamando todo el rato que le dejen romper algo.Over the last 25 years of my career—from serving as a partner at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), to my time at Delta Air Lines, to my current role as president and CEO of Red Hat—I've been exposed to my fair share of leaders. I've learned that leaders and leadership styles can vary greatly depending on the company culture, industry and size, but there's one commonality I've noticed among all of them: to be effective, leaders must be respected.
Sometimes people aspire for a title within their company because they believe title alone will result in respect from their peers. Of course, based on implied hierarchy, people will be likely to accept your direction and listen to you, but to me, this is not true leadership. True leadership is based on respect, not titles, and can be shown at any level of an organization. In truth, nobody respects a position. People respect people. By watching leaders around me, I've gleaned a few important takeaways about both leadership and respect that are worth sharing.
Respect has to be earned
In today's workforce, creativity is a critical skill. I strive every day at Red Hat to be a catalyst with our associates to fuel and spark their creativity and not stifle it by simply telling people what to do. At Red Hat, where we believe in meritocracy and celebrating the best ideas no matter where they come from in the organization, that wouldn't work. To earn respect, leaders need to do three things.
First, you have to show passion. Whether it's in the mission of the company and/or individual projects, a leader has to be passionate. They have to show their commitment and interest in driving both personal and team initiatives. At Red Hat, our mission is to be the catalyst in communities of customers, contributors, and partners creating better technology the open source way. The most respected and influential people at Red Hat are those who show passion for our mission and live it every day. A leader cannot begin to earn respect from their teams if they are not passionate about their job.
Second, leaders must demonstrate confidence. Occasionally, individuals are put into leadership positions but lack confidence. Colleagues will typically sense this lack of confidence and may question their authority and ability. Leadership requires confidence (not to be confused with cockiness). It's a trait people respect and look for in their leaders. People want to be led by people who believe they can achieve their goals, and better yet, help their collective team to succeed. Leaders must display competence and confidence to help encourage those same beliefs in their teams about themselves.
Lastly, leaders have to engage their people. They cannot simply command others in a meeting and walk away expecting everything to happen as they ordered. Leaders are consistently engaged, interact with teammates, and supportive. They have to show that they are open to others and their ideas, and available if needed. Leaders get the best out of the people around them, whether we're talking about team leadership, or leadership among peers. Leaders inspire others. The best team leaders I've seen catalyze their team's direction and give them the freedom to do their job even better than they could have imagined.
It starts with being comfortable with who you are. Positional leaders who lack the confidence I discussed earlier close themselves off and frequently use tactics--including avoiding engagement--to hide their insecurities instead of embracing and being open about their personal limitations. When I was first hired by Delta to serve as Treasurer, it was a role that was rather foreign to me. I had deep knowledge of finance strategy but I didn't know anything about the skills needed to be a treasurer. So, when I arrived at Delta, I was open with my team. I shared both my strengths and weaknesses. I was honest with them, and in turn, they were honest with me. Collectively, this enabled us to best leverage our team's strengths, leading to our team success. Beyond success on a single project, we built a foundation of mutual trust and respect, which led us to many additional future successes and a wonderful work environment.
Originally posted on LinkedIn. Reposted with permission.Universal Pictures is in early talks with David Leitch and Chad Stahelski to co-direct its action pic “Cowboy Ninja Viking,” starring Chris Pratt.
Sources tell Variety that Pratt has met with Leitch and Stahelski and has given his stamp of approval. Insiders now say an offer has gone out.
Based on writer A.J. Lieberman and artist Riley Rossmo’s graphic novel, the story follows a man who suffers from multiple personality disorder and is put into a government program to be turned into a super-soldier with the attributes of a cowboy, a ninja and a viking.
Mark Gordon, Guymon Casady and Ben Forkner are producing in a co-production between the Mark Gordon Company and Film 360. Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese penned the script and are also producing.
Stahelski and Leitch have been cutting their teeth as second unit directors for several years but blew up after “John Wick” overperformed at the box office this past October. Leitch was uncredited on the project.
With Pratt in such high demand, the studio quickly fast-tracked the project in order to squeeze it in before the actor’s plate became too full. It’s unclear where this film would fit in his schedule with Pratt already set to star in “Magnificent Seven,” which shoots in the spring, and the “Guardians of the Galaxy” sequel, but as long as things come together quickly, it’s a good sign this film is headed in the right direction.
Pratt has been tweeting his excitement about the project but wanted to make sure the film found the right director before fully committing. His approval is quite the vote of confidence on what Stahelski and Leitch can bring to the table.
Stahelski and Leitch are repped by WME. Pratt is repped by CAA and Mosaic.Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked dozens of chief federal prosecutors appointed by Barack Obama to resign "to ensure a uniform transition" under Donald Trump's new administration, the Justice Department has announced.
A statement issued by the Justice Department confirmed the mass cull of senior legal expertise, a move that while not unusual has prompted a backlash from some serving attorneys.
The statement said: "Until the new US attorneys are confirmed, the dedicated career prosecutors in our US attorney’s offices will continue the great work of the department in investigating, prosecuting, and deterring the most violent offenders.”
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.
It is customary for the country's 93 US attorneys to leave their positions once a new president is in office, but the departures are not automatic.
In fact, past presidents have often allowed judicial appointees to remain in post until their successor has been confirmed.
One US attorney appointed by President George W Bush remained on the job for the entire Obama administration.
Montana's US Attorney Mike Cotter said the way Mr Sessions had handled the transition was “unprofessional”.
“I'm very disappointed. What happened today on Friday, March 10, that was so important that all Obama appointees who are US attorneys need to be gone?
"I gotta write that (resignation) letter. It's going to be a one-line.”
Tim Purdon, a former US attorney for North Dakota under the Obama administration, was also critical of the move.
He said: "The way the Obama administration handled it was appropriate and respectful and classy.
"This saddens me because many of these people are great public servants and now they are being asked to leave."
US attorneys are federal prosecutors who are nominated by the president, generally upon the recommendation of a senator, and are responsible for prosecuting federal crimes in the territories they oversee.
They report to Justice Department in Washington, and their priorities are expected to be in line with those of the attorney general.
It is not clear if all 46 of the US attorneys will actually resign, and if Mr Sessions will accept all of their resignation offers if they do.
Additional reporting AP and Reuters
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe nowIf you've yet to hear about Samuel L. Jackson's turn as president, then you should probably prepare yourself for something along the lines of SNAKES ON A PLANE. In BIG GAME, Air Force One is shot down by terrorists leaving the president stranded in the wilderness with a 13-year old boy on a hunting mission. As you can imagine, the two must team up in order to survive the onslaught of terrorists with guns. The first clip of the film has hit to give us a taste of what we're in for.
This worked for Indiana Jones:
Given the tone of this peace, this film looks a lot more humorous in nature than I had expected. Regardless, it looks to be an entertaining film at the very least, although I'm guessing that boy is going to get on my nerves real fast. BIG GAME will be premiering at this year's TIFF, but hopefully we'll get a stateside date soon enough.
BIG GAME will hit the United States sometime in late 2014, at the earliest.The Sun’s findings include only lawsuits that have been settled or decided in court; dozens of similar cases are still pending. The city has faced 317 lawsuits over police conduct since 2011 — and recently budgeted an additional $4.2 million for legal fees, judgments and lawsuits, a $2.5 million increase from fiscal 2014.
“This is not something I take lightly,” Rawlings-Blake said. “I’ve worked hard, very hard, to have a dialogue with the community about how do we build trust and send the message that law enforcement that acts outside of the law will not be tolerated.”
Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts, who took over in late 2012, has publicly vowed to eliminate misconduct among the city’s 2,800 officers. Other police officials say the department has begun to track such allegations more closely to punish officers in the wrong.
Lloyd Fox Deputy Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez leads the bureau tasked with keeping police officers accountable.
“I can’t speak to what was done before, but I can certainly tell you that’s what’s being done now, and we won’t deviate from that,” said Deputy Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez, who joined the agency in January 2013 to lead the new Professional Standards and Accountability Bureau.
Rodriguez, who once worked in Internal Affairs at the Los Angeles Police Department, said the mandate is to provide policing in a professional manner that doesn’t violate constitutional rights.
“We will not let officers get away with any wrongdoing,” Rodriguez said. “It will not be tolerated.”
The department would not allow The Sun to interview officers named in the lawsuits, saying that would violate department policy. Annual base salaries for the officers ranged from $61,000 and $67,000.
But Robert F. Cherry, president of the city’s Fraternal Order of Police lodge, cautioned that some people file frivolous lawsuits against officers who work to keep the city safe.
“Our officers are not brutal,” he said. “The trial attorneys and criminal elements want to take advantage of the courts.”
the grandmother
Eighty-seven-year-old Venus Green heard the scream while rocking on her porch on Poplar Grove Street in West Baltimore’s Walbrook neighborhood.
“Grandma, call the ambulance. I been shot,” she thought she heard her grandson say on that morning in July 2007. As he lumbered closer, she spotted blood from a wound in his leg and called 911.
The retired teacher was used to helping others. Green had moved to Baltimore decades earlier from South Carolina after working at R.J. Reynolds and Westinghouse. Once here, she worked at Fort Meade and earned two degrees at Coppin State University.
The mother of two and grandmother of seven dedicated her career to teaching special-education students, but couldn’t sit still in her retirement years. She had two hobbies: going to church and raising foster kids. Dozens of children funneled through her home. They, like her own grandchildren, called her “Grandma Green.”
Paramedics and police responded to the emergency call, but the white officer became hostile.
“What happened? Who shot you?” Green recalled the officer saying to her grandson, according to an 11-page letter in which she detailed the incident for her lawyer. Excerpts from the letter were included in her lawsuit. “You’re lying. You know you were shot inside that house. We ain’t going to help you because you are lying.”
“Mister, he isn’t lying,” replied Green, who had no criminal record. “He came from down that way running, calling me to call the ambulance.”
The officer, who is not identified in the lawsuit, wanted to go into the basement, but Green demanded a warrant. Her grandson kept two dogs downstairs and she feared they would attack. The officer unhooked the lock, but Green latched it.
He shoved Green against the wall. She hit the wooden floor.
“Bitch, you ain’t no better than any of the other old black bitches I have locked up,” Green recalled the officer saying as he stood over her. “He pulled me up, pushed me in the dining room over the couch, put his knees in my back, twisted my arms and wrist and put handcuffs on my hands and threw me face down on the couch.”
After pulling Green to her feet, the officer told her she was under arrest. Green complained of pain.
“My neck and shoulder are hurting,” Green told him. “Please take these handcuffs off.”
An African-American officer then walked in the house, saw her sobbing and asked that the handcuffs be removed since Green wasn’t violent.
The cuffs came off, and Green didn’t face any charges. But a broken shoulder tormented her for months.
“I am here because of injuries received to my body by a police officer,” Green wrote on stationery stamped with “wish on a star” at the bottom of each page. “I am suffering with pain and at night I can hardly sleep since this incident occurred.”
In June 2010, she sued the officers; an April 2012 settlement required the city to pay her $95,000.
Green died six weeks later of natural causes
the pregnant woman
Many Baltimoreans who reached similar settlements declined to be interviewed about the alleged police misconduct — with good reason.
A clause in the city’s agreements prohibits any public statement about the incident that triggered the lawsuit. Limitations on “public statements shall include a prohibition in discussing any facts or allegations … with the news media” except to say the lawsuit has been settled, it states.NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - “Hands-only” CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) is usually as effective as traditional CPR that includes mouth-to-mouth breathing - but the odds that cardiac arrest victims will survive with minimal brain damage are still quite low, a large study from Japan finds.
Researchers say the findings support statements from the American Heart Association and other groups that compression-only CPR can be a comparable alternative to the traditional technique of alternating chest compressions with mouth-to-mouth breathing.
Since 2008, the American Heart Association has recommended that when an adult suddenly collapses and isn’t breathing, bystanders should perform hands-only CPR — strong, steady chest compressions, at a rate of 100 per minute — unless they are confident in their ability to perform conventional CPR.
The reasoning is that hands-only CPR is easier for a layperson to learn and remember, and that people are more likely to administer CPR to a stranger if mouth-to-mouth contact is not required.
Moreover, studies in recent years have shown that hands-only CPR can be as effective as the traditional version for cardiac arrest caused by heart problems. (Cardiac arrest, where the heart stops pumping blood to the rest of the body, can also result from drowning, drug overdose or breathing problems; in those cases, CPR with rescue breaths is still recommended.)
But these latest results, published in the journal Resuscitation, also underscore the fact that regardless of CPR technique, the chances of surviving cardiac arrest, with or without significant brain damage, are still low.
Using national data on more than 55,000 Japanese adults who suffered a cardiac arrest in front of witnesses, the researchers found that roughly 7 percent of victims who received CPR from a bystander and were treated by paramedics within 15 minutes survived with a “favorable neurological outcome.”
There was no significant difference between those who received conventional CPR and those who received the hands-only approach: 7.1 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively, survived and had a favorable neurological outcome one month later — meaning no greater than “moderate” brain damage that left them still able to perform routine daily activities on their own.
That compared with a rate of 3.8 percent among victims who received no bystander CPR and were treated by emergency medical services within 15 minutes of their collapse.
When treatment from paramedics was delayed for more than 15 minutes, survival with minimal brain damage was universally lower — though somewhat higher with conventional CPR relative to hands-only and no CPR. Among victims who received no CPR, just 0.7 percent survived with no more than moderate brain damage one month later. That figure was 1.3 percent among those who received hands-only CPR, and 2 percent among victims who received conventional CPR.
Despite that small advantage, though, the findings still support the recommendation for most |
still be a mostly normal Linux distribution since it will run Linux games and Steam.What bugs me, is that they "recommend" their Linux OS, but all their benchmarks in the video and noted on the Kickstarter were done on Windows. That tells me a lot about their confidence in showing how it will run games if people don't use Windows. As sad as that is, we know most games run a bit slower on Linux right now, so it's not really surprising. The real issue here, is that Windows support is a stretch-goal, meaning all of the benchmark/performance information is useless unless they hit that goal.They are looking for at least €250,000 and they already have €186,194 at time of writing, so it looks like they will easily hit their main goal with 31 days still to go.Specifications:CPU: AMD Merlin Falcon RX-421BD (12-15w) SoC at 2.1 GHzCores: 4/4iGPU: Radeon R7 at 800 MHzRAM: 4GB (SMACH Z) || 8GB (SMACH Z PRO) DDR4 2133 MHzHD: 64GB (SMACH Z) || 128GB (SMACH Z PRO)Screen: 6” FULL HD (1920x1080). Capacitive touch-screen.Battery: 5 hours of gaming.MicroSD Card Slot.USB 3.0 type C.HDMI video output connection.Wi-Fi connectivity 5.0 Ghz. 4G LTE mobile network connectivity (PRO model only)Bluetooth connectivity.Front-camera 1.3-megapixels (PRO model only)Will you be backing it? It's far too risky for me to even consider it. I may pick one up if it turns out well enough.(Jan. 3, 2013 Update: On December 21, 2012, Internet Brands filed its Answer to the Wikimedia Foundation’s Complaint. Internet Brands’ Answer “generally and specifically denies each and every material allegation of the Complaint,” and asserts a number of affirmative defenses. A copy of Internet Brands’ Answer can be found here.)
(Dec 14, 2012 Update: the Court overruled Internet Brands’ demurrer (“motion to dismiss”), finding that the Wikimedia Foundation’s complaint was “properly pled.” A copy of the Court’s December 14, 2012 order can be found here. As a result of the Court’s ruling, Internet Brands must now answer the Wikimedia Foundation’s complaint. Internet Brands must file its answer to the complaint within ten (10) days of its receipt of notice of the Court’s ruling.)
(Dec. 7, 2012 Update: Internet Brands filed a reply brief in support of its demurrer (“motion to dismiss”) to the Wikimedia Foundation’s state court complaint. A copy of the reply brief can be found here. On December 11, 2012, the Wikimedia Foundation objected to Internet Brands’s reply brief on the grounds that it was improperly filed. The Wikimedia Foundation asked the Court to disregard Internet Brands’s reply brief and strike it from the record. A copy of the Wikimedia Foundation’s objection can be found here.)
(Nov. 28, 2012 Update: The federal district court in Los Angeles has now issued its written order on Ryan’s anti-SLAPP motion and motion to dismiss. A copy of the order is available here. The order is consistent with our prior report following the hearing on November 19. While we had hoped that the court would reach the merits of Ryan’s anti-SLAPP motion, the dismissal of the entire suit nonetheless represents a victory for Ryan and volunteer James Heilman (who was also named in the suit).
Meanwhile, the Wikimedia Foundation is proceeding forward with its lawsuit against Internet Brands in San Francisco. Internet Brands has filed a demurrer (motion to dismiss), the hearing for which has been postponed to December 14. The court has issued a tentative ruling on that motion, which is available here. In the tentative ruling, the court indicates that it is inclined to rule against Internet Brands. We will update you further after the hearing.)
(Nov. 19, 2012 Update: Ryan Holliday appeared in federal court to argue the anti-SLAPP motion he filed on September 26, 2012. Because Internet Brands abandoned its claim under the federal Lanham Act (the federal claim that asserted Ryan had helped to start a new travel wiki called Wiki Travel Guide), the court found no basis for continuing to keep federal jurisdiction over the case and dismissed it without ruling on the anti-SLAPP motion.)
(Nov. 5, 2012 Update: On Monday, November 5th, the Wikimedia Foundation filed its opposition to the Demurrer filed by Internet Brands in the Superior Court of the State of California County of San Francisco.)
(Nov. 2, 2012 Update: On November 2, 2012, Ryan Holliday and Internet Brands jointly asked the Court to continue the hearing on Ryan’s anti-SLAPP motion and motion to dismiss from November 5, 2012 to November 19, 2012, to allow the parties time to discuss a possible resolution. The Court granted the request. A copy of the parties’ request to the Court can be found here. A copy of the Court order granting the request can be found here.)
(Oct. 23, 2012 Update: On Monday, October 22, 2012, Ryan filed his Reply to Internet Brands’s Opposition to Ryan’s anti-SLAPP motion and motion to strike. A link is here. The Court is scheduled to hear Ryan’s motion on November 5, 2012.)
(Oct. 15, 2012 Update: IB has filed a demurrer (motion to dismiss) the Foundation’s lawsuit for declaratory relief on the ground that it does not contest the relief requested and so there is no controversy to adjudicate. The hearing on the demurrer is set for November 19.)
(Oct. 12, 2012 Update: Internet Brands filed its Opposition to Defense Special Motion to Strike and Motion to Dismiss in United States District Court. A link is here. Ryan’s response is due on 10/22.)
(Sept. 26, 2012 Update: On Wednesday, September 26, 2012, Ryan filed an anti-SLAPP motion and motion to dismiss. This motion seeks dismissal of all the claims against him now pending in federal court and also asks for an award of attorneys’ fees against Internet Brands.)
(Sept. 20, 2012 Update: On Sept 19, 2012 Ryan filed papers to remove (transfer) Internet Brands’ lawsuit from state court (Los Angeles County Superior Court) to federal court (the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Those papers are publicly accessible, and a PDF copy can be found here).
(Sept. 13, 2012 Update: Today we filed an amended complaint in our San Francisco lawsuit to correct the inadvertent misstatement about Heilman being an administrator. We initially thought we could do this by filing a document called an errata, but that proved not to be allowable in state court. Our amended pleading will in all respects be the same as before, but will now omit some language that called Heilman an “administrator.”)
(Sept. 5, 2012 Update: one of the community members named by Internet Brands in their summons has uploaded the documents he was served on Wikimedia Commons, available here)
Today the Wikimedia Foundation filed a suit in San Francisco against Internet Brands seeking a judicial declaration that Internet Brands has no lawful right to impede, disrupt or block the creation of a new travel oriented, Wikimedia Foundation-owned website in response to the request of Wikimedia community volunteers. Over the summer, in response to requests generated by our volunteers, the Wikimedia community conducted a lengthy Request For Comment (RFC) process to facilitate public debate and discussion regarding the benefits and challenges of creating a new, Wikimedia Foundation-hosted travel guide project. The community extended the RFC at the Wikimedia Foundation Board’s request to allow for greater community input, and to encourage input from Internet Brands. Once concluded, the RFC process revealed the community’s desire to see a new travel project created. The Wikimedia Foundation Board supports the community’s decision and is moving forward with the creation of this new project.
Unfortunately, Internet Brands (owner of the travel website Wikitravel) has decided to disrupt this process by engaging in litigation against two Wikitravel volunteers who are also Wikimedia community members (one of those community members posted a copy of the summons they received, available here). On August 29, Internet Brands sued two volunteer administrators, one based in Los Angeles and one in Canada, asserting a variety of claims. The intent of the action is clear – intimidate other community volunteers from exercising their rights to freely discuss the establishment of a new community focused on the creation of a new, not-for-profit travel guide under the Creative Commons licenses.
While the suit filed by Internet Brands does not directly name the Wikimedia Foundation as a defendant, we believe that we are the real target. We feel our only recourse is to file this suit in order to get everything on the table and deal head on with Internet Brand’s actions over the past few months in trying to impede the creation of this new travel project.
Our community and potential new community members are key to the success of all of our projects. We will steadfastly and proudly defend our community’s right to free speech, and we will support these volunteer community members in their legal defense. We do not feel it is appropriate for Internet Brands, a large corporation with hundreds of millions of dollars in assets, to seek to intimidate two individuals.
This new, proposed project would allow all travel content to be freely used and disseminated by anyone for any purpose as long as the content is given proper attribution and is offered with the same free-to-use license. Internet Brands appears to be attempting to thwart the creation of a new, non-commercial travel wiki in a misguided effort to protect its for-profit Wikitravel site.
The Wikimedia movement stands in the balance and the Wikimedia Foundation will not sit idly by and allow a commercial actor like Internet Brands to engage in threats, intimidation and litigation to prevent the organic expression of community interest in favor of a new travel project, one that is not driven by commercial interests.
The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally. We are devoted to creating and nurturing free knowledge projects supported by volunteers. Our actions today represent the full stride of our commitment to protect the Wikimedia movement against the efforts of for-profit entities like Internet Brands to prevent communities and volunteers from making their own decisions about where and how freely-usable content may be shared.
Kelly Kay, Deputy General CounselI am overjoyed to report that local venture capitalist and philanthropist Mark Ein has reached an agreement to purchase Washington City Paper from SouthComm, Inc. The news hit us in the middle of our annual holiday potluck. We here at City Paper are planning to celebrate heartily now because we are so excited to get back to work under more secure circumstances.
This marks a new phase in the history of City Paper. For the first time in 35 years, the paper will have a local owner. Ein also owns the Washington Kastles World TeamTennis (WTT) franchise and is founder and CEO of Venturehouse Group, LLC.
City Paper remains committed to rigorous local journalism. Just today we published an article on questionable tax breaks for two Dupont Circle development projects, and three days ago we published a follow-up to a 2010 City Paper article about the culture of sexual harassment and misconduct at the Marijuana Policy Project. You can expect to continue seeing these kinds of enterprise articles, along with comprehensive coverage of D.C.’s diverse arts scene and daily reports on food and the city’s growing restaurant industry.
City Paper has been publicly for sale since October 13. In the weeks that followed, editorial staffers talked about what they would want for the paper under the best-case scenario. Our vision was to become D.C.’s hometown newspaper, gradually expanding coverage to include more on education, sports, health, crime, and the other topics that comprise news in a city. We feel that this new ownership scenario affords us that chance.
In that spirit, please send story pitches to editor@washingtoncitypaper.com.Get the latest from TODAY Sign up for our newsletter
Oct. 19, 2016, 1:06 PM GMT / Updated Oct. 8, 2018, 1:06 PM GMT / Source: TODAY By Eun Kyung Kim
It's time to come clean: Are you a morning or a night person when it comes to showering?
The time of day you shower may come down to personal habits and scheduling, but there is some science behind whether there are benefits, and drawbacks, to whether you soap up before work or bed.
Morning showers can have a meditative effect on people by allowing them to relax and reboot. That mental state can encourage creativity, according to Harvard psychology lecturer Shelley Carson.
“If you were to come up with a problem that you wanted to solve creatively, and you were working and working on it and couldn’t come up with a solution, then you could put it on the back burner of your mind and allow it to stew there while unconscious processes mull it over,” Carson told The Greatist.
Morning showers also are good for people who tend to cut themselves while shaving, since bodies get a surge of “clot-forming platelets” in the morning, which means bleeding stops faster.
Evening showers have their advantages, helping keep the skin clean, washing away the dirt, oil and allergens that build up over the day and can rub off on your bedsheets.
Evening showers are especially helpful during pollen season. Because hair gels act like pollen magnets, allergists recommend showering and washing your hair at night, to rinse off the pollen that collects on your skin and hair during the day.
And, an evening shower is especially relaxing for people who have a hard time unwinding from their day or getting to sleep.
“That rapid cooling after you get out of the shower or out of the bath tends to be a natural sleep inducer,” Christopher Winter, a fellow at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and medical director at the sleep center at Martha Jefferson Hospital, told The Greatist. “So it’s a nice way to fool your body into thinking it’s time to go to bed.”
So like anything else in life, the best time to take a shower? It really just depends.Dragons are arguably the most intriguing aspect of A Song of Ice and Fire. They are still very much a big mystery to us and to the many characters in the story. In reality, we’ve really only heard minor tales about the history of dragons while watching Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion grow up. Even though we’ve become comfortable with the notion of fire dragons there are many legends about different breeds of dragons that once roamed the earth. There are Legends of Ice dragons in the North, Water Dragons patrolling the seas and even Stone Dragons in the Storm Lands. Most of these legends are extremely vague, but considering fire dragons really do exist, it would seem almost poetic for there to be a dragon species of each element. Plus, it’s more fun that way! Lets explore the history and lore of the different dragons in the World of Ice and Fire.
Ice Dragons
The legend of the Ice Dragon is rather prominent in the culture of northern Westeros. What with it’s symbolic nature and relation to winter, ice and all things cold. The legend has significantly imprinted on the Stark children, as Bran and Jon often refer to the tales that Old Nan once told them, “The wind was gusting, cold as the breath of the ice dragon in the tales Old Nan had told when Jon was a boy.” In the North, there is a constellation of stars known as the Ice Dragon. This constellation is extremely important to navigation of the North but most especially navigation Beyond the Wall, “By day he took directions from the sun, and on clear nights they could follow the Ice Dragon”. Is the Ice Dragon merely a cultural symbol for the Northerners? I don’t think so. After all, G.R.R.M has stated in the past that Old Nan has a solid memory and her tales are more credible than most. That being said, what exactly was the tale she once told to the five Stark children?
Old Nan’s story is most likely something very similar, if not exactly, Martin’s children’s story called The Ice Dragon that was published in the 80’s. The tale seems to be set in Westeros during the Long Night and follows the adventure of a little girl named Adara. Somehow Adara is resilient to the cold and actually enjoys it. She wanders off in the snow and encounters the Ice Dragon, befriends it, and even rides it! The story describes the dragon as so:
“The ice dragon was a crystalline white, that shade of white that is so hard and cold that it is almost blue…Its eyes were clear and deep and icy…Its teeth were icicles, a triple row of them, jagged spears of unequal length, white against its deep blue maw.”
The Dragon is also described as at least twice the size of Valyrian Dragons (Fire Dragons) and all other dragon species, its wings cover the land with snow and its freezing breath brings a chill to everything around it. Eventually, the Dragons of Varyria come to Adara’s village and the Ice Dragon protects Adara and her people, seemingly defeating the fire dragons with ease. After the battle in the sky, the Ice Dragon flies North, never to be seen again. As always, with Martin’s writing it is easy to confuse symbolism with reality. So, it’s very possible that this whole story could simply personify the end of the Long Night. But, as I said before, it’s much more fun to believe in dragons. So what could have happened to the Ice Dragon? Where did it go and will it ever come back?
Throughout the series various characters mention the legend of Ice Dragons and the general belief is that ice dragons roam around The Shivering Sea and the White Waste in The Land of Always Winter – it is important to note that this is also where the White Walkers took refuge for thousands of years. Now, my question is, do the Dragons live in the Land of Always Winter due to the climate? Or, is the climate of the Land of Always Winter due to the existence of ice dragons? Hmm…
Other legends that connect directly to the current series are those of the Horn of Joramun and its connection to The Wall. The Horn of Joramun is a mythical Horn that is said to bring down the entire wall if someone sounds it – remember, The Wall was built with magic, so surely it can be brought down with magic as well. The horn was hidden in the mountains far north and was rumored to be buried where the ancient giants once lived. Mance Rayder claims to have found it and threatens to use it if a deal is not struck between the Free Folk and the Nights Watch, “Tormund Giantsbane will sound the Horn of Winter in three days hence.” Many people believe that the horn will actually waken the Ice Dragon that sleeps within the wall. This theory is wonderfully exciting as it would explain just how The Wall remains so cold and how it was made in the first place. I believe we have some forshadowing for this theory in the story already, with Jon’s numerous comparisons of The Wall and the Ice Dragon whenever he walks through the tunnel: “The ice pressed close around them, and he could feel the cold seeping into his bones, the weight of the Wall above his head. It felt like walking down the gullet of an ice dragon.”
There are several other theory’s surrounding the legend of the ice dragons. Some believe that Jon will be resurrected as a White Walker, or something similar to Adara, where he no longer feels the cold, and ride the Ice Dragon into Battle against Dany’s Fire Dragons – sorry to all Dany/Jon shippers, I really don’t think they will ever work together. It’s more probable that one of these characters will turn into the antagonist. Others believe there is a dragon egg hidden under Winterfell and this is why the crypts of the castle seem enchanted with a sort of spell. This is a fabulous theory that I would love to dive into at a later date, so keep posted!
What do you think about the ice dragons? Do you believe? Let me know!
Water Dragons
Despite the fact that the Iron Islands are such a small cluster of isles, most of which are inhabitable, the Iron Born have a diverse culture that completely differs from the rest of Westeros. Their religion of the Drowned God, their customs and most interestingly, their history and lore. One of the most intriguing tales is that of Nagga the first sea Dragon. It would seem that the Iron Born were not very keen on documenting their history as the legend of The Grey King and Nagga is really the only “evidence” we have of the existence of water dragons. But as I’ve said before, its much more exciting to believe that there may still be dragons roaming the seas. After all, in the time of ASoIaF it’s rather impossible for them to explore the oceans as we do now. So, who is to say they don’t exist?
The Grey King was the first King in the Iron Islands and was said to be in leagues with the Drowned God himself. The god helped him win many battles and gave the Grey King unnatural long life. After a thousand years, the king’s skin turned grey -hence his name – and he retired to the sea to join the Drowned God as his right hand. He is now considered the connection between the gods and the people. But before all of that, the Grey King completed his most daunting task, to defeat the great sea dragon, Nagga.
As I mentioned earlier, there really isn’t much information about Nagga himself. Only that he was the first of the great sea dragons. In my eyes, I see Nagga as a sort of “Mufasa” type. He was the king of all creatures in the sea. Though there is no mention of other sea dragons in the story, surely, to be a king of the sea dragons, there must be others. Right? Nagga was massive. He was said to be so huge that he would hunt krakens and other giant sea creatures. The legend also states that he was able to sink entire islands if provoked into anger. Unlike the other dragons discussed in this article, sea dragons probably don’t fly and most likely do not breathe any kind of element. Think of them as a sort of Leviathan. The series doesn’t describe how Nagga looks, beside massive, and the battle between Nagga and the Grey King is also not very detailed. Understandably so, Sea dragons are the least researched species, mostly due to where they dwell – deep in the open ocean.
The only evidence of Nagga’s existence are the massive bones that sit on Nagga’s Hill and in the Grey King’s Hall. This is where the Iron Born hold their Kingsmoot and elect a new King. Some believe that this is only an illusion, and that the bones are in fact, weirdwoods carved into the shape of bones. But many truly believe that this was the spot where the Grey King defeated Nagga and mounted his corpse on the hill.
Now, we know that Martin likes to intertwine many real historical events as well as cultural lore from our own history into his stories. I think that Nagga is a perfect example. Frist of all, Nagga is play on the word Nāga, which is a group of mythological serpent gods in Hindu and Buddhist cultures. In these stories, the Nāgas are typically evil or ill willed towards men and other creatures. This slightly coincides with the reputation of Nagga in ASoIaF even though we really only know about the one sided legend. As I mentioned, Nagga would feed on Krakens, and the sigil of the Greyjoy house who are descendants of the Grey King – is a Kraken. For me, there is symbolism behind this legend. The house that would eventually become the Kings of the Iron Islands, defeats its great enemy and rule over its bones for the rest of time.
What do you think about the sea dragons? Would you like to see some encounters with these great creatures in the books or show? Let me know!
Stone Dragons
If you thought the Ice Dragon was a lot to wrap your head around, get ready for the legends of the Stone Dragon. There are a lot of components here, many of which are tightly tangled together with “ifs” and “buts” and “what ifs”. But, once we lay it all out the table, I think like myself; you will get very excited about the prospects of Stone Dragons. Ready? Lets dive in!
Lets begin with the easiest theories and legends and work our way up. Starting with Melisandre, the red priestess and follower of R’hllor. Her god, known as the Lord of Light, is loosely connected with the existence of fire dragons – what with the whole obsession with fire, and burning people alive. However, interestingly enough Melisandre isn’t interested in fire dragons. With the end of the current season we’ve come to realize that maybe her mission wasn’t all about Stannis after all. Melisandre, other R’hllor followers and the culture of her home in Asshai all strongly believe that dragons can be hatched via sacrifice of kings blood by fire. This theory coincides with Dany’s dragons (Khal Drogo in the pyr) and leads me to believe that even though Shireen’s sacrifice seemed useless to Stannis’ cause – it might play a role in something much bigger to come.
So, what does this have to do with anything? Well, in the books Melisandre is a lot more open about her end goal than in the show, and that end goal happens to be waking the stone dragon, “Only a king’s blood can wake the stone dragon…Give me the boy and I shall wake the stone dragon…Wake the stone dragon and let the traitors tremble.” Now, the easiest theory out there is that she does in fact refer to a fire dragon. Technically all dragon eggs are stone, and to hatch them would be waking a dragon from stone. However, this post is not about dismissing these theories, its about indulging in them.
The most prominent factor of the stone dragon is Stannis’ fortress, Dragonstone. The fortress was made by Valyrian Lords long before the Seven Kingdoms were ever united. Dragonstone was not built, was not carved, but molded by searing hot dragon fire. This kind of precision and control of the massive dragons of old Valyria is known to be a result of powerful ancient magic, as confirmed by Martin himself: “…the stone was shaped in some fashion with magic… yes, it’s safe to say that there’s something of Valyrian magic still present.” Some take this quote to mean that there are currently sleeping stone dragons underneath Dragonstone that have been enchanted. Some even believe a large cluster of dragon eggs are hidden on the island somewhere. It is loosely suggested that both Rheagar Targaryen and Loras Tyrell found something on that island. Though there is no proof behind this and no suggestion as to what they might have discovered.
Others, including myself, look at Martins quote above and connect it to the massive stone dragon sculptures that surround the castle. They are described as incredibly life-like and that they are very creepy. Take a look at how Davos describes the Dragon Stone sculptures:
“ The wings of the stone dragons cast great black shadows in the light from the nightfire. He tried to tell himself that they were no more than carvings, cold and lifeless. This was their place, once. A place of dragons and dragonlords.”
I believe Davos is foreshadowing something much bigger here. He regularly reflects on the realness of the sculptures and how uncomfortable they make him feel. One theory suggests that these are the stone dragons Melisandre wishes to wake up and that she needs similar magic used to petrify them, to wake them up. This would explain why she is so drawn specifically to Stannis rather than his two brothers – he is the lord of Dragon Stone, where the dragons she desires sit.
Some people believe that the sculptures weren’t simply petrified into to stone by magic, but were infected with Greyscale purposely. Remember, Greyscale slowly turns the entire body into stone. This was a way for the Valyrians to “save” what was left of their dragon colony and over the years as magic grew weaker and weaker, the magic to control Greyscale was lost. This also works with Melisandre’s quest to wake the stone dragons by royal sacrifice. And explains why Stannis was able to cure Shireen’s Greyscale after meeting many different priests and healers.
What do you think about the prospect of Dragonstone hosting the last of the Valyrian dragons in stone? Let me know!
Fire Dragons
Fire dragons are just about the only “contact” we’ve had with dragons in the World of Ice and Fire. Most of the characters in the current story know very little about fire dragons. It seems the secrets of the close relationships the Valyrians once had with their dragons are lost. All known magic regarding the use of dragon fire to build and create things is also a great mystery to the modern world. Just as quickly as the Valyrian Empire disappeared in The Doom, a small fraction of their history suddenly came back to life with the birth of three baby dragons; Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion. In the story we follow their “mother” Daenerys Targaryen as she raises them and tries her best to control her ever-growing brood. She has a hard time doing so as they get older and bigger. Each dragon has his own personality and will not likely be controlled by Dany. So how did her ancestors, the Valyrians of old, have such distinct control over their massive dragons?
The origin of the earliest dragons is a little hazy. The general belief is that the ancient fire dragon species (ancient meaning pre-Valyrian discovery) originated from the lands Far East and beyond Asshai. The ancient Valyrians believed they came from The Fourteen Flames. The Fourteen Flames is an enormous cluster of active volcanoes. It is said that there were deep tunnels woven between these volcanoes – a perfect environment for dragons to lay their eggs. From here the species flourished in the wild for centuries until the fateful day that the Valyrian people mined too deep and discovered the huge lair of the dragon colony. Some refer to this as a pinnacle point in the history of the people of Ghiscar and others dread the danger of playing with nature’s deadly creatures:
“Fourteen or fourteen thousand. What man dares count them? It is not wise for mortals to look too deeply at those fires, my friend. Those are the fires of god’s own wrath, and no human flame can match them. We are small creatures, men.”
Despite the dangers, the Valyrian people mysteriously acquired the skills of a dark and very power magic that enabled them to use these dragons to build their empire. I say mysteriously because, to this day no one knows where the magic came from – after all, the Valyrians were but a simple sheep-herders before their discovery of dragons and magic. After many centuries the magic helped to create a special bond between dragons and their masters. It would seem a sort of biological evolution, as now it is believed that a dragon will only bond with one human in their entire life, magic or not. Judging by this information, I would say that Dany is missing two key components to raising her trio. The first would be the magic her ancestors used to tame the beasts and the second would be the knowledge of properly creating a strong bond with Drogon, but we’ll get back to that.
Eventually the Doom came to take the empire in one fell swoop. “Magic had died in the west when the Doom fell on Valyria…and neither spell-forged steel nor dragons could hold it back”. Few dragons survived, specifically those who belonged to the last surviving Valyrian family who resided on Dragonstone – The Targaryens. Years following The Doom the remaining natural ‘volcano’ born dragons died out and the Targaryens were responsible for hatching their dragons on Dragonstone. As time continued the race of dragons completely died out. With magic and dragons completely gone, they turned into legends in textbooks.
It’s important to note that The Fourteen Flames were not entirely destroyed and are still active. But more importantly, Asshai and The Shadowlands are home to a dangerous mountainous region littered with volcanoes and deep caverns. In fact, Asshai may play a bigger role in the Song of Ice and Fire than we ever imagined. Martin’s love of symbolism in this series makes it quite difficult to identify the meaning of the word “dragons” in many dialogues throughout the story. Many people in Westeros and Essos refer to Dany as a dragon, but her association with the creatures goes far beyond her sigil. “Dragons in Asshai, dragons in Qarth, dragons in Meereen, Dothraki dragons, dragons freeing slaves… each telling differs from the last.” It is unclear whether they’re speaking of Dany or real dragons. What is particularly interesting about this quote is the mention of “Dragons in Asshai”. Dany hasn’t been to Asshai, so either there are other Targaryens or real fire dragons in the eastern lands. It’s entirely possible that a whole separate colony of ancient dragons once dwelled in the Shadowlands and perhaps their eggs remain there.
Another connection between fire dragons and Asshai is the magic used to control them. If you believe that the dragon species originated in Asshai and the lands beyond, this could possibly correlate with the religion of R’hllor. R’hllor is a religion deeply seeded with magic and fire and has a strong following in Asshai. Melisandre came from Asshai and the Red Priest Moqorro was sent by the Red Temple to “assist” Daenerys. Why would she need assistance from a religion she doesn’t follow? What if Moqorro isn’t heading to Mereen to feed her a new religion, he’s going to teach her how to tame her dragons. This and Melisandres mission mentioned in the Stone Dragon section all lead us towards a strong connection between Asshai, R’hllor and dragons.
What do you think? Do you think there are more dragons hiding in Asshai? Do you think the followers of the Red God are racing to work their magic on the first dragons seen in a thousand years? Do you believe that Melisandre is trying to hatch dragons of her own? Let me know!
AdvertisementsAs Irish football fans confront another World Cup summer with their noses pressed against the window, tourists in other people's joy, one thought stands out above all. Namely, that all those Italia 90 documentaries have a lot to answer for.
The tournament evidently left such an impact on the Irish psyche that recreating that summer has appeared to be the be-all and end-all for the past 27 years.
The sum total of our ambitions seems to be giving Irish fans a knees up in a foreign field every second year.
This national obsession and the grimly competitive mentality that has accompanied it has often enabled Ireland to achieve results against more technically accomplished but less obdurate opposition.
The Scots, who have almost uniformly negative experiences of competing in major tournaments, failing to escape the group stage in seven attempts, don't appear to have the same desire to sneak into the summer jamboree by whatever ugly means necessary.
Gordon Strachan's men played more pleasing football than Ireland in both Glasgow and Dublin in Euro 2016 qualifying and yet, in the final shakedown, were pipped by a dogged Irish team for the final playoff spot.
So while this mindset has sometimes enabled Ireland to tough it out against silkier opponents who, in Gilesy parlance, just don't fancy it, it has also bred a short-termist attitude, inhibiting the development of the national team over the long, and even medium, term.
Ireland could do with a campaign where the thought of qualifying recedes to the back of their mind and they concentrate on re-learning how to play football.
The alternative is to continue hammering and hoofing and clogging away in the hopes of willing ourselves to the next 'festival of football' in 2020.
The Republic might look north of the border for inspiration, not something we've had much cause to do for the past thirty years.
Northern Ireland may have missed out on the World Cup too but the manner of their failure was far more gallant and impressive - particularly so given that they have arrived from a place much further down the international football ladder.
Four years ago, Michael O'Neill managed Northern Ireland to a 3-2 defeat away to Luxembourg in 2014 World Cup qualifying, a result which prompted UTV to run a news segment ruminating on the possibility of an all-Ireland team.
In his first campaign as manager, O'Neill's team trailed in the wake of such international footballing titans as Israel and Azerbaijan.
Luxembourg's Mathias Janisch celebrates scoring the winning goal against Northern Ireland in October 2013
They finished second bottom of their group and won one game from ten, amazingly a home victory over eventual table-toppers Russia. By November 2013, that was O'Neill's only win in fourteen games as manager.
It is inconceivable that a Republic of Ireland manager could survive in the job after such a campaign.
The IFA, well acclimatised to dealing with failure and not labouring under delusions of grandeur, were sober enough to offer O'Neill a two-year contract extension.
To outsiders, O'Neill's words on gratefully receiving the extension might have sounded like the standard, plaintive self-justifications of the under-performing manager.
"I think there has been a major transition in the team — it’s a very young squad, but a squad which has developed during the last campaign, with several young players of quality emerging," he said at the time.
Yada, yada, yada, people thought. Wasn't that the line Steve Staunton tried?
Two years later, Northern Ireland not only qualified for their first major tournament in thirty years, they did so while topping the group.
Is there already a template in the history of the Republic of Ireland team?
The Mick McCarthy era - whose achievements were often grudgingly received by the public at the time - has been retrospectively upgraded to the status of a golden age, thanks to the struggles of his successors.
Assuming the role after Charlton's ageing team abruptly collapsed in a heap down the final stretch of Euro 96 qualifying, McCarthy was faced with a big rebuilding job.
He spent the first half of 1996 losing friendly match after friendly match. The new manager lost five and drew two of his first seven matches in charge.
In fact, the nine games without a win between Lisbon in October '95 and the US Cup in the summer of '96 is Ireland |
cannot allow this most important market that there is, interest rates.
CNBC: The most liquid market that there is.
Spitznagel: Right, but it’s also an important price signal, it’s the most important price signal. And we can’t let it free-float, we can’t let the discovery process work. If we did that, the markets would be cut in half, the stock market would be cut in half.
h/t Jim SProfessor Gillian Triggs, president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, is the latest victim of a heavy-handed campaign by the Australian newspaper.
The pattern is familiar. A daily barrage, tirelessly repeating the same details, with context and unhelpful facts omitted. On and on it goes, until the hapless victim is supposed to crumple under the barrels of splattered ink.
Manning Clark, Julia Gillard, Simon Overland, Christine Milne, virtually anyone with progressive ideas slightly to the left of the soup spoon, are among the cohort who have been targets of the paper.
In the most recent instance, it is not because Triggs has done anything improper, in fact she was doing what she is required to do under the law.
There are ulterior factors in the wings. Her disturbing report on children in immigration detention is due to be released, which makes her vulnerable as a subject of political assault from a media organisation largely dedicated to fearless cheerleading for the Coalition government.
Last June Triggs wrote a report in response to a complaint to the commission from a refugee held for over seven years at the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre.
In these cases she is obliged to inquire and report her recommendations if a suitably mediated outcome is not possible.
John Basikbasik, a West Papuan activist opposed to the Indonesian annexation and occupation of his country, arrived in Australia by canoe in 1985. He was granted a protection visa 11 years later, but this was after he had committed a range of criminal offences dating from 1986.
In May 2000, he was charged with the manslaughter of his partner. He was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of two-and-a-half years. His protection visa was cancelled in 2003 and subsequently he was detained at Villawood, where he’s been since.
He complained to the commission that his human rights have been violated under the article 9 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, which Australia has ratified:
9 (1). Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law.
The ICCPR is actually a schedule to the Australian Human Rights Commission Act.
Triggs examined the case and found that his detention is arbitrary under the law. He is being held without charge, potentially indefinitely, while the government has failed to determine other forms of less restrictive detention or take action to find a third country of resettlement.
Further, his detention is “disproportionate to a legitimate aim of the Commonwealth”.
The department of immigration rather fetchingly says it can’t send Basikbasik back to Indonesia because that would be contrary to our non-refoulement obligations under the Refugee Convention.
This moment of enlightenment has not lived on, for as we know the current government’s most recent amendments to the Migration Act have given the minister the power to refoule refugees and asylum seekers to his heart’s content.
The Australian Human Rights Commission Act requires the commission to inquire into “any practice that may be insistent with or contrary” to any human rights. The international obligations are the principle ones in this context that the commission is required by law to uphold.
Various medical reports that were examined by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in 2010, which confirmed the minister’s decision to refuse a protection visa, indicated that at least a proportion of Basikbasik’s more recent behavioural problems are attributed to his long period of detention. It was found there is a risk that his mental health will deteriorate if incarceration continues.
What the president of the commission has recommend to the attorney general, George Brandis, is that the the complainant be released from Villawood and some other form of community detention be found for him.
Contrary to a belief that finds its way into the media, she had not recommended that he be sent into the community at large.
As her report said:
There is no information before me to indicate that the Commonwealth considered whether any risk which Mr Basikbasik posed to the community could be mitigated by a management plan to assist with his rehabilitation or by a requirement to reside at a specified location, with curfews, travel restrictions or regular reporting. It does not appear that it was necessary to detain Mr Basikbasik in an immigration detention centre.
What added to the breathless condemnation of Triggs was her recommendation that Basikbasik be compensated for his arbitrary detention for seven or so years, and she fixed on an amount of $350,000.
Compensation is a remedy available under the AHRC Act. Triggs used as a guide damages that have been awarded by the courts in cases of false imprisonment.
She pointed to the case of one illegally detained prisoner who was awarded damages of $100,000 for loss of liberty for a period of 16 months.
Another case involved wrongful imprisonment for nearly a year following the cancellation of a permanent residency visa on character grounds. The prisoner was awarded $116,000 by the courts.
In another cited case of wrongful imprisonment in immigration detention, the judge said he would have awarded $265,000 for just over three years.
On this basis, a recommendation of $350,000 for over seven years arbitrary detention is not excessive.
This morning Triggs came out from undercover in the Sydney Morning Herald and made an obvious point: “human rights apply to everyone - to people convicted of crimes and to those with no criminal record.”
The implications to be drawn from the assaults in the Murdoch press is that human rights are a very selective thing. This line of thinking takes us into the realm that it is acceptable to detain someone at the government’s pleasure, without charge, without trial, forever.
In lockstep with the Coalition, the Murdoch press has long been an opponent of any formal regime for the enforcement of human rights.
The prime minister has said: “The problem with a bill of rights is that it takes power off the elected politicians.”
In response to questioning about the Human Rights Commission’s Basikbasik recommendations, Abbott helpfully told the media that this represented “extremely questionable judgment”.
It is doubtful that he even read the recommendations, which did not suggest that Basikbasik be given an uninhibited pass into the community.
This is nothing short of a political campaign to take Triggs and the Human Rights Commission down a peg, if not severely damage both of them, on the eve of discomforting news about Australia’s treatment of children in immigration detention.It may be possible for developers to create custom widgets to contain within the iOS 5 notification center, assuming Apple allows it. This was demonstrated by a very simple proof of concept that is shown above. 9to5mac quotes @chronic, the jailbreak developer, describing how this is accomplished:
all a developer needs to do is create a “custom view interface” and “compile it is a bulletinboard plugin.” Bulletinboard is Apple’s internal codename for the iOS 5 Notification Center.
Allowing third party developers to create widgets for the iOS 5 Notification Center would certainly be a nice addition. In the current iOS 5 beta, the only two widgets are weather and a stock ticker which you can see in the screen capture below, but there is certainly interest in having more.
What if you could have an RSS or Twitter feed in Notification Center? What if the world of Mac Dashboard widgets was transferable to iOS devices? I think many of them would be more useful and better suited in iOS than Mac OS X really, so let’s hope it happens.
One things for sure though, if Apple doesn’t allow third party widgets, you can bet the jailbreak scene will handle it. Considering a jailbreak for iOS 5b1 is already out, it might not be long before this happens. You can poke around in the source code of the sample widget on GitHub to get a look at how this works.
You can watch Notification Center in action and more in these videos of iOS 5 features.To see the pattern at first hand, consider groups of co-workers who perform similar tasks in your own company. In one case, suppose that your two most productive co-workers leave the job; in the other, suppose that the three least productive leave. Which group’s departure causes a greater loss of value? Most people would answer that losing the top two hurts more.
If so, economic theory holds that their combined salaries should be higher than the combined salaries of the bottom three. Yet the typical pattern is the reverse: any three workers in a group performing similar tasks earn substantially more than any other two.
In short, the startling fact is that private businesses typically transfer large amounts of income from the most productive to the least productive workers. Because labor contracts are voluntary under United States law, it would be bizarre to object that these transfers violate anyone’s rights.
Photo
But they do raise an interesting question: If the most productive workers in a group are paid less than the value of what they produce, why don’t rival employers just lure them all away?
One answer is that these employees may care, often subconsciously, about things besides pay. The most productive workers in a group, for example, often appear to value their status, perhaps because they enjoy greater self-esteem and respect than the least productive workers. To bid successfully for the high achievers, a rival employer might not only have to increase their pay, but also place them in a group where they continue to enjoy a high ranking.
In a free market, however, no one can be in the top half of any group unless others agree to be in the bottom half. And if people prefer not to occupy low-ranking positions, filling these positions would require extra compensation. The rival’s offer, then, would resemble the original pay pattern.
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The upshot is that top-ranked workers may well stay put. The high ranking they enjoy is more than enough to offset their sacrifice in pay. Similarly, their less productive co-workers may find it onerous to be at the bottom of the ladder, but they are compensated for that fact by their premium wages.
So, in effect, private markets are already applying an implicit progressive tax in the way they pay workers. And, in the process, they serve the interests of everyone in the hierarchy. The alternative would be costly social fragmentation.
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CAN anyone doubt that high rank has value, not just among groups of co-workers but also in society? For starters, high-ranking members of society, who also tend to have the highest incomes, know they will be able to send their children to the best schools and have access to the best health care. Low-ranking members enjoy no such confidence.
It’s much harder, of course, to organize new societies than to start new businesses. But that doesn’t mean high-ranking positions in the real world should be available at no cost. They are possible only when others bear the costs associated with a low social ranking.
Tax systems that transfer income from rich to poor, thus mimicking the implicit transfers in virtually every private labor contract, reflect the costs and benefits of different rungs on the social ladder. They help make stable, diverse societies possible.
Enlightened libertarians believe that the best social institutions mimic the agreements people would have negotiated among themselves, if free exchange had been practical. Private pay patterns suggest that our current tax code meets that test.The logo of American International Group Inc. (AIG) on the outside of their corporate headquarters in New York, November 10, 2008. REUTERS/Mike Segar
CHICAGO (Reuters) - American International Group Inc on Saturday praised a Justice Department decision it did not specifically identify, but may relate to published reports that federal prosecutors will not charge company executives over credit default swaps.
“We welcome the Justice Department’s decision, and we continue to cooperate with other authorities on their assessment of these events as we focus on strengthening our businesses and repaying American taxpayers,” the company said.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice had decided not to prosecute some AIG executives, concluding a two-year investigation.
The media office of the Justice Department was not available for comment.
AIG Financial Products nearly brought down AIG in September 2008 after writing tens of billions of dollars worth of insurance-like contracts on complex securities-backed mortgages that turned out to be toxic.
The U.S. government stepped in with a $182 billion bailout to avert a bankruptcy filing by AIG and stave off an even worse global financial crisis.
Over the course of the next year, AIG took write-down’s of more than $40 billion on the swaps and had to put up billions more in collateral to counterparties.Getty Images
Well, that didn’t take long.
The Jets have already activated safety LaRon Landry from the active/physically unable to perform list, clearing him to start practice. They placed him on PUP Monday.
The team announced the move this morning, and Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News tweeted it out (before Twitter went dark, thereby paralyzing NFL media).
He didn’t take part in any of the team’s OTAs or minicamps, fueling speculation that his Achilles injury which limited him in Washington was an issue.
They also signed veteran safety Yeremiah Bell, and have apparently bypassed the opportunity to bring back Jim Leonhard.
But both Landry and the team have insisted he’d be fine when it was time to go, and that appears to be the case.Story highlights The victims are 4 and 3
Flammable material left next to a space heater caused the fire
(CNN) Two children, left alone in their Louisiana home, were killed in a house fire while their mother was out getting her hair styled at a salon, authorities said.
Fire officials say they are still piecing together what happened at the home in Bastrop on Monday evening. But "one thing is certain," said Brant Thompson, state fire marshal deputy chief. "Ciarria Johnson... left her children unattended for hours as she was having her hair styled."
The victims are 4-year-old Ta'shae Thompson Johnson and her 3-year-old brother, Clifton Thompson Johnson.
Johnson told authorities that she arranged for a neighbor to look after her children. But she hadn't, the deputy chief said.
"Investigators later determined that Johnson, in fact, had made no such arrangements and that she had returned home only after being contacted about the fire," he said.
Read MoreRentberry has been operating in test cities and angering affordable housing advocates since 2016. But with its new expansion into 1,000 cities in the United States, the rental bidding website is about to piss off a lot more people.
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Alex Lubinksy, founder of Rentberry, seems to be pursuing an image that’s closer to Uber’s vilified Travis Kalanick than the do-gooder model of Elon Musk. Lubinsky courts the controversy that surrounds his startup and is known to include negative press when communicating his vision to reporters. But one big difference with Rentberry will be that if it takes off and becomes the new standard for renting apartments, most of its customers won’t be able to run a #deleteRentberry campaign because landlords will have the control.
The website essentially functions as a cross between CraigsList and eBay. A landlord lists a rental space and potential tenants bid against one another to claim the lease. Tenants’ personal information is available to the landlord. The landlord then makes their final decision by weighing what the best offer is along with which bidder seems like they’d be the best tenant. For now, Rentberry charges users a $25 fee, but in the future, it plans to charge 25 percent of the difference between the asking price and the agreed upon rent. Whoever received the better deal pays the fee—every month.
Lubinsky sees this as good for everyone. While the rents in competitive markets like San Francisco and New York City will likely go up, he believes that the invisible hand of the market will lower rents in areas that have less demand. When he initially started pitching landlords in San Francisco to use the service he claimed that it would raise rents by 5 percent. In San Francisco and San Jose that claim turned out to be true. But now that more data is in and the company is facing anger from the public, he’s walking that figure back. He tells the Wall Street Journal that the system has actually lowered rents:
Tenants on Rentberry have actually saved 5.1% on rent compared with what landlords asked, Mr. Lubinsky now says, based on calculations across all transactions on Rentberry’s site, in the 10 cities where Rentberry has been active to date. These savings were possible because Rentberry allows tenants to make offers that are lower or higher than the posted rent. It probably helps that, nationwide, there’s an oversupply of apartments, says Toby Bozzuto, chief executive of the Bozzuto Group, which manages 60,000 apartments in the U.S.
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It’s tough to say how those numbers will change with Rentberry’s nationwide expansion. According to the 2015 U.S. census, 62.7 percent of Americans live in cities. So, the majority of people in this country live in areas where landlords are well aware of the legitimate market value of their properties. That same census found that rental households have hit a 50 year high. This is in part because of the 2008 housing crisis and underwater homeowners being forced to join the rental pool.
Leah Simon-Weisberg, legal director for Tenants Together, a nonprofit dedicated to tenant advocacy across California, told City Lab that Rentberry is like the price gouging-Martin Shkreli of startups. “I think it’s incredibly arrogant and incredibly concerning in light of the fact that we have the highest number of homeless families since the Great Depression,” she said. “For them to do something to increase the rents seems really callous.”
At the time that he came under fire for raising the price of an HIV drug by 4,000 percent, Shkreli characterized his move as “altruistic.” Likewise, Lubinski claims to be doing a great, capitalistic public service. “Equilibrium will happen,” he told San Jose Inside. “All this does is balance supply and demand. People already bid offline, but nobody sees it.”
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Rentberry will still have to convince landlords across the nation that this is a better deal for them. Many of them will remain wary of changing their ways and many like to get to know their tenants a bit first. But, the ease of having background checks already complete and the possibility of higher rents than expected could prove enticing.
And Rentberry isn’t the only one to see the potential in this business model. Competitors like Biddwell are also coming up, ensuring that this idea won’t live or die with just one startup.
Daniel DeBolt, a spokesman for the Mountain View Tenants Coalition told San Jose Inside that these companies are just normalizing the idea that we should all bid up rents. “Just because you can make money off the housing crisis, it doesn’t mean you should,” he said.
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[Wall Street Journal, BBC, San Jose Inside, City Lab]Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Watch Pallab Ghosh's full interview with Vint Cerf, internet pioneer, on his "digital Dark Age" warning
Vint Cerf, a "father of the internet", says he is worried that all the images and documents we have been saving on computers will eventually be lost.
Currently a Google vice-president, he believes this could occur as hardware and software become obsolete.
He fears that future generations will have little or no record of the 21st Century as we enter what he describes as a "digital Dark Age".
Mr Cerf made his comments at a large science conference in San Jose.
Even if we accumulate vast archives of digital content, we may not actually know what it is Vint Cerf, Web pioneer and Google VP
He arrived at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science stylishly dressed in a three-piece suit. This iconic figure, who helped define how data packets move around the net, is possibly the only Google employee who wears a tie.
I felt obliged to thank him for the internet, and he bowed graciously. "One is glad to be of service," he said humbly.
His focus now is to resolve a new problem that threatens to eradicate our history.
Our life, our memories, our most cherished family photographs increasingly exist as bits of information - on our hard drives or in "the cloud". But as technology moves on, they risk being lost in the wake of an accelerating digital revolution.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What is the digital Dark Age? The BBC's Pallab Ghosh reports
"I worry a great deal about that," Mr Cerf told me. "You and I are experiencing things like this. Old formats of documents that we've created or presentations may not be readable by the latest version of the software because backwards compatibility is not always guaranteed.
"And so what can happen over time is that even if we accumulate vast archives of digital content, we may not actually know what it is."
'Digital vellum'
Vint Cerf is promoting an idea to preserve every piece of software and hardware so that it never becomes obsolete - just like what happens in a museum - but in digital form, in servers in the cloud.
If his idea works, the memories we hold so dear could be accessible for generations to come.
"The solution is to take an X-ray snapshot of the content and the application and the operating system together, with a description of the machine that it runs on, and preserve that for long periods of time. And that digital snapshot will recreate the past in the future."
A company would have to provide the service, and I suggested to Mr Cerf that few companies have lasted for hundreds of years. So how could we guarantee that both our personal memories and all human history would be safeguarded in the long run?
Even Google might not be around in the next millennium, I said.
"Plainly not," Vint Cerf laughed. "But I think it is amusing to imagine that it is the year 3000 and you've done a Google search. The X-ray snapshot we are trying to capture should be transportable from one place to another. So, I should be able to move it from the Google cloud to some other cloud, or move it into a machine I have.
"The key here is when you move those bits from one place to another, that you still know how to unpack them to correctly interpret the different parts. That is all achievable if we standardise the descriptions.
"And that's the key issue here - how do I ensure in the distant future that the standards are still known, and I can still interpret this carefully constructed X-ray snapshot?"
The concept of what Mr Cerf refers to as "digital vellum" has been demonstrated by Mahadev Satyanarayanan at Carnegie Mellon University.
"It's not without its rough edges but the major concept has been shown to work," Mr Cerf said.
Follow Pallab on TwitterChris Basham's goal and assist puts the Blades eight points off the play-off places with six games remaining
Sheffield United kept their slim play-off hopes alive as they beat League One title-chasers Walsall.
Chris Basham gave the Blades the lead when he headed Matt Done's cross past Walsall goalkeeper Neil Etheridge.
United quickly doubled their advantage through a superb Billy Sharp volley after good work from Basham.
Tom Bradshaw came closest for the Saddlers, but George Long was quickly off his line to smother as the Blades ended Walsall's three-game winning run.
Walsall are now nine points behind League One leaders Wigan, but have two games in hand, while Sheffield United are eight points off the play-offs with six games remaining.
Interim Walsall boss Jon Whitney told BBC WM 95.6:
Media playback is not supported on this device Whitney on Sheffield United v Walsall
"I'm a bit frustrated, but win or lose we don't over analyse straight after the game because emotions are quite raw so we always try and think a bit more logically.
"I can't fault our effort or our application. Of course there are decisions that we think we could have made better. Individually, we'll look at each goal as well.
"What we have to do now is make ourselves hard to beat next week and see if we can get the three points at Oldham."This article is about the variety of American English known as "Black English". For the minority group in Britain, see Black British. For the variety of British English, see Multicultural London English
African-American English (AAE), also known as Black English in North American linguistics, is the set of English dialects primarily spoken by most black people in North America; most commonly, it refers to a dialect continuum ranging from African-American Vernacular English to a more standard English.[2] African-American English shows variation such as in vernacular versus standard forms, rural versus urban characteristics, features specific to singular cities or regions only, and other sociolinguistic criteria. There has also been a significant body of African-American literature and oral tradition for centuries.
African-American English began as early as the seventeenth century, when the Atlantic slave trade brought African slaves into the majority-white culture of British-colonial North America in an area that became the Southern United States in the late eighteenth century. During the development of plantation culture in this region, nonstandard dialects of English were widely spoken by British settlers, as well as likely some creolized varieties, probably resulting in both first- and second-language English varieties developed by African Americans. The nineteenth century's evolving cotton-plantation industry, and eventually the twentieth century's Great Migration, certainly contributed greatly to the spread of the first of these varieties as stable dialects of English. The most widespread modern dialect is known as African-American Vernacular English.
African-American Vernacular English [ edit ]
African-American Vernacular (AAVE) is the native variety of the vast majority of working- and middle-class African Americans, particularly in urban areas, with its own unique accent, grammar, and vocabulary features. Typical features of the grammar include a "zero" copula (e.g., she my sister instead of she's my sister), simplification of the possessive form (e.g., my momma friend instead of my mom's friend), and complexification of verb aspects and tenses beyond those of other English dialects (e.g., constructions like I'm a-run, I be running, I been runnin, I done ran, etc.). Common features of the phonology include non-rhoticity (dropping the r sound at the end of syllables), the metathetic use of aks instead of ask, simplification of diphthongs (e.g., eye typically sounds like ah), a raising chain shift of the front vowels, and a wider range of intonation or "melody" patterns than most General American accents. AAVE is used by middle-class African Americans in casual, intimate, and informal settings as one end of a sociocultural language continuum, and AAVE shows some slight variations by region or city.
African-American Standard English [ edit ]
African-American Standard English is the prestigious end of the middle-class African-American language continuum, used for more formal, careful, or public settings than AAVE. This variety exhibits standard English vocabulary and grammar but often retains certain elements of the unique AAVE accent, with intonational or rhythmic features maintained more than phonological ones.[7] Most middle-class African Americans are typically bi-dialectal between this standard variety and AAVE, learning the former variety through schooling, so that adults will frequently even codeswitch between the two varieties within a single conversation. Of the phonological features maintained in this standard dialect, they tend to be less marked features that, for instance, even appear in some white standard dialects of English.[7] One such characteristic is the omission of the final consonant in word-final consonant clusters,[8] so words such as past or hand may lose their final consonant sound.
African-American Appalachian English [ edit ]
The small numbers of black Appalachian Americans have been reported as increasingly accommodating to the Appalachian/Southern dialect commonly associated with white Appalachians. These similarities include an accent that is rhotic, the categorical use of the grammatical construction "he works" or "she goes" (rather than the AAVE "he work" and "she go"), and Appalachian vocabulary (such as airish for "windy"). However, even African-American English in Appalachia is diverse, with African-American women linguistically divided along sociocultural lines.[9]
African-American Outer Banks English [ edit ]
African-American English in the North Carolina Outer Banks is rapidly accommodating to urban AAVE through the recent generations, despite having aligned with local Outer Banks English for centuries.[10]
Older African-American English [ edit ]
Older or earlier African-American English refers to a set of many heterogeneous varieties studied and reconstructed by linguists as theoretically spoken by the first African Americans and African slaves in the United States. Of primary interest is the direct theoretical predecessor to AAVE. Mainly four types of sources have been used for the historical reconstruction of older AAVE: written interviews, ex-slave audio recordings, the modern diaspora dialects of isolated black communities, and letters written by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century African Americans. The use of the zero copula (the absence of is or are, as in she gon' leave), nonstandard plural forms (the three mens, mans, or even mens) and multiple negatives (as in no one didn't leave me nothing) were occasional or common variants in these earlier dialects, and the latter item even the preferred variant in certain grammatical contexts. Other nonstandard grammatical constructions associated with AAVE are documented in older dialects too; however, many of them are not, evidently being recent innovations of twentieth-century urban AAVE.
Gullah [ edit ]
Sea Island Creole English, or "Gullah", is the distinct language of some African Americans along the South Carolina and Georgia coast. Gullah is an English creole: a natural language grammatically independent from English that uses mostly English vocabulary. Most Gullah speakers today probably form a continuum with the English language. A sub-dialect of Gullah is also spoken in Oklahoma and Texas, known as Afro-Seminole Creole.
In literature [ edit ]
There is a long tradition of representing the distinctive speech of African Americans in American literature. A number of researchers[14] have looked into the ways that American authors have depicted the speech of black characters, investigating how black identity is established and how it connects to other characters. Brasch (1981:x) argues that early mass media portrayals of black speech are the strongest historical evidence of a separate variety of English for blacks.[15] Early popular works are also used to determine the similarities that historical varieties of black speech have in common with modern AAVE.[16]
The earliest depictions of black speech came from works written in the eighteenth century, primarily by white authors. A notable exception is Clotel, the first novel written by an African American (William Wells Brown). Depictions have largely been restricted to dialogue and the first novel written entirely in AAVE was June Jordan's His Own Where (1971), though Alice Walker's epistolary novel The Color Purple is a much more widely known work written entirely in AAVE. Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun also has near exclusive use of AAVE. The poetry of Langston Hughes uses AAVE extensively.[24][page needed]
Some other notable works that have incorporated representations of black speech (with varying degrees of perceived authenticity) include:[25]
As there is no established spelling system for AAVE, depicting it in literature is instead often done through spelling changes to indicate its phonological features, or to contribute to the impression that AAVE is being used (eye dialect). More recently, authors have begun focusing on grammatical cues, and even the use of certain rhetorical strategies.
Portrayals of black characters in movies and television are also done with varying degrees of authenticity. In Imitation of Life (1934), the speech and behavioral patterns of Delilah (an African American character) are reminiscent of minstrel performances that set out to exaggerate stereotypes, rather than depict black speech authentically. More authentic performances, such as those in the following movies and TV shows, occur when certain speech events, vocabulary, and syntactic features are used to indicate AAVE usage, often with particular emphasis on young, urban African Americans:
In education [ edit ]
Nonstandard African-American varieties of English have been stereotypically associated with a lower level of education and low social status. Since the 1960s, however, linguists have demonstrated that each of these varieties, and namely African-American Vernacular English, is a "legitimate, rule-governed, and fully developed dialect".[38] The techniques used to improve the proficiency of African-American students learning standard written English have sometimes been similar to that of teaching a second language.[39] Contrastive analysis is used for teaching topics in African-American Vernacular English. Both the phonological and syntactic features of a student's speech can be analyzed and recorded in order to identify points for contrast with Standard American English.[39] Another way AAE can be taught is based on a strategy, communicative flexibility, that focuses on language used at home and analyzes speech during dramatic play.[40] Using this method, children are taught to recognize when SAE is being used and in which occasions, rather than conforming to the speech around them in order to sound correct.[40]
Although the stigmatization of AAE has continued, AAE remains because it has functioned as a social identity marker for many African-Americans.[41] The goal with teaching SAE is not to end its use, but to help students differentiate between settings where its use is and is not appropriate.[41]
See also [ edit ]
Citations [ edit ]
References [ edit ]When we last left the story of the Fleet line it had become the Jubilee. The GLC’s Conservative administration had been unsuccessful in their attempts to persuade the Labour Government to push forward with Jubilee stage 3 to the Docklands. A Conservative Government replaced Labour in the May 1979 General Election. Here we explore their efforts to persuade a government of the same colour to fund the planned Docklands extension and look at the politics (and people) that created the DLR when these failed.
Economy still poor
A letter from the Greater London Council (GLC) to Dr Richardson, the Transport Department’s (DTp)’s Assistant Secretary in charge of London Transport, on 4 June 1979 stated their view that almost all London area MPs supported extending the Jubilee line. However inflation, fiscal uncertainty and poor value for money of Stages 3 and 4, as well as pressure from non-London regions, made the new Conservative Government very wary of proceeding with any Jubilee construction at all. Not least because although the politicians in charge had changed, the officials were still in post and their professional views hadn’t shifted.
As a result, the new Conservative Government adopted a similar viewpoint to its predecessor in this regard. In the Ministry of Transport Press Release of 25 June 1979 (DTp was still a junior ministry within the Department of the Environment at the time), new Transport Minister Norman Fowler ran down the idea of funding an extension to the Jubilee line in a press release. He gave it only two paragraphs of description before dismissing it:
It is, I believe, common ground between us [Fowler, and Horace Cutler of the GLC] that to proceed immediately with Stage II and to begin to commit public expenditure for Stage III at this time poses great problems. I have therefore asked him to accept a pause while we examine together the possibilities of lower cost options. At the same time, I have stressed my view that the GLC are absolutely right in attaching high importance to settling the basic transport infrastructure in and around Docklands. I believe that new initiatives and special financial provisions are needed for this and I am prepared together with the GLC to earmark resources for a continuous programme for the specific purpose of improving road and rail links in and around Docklands… I hope these measures I am taking will indicate my own strong degree of commitment to getting the right transport links in and for Docklands.
However Fowler then expounded six paragraphs on the need for “getting the right transport links in and for Docklands”, being completing the North Circular and Southern Relief Roads with connections to the area road network. It is notable that Fowler did not mention any costs for these roads, which would cost almost double what the full Jubilee line would have, even though the Tube extension was rejected due to ‘high costs’.
In the end, the practical policy difference with Labour was largely that the Conservative Government placed less emphasis on industry and a presumption of more suburban business parks.
GLC relents on Jubilee line aspiration
The Report of the Minister of Transport, Norman Fowler, which commented on the London Transport Bill for the 1979/80 Parliamentary session, stated:
The Minister has no objection to the Bill. However, he does wish to make it clear that he is not persuaded of the case for the eastern extension of the Jubilee Line, or the construction of the Woolwich Tunnel as part of the present industrially-based strategy for the redevelopment of the Docklands [our emphasis]. His attitude toward the Bill in no way implies, therefore, that expenditure on the third stage as a whole, or on the Woolwich Tunnel, will be accepted in the future as eligible for Transport Supplementary Grant. The Minister has already expressed his intention of opposing those provisions in the Greater London Council (Money) Bill which contain financial authority for the start of work of the second phase of the Jubilee Line.
As the Bill made its way through Parliament, Fowler did not object to the Jubilee extension, but clarified in July 1979 that this was merely:
being sought so that there can be no danger of works being delayed should a decision to build be taken with respect to any part of the proposed line of route. The Minister’s view in no way implies acceptance of expenditure on any such works as eligible for Transport Supplementary Grant.
In January 1980, the Minister of Transport Norman Fowler then:
asked Sir Horace Cutler to accept a pause while there was a study of lower cost options for transport infrastructure in Docklands… In accepting this pause the GLC withdrew the Jubilee Line provision from the Money Bill.
GLC’s policy blinkers
Horace Cutler |
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